1 1909 Scott

Alfred Angus Scott invented the parallel twin two-stroke engine, at least in motorcycling terms, and formed a company in 1909 to put his ideas into production. The first models built bearing the Scott name were 450cc twins with two-speed gearboxes, produced at Bradford, UK. Uniquely, they were fitted with a kick-starter, with a Scott-designed radiator for the watercooled cylinder heads. Within two years capacity had risen to 486cc, with a water-cooled cylinder block. From the beginning, the Scotts were noted for their exceptional performance, and their distinctive “yowling” exhaust note. The basic design endured long after Alfred Scott died from pneumonia in 1922, but production ceased in 1950. Despite several attempts to revive the marque, it disappeared in the early 1960s. George Silk produced a motorcycle of his own design, the Silk 700S, which used a Scott engine in a Spondon frame from 1971 to 1975, and later with their own Scott-inspired engine. n