Author: A.B. Demaus and J.C. Tarring
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
A comprehensive history of this famous Marque, from 1868, when it started out making bicycles, up to the take-over of the company by Rootes in 1932. The book details the earliest machines of the Bicycle Craze of the 1870's through powered 2 and 3 wheeled creations to the prestige Motor Cars of the 20's & early 30's. The first Humber car was produced in 1898 under the guidance of Thomas Humber and was a three-wheeled tricar with the first conventional four-wheeled car appearing in 1901. The company had factories in Beeston near Nottingham and Coventry. The Beeston factory produced a more expensive range known as Beeston-Humbers but the factory closed in 1908 after financial problems. Before the First World War a wide range of models were produced from the 600 cc Humberette to several six-cylinder 6-litre models. In 1913 Humber was the second largest manufacturer of cars in the United Kingdom. It also covers the aircraft built up to & for WW1. Humber produced a number of aircraft and aero-engines in the years before the First World War. In 1909 the company signed a contract to build 40 copies of the Bleriot XI monoplane, powered by their own three-cylinder engine, and four aircraft were exhibited at the Aero Show at Olympia in 1910. The BR1 and BR2 Rotary aero engines were wartime designs by W.O. Bentley for Humber and were used in the Sopwith F.1 Camel and 7F.1 Snipe; Nieuport B.N.1; Vickers F.B.26A Vampire II. and others into the 1920s. The Humber Motor Works in Coventry survived the wars—a rare thing as the majority of the city was destroyed in the November 1940 air raids. Period Photos. 178 pages.
Out of print
Published 1989
Price: £
ISBN: #978-0862995966
