In a message dated 9/26/2003 8:34:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
bbrewer@qnet.com writes:
> Triumph bikes, motorcycles and cars all had the same common root,
> Sigfried Bettman and Maurice Schulte, two Germans that immigrated to
England
> to participate in the Victorian trading boom in the late 1800's. They
> started
> with bikes, then motorcycles and then cars. The cars and motorcycles split
> in
> the '20s and were sold to different owners. I don't know what, when or
where
> happened to the bicycles.
> Someone correct me if I am wrong. I think that I can dig up the
> references.
Pretty close! Bicycles began around 1887 or so. The first motorcycles were
introduced in 1902. The first car around 1923.
The bicycle part was sold to Coventry Bicycles in 1932, and the motorcycle
part to a "Mr. Sangster (Birmingham builder of Ariel motorcycles)" in early
1936.
This from Robson & Langworth's _Triumph Cars: The Complete Story from Tri-Car
to Acclaim_, c. 1979 & 1988.
--Andy Mace
*Mrs Irrelevant: Oh, is it a jet?
*Man: Well, no ... It's not so much of a jet, it's more your, er,
Triumph Herald engine with wings.
-- Cut-price Airlines Sketch, Monty Python's Flying Circus (22)
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