Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies

Infobox Defunct company
company_name = Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies Ltd
company_
slogan =
company_type = Ltd
fate = Taken over
Predecessor = Ransomes
successor = Textron Inc.
foundation = 1789
defunct = 1998
location = Ipswich, England
industry = Agricultural engineers,
Manufacturing
products = Ploughs, Traction engines, Lawn mowers
key_people =
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =

Ransomes, Sims and Jeffries Engineers of Ipswich were a major British agricultural machinery maker. Their most famous products were traction engines, ploughs, lawn mowers and other tilling equipment.

History

The company was founded, as Ransomes, in 1789 by Robert Ransome, an ironfounder in Norwich before moving to Ipswich where he started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St Margaret's Ditches in Ipswich, with capital of £200 and one employee. As a result of a mishap in his foundry, a broken mould caused molten metal to come into contact with cold metal, making the metal surface extremely hard - chilled casting - which he advertised as 'self sharpening' ploughs, and received patents for his discovery. [ [http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/History/Ransomes/Ransomes.htm Kenneth J Goward] ]

Ransomes produced the 'Automaton' hand-powered lawn mower in 1867. [ [http://www.oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/moms/mom65-rsjauto01.htm THE OLD LAWNMOWER CLUB] ]

Ransomes & Rapier split

In 1869 four engineers, J.A. Ransome, R.J. Ransome, R.C. Rapier and A.A. Bennett, left the company (by then Ransomes, Sims & Head) by agreement, to establish a new company, Ransomes & Rapier, on a site on the River Orwell, to continue the business of railway equipment and other heavy works.Ransomes and Rapier Merged with Newton, Chambers & Company of Sheffields NCK excavator division to form NCK-Rapier who built walking draglines used in opencast mining. Ramsomes and Rapier built the model W1400 walking dragline called Sundew for Stewarts & Lloyds Iron ore mine in Rutland, England. At the time it was built in 1951, it was the largest in the world, weighing in at 1880 tons. [Colossal Earthmovers, by Keith Haddock, ISBN 0-7603-0771-7] Ransomes & Rapier sold the right to their walking dragline technology and patents to Bucyrus International in 1988.

Lawn Mowers

In 1902 Ransomes produced the first commercially available powered lawn mower, driven by an internal combustion gasoline engine.

In the First World War, they manufactured aeroplanes: 350 Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2 fighters.

Recent History

In 1989 the whole of the agricultural implement business was sold to Electrolux and merged with their subsidiary Overum.

This left Ransomes solely as a manufacturer of lawn mowers, with the Westwood and Mountfield mower brands. The company accepted a take-over offer from Textron Inc., USA, and their independent existence ended early in 1998.

The history of company is the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, Suffolk and they are also represented in Ipswich Transport Museum.

ee also

* Sir Richard Rapier Stokes (1897–1957) – who became Chairman and Managing Director of Ransomes & Rapier.

References

External links

* [http://www.mst-pis.co.uk/flegg.htm Gallery of Ransomes Lawn Mowers]

Bibliography

*"Ransomes Sims & Jefferies: Agricultural Engineers" - Brian Bell, Old Pond Publishing Ltd (2001), ISBN-10: 1903366151