Charles Knight & The Sleeve Valve

Charles Yale Knight (1868 – 1940) was an American printer. He owned a Knox car which had a very noisy valve mechanism. So he decided to work on valve mechanism to reduce the noise. Nosiy engine was due to the operation of poppet valves and Knight decided to work on a new and innovative valve

Simpson

A M Simpson ( – ) was Scottish coach builder. He reached India (Madras) in 1840 and set up manufacturing of saddles, harness and boots. He then expanded to building coaches and palanquins. Many royalties from India and England were his customers. In 1856, when the first railway started, he built coaches for it. Prince

Nils Bohlin / 3-point seat belt

Nils Bohlin (1920-2002) was a Swedish Engineer working with SAAB on ejection seats for aircrafts. In 1958, he joined Volvo as a safety engineer and worked on improving the safety of car passengers. In 1959 he invented and patented the 3-point safety belt. Volvo, as a gesture, released the patent to public use without royalty

Sterling Elliot

Sterling Elliot (1852-1922) was a self-made American inventor. He was involved in so many inventions that he was applauded by Thomas Edison also. Elliot was working on bi-cycles as well as 4 wheeled vehicles made by attaching 2 bi-cycles side by side. One of the problems in this design was the pivoted front axle where

Assar Gabrielsson (VOLVO)

Assar Gabrielsson (1876-1953) was a sales manager at the bearing manufacturer, SKF. In 1922, looking at the Automobile industry, he proposed that SKF gets in to design and manufacture of cars. The proposal was rejected by board. Further negotiations led to a skunk project in which SKF would invest only if a proof of concept

Sven Wingqvist (SKF)

Sven Wingqvist (1876 – 1953), a Swedish, was working in a textile factory. The machinery in the factory used to breakdown frequently due to bearing failures because of slight misalignment in the shafts. These were precision ball bearings supplied from Germany. Wingqvist worked on solving this issue and invented the self-aligning double row ball bearing

Ercole Marelli

Ercole Marelli (1867-1922), an Italian, founded his company in 1891. The company, Soceita Anonima Ercole Marelli (SAEM), manufactured electrical appliances, batteries and other equipments. 1915, Marelli perfected the design of magnetos for automobiles and patented it. In 1919, FIAT and SAEM merged as equal partners to form Magenti Marelli, the name Magneti possibly coming from

Charles Vandervell (CAV)

Charles Antony Vandervell (1871-1955) was British businessman involved in the manufacture of electrical equipment for automobiles and railways. In 1892, he founded C A Vandervell and Co to manufacture batteries for automobiles. He quickly grabbed huge chunk of the Automotive business by expanding in to the manufacture of magnetos, dynamo, lighting systems, switches, starters and

Harry Bundy

Harry Warren Bundy (-), was an American mechanic. In 1922, he founded Harry Bundy and Company. Bundy made double walled steel tubes soldered along the seam, capable of carrying high pressure fluids. He became one of the biggest supplier to Ford, where assembly line workers received straight tubes and bent it as per the shape

Rudolph Ackermann

Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) was German coach builder. He moved to England to continue his coach building business. He also started a printing press. Ackermann patented a steering geometry design which allowed the front wheels to turn at different angles so that the wheels do not slip and slide while taking turns. This came to be