History

Early Days

The formation of the company

The original company was the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation which was established in 1879 in Lambeth, London, to exploit the inventions of Charles Francis Brush (1849-1929). Brush, born in Cleveland, Ohio, had developed his first dynamo in 1876 and founded the American Brush Company in 1881. This American company lasted until about 1891 when it was taken over by the General Electric Company.

Lighting equipment (both arc lamps and incandescent lights) was the main product at first, expanding with the formation of lighting supply companies throughout the country. After an early boom in the promotion of lighting companies, the Electric Lighting Act of 1882 laid down new and onerous conditions of operating so that a general period of stagnation followed in the newly-born electrical industry. However, there were some developments prior to the repeal of the Act in 1888, mainly in the field of industrial electrification. Thus the company was able to thrive on the manufacture of dynamos, motors, switchgear and small transformers. Trade again increased after 1888 and the works in Lambeth were no longer adequate for the vast increase in orders. New premises were required and, in the following year, the Falcon Engine and Car Works in Loughborough was purchased. Some of the reasons given for the major change in location were as follows: the congestion in Lambeth, the lack of railway sidings and facilities for the handling of heavy equipment, the high cost of labour in the Metropolitan area and the advantages of a rail-side location with good coal supplies in these new works at Loughborough.

The origins of Loughborough Works

The present site of the works was first developed from 1864 when seven acres of land were purchased by Henry Hughes. The first mention of Hughes is about 1855 when he became involved with the Falcon Engine Works in Derby Road, trading as millwrights, timber merchants and engineers. When the existing premises became inadequate, the new location alongside the Midland Railway line was selected and, at about the same time the title of the firm became “Henry Hughes & Company Locomotive Engineers, the Falcon Works”. Within a few years some 200 men were being employed in the factory. The extension of the Midland Railway to London in 1866, to Manchester in 1868 and to Carlisle by 1876 afforded much lucrative work for the company and the contemporary development of street tramways brought a further extension of activities. The first Hughes steam tramway locomotive was built in 1876 and initially demonstrated in Leicester.

Loss of trade and over-capitalization during a period of recession (i.e. the late 1870s and early 1880s) brought the firm into financial difficulties and a new company, the Falcon Engine & Car Works Ltd, was constituted in 1882. In 1885 the first horse buses were constructed and, four years later, the firm was acquired by the Brush Company. By the time of purchase by Brush, many of the foundations had been laid for the traditional products of the Company for many years to come. The interest in railways and railway rolling stock was maintained until the First World War and has been revived since 1945, whilst the production of bodies for buses continued with a distinguished record until 1951.

The Brush Electrical Engineering Company

The title of the company was changed soon after the movement to Loughborough. At first only the heavier manufacturing was transferred from Lambeth, but by 1895 most of the production was concentrated in the Falcon Works and large extensions were made in 1900/01 mainly for the tramcar building department. The Lambeth works lasted until about 1914.

The repeal of the 1882 Act brought an increase in trade for the electrical industry although Britain continued to lag behind the United States and Germany. There was a steady demand for equipment for industrial electrification and the electric street tramways were another important line of business for the Company. The entire work of electrification of tramways was carried out including the construction of lines and overhead wiring.

Small steam locomotives were built, mainly for shunting, and main-line rolling stock. The Parson’s steam turbine was first built under licence in the early part of the century and the earliest to be completed was supplied to Loughborough Corporation in 1904. In 1912, the English rights for the manufacture of the Swedish Ljungstrom turbine were acquired. The largest single building in the works, the “Cathedral”, was constructed in 1921 for the production and testing of turbines.

Motor vehicles were not ignored by Brush and the manufacture of motor cars and lorries was added to the already vast range of products. The “Brushmobile” was developed 1901-05 and two models, a 2-cylinder 10hp and a 4-cylinder 16hp with Vauxhall engines, were planned, but only six were actually built. Lorries and buses (with French engines) were most successful and nearly 100 buses were built before manufacture ceased in 1907 when several were in service with Birmingham and London companies. The Brush bus was one of the first successful vehicles with an internal combustion engine which had four-wheel drive as early as 1905/06.

Coachwork and bodywork continued and the “Brush Budget” for 1906 gives an impression of the enormous range of products manufactured by the Company in the Loughborough Works. The list includes: steam engines, steam turbines, dynamos, alternators, switchboards, motors, lamps, small locomotives (both steam and electric), railway coaches (mainline and underground), freight wagons, tramcars (a large order for Belfast Corporation had just been completed 1905/06), tramcar trucks, bus bodies, etc.

During this period of intensive growth the area of the works increased from 7 acres in 1892 to 33 acres in 1924. A report for 1902 describes the car erecting shops which covered 145,000 sq ft, the foundries, loco shop, boiler works, heavy toolrooms and power house etc which covered 125,000 sq ft and the dynamo and motor and winding shops which covered only 58,000 sq ft. There was an output of 1,200 car trucks per year and an average tramcar production of about 750. A 1912 catalogue claims that the works “are the largest car works in Great Britain” and it was about this time that Brush supplied the first trams to Moscow.

Prior to the First World War, tramcars and electrical engineering were probably about equal by value of production. The works employed about 2,000 men around 1910. Wartime production was mainly concerned with munitions although vehicle bodies and even aircraft were constructed.

The Company during the Inter-War period 1918-1939

Trading conditions had altered quite significantly after the war and many of the products manufactured by the Company were in lesser demand. The making of railway rolling stock and locomotives had diminished by the beginning of the war due to the need for greater capacity for turbine building and also from competition from the specialised builders and also the railway company workshops. The last steam locomotive was delivered to the Whitwick Granite Company during 1912. Overseas markets in capital goods particularly those dealing with transport equipment, declined after the war and did not recover until after the last war.

Expansions in the omnibus industry after 1918 brought a stagnation to the tramcar industry once the great municipalalities had completed their post-war production and the last great order was from Leeds for 100 cars about 1925/26, and the last tramcar was built in 1936. Bus and trolley bodybuilding remained steady during the period with a seasonal peak from February, when the orders were placed, to late summer when the last orders were delivered.

Electrical equipment remained fairly steady during the period although there was increasing competition from other British producers. Turbine production experienced a great boom after 1918 when some 20 complete turbines with the attendant equipment were delivered each year. The size of these machines was small, mainly in the 1,500 kW, 3,000 kW and 5,000 kW ranges, but they were suited to the small municipal and company electricity works then in vogue. The creation of the General Electricity Board and the subsequent construction of the National Grid after 1926 ruined this trade. Much larger turbines were now required, but it took a few years to develop these.

The first heavy oil engine made its appearance in 1935 and three years later in an attempt to diversify the range of products and to cater for an increasingly important line of business, the firm of Petters Ltd was taken over. Petters had been established in Yeovil, Somerset since the mid-19th century and had developed their first internal combustion engine in 1895. All the production was transferred to Falcon Works and remained there until 1948 when the former Lagonda Works at Staines, Middlesex were bought.

Employment in the works fell from a peak in 1925 when about 2,500 were employed to 1,500 some ten years later. The area of the works altered little, from 33 acres in 1924 to 35 acres in 1935 when the body shops covered about five acres.

The 1939-1945 War and after

As in the previous war, the Company geared its production to vehicles for war purposes, including General Service Wagons, Radio Location Vehicles, Gun carriers and the like. Some 10,000 of these vehicles were made in all besides several thousands of bodies for motor buses.

An aircraft department was set up to build Dominic aeroplanes. This aircraft was originally the Rapide 79 designed and built by De Havillands, having two Gypsy Queen Engines each of 200 horsepower. It was selected by the Government for training radio operators in flight, and Brush assisted to produce the large numbers required.

Another war effort was concerned with the repair of Hampden and Lancaster bomber aircraft damaged by enemy action or by accidents. The process comprised the removal of sound parts from the damaged aircraft, repairing the damage where possible and fitting damaged salvaged parts in reconstructed assemblies. In this way, many hundreds of aircraft were made fit for service.

After the war the great demand for heavy electrical equipment, dormant for many years, returned to the Company making good the damage of wartime losses, and also encouraging renewal of large-scale capital investment in power generation. The new companies in the Brush Group were now more competitive in modern conditions and the two branches, A.B.O.E. (Associated British Oil Engines) and Brush, were complimentary in engine building and electrical equipment. Four-wheeled battery electric vehicles first appeared in 1947 and in the same year the Company returned to railway work after a lapse of many years, when diesel and diesel-electric locomotives were built in conjunction with W.G Bagnall Ltd of Stafford.

Further companies joined the Group in 1950 when the National Gas & Oil Engine Company Ltd, Hopkinson Electric Company Ltd and the Vivian Diesels & Munitions Company Ltd of Canada were taken over. The title was changed to the “Brush - ABOE Group of Companies”.

This was a period of great expansion with a large export drive and increasing capital investment at home together with a resumption of armaments during the crisis of the Korean War. The £40 million of orders in 1951 were more than twice those of 1950. In order to free productive space for the more prosperous lines of trade the coachwork department was closed in 1950/1, although the building of battery-electric vehicles continued. About 1,500 men were employed in the coachwork department in 1949 when the average output of complete bodies had reached 60 per month. The value of this branch was about £3 million out of a total Group productive value of £18 million.

The last company to be acquired was Fuller Electric Ltd early in 1957. Changing trade conditions after the great post-war boom again brought the Brush Group which was officially constituted in 1953 into financial difficulties and in April 1957 an offer of £22 million from the Hawker Siddeley Group was adopted and amalgamation took place. The Brush Group of Companies consisted of the following manufacturing units in April 1957 and had offices in Duke’ s Court, Duke Street, St James’ s, London S.W.1:

Brush in the Hawker Siddeley Group 1957-1991

In October 1960 the Falcon Works employed about 4,300 workers in the 40 acres of workshops in a total site area of 59 acres. A majority of workers, 3,700, were employed on heavy electrical work whilst 500 were in the Traction Division and 100 on electric vehicle construction. The main production of the works still centred on electrical engineering with heavy transformers, generators, motors, switchgear etc. At that time diesel-electric locomotives for British railways were very important and output was about two complete locomotives per week. Steam turbine manufacture, which had always been important at Loughborough since the beginning of the century, was transferred to another member of the Group, the Gloucester Aircraft Company at Hucclecote, in 1959.

In 1970 Hawker Siddeley Power Engineering, a project engineering group, was formed as a separate company with an office at a nearby site in Burton-on-the-Wolds and another at Chelmsford in Essex. Twelve months or so later, in 1971, the product divisions of the Brush Electrical Engineering Company Ltd were formed into separate manufacturing companies. Initially these comprised Brush Electrical Machines Limited, Brush Switchgear Ltd and Brush Transformers Limited, with Brush Switchgear taking on the responsibility of the Fusegear Division until January 1973 when Brush Fusegear Ltd was formally constituted.

By this time there were approximately 5,000 workers on the Loughborough site.

Hawker Siddeley Group taken over by BTR plc - 1991

In November 1991, the Hawker Siddeley Group was taken over by BTR plc in a £1.5 billion bid. In the subsequent re-organisation Brush Electrical Machines Ltd became a major company within the BTR Electric Power Group, and the company’ s Traction Division became a separate company, Brush Traction Ltd.

By this time, on the Loughborough 84 acre (34 hectare) site, some 53,000 sq yards (44,500 M²) of manufacturing area were devoted to the production of large electric motors and generators, with an additional factory nearby occupied by the Company’ s Industrial Control Division manufacturing motor and generator electronic control equipment.

BTR Electric Power Group bought by FKI plc - 1996

In November 1996, the FKI Group of Companies acquired the Hawker Siddeley Electric Power Group from BTR, Brush Electrical Machines and the other Brush companies joining the Group’ s Engineering Division. Following this, Brush Traction Ltd reverted back to being a division of Brush Electrical Machines Ltd, and the Company’ s Industrial Controls Division became part of FKI’ s LSE Division.

Historical Landmarks