Vickers Limited

Foundry

Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor & Sanderson, and Vickers' brother William owned a steel rolling operation. Edward's investments in the railway industry allowed him to gain control of the company, based at Millsands near Sheffield, and known as Naylor Vickers and Company. It began life making steel castings and quickly became known for casting church bells. In 1854 Vickers' sons Thomas and Albert joined the business. In 1863 the company moved to a new site in Sheffield on the River Don in Brightside. The company went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons & Company and gradually acquired more businesses, branching out into various sectors.

Special steels and armaments

In 1868 Vickers began to manufacture marine shafts; in 1872 they began casting marine propellers and in 1882 they set up a forging press. Vickers produced their first armour plate in 1888 and their first artillery piece in 1890.

Ships

The company bought out the Barrow-in-Furness shipbuilder The Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1897, acquiring its subsidiary the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns And Ammunitions Company at the same time, to become Vickers, Sons & Maxim. When Sir Hiram Maxim retired in 1911 the name of the firm became Vickers Ltd. The yard at Barrow became the "Naval Construction Yard". With these acquisitions, Vickers could now produce a complete selection of products, from ships and marine fittings to armour plate and a suite of ordnance. In 1901 the Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, was launched at the Naval Construction Yard. In 1902 Vickers took a half share in the Clyde shipyard John Brown & Company.

Cars

Further diversification occurred in 1901 with the purchase of Herbert Austin's embryonic car manufacturing plans, and Austin himself, from The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company. The new business was incorporated and named The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company and works were purchased at Adderley Park, Birmingham.

Torpedoes

In 1911 a controlling interest was acquired in Whitehead & Company, a torpedo manufacturer based in Fiume, Croatia and at Portland Harbour, Dorset.

Aircraft

In 1911, the company name was changed to Vickers Limited and expanded its operations into aircraft manufacture by the formation of Vickers Ltd (Aviation Department).

Vickers brand aircraft were produced from 1911 to 1965, when BAC ended use of the name.

Electrical engineering

In 1919, the British Westinghouse electrical company was taken over as the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company, its name often shortened to Metrovick. At the same time Vickers gained Metropolitan's railway interests. Wolseley, now Wolseley Motors, was sold to William Morris in 1926 and he retained it as his personal property.

Armaments

Vickers manufactured and sold the Maxim machine gun, forming a partnership with Hiram Maxim, its inventor. They later took over the company and improved the design as the Vickers machine gun, which was the last major design Hiram Maxim himself worked on. It became the standard machine gun of the British Empire and Commonwealth, serving for some 50 years in the British Army. Vickers produced the machine gun in dozens of cartridge sizes and sold it all over the world. They also scaled it up to larger calibres, particularly for the Royal Navy as the 0.5 inch model.

Vickers & Maxim also introduced one of the first cannon to have an hydraulic recoil absorbing mechanism: in 1900 they produced a small 75 mm cannon that used two cylinders mounted alongside the barrel.

Vickers was involved in the production of numerous firearms. The British tested John Pedersen's design for a semi-automatic rifle between World War I and World War II. Vickers made a British version of the rifle, and their version of the Pedersen rifle usually goes by the name "Vickers Pedersen Rifle". The company was also involved in the manufacture of 6,000–10,000 (6181 is often quoted) Luger pistols in 1922–24. These 1906 pattern pistols were in 9 mm calibre and part of a contract for the Dutch military. The Lugers are identifiable by the inscription "Vickers Ltd" on the forward toggle link.

In the interwar period Vickers worked on several tank designs. Medium Mark I and Mark II were adopted by the British Army. The Vickers 6-ton tank was the most successful, being exported or built by other nations under licence. The Vickers A1E1 Independent tank design was never put into production but credited with influencing other nations. During the Second World War, Vickers built large guns and tanks; the Valentine tank was a design that they had developed privately.