Edward Butler – The pioneering inventor

19th-century three wheeling - part 2

Edward Butler started his career with a 19th-century three-wheeler by inventing it! Already in 1884, he filed a first (provisional) patent for a petrol-engined three-wheeler which he first called 'Velocycle'. But it was only a couple of years later that a revised design was built into a prototype. Now called 'Petrol-Cycle', it was built by the Merryweather Fire Engine Works in 1887-88.

As it had no clutch, the rear (driven) wheel was lifted up to start, but other features were more modern. It had electric ignition – most cars then were on hot-tube - and a spray carburettor, many years before Maybach's design overtook the then-normal surface carburettor. The initial two-stroke engine was later replaced by a four-stroke and an epicyclic reduction to the rear-wheel had been added.

Although it had teething trouble, it's future looked promising, but eventually, it was the Locomotives Act that killed the viability of the project. Investors did not want to fund a machine that could legally not be driven faster than 4 mph...

The Petrol-Cycle itself, and its development, was put into storage, but in 1896, with the renewed interest in motoring in Britain, Harry Lawson (who tried to monopolise the motoring industry around that time with his British Motor Syndicate) saw a new future in Butler's Petrol-Cycle and bought the manufacturing rights. But no production was ever started, in the meantime, other cars had gained much more supporters and popularity.

Edward Butler continued to build engines, which had a certain success in marine applications.

A couple of years later, we again see Edward Butler appearing in the magazines, now with a three-wheeler he did not design himself, but on a British-built version (by Humber) of the Léon Bollée voiturette (the Coventry Motette).

Butler had always kept an interest in improving engines and had also modified the engine of this machine with his own rotary-valve design.

Butler kept writing about internal combustion engines and was available as a consulting engineer. But he was never fully recognised for his pioneering work, having built one of the first successful motors in Britain. He died in 1940, long after the unfortunate Petrol-Cycle prototype had been dismantled and disappeared.

Words by Nick Jonckheere.

Thanks to Michael Edwards' The Tricycle Book, 1895-1902, Part Two, Pete Young and Grace's Guide.

Publié:

mardi juin 23rd, 2020

Michael Edwards

24 Juin 2020, 15:42

C.T. Crowden was the Works Manager at the Merryweather Fire Engine works, and so he was responsible for building the prototype from the plans that Butler submitted to the company. The vehicle was ready in June 1888, when it was taken to the Invicta Works in Bromley for testing. It was discovered at the time that more development work was required and the financial backer, Theodore Allingham, withdrew his support when he realised that the legislation covered petrol vehicles - he had been advised that only steam vehicles were subject to speed restrictions.

Crowden resumed contact with Butler in 1896 at the behest of Harry Lawson who had an interest in purchasing the patent rights, which he did in November 1896, when the Petrol-Cycle was transported to the Motor Mills in Coventry. Crowden became Lawson's Works Manager at the Great Horseless Carriage Co, and departed from this role in January 1898.

The work on the Petrol Cycle was not wasted because a series of engines were produced under licence by Clark, Chapman & Co., primarily for marine work.

Butler was unusual at the time in that he recorded all the details of the experiments with the Petrol Cycle and the events surrounding it, in his notebooks that are still preserved.

Grimmo

23 Juin 2020, 16:05

Charles Thomas Crowden claimed he helped invent the original Butler three-wheeler petrol cycle.

Later, when Crowden was designing and building cars at his Packington Place (ex-Mulliner) Works, Leamington Spa, he was interviewed for Leamington’s Daily Circular in May 1899, being cited as “... one of the pioneers of the cycle industry, one of the inventors of the first British oil driven motor car, inventor of a hundred patents in the cycle and motor car industry...”

Asked: "About your first car?" he replied "Ah, that is many years ago. Here you are," and he produced a photograph of a car, the patent for which bears the name of Edward Butler. "That is about 15 years ago. I and Mr. Butler worked on it for years. Capital was forthcoming, and owing only to the short-sighted action of the legislature it was withdrawn. Otherwise, we should have made English cars long before the French or Germans. We could not use it because of the law.”

Crowden had once worked for Merryweather and Sons, whose name appears on the 1887 Petrol-Cycle, as does F. B. Shuttleworth, a Kent shipbuilder.

Butler’s Patent Petrol Cycle Syndicate Ltd. was wound up only in July 1896, when its “valuable patents, relating to machinery worked by petroleum, including motors of various descriptions” went on sale.

Edward Butler – The pioneering inventor

19th-century three wheeling - part 2

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