[Healeys] lost parts

[Peter Svilans]

<  My history may be a bit sketchy, but >

Not sketchy at all, Dave.

Hotchkiss had always had very strong management ties with England and the US,
and was a major arms supplier to the Union Army in the Civil War.  The Saint
Denis plant in France was producing cars, engines and machine guns.

By the start of WW 1, out of fear of being overrun by the Germans, management
asked their chief engineer, a British officer by the name of Ainsworth, to
transfer machine gun production to a new factory in Coventry.  50,000 guns
were made there, but contracts dried up after the war.

Meanwhile, word got round that William Morris was looking for an engine
supplier.  In particular, he wanted someone to copy the Detroit-made
Continental Red Seal motor which he had been using in his Bullnose Cowley.
Ainsworth knocked on Morris' door and, even though his Coventry plant had
never made any engines before, said he could do it.  The plant was sold to
Morris in 1923.

The British (Hotchkiss)-built, American-designed Continental motors used
French Standard metric (not International Standard metric) threads because the
Coventry factory was equipped with French metric tool heads from its
machine-gun days.  There was no money available to change tooling either from
Mr. Morris who always demanded a rock-bottom price, or from Saint Denis.
Also, in order that Whitworth wrenches could be used by the British workers in
the plant, the metric nuts and bolts had Whitworth heads.   The whole business
was called "Morris' Mad Metric".

The 1925 MG Kimber Special "Old Number One" used a Hotchkiss engine.

Best
Peter