Lanchester, Frederick William

Frederick William Lanchester was born in Lewisham , in an area in southeast London , with Henry Jones Lanchester, an architect, and his wife, Octavia, a tutor. He was the fourth of eight children, his older brother Henry Vaughan of Lanchester also became an architect. When he was years old, his father moved his family to Brighton , and young Friedrich attended classes at a preparatory school and near a boarding school, where he did not excel. Subsequently, recalling, noted that, "it seemed that Nature was conserving its energy." However, he successfully received a scholarship to study at the Hartley Institute , in Southampton , and three years later he received another scholarship to Kensington College, which is now part of Imperial College London . Also, Lanchester supplemented his knowledge of engineering by attending evening classes at a college in Finsboro. Unfortunately, he completed his education without having received a diploma.

After graduating in 1888, at the age of 20, he began working as a draftsman at the Patent Office at a rate of £ 3 per week. It was then that he managed to patent his first, of more than four hundred, invention - the so-called isometer, which helps designers in drawing work. This detail characterizes Lanchester as an extremely pedantic person, whose technical developments have always been of high quality and thoroughness of execution.

In 1919, at the age of fifty-one, Frederick Lanchester married Dorothea Cooper, daughter of Thomas Cooper, vicar of St. Peter's Church in Lancashire . The couple moved to 41 Bedford Square in London, but in 1924 Lanchester built a house of his own design - Dyott End, Mosley. The couple stayed there for their whole life together, they had no children.

He was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1922, and in 1926 the Royal Aviation Society awarded him a scholarship and a gold medal.

Lanchester, which had never been commercially successful, lived in straitened circumstances until the end of his life, supported only by the care and love of a devoted wife, in whose hands he died in his house, Dyott End, on March 8, 1946.

Gas engine

In 1890, Lanchester patented a self-starting device for gas engines. Subsequently, he sells the rights to this invention to Crossley Gas Engine Company very profitably.

Gas engine

Having thus earned his first capital, Frederick rents a small workshop, where he is engaged in experimental work at his discretion. He understands that he finally has the opportunity to fully realize himself. At the same time, working for a gas engine company becomes extremely tiring and boring for him, which forces him to resign. This step gives its positive results: soon, Lanchester manages to build the first gasoline engine, an important part of which was a revolutionary carburetor for the proper preparation of a combustible mixture of fuel and air. The designer successfully installs the motor on the boat, thus becoming the first inventor of the motor boat in England.

Having installed the engine on a watercraft, the next logical step would be to set in motion a land vehicle.

However, it should be noted that until 1895 with the "self-propelled crews" in England it was very bad. This is due to the infamous “Law on Locomotives”, which significantly limited the speed and conditions of movement of steam vehicles. Accordingly, when enthusiasts rushed to reproduce the work of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler in all of continental Europe, in England there was still no question of the “automobile process”. And only after softening the said law, finally the first British car finally appeared, the creator of which, of course, was Frederick Lanchester. The inventor approached the automotive process with his characteristic innovation and the desire to always go his own way.

Cars

The first Lanchester car appeared in 1895 and so far has not stood out with anything particularly original. Unless in a one-liter 5-horsepower engine, two crankshafts rotated in opposite directions, which made it possible to largely avoid vibrations arising from the operation of the motor. However, step by step, Frederick introduced new developments and independently designed components and assemblies. He “felt” his creations so well that in just a few years his car was able to win a gold medal for design and performance at the Auto Show in Richmond, as well as take part in the famous 1000-mile race of the Royal Automobile Club, reaching the finish line with only one minor breakdown. In the light of such an upsurge, the workshop had to be reorganized into the Lanchester Engine Company, and its brothers George and Frank, who took responsibility for marketing the product, were invited to join the company.

Everything was perfect in Lanchester cars, which made it possible for modern historians to talk about Frederick as the initiator of the concept of executive cars and the daring destroyer of the principles of automotive industry that existed at that time. As one of the British journalists later writes, “these were the first cars that were created on a scientific basis.” What is only one horizontal engine installed in the center of the chassis.

The motor had two opposing cylinders. Two crankshafts synchronously rotating in different directions, connected by gears with spiral teeth, made it possible to achieve unattainable balance of the power unit at that time. In addition, the engine included an original valve mechanism and a fully automatic lubrication system. The top of technical thought was also a planetary gearbox, which transmitted torque to the worm gear of the rear axle, equipped with ball bearings and slotted axles. Surprising in those days was the ignition from a low voltage magneto. At the same time, additional structural rigidity was imparted by the fact that all nodes were mounted on the frame stationary.

The car's suspension was an incredible combination of all the types known at that time - spring, spring and others. Separately, it should be said about the brakes. It was Frederick Lanchester in 1902 who patented the disc brakes , which he began to install on some of his models. As on modern cars, Lanchester disc brakes had clamps that pressed and fixed the drum of the wheels on both sides.

Widely used brake pads constantly deteriorated due to overheating, however, due to the lack of suitable materials, the patented invention did not find wide application for a long time. Yes, and the habit affected, because the carts were also stopped by pressing the stick to the working surface of the wheel. But the control was lever, like on tractors, although other manufacturers have long switched to steering. Such an interesting mixture of innovative and outdated was offered to customers of Lanchester.

One of the most characteristic models for the inventor is Lanchester with a 4-liter 12-horsepower engine and a body called “ton”, which was very popular at the beginning of the 20th century. Already one of its appearance with elongated, wider and squat forms, as well as with a missing protruding hood, this car was different from competitors. The wheels were decorated with motorcycle spokes. Due to the central location of the engine, the driver's seat was installed in front of the engine. Behind the power unit was a compartment for passengers with two longitudinal sofas, and the front door was located in the rear wall of the body. In the role of the windshield was a special corporate shield with a single headlight mounted on it.

In addition, Frederick does not constantly get tired of either inventing or improving something. He is experimenting with fuel injection , turbochargers , hollow connecting rods, piston rings, plain bearings, silencers and many other elements without which it is impossible to imagine a modern car. Nevertheless, even despite the development of structures that are quite complicated from a technical point of view, he still has time to install tinted windows on his cars for the first time in the world.

In terms of reliability, good driving performance and softness, as well as ease of operation, Lanchester cars in England were unrivaled. However, the time-consuming originality of execution and the unitary production dictated a high price, which could not but scare away buyers. For example, in the first five-year period of the 20th century, only 350 cars were sold. The company was constantly experiencing financial difficulties, and Frederick, who could never boast of business acumen, constantly suspected the fraud of the company manager.

However, the problem was rather different. Despite the heyday of the original designs, which lasted until the 1920s, this could not contribute to the company's ability to withstand the rapidly growing auto giants and, together with them, gradually imposed stamps in the automotive industry. Lanchester tried to abandon the unconventional spirit of his first cars and start producing cars of only a classic design - he even began to install an ordinary steering wheel and ... two headlights, but this did not improve the situation. Frederic comes to the sad conclusion: due to the fact that no one needs his originality anymore, every year he and he himself become less and less interested in driving cars - as they say, courage has disappeared ...

Ballooning

In the 1920s, in parallel with the already insignificant auto business, Lanchester devoted himself completely to his childhood passion - aeronautics . While running as a boy with unprecedented kites in his hands, he shouted to onlookers that he would someday fly on one of them into the air. He opens a research company where he is engaged in industrial development and conducts scientific work.

For his studies in the field of air traffic, aerodynamic properties of the wing, glider theory, as well as predictions of the outcome of air battles during the war on the basis of differential equations, known today as the “Laws of Power of Lanchester” , Frederick was elected a member of the Royal Scientific Society , and also received many awards and medals from leading institutions of the country. However, the most paradoxical is that most of his research was often rejected by the scientific community or went into a long drawer, because it significantly overtook its time and then seemed too fantastic ...

Battle Dynamics Model

Only a few researchers on Earth have made such an invaluable contribution immediately to many different fields of knowledge. Frederick Lanchester received more than 400 copyright certificates in his life, wrote about a hundred scientific papers, but without a business acumen, he was unable to turn his skills and knowledge into banknotes. The constant lack of funds often did not make it possible to conduct research as he considered necessary, and therefore much remained behind the scenes.

• Laws of lanchester

• Frederick Lanchester - the genius who gave England the first car
• Frederick William Lanchester