D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engineering company best known for its luxury motor cars in the Edwardian era and for its aero engines throughout the early to mid-20th century.
Napier was founded as a precision engineering company in 1808 and for nearly a century produced machinery for the financial, print, and munitions industries. In the early 20th century, it moved for a time into internal combustion engines and road vehicles before turning to aero engines. Its powerful Lion dominated the UK market in the 1920s, and the Second World War era Sabre produced in its later versions. Many world speed records on land and water, as well as the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest fighter planes, were powered by Napier engines. During the Second World War, the company was taken over by English Electric, and engine manufacture eventually ceased. Today, Napier Turbochargers is a subsidiary of the American company Wabtec.
History
Early years and precision engineering
David Napier, second son of the blacksmith to the Duke of Argyll, was born in 1785. While cousins became shipbuilders, he took engineering training in Scotland before coming to London. There in 1808 he founded the firm that was to become D. Napier & Son in Lloyds Court, St Giles, London.Wilson & Reader (1958). He designed a steam-powered printing press, some of which went to Hansard (the printer and publisher of proceedings of the Houses of Parliament), as well as newspapers. The company moved to Lambeth, South London, in 1830.
Between 1840 and 1860, Napier was prosperous, with a well-outfitted factory and between 200 and 300 workers. Napier made a wide variety of products, including a centrifuge for sugar manufacturing, lathes and drills, ammunition-making equipment for the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and railway cranes.Hull (1974), p. 1438 David's younger son James Murdoch Napier, born 1823, joined the firm in 1837 and became a partner in 1847, resulting in a change in the private company's name to D. Napier & Son.
James succeeded his father as head of the firm in 1867, and after his father's death in 1873, specialized in crafted precision machinery for making coins, and printing stamps and banknotes. James proved an excellent engineer, but a poor businessman, considering salesmanship undignified. His company's fortunes went so bad that there were as few as seven employees in 1895, and James attempted to sell the business, but failed.Hull (1974), p. 1484
Montague Napier and high-performance vehicles
James' son Montague, born 1870, inherited the business in 1895, along with his father's engineering talents. Montague was a hobby racing cyclist, and at the Bath Road Club, he met "ebullient Australian" S. F. Edge (then a manager at Dunlop Rubber and colleague of H. J. Lawson in London, and amateur racer of motor tricycles.) Edge persuaded Napier to improve his Panhard "Old Number 8" (which had won the 1896 Paris–Marseille–Paris), converting from a tiller to a steering wheel and improving the oiling.
Dissatisfied, Napier offered to fit an engine of his own design, an 8 hp vertical twin, with electric ignition, superior to the Panhard's hot tube type.Hull (1974), p. 1485 Edge was sufficiently impressed to encourage Napier to make his own car and collaborated with Harvey du Cros, his former boss at Dunlop, to form the Motor Power Company, based in London, which agreed to buy Napier's entire output. The first of an initial order of six, three each two-cylinder 8 hp and four-cylinder 16 hp, all with aluminum bodies by Arthur Mulliner of Northampton and chain drive, was delivered 31 March 1900; Edge paid £400 and sold at £500.
In 1903 the manufacturing business moved from Lambeth to larger premises in Acton and in 1906 it became a limited liability company, D. Napier & Son Limited, although it remained in effect a private company for the next few years.
Outside the racing programme, Napier also gained fame in 1904 by being the first car to cross the Canadian Rockies: Mr and Mrs Charles Glidden, sponsors of the Glidden Tours, covered from Boston to Vancouver.Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p. 30.
Models Model Period Cylinders Bore x Stroke Displacement Performance Wheelbase18 HP 1903-19074 Cyl.88.9 mm x 101.6 mm40 HP 1905-19106 Cyl.101.6 mm x 101.6 mm50 HP1903-19064 Cyl.139.7 mm x 127 mm60 HP1905-19106 Cyl.127 mm x 101.6 mm30/35 HP 1913-19156 Cyl.88.9 mm x 127 mm
Racing
Recognizing the value of publicity gained from racing, which no other British marque did,Wise (1974) p. 589. in spring, Edge entered an Napier in the Thousand Miles (1,600 km) Trial of the Automobile Club on behalf of Mary Eliza Kennard; driven by Edge, with Kennard along, on a circuit from Newbury to Edinburgh and back, it won its class, being one of only thirty-five finishers (of sixty-four startersWise (1974) ) and one of just twelve to average the requisite in England and in Scotland.Wise (1974) p. 1486.
By June 1900, eight "16 hp"s had been ordered, and Edge entered one in the Paris-Toulouse-Paris race, with Charles S. Rolls (co-founder of Rolls-Royce) as riding mechanic. The () sidevalve suffered problems with its ignition coils and cooling system, and failed to finish.Wise (1974)
For 1901, Montague designed a car sure not to lack speed, having a () sidevalve four capable of at 800 rpm, on a wheelbase of Wise (1974) with four-speed gearbox and chain drive. Called the "50 hp", only two or three were completed, including one for Rolls. Edge entered one in the 1901 Gordon Bennett Cup, only able to test it en route (it was completed 25 May, only four days before the event), Montague serving as his riding mechanic; it overpowered its Dunlops, and fitting new (French) tyres led to disqualification, since they were not of the same nation of origin.Wise (1974) pp. 1486–7. In the concurrent Paris-Bordeaux rally, it retired with clutch trouble.Hull (1974), p. 1487.
For the 1902 Gordon Bennett, three entrants (the Charron-Girardot-Voigt, a Mors and a Panhard) contested for France, with Edge in a Napier and two Wolseleys. The Napier was a three-speed, shaft-drive 6.44-litre (392.7 cu in) four ( of (though described as a 30 hp). Piloted by Edge and his cousin, Cecil, it wore what would become known as British racing green, and won at an average ; although by default, since all other entrants retired during the race. It was the first British victory in international motorsport, and would not be repeated until Henry Segrave took the French Grand Prix in 1923.
Napiers also inspired Charles J. Glidden to create the Glidden Tours in upstate New York, which in turn persuaded Napier to build a factory in Boston. It, along with the Genoa factory (managed by Arthur McDonald), which built Napiers under licence as San Giorgios from 1906 to 1909, was not a success.Wise (1974), p.1488.
Annual production reached 250 cars in 1903, overwhelming the Lambeth factory, so a move was made to a new plant at Acton, in west London. On 16 October of that year, Napier announced a six-cylinder car for 1904 and became the first manufacturer to make a commercially successful six, a "remarkably smooth and flexible" vehicle 18 hp 301 cu in (4.9-litre) ( with a three-speed gearbox and chain drive. Within five years, there were 62 makers of six-cylinder cars in Britain alone, including the Ford Motor Company's 1906 Model K.G. N. Georgano Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985)
Napier's 1902 win brought the Gordon Bennett hosting duties to the United Kingdom, and the 1903 event was held south of Dublin, with three shaft-driven Napiers defending the British honour, all in the (later famous) racing green: two 470 cubic inch (7708 cc) fours for Charles Jarrott and J. W. Stocks, with McDonald, the Genoa plant manager, his riding mechanic, and an 80-horsepower (838 cubic inch, 13,726 cc), the Type K5, for Edge. Jarrott and Stocks crashed, and Edge was disqualified.Hull (1974) It was a bad year for Napier's racing programme; a 35 hp in the hands of Colonel Mark Mayhew in the Paris–Madrid rally lost its steering and hit a tree. Edge, again with McDonald, fared no better with the K5 in the 1904 Gordon Bennett in Germany, but a new 920 cubic inch (15-litre; 158.7 × 127 mm, 6.25 × 5-inch) six, the L48, with an external radiator reminiscent of the Cord 810, set the fastest time at the Velvet Strand speed trials at Portmarnock, Ireland, in September, piloted by McDonald.Wise (1974) p. 1,489
In January 1905, the L48, again with McDonald in the seat, took the mile (1.6 km) record at Ormonde Beach at ; although this was shortly broken by Bowden's Mercedes, the run was disallowed. The versatile McDonald ran the L48 in the 1905 Gordon Bennett qualifying event at the Isle of Man, taken over for the race by works driver Clifford Earp, who placed ninth.
Edge's secretary, Dorothy Levitt, drove a development of the K5 at the Blackpool and Brighton Speed Trials in 1905, and the next year ran the L48 at the Blackpool Speed Trials, showing talent by equalling Edge's speed and setting a women's record in the flying kilometre of .
By 1907, 1200 people were employed by Napier and were making about a hundred cars a year, aided by continuing racing success. Brooklands opened that year, where Napier engineer H. C. Tryon won the first ever event in a , and Edge made a famous 24-hour run in June, covering at an average in a 60-horsepower 589 cubic inch (9,652 cc) (127 × 127 mm, 5 × 5-inch) six, a record which stood for 18 years.Hull (1974), p. 1,489. The L48, nicknamed Samson, became famous there in the venue's first two years; in 1908, Napier's Frank Newton covered at in a stroked (178 mm, 7-inch) L48.
The company's last race win was with a four-cylinder at the 1908 Tourist Trophy, using an alias, Hutton, to preserve the reputation of the sixes, in the hands of Willy Watson.Hull (1974), p. 1490. At the French Grand Prix, officials showed the perverse reasoning for which they later became notorious by claiming that removable wire wheels were an unfair advantage.
When Napier was no longer in racing, its Lion aero engine was used by several land speed record contestants: Malcolm Campbell's Napier-Campbell Blue Bird of 1927 and Campbell-Napier-Railton Blue Bird of 1931, Segrave's Golden Arrow of 1929, and John Cobb's Napier-Railton and Railton Mobil Special, which held the record from 1939 to 1964.
Motor yachting Napier expanded into marine engines and launches. In 1903 a S. F. Edge's Napier launch won the inaugural British International Harmsworth Trophy for speedboats at Cork Harbour in Ireland, driven by Dorothy Levitt. She achieved in a steel-hulled, speedboat fitted with a 3-blade propeller. As both the owner and entrant of the boat, "S. F. Edge" is engraved on the trophy as the winner. The third crew member, Campbell Muir, may also have taken the controls.
On 8 August 1903 Levitt drove the Napier at Cowes and won the race. She was then commanded to the royal yacht by King Edward VII where he congratulated her on her pluck and skill, and they discussed the performance of the boat and its potential for British government despatch work.
Later in August Levitt won the Gaston Menier Cup at Trouville, France. This was described as the "five-mile world's championship of the sea" and the prize was $1,750.The Woman and the Car – a Chatty Little Handbook for All Women Who Motor Or Who Want to Motor by Dorothy Levitt. pages 8–9.
In October 1903 Levitt won the Championship of the Seas at Trouville, and the French government bought the boat for £1,000.
The 1905 boat Napier II set the world water speed record for a mile at almost 30 knots (56 km/h).
Public limited company and WWI