KING | 1901-07 | UK :
The 1901 census records William King, aged 30, cycle manufacturer, born at Cherry Hinton, living at 30 Sidney Street, Cambridge, with his wife Clara Ann and three young sons. Cherry Hinton is a village immediately east of Cambridge. King was a local man who had found his trade in the Victorian cycling boom and was now, like so many of his contemporaries across Britain, attempting the leap into powered two-wheelers at the turn of the century.
In 1898 the King family had been at 23 Sussex Street; by 1902 they were living at The Hatch, Garden Walk; and by 1905 they were based at their shop and warehouse on Bridge Street. This movement through premises across the early 1900s tracks the growth of a small but active A press notice describes two genuinely distinct and carefully engineered motorcycle designs, neither of which was a simple clip-on Minerva arrangement. Both used 2½hp De Dion or Automoto air-cooled engines, and both were motor-bicycles.
The first design was ambitious: the cylinder of the engine passed right through the head of the bicycle frame, with the steering socket entirely eliminated and replaced by separate ball bearings at each end of the backbone. The fork sides were continued up to the top of the head and bowed outward laterally to provide space for the cylinder, which was bolted to both frame tubes and the two steering bearings. A stay between the top and bottom tubes was added for rigidity, and a surface carburettor and 1½-gallon petrol tank filled the main panel of the frame.
Drive went from the crankshaft pulley to a double pulley forward of the bottom bracket, and thence to the rear wheel by two belts in series — a notably complex but compact transmission. The second design was more conventional in concept but still thoughtfully executed: engine mounted vertically behind the main downtube, single belt drive to a pulley secured to the rear wheel rim by radial brackets, with the tank filling the open diamond of the frame. Both designs reflect a maker who had thought carefully about integration — not just bolting an engine to an existing frame, but reconsidering the frame itself around the engine. The Automoto Engine The mention of the Automoto engine alongside the De Dion is interesting. In 1899, the French firm Chavanet, Gros, Pichard et Cie was founded and displayed a machine at the Paris Salon that closely resembled the De Dion-Bouton. There appears to have been a dispute with De Dion. In 1901 Chavanet and Gros left the company, which then folded. The Automoto engine was thus a direct De Dion rival and near-copy, briefly prominent in 1900–01 before disappearing. In 1901, Fred Osborn of Portsmouth built a racing motor cycle by bolting a 4hp Automoto engine onto the front downtube of a racing bicycle — later to become the OEC (Osborn Engineering Co.) — showing that the Automoto was regarded as a capable unit by British constructors in that moment. King’s choice to offer either engine gave customers flexibility while acknowledging that the De Dion was the market leader and the Automoto a credible alternative. Later Development W. King and Co. of Bridge Street, Cambridge produced motorcycles from 1901 to 1905. In 1901 the firm initially produced tricycles but soon moved to motorcycles. By 1903 they had a model that was a typical primitive, with a 2¾hp MMC engine mounted vertically, driving the rear wheel by belt. They also offered the option of 3½hp or 4hp water-cooled engines. The progression from De Dion/Automoto in 1901 to MMC (Motor Manufacturing Company, the Coventry-based licensee of De Dion engines) by 1903 reflects the industry’s general shift toward more established British engine suppliers. Water-cooled options were a notable ambition for a firm of this size. At the 1903 Stanley Show, King exhibited six machines. All were fitted with MMC and Daw motors from 2¾ to 3½hp, with two P. and R. accumulators connected with a two-way switch, neatly fitted in an acid-proof wooden case. A fine motor bicycle specially built for Mr E. J. Watson was shown with a water-cooled Daw engine, the radiator fitted in a curved form in front of the starting socket. By 1904, engines were 2¾hp to 3½hp from either Daw or MMC, with direct belt drive or two-speed and chain available, and a forecar was listed. By 1905 the company was short-lived and nothing further was heard of it after that year. The King & Co. story follows the classic arc of the early provincial motorcycle maker: a capable cycle trader in a university city, experimenting with two genuinely inventive frame designs in 1901, adopting more standard configurations by 1903 as the market consolidated around proven layouts and established engine suppliers, showing creditably at the national shows, and quietly disappearing by 1905 as competition from better-capitalised manufacturers made survival impossible. William King, cherry-hinton-born cycle manufacturer, lived and worked at the heart of one of England’s great cycling cities — and left behind two remarkably thoughtful motor-bicycle designs that deserve to be better remembered.
