[Healeys] lost parts

[Joe and Lenore Armour]

 PETER
YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE

Am I to then assume that some of the people and/or companies you have 
mentioned invented the adjustable wrench due to the crazy mix of 
threads,diameters and head sizes!!!!!!!!!!

Also when did Mr. Wolsley ,who was in Australia building sheep shearing 
equipment, get involved in all this?



Peter Svilans wrote:

><  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
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