CHAPTER XX
Immediately after the war efforts were made by the Sopwith Aviation and Engineering Company to turn out domestic utensils from aluminium. Mr. Sigrist tells the tale of Harry walking into his office one morning after discovering the new object the firm was to produce, and sitting down, said: “Well, Fred, what do you think of it! Saucepans! Where do I come in? I never thought I should live to find myself in a job that Mrs. Beeton could do better than I.”
I believe a good many saucepans were made, which, according to a contributor to a flying paper, “involved strenuous work on the firm’s chief tester,” and also a certain wooden toy was turned out in good numbers; but the firm commenced real post-war work in the production of the A.B.C. motor-bicycle.
The company continued with the production of this cycle for some time, but was eventually unable to weather the slump of 1920, and in the September of that year the Sopwith Aviation and Engineering Company closed down.
In November a new company was founded by Messrs. Sopwith and Sigrist and Harry, known as the H. G. Hawker Engineering Company, which started in the production of a 2-stroke motor-cycle and also special aluminium body-work. After the appearance of Harry’s streamlined A.C. a considerable demand for like racing bodies appeared, until most of the best known racing light cars became furnished with Hawker streamline bodies.
In the meantime Harry had been working hard at every spare moment on his A.C., the acquisition of which is very interesting. One day in the summer Harry went for a short run with one of the directors of Messrs. A.C. in a new model fitted with an overhead valve engine. It was purely an experimental production, and after the run Harry wanted to see the drawings. He immediately saw possibilities as a racing car, and then and there wanted to buy it. He did buy it, and then followed months of real hard work, bringing in its wake alternate successes and disappointments. From the moment he brought the car home there was little rest for all concerned with it, his own energy and enthusiasm being enormous. The engine was hurried into a standard sports chassis and headed for Brooklands in a remarkably short space of time, to be back again for modification almost as quickly. Many dark days followed. Troubles that would have broken the heart of some men followed in what seemed like endless succession. In one day he had six gaskets “blow” before he found the right means and material to withstand the tremendous pressures involved. It does not take much experience to know what this means in terms of work, as the gaskets were all hand made, and the “head,” complete with pipe systems, connections, etc., had to come off each time.
This trouble over, and a set of pistons with decidedly ambitious tops having been designed and fitted, he proceeded to lap at what were then remarkable speeds indeed, and in spite of the fact that the very necessary parts frequently fell either in or out of the engine, he never lost faith in it. I remember, towing him home for it seemed the hundredth time, saying with a lack of his optimistic patience: “Let’s burn the thing and buy a motor-car!” but his cheery reply was: “Never mind, we’re really beginning to go now!” and proceeded to take the motor down prior to an all-night sitting. Coffee and cakes figured at intervals in these “all-night jobs,” and I expect the neighbours wondered if he ever slept.
On one occasion he walked into the office of Mr. Weller, the designer of the engine, at the A.C. Works and, laying a mutilated mass of metal down on the desk, exclaimed: “Here you are. How’s this for an A.C. con.-rod? How soon can I have another?” One had to be produced, and off down to the track again. He fitted stiffer valve-springs and reconsidered the “cam contours,” with the result that the speed kept creeping up and curious rumours regarding some kind of forced induction floated round the paddock, much to his amusement.