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63-478: The Speedster was a member of the President series, and was based on President hardtop coupe. For 1955, the company heavily restyled its models to incorporate a larger front bumper and a massive chrome grille more in keeping with American cars of the era. An initial run of twenty Speedsters was made to be displayed at car shows for the 1955 model year. Reaction to the show cars caused Studebaker's management to put

126-426: A machine turned instrument panel with a Stewart-Warner 160 mph (260 km/h) speedometer and an 8,000 rpm tachometer, turn signals, electric clock, tinted glass, cigarette lighter, oil filter and oil bath air cleaner, dual backup lamps, triple horns, two-speed electric wipers, tubeless whitewall tires, simulated wire wheel covers and fog-light bumperettes. There was also Speedster-specific trim including

189-455: A 1.9 kW {2.5 hp} 650 cc (40 in ) engine of his own design, capable of over 50 km/h {30 mph}. Lanchester's car was completed in 1895 and given its first test run in 1896, and proved to be unsatisfactory, being underpowered and having transmission problems. Lanchester designed a new 8 hp (6 kW) 2,895 cc (177 in ) air-cooled engine with two horizontally opposed cylinders, still with two crankshafts. He also re-designed

252-422: A base 1955 President State hardtop. The reason was the 1955 President Speedster was loaded with standard equipment including: choice of Studebaker Automatic Drive or overdrive transmissions, power steering, power brakes, four-barrel carburetor, dual exhaust, "Shoemaker-stitched" diamond-quilted genuine top-grain leather seating, carpeting front and rear, a map pocket (but no glove box) an eight-tube push-button radio,

315-627: A draughtsman's instrument for hatching, shading and other geometrical design work. In 1919, at the age of fifty-one, Lanchester married Dorothea Cooper, the daughter of Thomas Cooper, the vicar of St Peter's Church in Field Broughton in Lancashire . The couple relocated to 41 Bedford Square, London, but in 1924 Lanchester built a house to his own design (Dyott End) in Oxford Road, Moseley , Birmingham. The couple remained there for

378-415: A hood-length hood ornament, stainless roof band, Speedster nameplates and checkered emblems as well as chrome-plated ashtrays, rear-view mirror , moldings and tailpipe extensions. They also came in 2- and 3-tone paint jobs, the most famous of which was Hialeah Green & Sun Valley Yellow, called "lemon/lime" by the public. The green was a gold flake metallic. Studebaker produced 2,215 Speedsters during

441-704: A new body, the Land Cruiser , which was offered on the Dictator , Commander and President. The Land Cruiser models were easily identified by their extreme streamlining features, unusual 4-piece rear window, trunk and the full fender skirts on the rear of the vehicle. The new Presidents were smaller and less impressive than their predecessors, though still fine automobiles, priced at $ 1,245, ($ 28,356 in 2023 dollars ). For 1935, Presidents and Commanders offered an optional steel sliding roof similar to sunroofs common on vehicles today. In 1936, all Studebaker cars featured

504-870: A number of bodies. Lanchester's papers, notebooks, and related material are dispersed between a number of archive collections, including those of Coventry University , the University of Southampton Library, Birmingham Museums Trust , the National Aerospace Library , the Institution of Mechanical Engineers , Cambridge University 's Churchill Archives Centre and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University . In 1970, several colleges in Coventry merged to form Lanchester Polytechnic , so named in memory of Frederick Lanchester. It

567-793: A patent infringement action, and it was withdrawn in May 1911 after only 10 buses had been made. Daimler began importing the Renard Road Train in February 1907. Daimler fitted a number of four-cylinder 'pre-Knight' engines in the Road Train; Lanchester's development work resulted in a 75/80 hp Daimler-Knight 6-cylinder engine for the Daimler-Renard tractor unit in 1910. The Birmingham Small Arms company (BSA) bought Daimler in 1910, and Lanchester became consultant engineer to

630-636: A propeller. In 1900 the Gold Medal Phaeton was entered for the first Royal Automobile Club 1,000 Miles Trial and completed the course successfully after one mechanical failure en route. In December 1899 Lanchester and his brothers created the Lanchester Engine Company in order to manufacture cars that could be sold to the public. A factory was acquired in Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook , Birmingham , known as

693-627: A series of articles in Engineering . They were published in book form in 1916 as Aircraft in Warfare: The Dawn of the Fourth Arm ,( Lanchester 1916 ) and included a description of a series of differential equations that are known now as Lanchester's Power Laws . These laws described how two forces would attrit each other in combat, and demonstrated that the ability of modern weapons to operate at long ranges dramatically changed

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756-637: A technical consultant for the Daimler Company where he became involved in a number of engineering projects including the Daimler-Knight engine, variants of which powered the petrol-electric KPL bus and the Daimler-Renard Road Train , and the first British heavy tanks of World War I and powered all Daimler cars from 1909 to the mid 1930s winning in 1909 the coveted RAC Dewar Trophy . Working with Daimler in Coventry ,

819-408: Is now part of Imperial College . He supplemented his instruction in applied engineering by attending evening classes at Finsbury Technical School. Unfortunately, he ended his education without having obtained a formal qualification. When he completed his education in 1888, he acquired a job as a Patent Office draughtsman for £3 a week. About this time he registered a patent for an isometrograph ,

882-560: Is the basis of aerodynamics and the foundation of modern aerofoil theory. In 1894 he tested his theory on a number of models. In 1897 he presented a paper entitled "The soaring of birds and the possibilities of mechanical flight" to the Physical Society , but it was rejected, being too advanced for its time. Lanchester realised that powered flight required an engine with a much greater power-to-weight ratio than any existing engine. He proposed to design and build such an engine, but

945-410: The Institution of Civil Engineers in 1941 and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1945. Although he achieved his fame by his creative brilliance as an engineer, Frederick Lanchester was a man of diverse interests, blessed with a fine singing voice. Using the pseudonym of Paul Netherton-Herries he published two volumes of poetry. Lanchester, who had never been successful commercially, lived

1008-695: The Lanchester Motor Company . When he was a year old, his father relocated the family to Brighton , and young Frederick attended a preparatory school and a nearby boarding school, where he did not distinguish himself. He himself, thinking back, remarked that, "it seemed that Nature was conserving his energy". However, he did succeed in winning a scholarship to the Hartley Institution , in Southampton , and after three years won another scholarship, to Kensington College, which

1071-407: The "Planar" suspension system, and offered the " Startix " automatic engine-starting system as an optional accessory. Vehicles manufactured from 1936 also showed the influence of industrial designer Raymond Loewy , who was hired as Studebaker’s design consultant, and Helen Dryden who specialised in interior styling. Studebaker made its Hill-Holder device (an anti-rollback brake system) standard on

1134-586: The 1955 model year. Studebaker President#Fourth generation The Studebaker President was the premier automobile model manufactured by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana (US) from 1926 until 1942. The nameplate was reintroduced in 1955 and used until the end of the 1958 model when the name was retired. Prior to mid-1926, Studebaker’s premium model was the Studebaker Big Six . The first automobile bearing

1197-545: The American inventor Charles Knight had obtained a British patent for his modified Knight engine on 6 June 1908, and in September 1908 Daimler announced the first 4-cylinder Daimler-Knight engine a double sleeve-valve design developed from Knight's 1904 patents. Daimler had put all its resources into this "rather unsatisfactory engine" (according to Harry Ricardo), but although Lanchester continued to develop and work on

1260-614: The Armourer Works. In his new factory, Lanchester designed a new ten horsepower twin cylinder engine. He decided to use a worm drive transmission and designed a machine to cut the worm gears. He patented this machine in 1905 and it continued for 25 years to produce all of the Lanchester worm gears. He also introduced the use of splined shafts and couplings in place of keys and keyways, another innovation that he patented. The back axle had roller bearings and Lanchester designed

1323-755: The British Mark I-IV tanks during World War I . Lanchester's contract with Daimler was terminated after the Wall Street Crash of 1929; the Lanchester Motor Company's overdraft was also withdrawn, forcing immediate liquidation of its assets. BSA group, the owners of Daimler since 1910, completed the purchase of the Lanchester company in January 1931 and moved production to Radford, Coventry . Lanchester began to study aeronautics seriously in 1892, eleven years before

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1386-461: The Company's office and part of the factory. Lanchester began to find the conflict between his job as works manager and his research work irksome. Therefore, in 1893, he resigned his job in favour of his younger brother George. At about the same time, he produced a second engine type similar in design to his previous one but operating on benzene at 800 rpm. An important part of his new engine

1449-531: The President and other "senior" Studebaker models easier. Presidents manufactured in this era were considered to rival more expensive marques such as Cadillac , Packard , Lincoln , and Chrysler’s Imperial model range. Studebaker went into receivership during 1933-34, Albert Erskine committed suicide, and the era of the big, impressive President came to an abrupt end. For 1934, Studebaker trimmed its model lineup and streamlined its vehicles. The company designed

1512-439: The President in that year. In 1938, the company offered a remote-controlled "Miracle-Shift" transmission which featured a dashboard-mounted shifter. The unit was discontinued in 1939 when the transmission shift lever was moved to the steering column. For 1941, the President received a new body style, a four-door sedan with rear-opening rear doors, as opposed to the then-conventional front-opening (suicide) rear doors. This vehicle

1575-404: The President the finest automobile on the American road, with prices ranging from $ 1,985 to $ 2,485 ($ 35,222 to $ 44,094 in 2023 dollars ). Presidents produced from 1928-1933 established land speed records, some of which went unbroken for 35 years. The President benefited from engineering improvements once the company took control of Pierce-Arrow in 1928. The primary advances of the 1931 engine

1638-438: The basic layout used in most aircraft since then. Lanchester's contribution to aeronautical science was not recognised until the end of his life. In 1909 H. H. Asquith 's Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was established, and Lanchester was appointed a member. Lanchester predicted correctly that aircraft would play an increasingly important part in warfare, unlike the military command which envisioned warfare as continuing much

1701-440: The bearings was not as effective. Other advances for performance were that the valves had spring dampers and the muffler was a straight-through type. With these improvements the engine achieved 122 hp (91 kW). It also had modern filters for air, oil, and fuel, an improved thermostat, and a Lanchester vibration damper. In 1931, Studebaker introduced "Ovaloid" headlights which were oblong in shape and made identification of

1764-596: The building's energy efficient specifications, making use of light wells and exhaust stacks to draw air through the building, providing natural ventilation. An open-air sculpture , the Lanchester Car Monument , in the Bloomsbury, Heartlands, area of Birmingham, designed by Tim Tolkien , is on the site where the Lanchester company built their first four-wheel, petrol car in 1895. It was unveiled by Frank Lanchester's daughter, Mrs Marjorie Bingeman, and

1827-508: The car industry. Lanchester was born in St John's Wood , London to Henry Jones Lanchester (1834–1914), an architect, and his wife Octavia (1834–1916), a tutor of Latin and mathematics. He was the fourth of eight children; his older brother Henry Vaughan Lanchester also became an architect; his younger sister Edith Lanchester was a socialist and suffragette ; and his brothers George Herbert Lanchester and Frank joined him in forming

1890-560: The car into production mid-year and offer it for the rest of the model year, after which it was replaced by the previously planned Hawk series . It allowed the company to offer a competitor to the Ford Thunderbird and Chrysler 300 . Power came from Studebaker's 259 cu in (4.2 L) V8 engine producing 185 horsepower (138 kW) and 258 pound-feet (350 N⋅m) of torque. The Speedster's list price started at $ 3,346, ($ 38,057 in 2023 dollars ) or about $ 800 more than

1953-595: The compact Studebaker Lark . The final editions of Packard automobiles (1957–58) were based on this platform. The President set 118 stock car records in 1928. It also came in third in the 1932 Indianapolis 500 . The Classic Car Club of America , regarded as the American authority for accreditation of "classic car" status, recognizes only the 38,403 8-cylinder FA & FB model Studebaker Presidents produced in 1928 and those produced between 1929 and 1933 as “full classics”. Frederick W. Lanchester Frederick William Lanchester (23 October 1868 – 8 March 1946),

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2016-445: The death of the current works manager, Lanchester was promoted to his job. He then designed a new gas engine of greater size and power than any produced by the company before. The engine was a vertical one with horizontal, opposed poppet valves for inlet and exhaust. The engine had a very low compression ratio , but was very economical to operate. In 1890 Lanchester patented a self-starting device for gas engines. He subsequently sold

2079-642: The design, "he had realised that it was a forlorn hope from the start." The hybrid petrol-electric KPL (Knight-Pieper-Lanchester) bus used a pair of 4-cylinder, 12 h.p. (R.A.C. rating) Daimler-Knight engines each coupled to a dynamotor driving one of the rear wheels, using a patent of Henri Pieper . The bus was announced in June 1910 but the Tilling-Stevens company (an associate of the London General Omnibus Company ) threatened

2142-512: The disc brake. The new 10 hp car appeared in 1901 and remained in production until 1905, with only minor design modifications. He became a friend of Rudyard Kipling and would send him experimental models to test. In 1905, Lanchester produced a 20 hp four-cylinder engine, and in 1906 he produced a 28 hp six-cylinder engine. Although Sir Henry Royce had already tackled the problem of crankshaft torsional oscillation and consequent vibration in straight-6 engines, Lanchester analysed

2205-476: The epicyclic gearbox and combined it with the engine. A driveshaft connected the gearbox to a live axle . The new engine and transmission were fitted to the original 1895 car. Lanchester had relocated his business to larger workshops in Ladywood Road, Fiveways, Birmingham as work on the car progressed and had also sold his house to help finance the cost of his research. A second car was then built with

2268-574: The first full description of lift and drag . His book was not well received in England, but created interest in Germany where the scientist Ludwig Prandtl mathematically confirmed the correctness of Lanchester's vortex theory. In his second volume, Lanchester turned his attention to aircraft stability, Aerodonetics ( Lanchester 1908 ), developing his phugoid theory which contained a description of oscillations and stalls. During this work he outlined

2331-551: The first successful powered flight. Whilst crossing the Atlantic on a voyage to the United States, Lanchester studied the flight of herring gulls , seeing how they were able to use motionless wings to catch up-currents of air. He measured various birds to see how the centre of gravity compared with the centre of support. As a result of his deliberations, Lanchester, eventually formulated his circulation theory of flight. This

2394-422: The flywheel. There was a revolutionary epicyclic gearbox (years before Henry Ford adopted it) giving two forward speeds plus reverse, and which drove the rear wheels via chains. With a walnut body, it seated three, side by side. (By contrast, Rudolf Egg 's tricycle had a 3 hp (2.2 kW) 402 cc {24½in ) de Dion-Bouton single and was capable of 40 km/h {25 mph}, and Léon Bollée 's trike

2457-574: The incompetence of the Board of Directors. It was immediately reformed as The Lanchester Motor Company . During this period he also experimented with fuel injection , turbochargers , added steering wheels in 1907 and invented the accelerator pedal to help control engine operation, which previously would not cease if the operator had problems. He invented (or was the first to use) detachable wire wheels, bearings that were pressure-fed with oil, stamped steel pistons , piston rings , hollow connecting rods ,

2520-419: The intellectual property of the company. Lanchester wisely struck this out before signing. This action was prescient, for in 1889 he invented and patented a Pendulum Governor to control engine speeds, for which he received a royalty of ten shillings for each one fitted to a Forward Engine. In 1890 he patented a Pendulum Accelerometer, for recording the acceleration and braking of road and rail vehicles. After

2583-1134: The last "real" Lanchester, in 1931 the company was acquired by B.S.A., who had also owned the Daimler Company since 1909. From then until 1956, Lanchester cars were built at the Daimler factory in Coventry as sister cars with Daimler, like R-R with Bentley [ref Lanchester Legacy trilogy]. Lanchester was respected by most fellow engineers as a genius, but he did not have the business acumen to convert his inventiveness to financial gain. Whereas James Watt had found an able business partner in Matthew Boulton , who managed business affairs, Lanchester had no such assistance. During most of his career he lacked financial backing to be able to develop his ideas and perform research, as he would have liked. He nonetheless made many contributions in many different fields. He wrote more than sixty technical papers for various institutions and organisations, and received awards from

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2646-429: The machines to make these. His car was designed with the engine placed between the two front seats rather than at the front, and also had a side-mounted tiller rather than a steering wheel. The transmission also included a system similar to modern disc brakes that clamped the clutch disc for braking, rather than using a separate system as in most cars. On 1 December 1902, Lanchester was awarded Patent No. 26,407 for

2709-454: The name President was unveiled on July 23, 1926, designated as the ES model in internal Studebaker memos. It was powered by a 354 cu in (5,800 cc) six-cylinder engine until the appearance in January 1928 of the smaller and smoother straight-eight engine of 312.5 cu in (5,121 cc). Albert Russel Erskine , Studebaker’s president, spared no expense in his goal of making

2772-524: The nature of combat—a force that was twice as large had been twice as powerful in the past, but now it was four times, the square of the quotient. Lanchester's Laws were originally applied practically in the United States to study logistics , where they developed into operations research (OR) ( operational research in UK usage). OR techniques are now widely used, perhaps most so for business. After

2835-463: The new parent company. A larger 100 hp 6-cylinder engine with twin crankshafts each driving a sleeve-valve appeared in January 1912, fitted to the larger of two Daimler-Foster agricultural tractors ('Agritractors') made in conjunction with William Foster & Co. of Lincoln . According to Harry Ricardo , the duplication of the whole of the valve operating mechanism involved excessive mechanical complication and introduced grave difficulties in

2898-609: The problem scientifically and invented the torsional crankshaft vibration damper as a solution to the problem of engine balance. His design, patented in 1907, used a secondary flywheel coupled to the end of the crankshaft with a viscous clutch . At around the same time Lanchester also patented a harmonic balancer to cancel out the unbalanced secondary forces in a four-cylinder engine, using two balance weights rotating at twice crankshaft speed in opposite directions. The Lanchester Engine Company sold about 350 cars of various designs between 1900 and 1904, when they became bankrupt due to

2961-510: The remainder of his life in straitened circumstances, and it was only through charitable help that he was able to remain in his home. He died at his home, Dyott End, on 8 March 1946. Near the end of 1888, Lanchester went to work for the Forward Gas Engine Company of Saltley , Birmingham as assistant works manager. His contract of employment included a clause stating that any technical improvements that he made would be

3024-547: The rest of their life together but did not have any children. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1922, and in 1926 the Royal Aeronautical Society awarded him a fellowship and a gold medal. In 1925 Lanchester founded a company named Lanchester Laboratories Ltd., to perform industrial research and development work. Although he developed an improved radio and gramophone speaker, he

3087-545: The rights for his invention to the Crossley Gas Engine Company for a handsome sum. He rented a small workshop next to the Forward Company's works and used this for experimental work of his own. In this workshop, he produced a small vertical single cylinder gas engine of 3  bhp (2.2 kW), running at 600 rpm. This was coupled directly to a dynamo , which Lanchester used to light

3150-542: The same engine and transmission but with Lanchester's own design of cantilever suspension. This was completed in 1898 and won a Gold Medal for its design and performance at the Automobile Exhibition and Trials at Richmond. It became known as the Gold Medal Phaeton . In 1898, Lanchester designed a water-cooled version of his 8 bhp (6.0 kW) engine, which was fitted to a boat, driving

3213-433: The same way it had in the past. The same year, 1909, Lanchester patented contra-rotating propellers . In 1914 he gave the Institution of Civil Engineers ' 'James Forrest Lecture', on the subject of "The Flying Machine From An Engineering Standpoint". Lanchester was particularly interested in predicting the outcome of aerial battles. In 1914, before the start of World War I , he published his ideas on aerial warfare in

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3276-446: The shortened 1942 model, after which the President was discontinued. The Skyway designation was, however, used for shortened 1946 Studebaker Champions . Studebaker reintroduced the President nameplate in 1955 when it was applied to all premium-trimmed vehicles. The most noteworthy of these later Presidents was the 1955 Studebaker Speedster . The President name was discontinued after the 1958 model year, when Studebaker began focusing on

3339-427: The torsional vibration damper for 6-cylinder engines, and the harmonic balancer for 4-cylinder designs. Eventually Lanchester became disillusioned with the activities of the company's directors, and in 1910 resigned as general manager, becoming their part-time consultant and technical adviser. His brothers, George and Frank, assumed technical and administrative responsibility for the company. In 1909 Lanchester became

3402-526: The war, the company introduced the more conventional Forty engine, a rival for the Rolls-Royce 40/50 hp; it was joined in 1924 by an overhead cam 21 hp (RAC Rating) six cylinder engine. In 1921 Lanchester was the first company to export left-hand drive cars. Tinted glass was also introduced on these cars for the first time. A 4440 cc straight eight engine was introduced at the 1928 Southport Rally , again with overhead cams: it proved to be

3465-546: The way of mechanical synchronization. Lanchester designed a new cylinder head for sleeve-valve engines and patented it with Daimler in February 1913. Gaining an extra 5 hp by April 1913, the 105 hp Daimler-Knight engine (coupled with the tractor's massive transmission designed by William Tritton ) powered the Daimler-Foster Artillery Tractor, the No. 1 Lincoln Machine, Little Willie , and

3528-434: Was advised that no one would take him seriously. Lanchester was discouraged by the attitude to his aeronautical theory, and concentrated on automobile development for the next ten years. In 1906 he published the first part of a two-volume work, Aerial Flight , dealing with the problems of powered flight ( Lanchester 1906 ). In it, he developed a model for the vortices that occur behind wings during flight, which included

3591-436: Was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering and to aerodynamics , and co-invented the topic of operations research . Lanchester became a pioneer British motor-car builder, a hobby which resulted in him building the first British car in 1895 and developing a successful car company . Some of the innovations Lanchester developed have gone on to become widely adopted in

3654-584: Was designated the Land Cruiser, recognizable by its concealed running-boards and lack of rear quarter-windows. The Land Cruiser was available in the beginning of 1941, in the Custom and DeLuxetone series. In mid year 1941, the Skyway series was introduced, with a Land Cruiser included. The Skyway had an upgrade in upholstery, and lacked the double strip of chrome down the side of the car. This style continued for

3717-577: Was launched at Salter's slipway in Oxford in 1904, and was the first motorboat built in Britain. Having put a petrol engine in a boat, the next logical step was to use it for road transport. Lanchester set about designing a four-wheeled vehicle to be driven by a petrol engine. He designed a new petrol engine of 5 bhp (3.7 kW), with two crankshafts rotating in opposite directions, for exemplary smoothness, and air cooling by way of vanes mounted on

3780-414: Was renamed Coventry Polytechnic in 1987, and became Coventry University in 1992. Coventry University's Lanchester Library opened in 2000. Its name commemorates Frederick Lanchester and the previous incarnation of the university as Lanchester Polytechnic. Like much of Lanchester's own work, apparently regardless of convention, its form displays the way it functions. Its distinctive appearance comes from

3843-413: Was the increase in displacement to 337 cu in (5,520 cc) and the crankshaft was drilled for oil passage to each of its nine large main bearings . At this time, the straight-eight engines of many other firms had only five bearings; connecting the crank throws of every pair of cylinders between said bearings, their crankshafts had a heavy diagonal beam to take the stress, and the lubrication of

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3906-500: Was the revolutionary carburettor , for mixing the fuel and air correctly. His invention was known as a wick carburettor, because fuel was drawn into a series of wicks, from where it was vapourised. He patented this invention in 1905. Lanchester installed his new petrol engine in a flat-bottomed launch, which the engine drove via a stern paddle wheel . Lanchester built the launch in the garden of his home in Olton , Warwickshire . The boat

3969-541: Was unable to market it successfully because of the Great Depression . He continued, overworking, until in 1934 his health failed and the company was forced to close. He was diagnosed eventually with Parkinson's disease and was reportedly much grieved that this, along with cataracts in both eyes, prevented him from "doing any official job" during the Second World War . He was awarded gold medals by

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