In Britain Herbert Austin, works manager of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Co, built the first of the Wolseley cars in 1896.
Britain had been slow to adopt the concept of the motor car, partly because of the strong lobby from the railways and partly because legislation until 1896 had limited the speed of powered vehicles to 4mph in the countryside and 2mph in towns. In 1896 the limit was raised to 14mph and in 1903 to 20mph.
Frederick Henry Royce was born in 1863.
His father’s milling business failed and he died when Frederick was nine.
After only a year in school he gained an apprenticeship in the engineering sector and gained expertise in the embryonic electricity field, eventually entering into a partnership with Ernest Cleremont in 1884 to make electrical fittings.