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32-406: Many vehicles produced by Morrison-Electricar were classified by their payload, which was measured in hundredweights , and this usage has been retained in the article. A hundredweight is one twentieth of a long ton or 51kg, and is abbreviated to "cwt". Morrison-Electricar was a British manufacturer of milk floats and other battery electric road vehicles (BERV). Their first vehicle was built for

64-593: A Manhattan facility after the turn of the century, and a few years later to a studio in the Bronx . Filming locations around the United States and abroad were used. The company had the same senior executives as the more profitable National Phonograph Company , to which Edison paid more attention. Edison was also distracted by other enterprises including storage batteries, iron ore and cement, which competed for finance and led to loss of focus. In February 1911

96-505: A " long ton " of 2,240 pounds (1,016 kg). The hundredweight has had many values. In England in around 1300, different hundreds ( centum in Medieval Latin ) were defined . The Weights and Measures Act 1835 formally established the present imperial hundredweight of 112 pounds (50.80 kg). The United States and Canada came to use the term "hundredweight" to refer to a unit of 100 pounds (45.36 kg). This measure

128-524: A 1953 model D1 20 cwt bakery van, a 1954 model D1 30 cwt van, which was rebodied in the 1980s, and a 1954 D1 30 cwt milk float, all of which were operated by Birmingham Co-operative Society. A 1955 model MD20 20 cwt milk float, rebodied in the 1960s, which came from Midland Counties Dairy, a model D1 30 cwt dating from 1956, which was owned by the Ten Acres and Stirchley Co-op, and a model D5 15 cwt milk float dating from 1964 and run by Ivy Farm Dairy, complete

160-488: A bakery in 1933, and the company ceased to exist when it was finally sold to M & M Electric Vehicles in 1983. In the 1890s, Alfred Ernest Morrison started a small engineering company in Dover Street, Leicester , using £22 of capital given to him by his father. Products included bicycles, motorcycles, and carriages to fit on the front of tricycles. He also patented and manufactured an independently sprung wheel which

192-616: A competitor to Morrisons. Another development was a low-speed mobile platform which was used for transferring goods from railway trucks to road vehicles. The platforms were also fitted with buffers, so that they could be used to push railway wagons along their tracks. Following the formation of the business group Associated Electric Vehicle Manufacturers Limited (AEVM) in 1936, AE Morrison worked closely with Electricars. Electricars had been in business since 1919, and were based in Birmingham. They had initially bought electric road vehicles from

224-416: A move to Grace Road, Leicester in 1921–22, and the company began marketing chargers for vehicle batteries and also for radio batteries. When talking pictures were introduced to the cinema in the late 1920s, the business moved into the manufacture and installation of cinema equipment. One important innovation was an electric motor that ran at a constant speed. It was DC powered, with a nickel frame, rather than

256-469: A payload of 40 cwt or less, and Electricars building heavier vehicles. Between 1936 and 1939, Morrison's output increased four-fold, but was dramatically reduced during World War II when Morrison and Electricars were both involved in war work. Although some electric vehicles were built during this period, production was hampered by a lack of raw materials. Electricars ceased to produce electric vehicles in 1944, and their last batch of vehicles were assembled at

288-700: A prototype 3-wheeled articulated vehicle for the Midland Railway (MR), but no production vehicles were manufactured, as the MR felt it was not robust enough for their needs. The design was not wasted, however, as in 1940 Brush Electrical Engineering asked them to design a small battery tractor unit for use within their factory. The result was a scaled-down version of the MR vehicle, which Brush manufactured. Having built several for their own use, they then started selling them to other customers, and branched out into battery electric road vehicles in 1945, effectively becoming

320-451: A stronger chassis and a longer wheelbase to enable it to carry loads of 10 or 12 cwt, and the baker took delivery of the first production vehicle later in the year. It was registered as JF 4231, and the company soon built up a large order book for such vehicles. These small vehicles were marketed as "Terriers", and the company produced a larger model, called the "Mastiff", capable of carrying 25 or 30 cwt. As sales of electric vehicles increased,

352-938: A year later, all vehicles were marketed as Morrison-Electricars. The next change occurred in 1948, when the Austin Motor Company bought a 50 per cent share in AEVM, and the company became Austin Crompton Parkinson Electric Vehicles Ltd., but production vehicles still carried the Morrison-Electricar badge. Austin merged into the British Motor Corporation in 1952, which in turn merged with Leyland Motors in 1969, to become British Leyland . The electric vehicle business became Crompton Leyland Electricars Ltd. In 1972, British Leyland sold their share of

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384-446: Is less certain, but was probably at Andover, Hampshire . Morrison and Electricars worked more closely with one another, and the two ranges of vehicles were rationalised. The battery manufacturer became Crompton Batteries Ltd., and in 1941, the electrical manufacturing company Crompton Parkinson took over AEVM. Following the takeover, Morrisons made vehicles up to 2 long tons (2.0 t) capacity, and Electricars made larger vehicles, but

416-541: Is now used to a far lesser extent. Church bell ringers use the unit commonly, although church bell manufacturers are increasingly moving over to the metric system . Older blacksmiths' anvils are often stamped with a three-digit number indicating their total weight in hundredweight, quarter-hundredweight (28 lb (13 kg), abbreviated qr), and pounds. Thus, an anvil stamped "1.1.8" will weigh 148 lb (67 kg) (112 lb (51 kg) + 28 lb (13 kg) + 8 lb (3.6 kg)). The same three part scheme

448-595: Is used for church bells (formatted cwt–qr–lb). The long hundredweight is used as a measurement of vehicle weight in the Bailiwick of Guernsey . It was also previously used to indicate the maximum recommended carrying load of vans and trucks, such as the Ford Thames 5 and 7 cwt vans and the 8, 15, 30 and 60 cwt Canadian Military Pattern trucks . In Europe outside the British Isles, a centum or quintal

480-734: The Brush Electrical Engineering Company in Loughborough . They also bought in axles and braking systems, but the chassis, motor, and controller were made in-house. One early failure was the Trilec, a 3-wheeled vehicle with two steerable wheels at the front and a fixed motorised wheel at the back. It suffered from a lack of weather protection for the operator, who sat over the rear wheel, and this also restricted forward visibility. However, more conventional vehicles sold well, and were available in six chassis types by

512-938: The Edison Lamp Company , Edison Machine Works , and Bergmann & Company, which made electric lighting fixtures, sockets, and other accessories. In April 1894, the Edison laboratory's Kinetoscope operation, which was about to be commercialized, was brought under the Edison Company umbrella. In 1900, the United Edison Manufacturing Company was evidently succeeded by the New Jersey–incorporated Edison Manufacturing Company. The company's assets and operations were transferred to Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1911. The Edison United Manufacturing Company

544-736: The American Edison Manufacturing Company , and their product range was based on the imported vehicles. They were designed for payloads of up to 6 long tons (6,100 kg), and were chiefly sold to local authorities. They were soon producing lighter vehicles, but experienced a period of difficulty in the early 1920s. Sales improved later in the decade, and they moved to a new factory on Lawley Street in 1929. They moved again in 1938/39, to Webb Lane in Hall Green , South Birmingham. The two companies rationalised their products, with Morrison concentrating on vehicles with

576-684: The Morrison factory in Leicester, rather than in Birmingham. The company went through a series of amalgamations and takeovers between 1933 and its demise in 1983. On 11 January 1936, they became part of a newly created business group called Associated Electric Vehicle Manufacturers Limited (AEVM). Other members were Electricars, who had been making battery electric road vehicles since 1919, and were based in Birmingham; Young Accumulators, who made traction batteries, and were based at New Malden in south-west London; and Hants Electric Chassis, whose location

608-455: The United States in the sale of livestock and some cereal grains and oilseeds , paper , and concrete additives and on some commodities in futures exchanges . A few decades ago, commodities weighed in terms of long hundredweight included cattle, cattle fodder, fertilizers, coal, some industrial chemicals, other industrial materials, and so on. However, since the increasing usage of the metric system in most English-speaking countries, it

640-517: The business to Hawker Siddeley , better known for aircraft manufacture, and the company became Crompton Electricars Ltd. Ten years later, Hawker Siddeley decided to sell the business, and it was bought by M & M Electric Vehicles, who were based in Atherstone , Warwickshire. This was effectively the end of Morrison-Electricar, although M & M subsequently adopted the Electricars name for

672-483: The line-up. Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum owns an Electricars model DV4 4-ton refuse collector, one of a fleet of 72 such vehicles bought between 1938 and 1948 by Birmingham City Council, and used until 1971. The Ipswich Transport Museum has a Morrison coal lorry dating from 1951 in their collection, which was used to deliver coal by the Ipswich Co-operative Society until 1983, and

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704-443: The manufacture of stationary engines was phased out. Vehicles were exported to Australia, New Zealand and Finland, generally as a kit of parts, with bodywork and batteries being sourced locally, and a left-hand drive option was also available. Production moved to a new factory on Brunswick Street, South Wigston in 1935 and this allowed them to build complete vehicles, whereas the manufacture of bodies had previously been outsourced to

736-402: The mid-1930s, suitable for payloads of 5/8 cwt, 10/12 cwt, 18/22 cwt, 25/30 cwt, 40 cwt and 60 cwt. They could be fitted with an open-deck body for milk delivery, a closed van body, or a flat deck lorry body, while more specialist designs were produced for the collection of refuse. Each vehicle was fitted with a clock, and came with a lapel badge for the driver to wear. In 1936, the company built

768-770: The mid-20th century. Edison Manufacturing Company The Edison Manufacturing Company , originally registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company , was organized by inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 1889. It succeeded the Edison United Manufacturing Company , founded in 1886 as a sales agency for

800-411: The more usual iron frame, and the constant speed ensured good sound reproduction. The company became AE Morrison & Sons in 1929, as the founder was joined by relatives including his eldest son, AC Morrison. Following a discussion with a baker while playing golf in 1933, AC Morrison built a prototype electric vehicle suitable for delivering bread within a month. Trials suggested that the vehicle needed

832-452: The vehicles that they manufactured. The Transport Museum, Wythall has a collection of battery-electric road vehicles which includes two Electricars and six Morrison-Electricars. There is an Electricars model CY2, dating from 1935, with a streamlined van body, originally used as a demonstrator, but then sold to Fowlers Forest Dairies, and a 1946 model TU20 platform truck, supplied to Metro-Cammell . The Morrison-Electricar collection comprises

864-504: Was fitted to motorcycle sidecars. Gradually, he diversified into gas-powered stationary engines , which were used to power water pumps, compressors and generators for lighting systems. By the early 20th century, the company was known as AE Morrison & Co, and they started to build Tiger motorcycles, but stationary engines provided the main focus. During World War I , the company repaired agricultural machinery, but reverted to making stationary engines when hostilities ceased. Expansion led to

896-886: Was incorporated in July 1886 to consolidate the sales operations of the various Edison manufacturing concerns. The company went into liquidation—finalized October 31, 1889—and was succeeded by the United Edison Manufacturing Company, incorporated in New York City under New York State law in May 1889. On May 4, 1900, the Edison Manufacturing Company—evidently the successor to the United Edison Manufacturing Company—was incorporated in Newark, New Jersey , with its headquarters located in West Orange . From April 1894 to June 1908, William E. Gilmore

928-580: Was never defined in terms of British units. Instead, it was based on the kilogramme or former customary units. It is usually abbreviated q . It was 50 kg (110 lb) in Germany, 48.95 kg (108 lb) in France, 56 kg (123 lb) in Austria, etc. The unit was phased out or metricized after the introduction of the metric system in the 1790s, being occasionally retained in informal use up to

960-421: Was presented to the museum in 1989. The National Transport Museum of Ireland at Howth has a 1946 Morrison's electric laundry van and a 1984 Electricar van formerly owned by Guinness . [REDACTED] Media related to Morrison-Electricar at Wikimedia Commons Hundredweight Under both conventions, there are 20 hundredweight in a ton , producing a " short ton " of 2,000 pounds (907.2 kg) and

992-519: Was specifically banned from British use—upon risk of being sued for fraud —by the Weights and Measures Act 1824 ( 5 Geo. 4 . c. 74), but in 1879 the measure was legalised under the name "cental" in response to legislative pressure from British merchants importing wheat and tobacco from the United States into the United Kingdom. The short hundredweight is commonly used as a measurement in

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1024-677: Was vice-president and general manager of the Edison Manufacturing Company. He took over from Alfred O. Tate and was succeeded by patent lawyer Frank Dyer. Edison's films were made by the Kinetograph Department of the Edison Manufacturing Company. Edison's first moviemaking studio—and the world's first—was the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey , where production of Kinetoscope films began in early 1893. The Edison Studios productions moved to

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