Alfred Angas Scott

[2] Born in Manningham, a mill town just north of Bradford in 1875,[1] Alfred Scott's family moved to Scotland and he went to school at Melrose on the Scottish border near Selkirk.

Much of Scott's early experimental work was on the development of two-stroke marine engines which he would test by running them for long periods at full power on a water brake.

This included the invention of a pawl and ratchet starter was used which later became part of a patent application for a kickstarter on almost all motorcycles to follow.

[4] Alfred Scott's first motorcycle was developed from his own 2 horsepower (1.5 kW) twin-cylinder engine design which he hand built and fitted to the steering head of a bicycle.

[4] He developed this prototype into a motorcycle and six were produced under contract by friends with a car company called Jowett in Bradford.