ABSTRACT

The growth of Coventry's motor industry in the years before the First World War was rapid, if somewhat uneven. Maudslay appears to have been responsible for most of the design work of the early Standard vehicles which, to begin with, were sold mainly to family and friends. Perhaps the best known of the Coventry component firms before the First World War was the engine-makers, White and Poppe of Lockhurst Lane. Soon after its formation in 1899 the partnership began making shell fuses for use in the Boer War and for a time work on engines was largely forgotten. Given the importance of the firm's later contribution to the development of petrol driven engines it is possible that this particular distraction may have been of some significance in retarding the general growth of Coventry's motor industry.