LACRES 'COME OF AGE!
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A Notable 21st Anniversary of the Pioneers of the Commercial Motor Industry.
MR. CLAUDE BROWNE, the managing director of the acre Motor Car Co., Ltd., was the recipient last week of many sincere congratulae tions upon the attainment by his company of its majority. January 11th, 1932, witnessed the registration of the Long Acre Motor Car Co., Ltd., the title being abbreviated a few months later to that enow employed.
While Mr. Browne was at. college he became thoroughly interested in the motorcar and was led to the consideration of the comparative inefficiency of the horse. He then foresaw the development of the commercial motor vehicle, and, after his return from a world tour, set about the business of entering the motor industry, specializing upon the commercial side, As a definite outcome of this prevision, the Long Acre Motor Car Co., Ltd., became the pioneers of the mechanical road transport of goods, the company really being formed before the time was ripe.
That was in the days when the proprietor of one of London's greatest stores had essayed the experiment of putting van bodies on 3i h.p. Benz chassis. Of course, it failed ignominiously, and he then told Mr. Browne that, having gone so thoroughkv into tho. question, he had been compelled as a result to regard the prospects of adopting motor vehicles for his business as exhausted and was abandoning the project! However, it was only a little while later that the stores Proprietor gave another proof of his enterprise by placing an order for 16 motorvans with the Lacre Co.—quite a sensational event in the trade at the -time.
Mr. l3rowne really broke the ice with Messrs. Shoolbreds. He sent a lorry, not merely on a demonstration run, but to do _the actual work of the firm for five or six weeks, so thatits capabilities could be accurately judged. Mr. Browne's confidence in the vehicle was not misplaced, for as a. result of the trial an order was received, and after that lead Harrods and the other big stores rapidly followed suit.
The first vehicle which was built for the Lacre Co. was a 16 h.p. chassis with a body for a 25 cwt. load. The company laid down its own factory in 1909, seven years after it had been established, a site at Letchworth being chosen. It is claimed that this factory was the first to be built and equipped solely for the manufacture of commercial motor vehicles. A Complete range of all capacities from 10 cwt. to 5 tons was created, and the business developed rapidly. The company then began to be interested in the employment of motor vehicles by municipalities. Enterprising municipal officials had tried to adapt pleasure cars to their work, and when suitable vehicles were produced the development, albeit slow, was sure.
The first machine for a. special purpose was the road-sweeper, the city of Glasgow being one of the first to order a number of the type. Considerable developments have taken place in connection with this machine, until it is now down to a form which gives the greatest efficiency on the smallest outlay.
Without doubt, a great amount of cred:ti is due to the Lacre Motor Car Co., Ltd., its directors and staff, for the imagination and foresight of the early days and for the confidence they possessed in the ultimate growth of a va.st industry from small and not overencouraging conditions. In those early days, not only was the motor vehicle still inefficient and full of troubles but the talent for driving and maintaining the vehicles did not exist. It therefore called for pertinacity, resourcefulness, and determination • on the part of the pioneers, or the-industry must have died or, at the very best, merely languished for many years. The efforts of the pioneers, however, eventually brought the trading community round to the use of motor vehicles and convinced the municipalities that the horse was done and that power had come to take its place. This reminds us of the Lacre Motor Car Co.'s unique advertisement of twenty pars ago showing a motorlorry .chassui with a superstructure consisting of a loose box with a live horse in it, with the words "The Passing of the Horse" inscribed upon it. This led to the famous parody in Punch in three phases; the first showed adejected horse being driven round ; in the second a breakdown was depicted, with the horse perking up; and the third illustration showed the horse triumphantly towing home the broken-down lorry !
Almost needless to say, the company performed excellent War service, providing the Belgian forces with their main mechanical transportand also supply-. lag the Admiralty, War Office. Royal Air Force, and the American Expeditionary Force.