David Brown Engineering Limited is an English engineering company, principally engaged in the manufacture of

gear A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic ...

s and

gearboxes Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

. Their major gear manufacturing plant is in Swan Lane, Lockwood,

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence i ...

, adjacent to Lockwood railway station. It is named after the company's founder, David Brown, though it is more closely associated with his grandson, Sir David Brown (1904–1993).

History

David Brown

Founded in 1860 as a pattern manufacturing company, by 1873 David Brown had begun to concentrate on gear systems and by 1898 was specialising in machine-cut gears. The company moved in 1902 to Park Works at Huddersfield, where the firm is based today.

David Brown & Sons, Huddersfield (the Huddersfield group)

When David Brown died in 1903, his sons Percy and Frank took over and began the manufacture of gears, complete gear units, gear cutting machines, tools and equipment, bearings and shafts and worm drive gears. Its foundry makes steel and non-ferrous castings. Including motor vehicles, aircraft, ships as well as a wide range of British industry.The David Brown Corporation Limited. ''The Times'', Monday, 12 March 1951; pg. 9; Issue 51947 From 1908 to 1915, David Brown and Sons designed, developed and made the

Valveless The Valveless was an English automobile manufactured, after lengthy development, from 1908 until 1915 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. The successor to the Ralph Lucas Valveless, the car marked the entry of the David Brown & Sons group into the ...

car under engineer Frederick Tasker Burgess (1879–1929), later chief engineer at

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between ...

, and later still one of the team that developed the first 3-litre Bentley engine. In 1913, they established a joint venture in America with Timken for Radicon worm drive units. By the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

the workforce had increased from 200 to 1,000 as they started building propulsion units for warships, and drive mechanisms for armaments. By 1921 the company was the largest worm gear manufacturer in the world. In 1930 the company took over P.R. Jackson Ltd, another local firm of gear manufacturers and steel founders. Percy's eldest son (Sir David Brown) became managing director in 1931 following Percy's death in June that year. W.S. Roe was appointed joint managing director with David but he died in April 1933. Percy was appointed chairman. The firm formed another overseas joint venture with Richardson Gears (Pty) Ltd of Footscray,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia, in 1934. In 1934 the company moved into an old Silk Mill on a site at Meltham, on the south side of Huddersfield. Brown started building tractors with

Harry Ferguson Henry George "Harry" Ferguson (4 November 188425 October 1960) was a British mechanic and inventor who is noted for his role in the development of the modern agricultural tractor and its three point linkage system, for being the first person ...

there in 1936. The company obtained a patent for a tank transmission using controlled differential steering system, known as the Merritt-Brown system, devised by Dr. H. E. Merritt, Director of Tank Design at Woolwich Arsenal, in 1935. The first vehicle to use this system was the

Churchill tank The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill was a British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, its ability to climb steep slopes, ...

, and it was subsequently used on the

Centurion tank The Centurion was the primary British Army main battle tank of the post- World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seei ...

and the

Conqueror tank The FV 214 Conqueror, also known as "Tank, Heavy No. 1, 120 mm Gun, Conqueror" was a British heavy tank of the post-World War II era. It was developed as a response to the Soviet IS-3 heavy tank. The Conqueror's main armament, an L1 120 ...

, as well as the Tortoise heavy tank. In 1951 the Huddersfield and Tractor groups freehold land and buildings at Huddersfield, Penistone and Meltham were on sites covering about 150 acres (61 ha). Another 260,000 sq ft of floor space were held under lease. Gearing manufactured by David Brown Ltd. and powered by electric motors manufactured by Brook Crompton (Electric) Motors, whose factory was in

Brockholes Brockholes is a small village in West Yorkshire, England, in the administrative area of Kirklees Metropolitan Council and Holme Valley Parish Council. The village of Honley borders to the immediate north of the village and Holmfirth lies to t ...

are used to rotate the top of the

BT Tower The BT Communication Tower is a grade II listed communications tower located in Fitzrovia, London, owned by BT Group. Originally named the Museum Radio Tower (after the adjacent Museum telephone exchange), it became better known by its unoff ...

in London.

David Brown Tractors Group

David Brown Tractors, Meltham Mills (RLH)

Personally controlled since its inception by David Brown (1904–1993) the first venture into tractor production was in a joint project with

in 1936 building the Ferguson-Brown tractor. David Brown became one of the biggest British tractor manufactures in the post war period, with a major manufacturing plant at Meltham,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England. The company broke new ground which others were only to follow later, but being a pioneering company ultimately led to its downfall. The Ferguson-Brown had many innovative features, including the use of cast alloy for many the components, which was light but prone to damage. The Ferguson-Brown used a

Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, racing, and other specialty engine manufacturer. History Pre WW1 The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was reloca ...

engine for the first 350 tractors. Browns developed their own engine which was fitted to subsequent production. Total production was 1350 + 1 built from parts in 1940 after production finished. Brown and Ferguson disagreed over tractor design details in the late 30s, which led David Brown to design his own version, the ''VAK1'', in secret. This was launched at the 1939 Royal Show. Ferguson split away from Brown and joined up with

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

in 1938, after a 'handshake' agreement, to allow his 'Ferguson System' three-point linkage to be used on the Fordson N tractors. That agreement was eventually terminated by Ford's grandson in 1947 and Ferguson again split away to form

Ferguson Tractor Ferguson may refer to: Places Canada * Ferguson Avenue (Hamilton, Ontario) * Ferguson, British Columbia * Mount Ferguson (Ontario), a mountain in Temagami, Ontario United States *Ferguson, a meteorite fall in North Carolina * Ferguson, Arkansas ...

s in 1948. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Brown's new heavier tractor, the VAK1, was produced, with over 7,700 units eventually sold, making Brown a wealthy man. It is said the David Brown Tractor is the only one to be built onto a sturdy cast iron chassis where other makers bolt components together to form a chassis-less construction which is weaker. Brown also built aircraft tugs (VIG) for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and for pulling the bomb trolleys used to re-arm aircraft. These tugs are distinctive, with truck like tyres, wrap round body work and HD bumpers front and rear, some being fitted with winches. In 1942 Brown started building a tracklayer version, the DB4. The DB4 was built for the army engineers and solved some of the problems found with the VTK, and got round an embargo on imported machines for military use. It was powered by a 38 h.p. Dorman Diesel and a five-speed gearbox. The DB4 was replaced in 1950 by the Trackmaster 30. Image:1952-1953 David Brown Trackmaster 30T Cut-away.JPG, Side view of a cut away display of a 1953 30T Trackmaster Image:1952-1953 David Brown Trackmaster 30T.JPG, Rear view of a cut away display of a 1953 30T Trackmaster The tractors division took over the Lancashire firm of Harrison, McGregor & Guest Ltd, who produced the Albion brand of agricultural machinery to complement the tractor product line. After the takeover the company's badge was modified to incorporate the white rose of Yorkshire and the red rose of Lancashire. The Tractors division had ten subsidiaries around the world. At one stage 80% of production was exported. Sales were handled by 2,508 agents in 100 countries. A worldwide recession saw tractor sales slump, and after braving the storm and with the debt of a brand new building and production line to finance, it was inevitable that the company was put up for sale, bought by Tenneco who also owned the US tractor firm J.I. Case Company. All hope to see the factory prosper was dashed when it was announced that survival was a competition between Huddersfield and the International Harvester tractor plant in Doncaster, with the odds stacked in the latter's favour, especially with access to the motorway network on the doorstep. The Meltham factory ended production and a respected British name was erased.

Tractor Group's Lagonda and Aston Martin

In 1947, Brown saw a

classified advertisement Classified advertising is a form of advertising, particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements used ...

in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', offering for sale a ''High Class Motor Business''. Brown acquired

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated wi ...

for £20,500 and, in the following year,

Lagonda Lagonda is a British luxury car brand established in 1906, which has been owned by Aston Martin since 1947. The trade-name has not had a continuous commercial existence, being dormant several times, most recently from 1995 to 2008 and 2010 to 2 ...

for £52,500, followed by the coachbuilder

Tickford Tickford is an automobile engineering and testing business in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, known for tuning and such products as the 140 mph Tickford Turbo Capri. Under the name Salmons & Sons and their Tickford products the firm has ...

in 1955. He subsequently concentrated all the Aston Martin manufacturing at the Tickford premises in

Newport Pagnell Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. It is separated from the rest of the urban ...

. The David Brown years saw production of the legendary DB series of Aston Martins, which were featured in some

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

films. David Brown also had connections with Vosper shipbuilding, and Delapina and Radyne machinery. Both car companies were sold in 1972 to Company Developments Limited, when Aston Martin was in financial trouble, for a nominal £100.

Sale of David Brown Tractors to Case 1972

In 1972 the tractor operations were sold to Tenneco Inc. of America, who owned the J.I. Case tractor company. The sale was due to a combination of a reduction in the UK tractor market, increased product development costs, the need to meet new regulations on health and safety, and increased competition from imported machinery. Case applied the David Brown name and branding to some of its own tractor models in the UK market until the early 1980s before abandoning it in favour of the Case IH brand.

Sale by David Brown family – management buyout 1990

In 1990 the David Brown family disposed of its stake to the business's management. It then floated David Brown as a public company in 1993. David Brown was acquired by Textron Inc. in October 1998. This business, trading as David Brown Engineering Ltd and headquartered in Huddersfield, remains a supplier of heavy transmission systems for industrial, defense, railway and marine applications. These include transmissions for the British

Challenger 2 tank The FV4034 Challenger 2 (MOD designation "CR2") is a third generation British main battle tank (MBT) in service with the armies of the United Kingdom and Oman. It was designed and built by the British company Vickers Defence Systems (now known ...

s and American

Bradley Fighting Vehicle The Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle platform of the United States developed by FMC Corporation and manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, formerly United Defense. It is named after U.S. General Om ...

s. Railway transmissions are produced for their Chinese branch 'David Brown China', in a joint partnership called 'Jiangsu Shinri David Brown Gear Systems' at a factory in

Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...

near Shanghai.

Sale by Textron 2008

In September 2008 it was announced that David Brown Gear systems and associated companies, David Brown Hydraulics based in Poole in Dorset, Maag Pumps of Switzerland, and Union Pumps of the USA were to be sold to Clyde Blowers of Scotland — owned by entrepreneur

Jim McColl James Allan McColl OBE (born 22 December 1951) is a Scottish businessman who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clyde Blowers. He is a member of the Council of Economic Advisors. In 2007, he was placed tenth on the ''Sunday Tim ...

— in a £368 million deal. in 2016 David Brown was merged with Santasalo to form David Brown Santasalo. The joint company now remains in the hands of N4 Partners.

Products

Transmission systems

David Brown tractor range

*VAK1 — 1939–1945 *VTK1 & VIG1 — 1941–1949 *VAK1A — 1945–1947 *VAK1C Cropmaster — 1947–1954 *DB4 — 1942–1949 (110 built) *Taskmaster — 1948–1965 *50TD Trackmaster — 1950–1963 *30TD Trackmaster — 1953– ? *DB25 & DB30 — 1953–1958 *VAD 50D — 1953–1959 *900 series 1955–1957 *VAD 12 2D — 1956–1964 lightweight tool carrier *950 Implematic series — 1958–1961 *850 Implematic series — 1961–1965 *750 Farmatic series — 19??– ? *880 Implematic series — 1961–1965 *990 Implematic series — 1961–1965 *770 Selectamatic series — 1965–1970 *880 Selectamatic series — 1965–1971 *990 Selectamatic series — 1965–1971 *1200 Selectamatic series — 1967–1971 *780 Selectamatic series — 1965–1971 *885 Synchromesh 1971–1979 *990,995,996 Synchromesh 1971–1979 *1210 Manual Gearbox 1971-1979 *1212 Hydra-Shift 1971-1979 *1410 Manual Gearbox first turbocharged David Brown 1974–1979 *1412 Hydra-Shift first turbocharged David Brown 1974–1979 *1190 series — 1979–1983 *1290 series — 1979–1983 *1390 series — 1979–1983 *1490 series — 1979–1983 *1690 series — 1979–1982 *1690 Turbo series — 1982-1983 *1194 series — 1983–1988 *1294 series — 1983–1988 *1394 series — 1983–1988 *1494 series — 1983–1988 *1594 series — 1983–1988 *1694 series — 1983–1988 ;Export models *775 Selectamatic German market *3800 (780 petrol) American market *4600 (880 petrol) American market *Oliver 500–600 rebadged 850 and 950 American market

References

External links

Power Transmission Products – David BrownDavid Brown historyThe David Brown Ireland ForumThe David Brown Tractor Club, Spinks Mill, MelthamThe David Brown Tractor Specifications
{{David Brown Ltd., state=collapsed Aston Martin Tractor manufacturers of the United Kingdom Engineering companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Huddersfield Manufacturing companies established in 1860 1860 establishments in England 1998 mergers and acquisitions 2008 mergers and acquisitions 2016 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 1860