Garrard & Blumfield

Garrard & Blumfield
Company type	Private
Industry	Electric vehicle manufacturing
Founded	1894
Founder	C. R. Garrard, T. W. Blumfield
Defunct	1896
Fate	Merged into The Great Horseless Carriage Company
Headquarters	Coventry, England
Products	Electric cars

The Garrard & Blumfield, also known as Blumfield & Garrard, was an English manufacturer of electric cars operating between 1894 and 1896. The company was established by C. R. Garrard alongside T. W. Blumfield.

Their automobiles, produced by Taylor, Cooper and Bednell based in Coventry, were equipped with 4-inch pneumatic tires and praised for their "neat and well-fitted" design.

In 1896, Garrard & Blumfield became part of Harry J. Lawson's enterprise, The Great Horseless Carriage Company.

T. W. Blumfield

Thomas William Blumfield, born on 30 May 1869 in Southampton, had experience as a Cycle Examiner, Turner, and Fitter. By 1891, he resided in Coventry with Isaac Woolgat, who worked as a Bicycle Polisher.

In 1896, Blumfield joined Humber Limited in Coventry, where he supervised the development of the first motorcycle prototype powered by an E. J. Pennington engine.

He was married with three children and passed away in Kings Heath, Birmingham, in 1956.

Blumfield and Garrard

On 14 December 1893 and again on 31 March 1894, Blumfield and Garrard obtained a patent concerning 'Improvements in electric motor carriages'.

An electric carriage featuring 4-inch pneumatic tires, constructed for them by Taylor, Cooper and Bednell of Coventry, was described as "neat and well-fitted" in the 27 July 1894 issue of The Engineer. This vehicle was also highlighted in the June 1894 edition of The Cyclist.

Paris-Rouen 1894

In early 1894, they entered the Le Petit Journal Competition for Horseless Carriages (Concours du 'Petit Journal' Les Voitures sans Chevaux), which ran from Paris to Rouen. However, they did not take part in the qualifying events held in July.

Demise

By 1896, Blumfield and Garrard were integrated into Harry J. Lawson's 'Great Horseless Carriage Co', a company created to consolidate patent rights from various entities including Daimler, de Dion-Bouton, Bollée, Kane-Pennington, Garrard and Blumfield themselves, Serpollet systems, and the British Motor Syndicate.

C. R. Garrard

Charles Riley Garrard (1855–1955), who was born in London, held membership in the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (M.I.M.E.) and served as president of the Cycle Engineers' Institute.

In 1893, Garrard partnered with T.W. Blumfield to develop an electric carriage.

Between 1894 and 1895, he worked in Paris manufacturing motor tricycles for the Gladiator, during which time he met Adolphe Clément of Clément Cycles.

Garrard later became managing director of the Garrard Co., which produced Clément-Garrard motorised bicycles under licence from Adolphe Clément's Clément-Gladiator brand between 1902 and 1905 in Birmingham.

In early 1904, Garrard unveiled a forecar tandem tricycle powered by a 4 hp water-cooled engine paired with a three-speed gearbox and a propeller shaft final drive to the rear wheel. Although it was demonstrated at a hill-climb event, further development did not proceed.

Garrard Manufacturing Company Limited

The Garrard Manufacturing Company, located at Magneto Works on Ryland Street in Birmingham, introduced in February 1902 a complete motor assembly tailored to fit robust roadster bicycles already in use. These assemblies weighed between and , with the engine itself at , producing 1 horsepower at 1,900 revolutions per minute. Key design elements featured an external flywheel, a distinctive valve mechanism, a compression valve, and a contact maker that operated via a notched cam coupled with a trembler system.

In 1903, Garrard played a pivotal role in founding the Clément-Talbot Automobile Works situated in Ladbroke Grove, London.

By November 1905, he submitted British Patent 24650 from a location close to the Clément-Talbot facility. The following year, he held the position of works manager and was responsible for designing motor-car chassis at Clément-Talbot Limited.

Come 1922, Garrard managed two enterprises based in Sydenham SE26: Duplex and General Bearings Co., which specialized in ball bearing production, and C R Garrard Limited, a motor and general engineering firm incorporated in 1917 to oversee these activities at Winchester Works. These companies were established in response to the pre-First World War predominance of German manufacturers in the ball bearing sector.

Garrard passed away in 1955 at the age of 99.

References

David Burgess Wise, The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles