Fredrick Henry Royce
By Illa Vij

IN 1940, when the German bombers and fighters attacked Britain, the British fighters — Hurricane and Spitfire — were the powers behind the failure of their attack. No matter what tactics Hitler applied, Britain could not be invaded. The engines which powered the Spitfire and the Hurricane were the Rolls Royce Merlin engines, designed and built by Fredrick Henry Royce.

Fredrick was born in 1863, in the village of Alwalton, near Peterborough. Fredrick lost his father, who was a miller, at the age of nine. After his father’s death, the family moved to London where Fredrick sold newspapers. Later he worked as a telegraph messenger. He was interested in engineering, so his aunt sent him to Peterborough where he wanted to be apprenticed to the Great Northern Railway.

A year later, Fredrick lost his aunt. Since no funds were available, the apprenticeship came to an end. He did not return to London but walked down to Leeds, where he got a job with a tool-making firm.

Since Fredrick wanted to pursue his studies in electricity, he left his job and went back to his mother. There he managed to get a job with Electric Light and Power Company. He made the best use of all resources available at the company. The work interested him, he attended night classes to study a variety of subjects which included electrical engineering, a new subject at that time. Fredrick was destined to rise through tough circumstances. The subsidiary firm that he worked for failed and he was once again jobless. He had always desired to set up his own firm. By sheer luck, he met A.E. Claremont who was ready to put £ 50 in the electrical business Fredrick was planning. Soon F.H. Royce and Co. were in business, in Manchester. This was in the year 1884. The two partners lived over the factory. They began making simple electrical devices like bells and buzzers, and then moved on to making small dynamos. Royce produced improved dynamos and soon his company started supplying them to cotton mills, factories and shipyards. Royce and Claremont now had enough money to get married. When they settled back in business after their respective weddings, the company’s name was changed to Royce Limited. The dynamos that were in production became much larger and then electric cranes came into production. Cheaper electric cranes gave him a tough competition but Royce never compromised on quality and hence could not lower the prices. He bought a second hand French Decauville car and decided to improve it. He brought it down to pieces and put it back together, which made it move faster. He then decided to make a new car. He built a two-cylinder vertical water-cooled engine of ten horsepower with overhead valves. The car ran almost silently, and silent running became the main feature of all his subsequent models.

Fredrick met Charles Rolls, a wealthy man, enthusiastic to try out new things. He was fascinated by the Royce car. He was already running his own company which sold cars under the name of C.S. Rolls and Co. His fascination for the Royce car made him unite his own company with Royce’s and the Rolls-Royce company was launched. The company did very well and Silver Ghost car caused a sensation. The Manchester factory became too small for the expanding work, so the factory was moved to Derby. Fredrick went into the minutest details. He even invented new tools that would be used in the factory. When war broke out in 1914, army orders came in for cars and chassis to be used for scout cars, armoured cars and staff cars. Royce also worked on aircraft engines. In 1915, his factory brought out the Eagle aero engine. Before that the Hawk had come.

In 1920, the economic conditions of the world demanded cheaper cars. A 20 h.p. car was brought out in 1920.

And in 1925, a larger car named Phantom came. Then came The Phantom II in 1929 and in 1935, two years after Royce’s death, came his last design The Phantom III.

In 1930, Royce was made baronet. The last few years of his life he spent in developing the Merlin engine that proved to be extremely useful to Britain in war. Fredrick Royce died on April 12, 1933. Ever since Rolls Royce engines have been on passenger airliners, on bombers and fighters. Carved in a stone mantlepiece of his house is a Latin inscription which when translated reads: "Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble". During his life his command had been "Test to destruction" — so adamant and particular was he to achieve perfection.