Closer look – Granville Bradshaw part I
Often, design engineers, inventors and developers have wide horizons. Granville Bradshaw was no exception. Over seven decades he was involved with (among other things) tiny 100cc V-twin engines to 12,000bhp electric motors, amusement arcade machines, automatic photo booths and even thief-proof wood screws.
Granville Eastwood Bradshaw OBE, AFRAeS (Associate Fellow Royal Aeronautical Society) was born to William Semptimus Bradshaw and Annie Bradshaw (nee Eastwood) on December 8, 1886 (some sources state 1887) in Preston, Lancashire.
For his war effort work during the First World War, he was awarded the OBE. In 1932, the Hatry group – with whom Bradshaw as a naive businessman had become financially embroiled – collapsed with debts of over £14m. In an effort to keep afloat and pay off debts, Granville sold his home and assets, but this wasn’t enough. In 1936 he was declared bankrupt. It is believed his brother Ewart then helped him financially and in March 1938 he was released from bankruptcy.
Although after bankruptcy he continued to design a wide range of items including motorcycles and associated components, he also earned income from lecturing. Bradshaw was twice married (Violet Partridge and Muriel Mathieson) and twice divorced, the father of five children (by Violet, Pamela and Geoffrey Lionel Guy and by Muriel, twins Pamela Eleanor and Vyvien Hope, and Peter Frewin Granville) before meeting Francesca King while working for the Admiralty during the
Second World War. They became friends with Francesca variously his housekeeper, companion and financial supporter. They parted in 1964, and after living in rented accommodation provided by his youngest son Peter he moved to Peter’s house in Hitchin, Hertfordshire where he died on April 13, 1969.
Leaving school aged 13, Granville was first a junior clerk in a solicitor’s office while studying engineering at night school, before following his older brother Ewart’s footsteps by starting an apprenticeship with the English Electric Manufacturing Co, Preston.
During his early days, he designed and built a lightweight dynamo with AC to DC converter. Model Engineering featured this work, awarding him a small cash prize which in part fired his fertile mind for his future career. At this time, his interest in motorcycles grew with later both him and Ewart riding and owning machines. And by mid-decade, they began building motorcycles using proprietary engines and frames contrived from what he and Ewart had. He’d also started building engineering equipment, including lathes, and was a proficient, hands-on engineer.
Apprenticeship served, Granville moved to Bruce Peebles Ltd of Edinburgh, a heavy electrical engineering company, as a draughtsman, though he was encouraged by his employer to study at Edinburgh University. From Bruce Peebles, he moved to Vickers and Company, Sheffield. Outside this work he designed and developed engineering concepts. Among his first patents (with John King) was an adjustable spanner with quick release lever clamp to lock the jaws onto a nut or bolt head.
From Vickers, he moved to the Electric Construction Corporation in early 1908 as draughtsman and development engineer. Captivated by the burgeoning interest in
aviation, he then moved to the Star Motor Company and was soon designing aero engines, and then the Star Monoplane.
Granville’s career moves are often shrouded in mystery, so here are some facts – you can make the rest up! He was employed by Lowestoft cycle maker Walter Lawson Adams, where he worked on cycle frame design, football bladders and probably cycle inner tubes, taking out a few patents.
He then moved to Redbridge, Southampton, to work on small boat engine designs, some of which enjoyed modest competition success, and then the established WL Adams Ltd. Later, Adams set up with financier Ronald Charteris for the Aeroplane Engine Co.
It appears Bradshaw joined this company, but in some (although not all…) later interviews and lectures, he stated he moved to an aero engine company in Bournemouth, an error as Southampton was the Aeroplane Engine Company’s base and Bournemouth Charteris’ home town. Or was Bradshaw deliberately muddying the waters? Whatever, Charteris soon offered Bradshaw a business partnership in a new enterprise Granville would set up. This would run alongside the Aeroplane Engine company and possibly the two were intended to co-operate.
Again, much mystery, but what is certain is this new business was registered as the All British Company (ABC) which soon – c1911 – moved to Brooklands, a hotbed of aviation development. Why the ABC name? Perhaps Bradshaw just used the initials A, B and C, those of the likely joint founders/instigators Adams, Bradshaw and Charteris, from which he created the ‘All British Company.’
It is likely many more twists occurred in Granville Bradshaw’s career to this date, as the young man had certainly moved about a lot in little over a decade, going from a clerk in a solicitor’s office to company director and aero development engineer. He would continue to move often, perhaps to be near the next project or to the locale of skills he might need. Although he would own homes, more often he would rent a house, flat or live in a hotel to suit that moment in time.
The establishment of ABC leads to Bradshaw’s first production motorcycles and this feature can now abandon the murky world of his business dealings, which are, at best, confusing.
Genius or charlatan?
During his career, lifetime and beyond the grave, Granville Bradshaw has been on the receiving end of many compliments and plenty of derogatory comments, from genius to fraud, from visionary to charlatan.
A fair number of Bradshaw’s designs were truly new concepts, rather than modifications of past work, and, as with any visionary designer, some ideas worked, others need further development, and some were rubbish. And people like Bradshaw are needed because their work and the chances they take leads to progress. At times, his projects were strapped for cash and at others he was awash with money. He brimmed with selfconfidence, so much so he sometimes missed the obvious. But equally he hit the spot too – possibly his early 1920s theories on oil-cooling engines is a best example and a principle many engine designers still incorporate today.
When one makes real money, one makes enemies. Bradshaw received a pay out of £40,000 (£3,000,000-plus at today’s value) for lost orders for his Dragonfly aero project after the First World War, which upset many, and his arcade amusement machine development and associated business connections in the early 1930s made him a multi-millionaire before it, too, all went pear-shaped. Again, many were aggrieved by this huge leap in wealth gained from such enterprises. And when flush with cash, the handsome young man wasn’t immune to the charms of the ladies, and he did his own fair share of charming too.
Today, it is perhaps sound to think of Granville Eastwood Bradshaw as an unrestrained engineering ideas man, who needed an accountant to restrain him, an astute engineering trained managing director to weed out foolish concepts and a strong lady who would, when needed, keep his mind focused and quell any wanderings…
Bradshaw was a man of brilliance and also a man of folly. Here, following, are a selection of his motorcycling developments, from which you can make up your own mind.
ABC 3½hp 1913/14
Pre First World War Brooklands was a mecca for aviators, motorcycle racers and car racing enthusiasts, different disciplines, sure, but with the common aim of developing
more and more power. One wonders whether Bradshaw moved to Brooklands for the good of his and Charteris’s ABC aero business or to join that coterie of likeminded souls. As we’ve seen during the early 1900s he was a motorcycle enthusiast, and before the First World War he used a new purchase 3½hp Triumph for his daily commute to Brooklands, until an out of control aeroplane destroyed it, so it is unsurprising he soon developed friendships with many racing motorcyclists including the Australian engineer Stephen Leslie ‘Les’ Bailey.
Working for Douglas, Bailey spent days and even weeks at Brooklands developing engines for record-breaking and racing, as well as improving roadster units. Converting the racing engines to ohv design with barrels machined from solid billet as per the then aero practice, the little 348cc Duggie engine soon revved to 5000rpm and after some further development to suit available fuel, Bailey set a new Class B (350cc) flying kilometre record of 72.63mph on December 17, 1912, the first under 350cc machine to exceed 70mph at Brooklands.
After some further runs on the day this machine was never seen again, but less than a year later, Alfie Alexander debuted a Douglas Motors developed ohv fore-and-aft flat twin at autumn 1913’s Weston-super-Mare speed trials. Probably fired by Bailey’s work (to which it is thought Granville Bradshaw contributed), Bradshaw designed an ohv 68x68mm, 492cc, fore-and-aft flat twin motorcycle engine which was unveiled in spring 1913.
Initially, there were few takers for his engine as it didn’t fit into current single cylinder motorcycle frames and struggled with longer V-twin chassis, too. Zenith gave it a try, as did PV (Perry Vale) with one gaining a Gold in the London-Exeter Trial and others, including Matchless, developed frames to suit.
But this tepid take up didn’t suit Mr Bradshaw. By now, ABC ‘motorcycle division’ (my words) claimed a staff of six, who were joined by Norton racer Jack Emerson as ‘test development rider.’ Using a 498cc engine with revised dimensions and many improvements mounted in frame made for Bradshaw by ‘Black’ Ernie Humphries’ OK factory, Emerson went record breaking on January 13, 1914, at Brooklands. Posting 80.47 and 78.26mph for the flying kilometre and mile respectively, the ABC became the first 500 to officially exceed 80mph on the track. In fact, Emerson had unofficially exceeded 83mph a few days earlier.
Although Bradshaw may initially have planned to supply motorcycle engines as proprietary units, by March 1914 he was developing a complete machine with girder front fork and leaf spring controlled swinging arm type rear suspension. A later version supplied in small numbers for military use had leaf spring controlled front fork suspension. Reports vary on the model’s engine dimensions, thus quoting from a 1914 trade guide may be appropriate:
Capacity ............................................ 498cc Cylinders Two set horizontally fore-and-aft Borexstroke .............................. 70x64mm Valveconfiguration ............................. Ohv Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . All chain, three-speed Armstrong gearbox, with foot controlled clutch Weight .............................................. 230lbs Topspeed ...................................... 60mph Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £63 (this later increased)
The outbreak of the First World War all but finished off this machine before many sales were made, although it was listed in revised form (including some with four-speed gearboxes) until into the 1919 season, when it was priced at £110. Purchases included The Motor Cycle columnist Ixion who bought his in 1916
before civilian sales were suspended for the rest of the war, and at least one example survives today. It was owned by the late Bob Thomas who found it offered good performance, comfort, economy and was quiet running. This machine is sometimes on display in the IoM.
The cylinder barrels of the production models were machined from solid billet, with its fins radial to the bore, rather than in line to suit fore-and-aft layout. This followed then current aero practice which was fine with aero rotary engines as the barrels revolved around the fixed crankshaft, ensuring that along with forward passage of the engine, barrels were adequately cooled, but many observers stated this concept would cause overheating of horizontally opposed twin cylinder motorcycle engines with their barrels in line with the direction of travel. To most this observation makes sense, but in conversation long ago, Bob Thomas told me his ABC engine never overheated.
The factory, period press (and Bob
Thomas) claimed the 498cc ohv was good for about 60mph, when it ran out of steam. Still, very respectable for a pre First World War
500, but Emerson’s machine was capable of 85mph. In period observers claim one of the main differences between the roadster and the racer was the former had softer valve springs. Was this an example of detuning the over the counter models for reliability?
Postscript:
Once ABC motorcycle production started in earnest, perhaps three to six machines per week, they needed a bigger works. Their hand was further forced with the outbreak of the First World War as the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) commandeered Brooklands in its entirety, although some were permitted to continue their private work there. The entire ABC motorcycle operation and work force moved to hurriedly erected premises at Hersham, three miles from their Brooklands building.
ABC 3hp (listed 1919-23)
Granville Bradshaw and Tommy Sopwith claimed in interview and their publicity material that Bradshaw conceived, designed and (at the ABC Research and Design Laboratory) built the prototype 3hp in precisely 11 days after the end of the First World War. The press, including The Motor Cycle, published the first post First World War draughtsman drawings of the project just before Christmas 1918. If Bradshaw and Sopwith really expected us then, or now, to believe such a fairy story, then they must have considered their buying public foolish.
Tales of wagers, potential time clause penalties and the like between Sopwith and Bradshaw circulated in period, and still do now. However, the legend that Granville mentally developed the ‘new’ motorcycle concept in his bath probably holds water – pun intended. He liked spending much ‘thinking’ time in his bath, fed by his own developed system of trickling hot water in to displace water which had cooled!
The more likely reality is that Bradshaw (possibly with or without ABC factory input) worked on the project through the war years, despite a Government order preventing such work from November 6, 1916, until the war’s end, and wanted to get his new machine on the market quicker than many rivals.
Like many inventors, designers and free thinkers, his mind and working days were filled with many projects and one can’t imagine he focussed ever on a single concept alone until completion, but rather he had much on the go at once, a good percentage would never have progressed beyond the thinking, design or early prototype stages. In this likely situation, it is easy to see how such motorcycle development could be concealed alongside
his work on aircraft engines and other components, plus, significantly, projects such as the 250cc horizontal flat twin military donkey engine used for pumps, generators and the like.
Trying to speculate when and how Granville Bradshaw got projects done is difficult at best, and the 3hp 398cc ohv twin is no exception. Some sources suggest a prototype was up and running (or at least mocked up) by March 1913, other sources imply late autumn 1918.
In all published images of this machine, it is adorned with the spring/early summer 1913 Surrey registration mark PA 448. This may or may not be appropriate and early publicity images might be of real machines, or a mock-up with much artistic touch up. It is also likely (as with makers like Scott and Brough Superior) the same registration mark appeared on a number of machines built over a considerable time span.
Although we can’t prove when the photographs of the first prototype 3hp flat twin were captured, we can note it wasn’t complete – detailed examination of the photograph reveals an absence of kick-starter, dynamo, gear change gate, oil pump/sight glass, steering damper and more. However, the machine may have been in running order.
If we discount the possibility of any prototypes built in 1913 leading to the post First World War 3hp flat twin, then the whole project makes more sense. But this may be a convenient, but inaccurate, route to understanding what happened and in what sequence.
With his butterfly mind flitting from one concept to another, then to another, Granville probably started envisaging the transverse flat twin motorcycle soon after seeing the fore-and-aft into a prototype, as he seemingly thought it a better idea. From possibly as early as 1912/13 and through the war years, the project may have progressed. That the ABC 3hp 398cc motorcycle has bore and stroke dimensions of 68.5x54mm and the basically similar layout military ABC 250cc flat twin donkey engine which had dimensions of 54x54mm is illuminating. And it probably explains why the motorcycle engine was of 398cc and not 500cc for example, as a bore of 68.5mm is perhaps as far as Bradshaw thought he could stretch the 250cc motor.
Of course, another thought, accepted by some, is that the 398cc engine was made for a lighter machine, but as the ABC chassis was robust enough to take a 500cc motor, this idea may not hold much credence.
Enough of speculation for now. Next month, we look at the four-speed ABC 3hp and similar Gnome et Rhone four-speed
3hp, Skootamota, oil boilers and more.