Rolls-Royce Limited

Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his cranes, they quickly developed a reputation for superior engineering by manufacturing luxury cars. The business was incorporated as "Rolls-Royce Limited" in 1906, and a new factory in Derby was opened in 1908. The First World War brought the company into manufacturing aero-engines. Joint development of jet engines began in 1940, and they entered production in 1944. Rolls-Royce has since built an enduring reputation for the development and manufacturing of engines for military and commercial aircraft.

In the late 1960s, Rolls-Royce was adversely affected by the mismanaged development of its advanced RB211 jet engine and consequent cost over-runs, though it ultimately proved a great success. In 1971, the owners were obliged to liquidate their business. The useful portions were bought by a new government-owned company named "Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited", which continued the core business but sold the holdings in British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) almost immediately and transferred ownership of the profitable but now financially insignificant car division to Rolls-Royce Motors Holdings Limited, which it sold to Vickers in 1980. Rolls-Royce obtained consent to drop the '1971' distinction from its company name in 1977, at which point it became known once again as "Rolls-Royce Limited".

The Rolls-Royce business remained nationalised until 1987 when, after having renamed the company to "Rolls-Royce plc", the British government sold it to the public in a share offering. Rolls-Royce plc still owns and operates Rolls-Royce's principal business, although, since 2003, it is technically a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, a listed holding company.

Henry Royce started an electrical and mechanical business in Manchester in 1884. He was first introduced to motor cars via a small De Dion-Bouton four-wheeler that had been purchased for him by business partner Ernest Claremont. In 1902 or 1903 he purchased a 1901 model two cylinder 10 hp Decauville. While Decauville had a excellent reputation at the time Royce with his fascination for all things mechanical found many things that did not meet his high standards and so he began making improvements. At the time his company was suffering from the effects of a decline in trade due to a downturn in the economy and competition from other manufacturers which had depressed prices. To investigate whether the company should diversify into the manufacture of motor cars Royce produced three examples of his own 10 hp experimental design.

Testing of the first engine on a dynamo began on 16 September 1903. The first assembled car was completed by 1 April 1904 and taken by Royce for a 30 miles (48 km) drive to his home in Knutsford and back. A week later it was dispatched to coachbuilder to have a body fitted. The other two cars were completed and fitted with bodies soon after. After initially being assigned the first car Claremont was given the second car to use. Initially he often had a horse drawn Hanson cab follow behind in case the car failed to proceed. The third car was sold to one of the other company fellow directors, Henry Edmunds. Edmunds was a friend of Charles Rolls who was proprietor of an early motor car dealership, C.S. Rolls & Co. in Fulham selling imported models. Edmunds showed Rolls his car and arranged for a meeting between Rolls and Royce at the newly opened Midland Hotel, Manchester, on 4 May 1904.

In spite of his preference for three- or four-cylinder cars, Rolls was impressed with the Royce 10, and in a subsequent agreement on 23 December 1904 agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. There would be four models:

All would be badged as Rolls-Royces and be sold exclusively by Rolls in framed chassis form for the customer to arrange his own body supplier, with London coachbuilder Barker & Co. recommended. From its establishment Rolls-Royce didn’t produce complete cars until the introduction of the Silver Dawn in 1949. Instead, they produced a framed chassis with engine, gearbox and transmission, to which a body was fitted by a variety of coachbuilding companies, including Barker & Co., Hooper, H. J. Mulliner & Co., Park Ward and James Young.

The first Rolls-Royce cars, the 10 hp, 15 hp, 20 hp as well as the engine for the 30 hp were unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904. As the new three-cylinder 15 hp engine was not ready the chassis was incomplete. The 10 hp was similar to the earlier Royce car, but with further design and mechanical improvements.