9781422269671

Railway in 1878 at the age of 15. The learning opportunity and job afforded him his first formal schooling since he completed the first grade. At the age of 18, Henry Royce, as he was known, landed a job as a toolmaker for a Leeds firm. He learned while working, taking night classes. He developed an interest in electricity and its workings, which led him to return to London to take a job with Electric Light and Power Company. Assigned to the Liverpool office, Royce worked on street and theater lighting, working his way up to the position of chief electrical engineer by 1882. Royce saved his earnings, and when the company for which he worked went out of business in 1884, he responded by opening his own business, F.H. Royce & Company in Manchester, England. He used £20 of his savings, which in 2023 money would be £3,179.67 or $3,465.52, and took on a partner, Ernest Claremont, who fronted £50 (£7,949.18 or $8,663.81 in today’s terms). The pair began making lamp filaments and lamp holders, but their biggest hit became their electric doorbell kit. Its success let them expand their product line to include generators and electric cranes. Rather than reinvent the wheel, so to speak, Royce chose to use his engineering knowledge to improve other people’s designs. By doing so, the company soon earned the reputation of offering the highest-quality generators and cranes available. As automobiles entered the roads of England, Royce grew enamored with them. He learned to drive and purchased a Decauville and a De Dion. Neither suited his high standards, so he tinkered with them, retooled them, and improved on their design. Still not satisfied, the self-made businessman embarked on his own automotive design project, rebranding his existing partnership to Royce Ltd. in 1899. The new firm created a prototype vehicle on April 1, 1904, then two more of its kind. Henry Edmunds, an avid automotive fan, established the Henry Edmunds Hill-Climbing Trophy in 1897, one of the first auto racing

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