The Lanchester Legacy 1895-1931

Author: C.S. Clark
Publisher: Coventry University

This book, the first in a series of four volumes by the official Lanchester Historian, C S Clark, records the amazing lives and achievements of Frederick, George and Frank Lanchester. This concise work has been painstakingly built up from collections of documents and photographs, many of them previously unpublished, and from the personal and affectionate recollections of those who remembered events at first hand. It re-lives the challenge of developing and testing Frederick Lanchester’s theories on powered flight and the scientific principles of aircraft design from the early 1890s, the sense of excitement the brothers must have felt when unveiling the first, all-British, motor boat in 1894, the design and construction of the first, all-British, four-wheel motor car in 1895 and the evolution of all the innovative Lanchester vehicles that followed. It takes us back to the beginnings of features which are now taken for granted: vibration-less and high-revving engines, four-wheel drive, turbo-charging and fuel-injection, power-steering, disc-brakes, pneumatic tyres, the humble accelerator pedal and why so many features of the modern car, after over 100 years of development, are directly contributable to the Lanchester brothers. Importantly, The Lanchester Legacy chronicles the wealth of evidence for placing Dr. Frederick Lanchester among the greatest of the great British minds that have shaped the world.

Out of print

Published 1995

Price: £

ISBN: #978-0905949307

More Supported Books...