Learn how its founders created Rolls-Royce from scratch, one of the few brands that have become part of the popular imagination for generations ...
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It happened that way for sure. Probably a fourteen-year-old uniformed boy climbs the four steps to the entrance of the mansion, adjusts his jacket, and rings the bell. Footsteps sound, he becomes very serious and firm, they open him up and deliver a lot of telegrams. In the background you can hear the cries of a newborn, the letters are congratulations from family and friends: we are in August 1877 and a few days ago Charles Rolls, third son of Baron Llangattock, came into the world, there is respect. As we can see, he was born into a wealthy family but as he grows up,Charles will show year after year that he is not one of those who get comfortable and his proverbial restlessness will lead him to get involved in multiple activities that allow him to enjoy his passion: speed.
On the contrary, the Royce family was anything but wealthy: Henry was born in 1863 and when he was only nine years old his father dies and he has to go out to earn a living selling newspapers and… delivering telegrams. Only thanks to the financial support of an aunt, at fifteen he managed to become an apprentice on the railway, but after a few months the money ran out and he went to Liverpool. There, based on diligence and putting in hours, he ended up being the chief engineer of the company that installs the electric light in the city and when it went bankrupt he decided to go to Manchester, where in 1884 he founded a small workshop where he successfully manufactured electric bells first and then dynamos and electric cranes.And one fine day he begins to be interested in automobiles… So as a project for afternoons and weekends, Royce takes two cars of the time and breaks them down and then replaces parts with his own designs, although he puts so much effort that he ends up building a car designed almost entirely by himself, of which he makes three prototypes. One of them is acquired by a manager of the company, Henry Edmunds, who enthusiastically shows it to a friend who (this sounds familiar to us) had a dealership in London. At that time, Charles Rolls was looking for a British brand to put in his window and was dazzled by Royce's car, so in May 1904 Edmunds introduced the two entrepreneurs,who came to an agreement without much difficulty: the car would go to taking the names of both, who together sounded (and sound) very harmonious, Rolls would contribute the capital and its commercial experience and Royce would be the chief engineer. The factory was put in Derby. In December of the same year, the first Rolls-Royce, the 10hp, was already presented at the Paris Motor Show. Even then, the brand only manufactured the frame and the engine, the bodywork had to be ordered separately by the customer, although it was recommended to the Barker company. So far we have seen that Royce was a hardworking guy, but we have fallen short ... his obsession with work and perfection went much further: each and every piece had to be perfect, light and durable. Weekends?He always wondered why someone would prefer to spend it with family or friends rather than advance work in the office. Religion? As an engineer, you do not have time to go to church.
They even say that at any moment he could take the broom from a worker and teach him how to properly clean the floor. And so, as a result of this obsession, in 1906 the Rolls-Royce 40 / 50hp was launched, silent, indestructible ... and almost 300 kilos lighter than an equivalent Packard of the time and whose mechanics are considered even more than a hundred. . . . years later as one of the most perfect of all time. Fulfilling their part of the agreement, Rolls dedicated themselves to the promotion of the car, which thanks to them and its technical and aesthetic qualities soon gained great fame and that famous nickname by Autocar magazine as "best car in the world".The awards and orders rained down at this time, but the commercial activity did not fill up Rolls, who, bored with balloon ascents, discovered the other great novelty of the time: motor aviation. Yes, Rolls was a true pioneer and in 1910 he became the first man to cross the English Channel doing the round trip non-stop aboard an airplane designed by the Wright brothers, but a month later in a Rolls exhibition it would break another record: that of the first Briton to die in a plane crash. Shortly before, Rolls had negotiated with his partner and the rest of the directors an agreement that freed him from working daily at the company. He was 32 years old.
Working without rest
Royce continued working (life goes on ...) but the usual frenetic pace ended up taking its toll and in 1912 he suffered a serious collapse from exhaustion that took him to the operating room and, according to doctors, it would take him to the grave in a few months. So Claude Johnson, the company's chief commercial officer (and for many the "script" at Rolls-Royce) took it on a long journey. At the end of the tour it was agreed that Royce would live combined stays in his two houses in England with a new one that he had built in the south of France with an adjacent building to accommodate three assistant designers, two secretaries, an English butler. . . .and a driver ... apparently An eccentricity, but his work was great and indispensable for the company and the risk of enormous relapse, if he returned to the factory. And the Great War came. As is known, during the conflict many car manufacturers were forced to design aircraft engines or produce them under license. In his case, Henry Royce immediately proposed his own designs, "of course" much better than the existing ones, to the point that in the First World War most of the British Royal Air Force biplanes carried Rolls-Royce engines. This gave enormous benefits to the company, which as a result would not suffer as much from the postwar sales decline.
The Interwar Period
However, they did not want to give up the car business either and in 1922 a smaller model than the Silver Ghost was launched, which they called "Twenty" and three years later they came up again and launched the Phantom, in full optimism of the "Roaring Twenties", which would not last ... The great depression of the 1930s caught Rolls-Royce in perfect shape, to such an extent that it did not miss the opportunity to buy its main competitor in the islands: the Bentley brand that , like so many other luxury car companies, was in the market. bankruptcy drowned out by debts. In reality what they did was to liquidate everything and keep the brand, so that in 1933 the production of a new Bentley based on a Rolls but with a more powerful engine began in Derby.Since then and for decades the Bentleys would be mere versions of Rolls-Royce, often modifying only the grille and emblems. Although Henry Royce literally dedicated his last breath to this first model ... given the greater power of its engine, Royce thought the new Bentley deserved to have shock absorbers with adjustable stiffness and the night before he died he still had the strength and determination. to get out of bed, make a basic design on the back of an envelope and give it to your housekeeper to deliver "to the boys at the factory." He passed away the next day. Genius and figure.Despite the death of its founders, it is known to all that the company continued, and in what way… producing on the one hand cars of exceptional quality for the rich and famous and on the other great aviation engines. Which unfortunately would have the opportunity to more than prove their worth ... yes, the Second World War is coming. Hurricane, Spitfire, Mosquito, Lancaster ... the "aviators" already know what we are talking about: all these military aircraft mounted the latest engine designed by Henry Royce, the V12 "Merlin", including the American Mustang, which mounted one manufactured under license by Packard.
Rolls-Royce: The Modern Era
After another conflict ended, another postwar period arrived and again the oven of the world economy was not for the buns of luxury cars, so from 1951 Rolls-Royce began what would be a lucrative business of design and production. of diesel engines for automobiles, trains, ships, factories ... a business that would grow for decades until its sale to Perkins in 1984. More novelties in these years would be the change of headquarters from Derby to Crewe, the design and construction of its own bodies after the acquisition of the Park Ward and HJ Mulliner bodybuilders and the development of jet engines, which will replace propeller engines in a short time., but whose sophistication and costs almost spelled the end of the company ... It was in the early 1970s that fierce competition and huge development costs in the aircraft industry were compounded by blatant management incompetence and Rolls-Royce had to declare bankruptcy. The group supplied engines to dozens of airlines and armies around the world, so the British government prevented its fall, assumed control and proceeded to liquidate everything salable in exchange for cash, nationalizing what was left and creating two independent companies. The aeronautical business was privatized in 1987 and today it continues to supply engines to half the world.
Watch the detailed video below: Rolls-Royce History
And the automobile division? Well, it was only a small part of the group, barely 10% of its 80,000 workers, but when the crisis hit it was perfectly profitable, so the business went ahead as a state company and in 1980 it was integrated into the also public Vickers , which in 1998 he sold it to Volkswagen, although it ended up in the hands of BMW. .. a financial soap opera that someday someone will write a movie script for, and which demonstrates the value that this brand would achieve. An achievement that the two formidable entrepreneurs could never have imagined.
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