Stuart Turner (company)
By 1907 more space was needed so premises were rented at Market Place in the centre of Henley-On-Thames, where the company remained for many years.
The key part manufactured by Stuart was the 2-port single cylinder 2-stroke engine rated at 2 1/2 HP (71 x 75.5mm bore and stroke giving 299cc).
[4] In 1912 and 1913 they marketed the Stuart Stellar (some early references use 'Stella') motorcycle,[5] this used an in-line two-cylinder water-cooled two-stroke engine complete with shaft drive.
This would be comparable with the Scott motorcycle of the time which had a transverse water cooled two-stroke twin-cylinder engine of 532 cc.
The engine has a one-piece cylinder and head with a rear-facing spark plug, and was of 162 cc, rated at 1.5 HP.
Ayling, rode the Dayton bikes in motorcycle endurance events run by the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU), such as the six days trial.
[14] The 1911 patent diagrams show the current 2-stroke to be '2-port', i.e. with the inlet being by non-return valve into the transfer port, with ball races for the main bearings and deflector type piston.
The inlet non-return valve is the subject of another Stuart Turner patent in 1911, naming Ernest Masters as co-applicant.
[15] In 1914, the company manufactured a generating plant for the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance.
[16] Shortly after the war, Stuart Turner introduced the P3 single-cylinder 2-stroke engine, designed by Alec Plint to drive lighting and pumping plants.
The P4 superseded the P3 in 1928, and in 1930 the marine variant was introduced, and was sold in considerable number for fitment in small yachts and other pleasure boats.
For the marine engines, Stuart Turner produced a reversing gearbox and optional final drive reduction gear; everything else, up to and including the screw propeller, was also available.
[citation needed] Between 1932 and 1935, Stuart Turner produced the small (1/2 HP) type N engine, which had an overhung crank.
From 1935, Stuart Turner was also the United Kingdom agent for the American 'Brown Junior' 10 cc engine[17] for which they developed an aluminium (elektron) airscrew.
[citation needed] A variety of dynamos were sold over the years allowing them to be matched to the power of the model engine.
There was a version of the Henley steamboat powered by a Stuart Turner electric motor; this boat was sold as the 'Magician'.
[18] In 1923 the War Office invited Stuart Turner (and other firms) to design a very light air-cooled engine and generator for wireless.
The whole plant must not weigh more than 84 lb, it had to run in any temperature from freezing to 60 °C; it must not be affected by being carried upside down or in any position; it must govern within 5% and there were various other conditions.
This was not a model but a fully enclosed single-cylinder commercial power unit of 1 to 1.5 HP designed to drive generators or fans or pumps.
[24] The company produced a number of products for the military during World War II (1939–45), including combined boiler, steam engine and generator plants, designed to be used by resistance fighters or troops operating covertly behind enemy lines to power radio transmitters.
[26][27] Stuart Turner also produced many internal combustion generators with uses such as charging aircraft batteries and providing dummy runway lights on fake airfields.
[29] These were a common fitment in vessels made by the Cornish Crabbers boat-building company in the late 1970s and probably into the early 1980s, one 1981 example being listed for sale with an 11 hp Stuart Solé engine.
Stuart Turner Ltd continued making domestic water pumps staying at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England.
