1876 Haynes & Jefferis Ariel No 2 (Starley & Hillman patent)

As well as being the first of its kind, the Ariel Ordinary is historically significant because it indirectly led to the founding of three of the most important British vehicle manufacturers.

1. William Hillman subsequently founded ‘Hillman, Herbert & Cooper’ who made ‘The Premier’, the first successful safety bicycle. Hillman later made cars.

2. Starley’s company went through various transformations, eventually evolving into D Rudge & Co, which became Rudge-Whitworth.

3. Starley’s nephew J.K Starley worked for him, and subsequently founded Rover.

The Ariel name resurfaced in the 1890s as the Ariel Cycle Co. The company that owned Ariel (Cycle Components Ltd) also possessed the patents for pneumatic tyres and westwood wheels.

This example is the 2nd pattern Ariel which appeared for a short time in 1876 and was superseded the same year by the company’s ‘Tangent’ model.

1876 Haynes & Jefferis Ariel No 2

(James Starley & William Hillman patent)

Tension wheels

48″ Front wheel

22″ Rear Wheel

Haynes & Jefferis were James Starley’s employees who took over his company in 1874 when he reverted to making sewing machines. The company’s main products were Starley patent wheels and the first Model of Ariel ordinary with a spoke tension adjustment bar. The ‘Ariel No 2’ was an interim model, with similar double spoking but without the tension adjustment bar on the wheel. Slackening or tightening was now enabled from the screw head at the spoke nipple. The No 2 was introduced in 1876 but was superseded in the same year by The Tangent which was an improved model.

This example was found by my friend Paul. Only the front end survived, but he knew it to be an Ariel No 2 because of the single remaining original spoke nipple on the hub. As it is believed to be the only surviving example of the Ariel No 2, he set about making the rest of the machine. He had already refabricated the first Ariel model with James Starley’s V section wheel so he was able to use that as a pattern for the No 2. He has done an excellent job. As you can see from my photos, the steering head with handlebar support, the front fork and the front hub are the original items, while the rest has been refabricated in the original design. Though it’s a mix of original rusty front end and a smooth finish on the backbone the two integrate well and it has the appearance of a restored original. However, though the original fork appears solid, its integrity is unknown. So though it should be OK if carefully ridden for short display rides I’m presenting it as a unique display piece rather than a regular rider.

1875 HAYNES & JEFFERIS CATALOGUE EXTRACTS

THE SINGLE SURVIVING ORIGINAL SPOKE NIPPLE

STARLEY ARIEL & TANGENT

1) Starley & Hillman Ariel patent dated 11 August 1870, presumably when they were both working for the Coventry Machinists’ Co (CMC).

2) Starley left CMC 27 Nov. 1870 and was making Ariels by Christmas. see two letters to The Field. May 1872.

3) Hillman left CMC on 28 Jan 1871 and maybe joined Starley as the partnership became Starley & Co.

4) W.B.Smith had joined the partnership by 28 Feb 1872, the date of the Ariel open-head registered design and it became Smith & Starley & Co. after 24 Dec 1872 when The London Gazette announced that Hillman had retired from the partnership.

5) In 1874 Ariel bicycle production was passed over to James Starley’s employees Haynes and Jefferis.

6) Starley patent 3595, 17 Nov. covers tangent spoking, together with his ladies model and two-man version, both highly impractical, but later developed into the Coventry tricycle.

7) The license for H&J to make the Tangent is dated 13 May 1876 (Coventry Record Office 153/14). Haynes and Jefferis began advertising it in Dec 1875 so I don’t think Smith and Starley ever made Tangents.

8) The Tangent and Special Tangent were made up to 1880 but dropped by Rudge in 1881 although I think the wheel continued for a while on their Coventry tricycle.

9) Jan 1877, Voluntary liquidation of Smith and Starley

10) Nov 1878 Attempted flotation of Smith Starley & Co. apparently failed and the assets were purchased by Woodcock and amalgamated with Haynes & Jefferis as the Coventry Tricycle Co.

11) In Nov 1880, it became D.Rudge & Co.

HISTORY OF THE ARIEL

JAMES STARLEY: FATHER OF THE CYCLE INDUSTRY

“After the advent of the large front wheel, bicycling in Britain recovered from its temporary slowdown and enjoyed steady growth in popularity for the next 30 years. Fewer than 10% of the velocipede makers remained in the bicycle trade, which now required the skills of a machinist or gunsmith rather than those of a carriage maker or an iron founder. Companies became more specialised. Many of the new factory owners were themselves bicyclists, so the step from testing prototypes to launching production could be short. The term ‘ordinary bicycle’ was used in the early era of the high bicycle to distinguish it from other types. By 1891, however, the word ‘ordinary’ was being used nostalgically …the popular nickname was penny-farthing.”

– ‘Bicycle Design’ by Tony Hadland & Hans-Erhard Lessing, page 97

James Starley was one of the most innovative and successful builders of bicycles and tricycles, and is considered the father of the bicycle industry. His inventions include the differential gear and the perfection of the bicycle chain drive.

Starley was born in 1831 at Albourn, Sussex, the son of Daniel Starley, a farmer. He began working on the farm at nine, showing early talent as an inventor by making a rat trap from an umbrella tip and a willow branch. He ran away from home as a teenager and went to Lewisham, south London. Working as an under-gardener, in his spare time he mended watches and created devices such as a mechanism to allow a duck to get through a hole in a fence – it closed a door behind it to prevent a rat following.

His employer John Penn bought an expensive sewing machine, and Starley mended it when it broke down. He also improved the mechanism. Penn knew Josiah Turner, a partner of Newton, Wilson and Company, the makers of the machine and, in 1859 Starley joined its factory in Holborn, London. Turner and Starley subsequently started their own business, the Coventry Sewing Machine Co around 1861.

In November, 1868, chief engineer Josiah Turner’s nephew Rowley brought a new French velocipede to the Coventry Sewing Machine Co factory. As a result, the company resolved at a shareholders’ meeting in February, 1869, to embark on the production of velocipedes; they changed their name to the Coventry Machinists Co (and, in 1898, to the Swift Cycle Co).

James Starley and William Hillman left after to start their own bicycle business in St. John’s Street, Coventry. In the February 1882 issue of ‘The Wheel World’ it states: ‘Up to the end of 1870 the only manufacturers of bicycles in Coventry were the Coventry Machinists Co. Mr Starley senior left them on 26 November 1870, and Mr Hillman on 28 January 1871.’

When William Borthwick Smith joined the business (by 28 February, 1872), the company name became ‘Smith, Starley & Co,’ trading first at St. Agnes Lane and then at Ariel Works, Spon Street, Coventry. The partnership was dissolved when Hillman left in 1872.

Patent 2236 of 11th August, 1870, by James Starley and William Hillman (while they were still employed by CMC) – for ‘improvements to wheels and driving gear’ – led to the first successful all-metal bicycle with metal spoked wheels, which came onto the market in 1871 as the ‘Ariel.’ With the flurry of activity by inventors in the first few years of velocipede design, it can not be ascertained that the Ariel was actually the first ‘penny farthing’ or ‘ordinary’ bicycle to be built, but this was certainly the first successful model to be put on the market.