[BITList] Fwd: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] The first wheels roll into India

[John Feltham]

The first wheels roll into India

BOOK EXTRACT

Moving India on Wheels: The Story of Ashok Leyland
Authors: S Muthiah & K N Gopalan
Publisher: Ashok Leyland Ltd

Snipped from
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/the-first-wheels-roll-into-india/00/03/343997/
December 23, 2008

The fascinating story of the beginning of motoring in the country.

The first wheel may have been used for transport about 4,000
years ago in India, it is said, but it was the 18th century before
the first horseless carriage actually hit the roads.

Both steam and gasoline driven cars were well developed before
they made their appearance in India. It was in 1897 that a resident
of Calcutta brought the first car to India. The next year, there were
four cars in Bombay, one of them owned by Jamshedji Tata and
the other three also by Parsis. That same year, the first pneumatic
tyres arrived in Bombay, with Dunlop opening an office in the city.

Madras, it would appear, lagged behind, though it is related that
a car was seen on Mount Road on a brief outing in 1894. If that
unconfirmed appearance is ignored, the first recorded date of a
car being in regular use in Madras is 1901. The car was owned
by A J Yorke, a director of Parry& Co. He drove it daily from
Ben's Gardens, Adyar, to Parry's in 'Black Town'. The South's
first registered car, MC-1, belonged to Francis Spring, at that
time Secretary of the Madras Railway Board and, in 1904, to
become the Chairman of the Madras Port Trust and 'father' of
the Madras Harbour.

The first Indian-owned car in Madras, MC-3, was building contractor
T Namberumal Chetty's. Before long, several Madras firms became
agents for British, Continental and American motor car manufacturers.
The pioneer was Addison & Co. Addison's, who had pioneered the
cycle industry in Madras, is variously mentioned as having imported
petrol driven cars from 1901 or 1904, but a date closer to the former
is likely. It also pioneered the import of motor cycles. In 1903, Samuel
John Green of Simpson & Co, Madras, built India's first steam car
and caused a sensation on the roads of the city. The Madras Mail
hailed its appearance as the beginning of "a new industry for Madras."

Two years later, Simpson's built the first steam bus. It ran between
Bezwada (Vijayawada) and Masulipatam (Machilipatnam) in what
was possibly the first motor bus service in the country. A future in
building steam-powered vehicles was, however, not envisaged by
Simpson's who felt that its core business, carriage building, and,
ergo, body-building should be exploited. In 1904, when it was
experimenting with steam cars, it built a body on a Turner-Miesse
chassis and supplied it to Gwalior, where it became the first
motorised vehicle used in India for postal and passenger service.
In 1907, it built the first Public Service Vehicle for a customer
from Salem District, a 16-passenger body fitted to along wheel
based 20/32 hp Darracq chassis.

It was not till four years later, however, that a real beginning on
Public Service Vehicles was made. A 22-seater body on a 2-ton
Halley chassis was supplied in 1911, again to the Salem District.
And this was followed the same year by a passenger-cum-goods
body for the Travencore Commercial Company. In 1912 it built a
motor ambulance for a local institution. Simultaneously, Simpson's
body-building activity for private owners of vehicles centred on
building ornate, carriage-style bodies on car chassis. As English
-made car bodies were expensive, only chassis were usually
imported and locally-made bodies of varied designs were fitted
on them.  [snip]
=================

ooroo

If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.

Anon.



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