GARDNER - OILING THE COMMERCE OF EMPIRE

The humid heat of the day starts to vibrate to the deep thump of a straining oil engine, and the nostrils are assailed with the sweet pungent smell of diesel. Over the shimmering haze that coats the brow of the hill emerges a silhouette of power in motion - a Gardner powered Scammell shifting an impossible load under impossible circumstances.

Lawrence Gardner, engineer and visionary, screwed a simple brass plate to the modest facade of four buildings in Upper Duke Street, Manchester, that simply read: L. Gardner, Machinist Machine parts for sewing machines, coffee roasters and even a dentist's chair were amongst the products that flowed from this small yet busy engineering works. Dying at the young age of 50 in 1890, Lawrence was succeeded by his son, Thomas, and in 1894 the first Gardner oil engine appeared.

These days we tend to take the reliability of oil engines (unless made by a certain 4 letter word starting with F and ending with D) for granted. Yet what from the very beginning made Gardner oil engines unique was their total reliability and engineering integrity. Inventing the system of fuel injection used by every manufacturer today, Gardner earned the right to call their engines what they liked - Oil Engines!. Always investing heavily in research and development, Gardner were (and still are) a single minded company dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the oil engine. Manufacturers from all over the world came to find in the Gardner engine a viable partner to their own ingenuity, and the reputations of many companies were built on the excellence of the Gardner power unit.

Gardner oil engines were not always motive - here a massive 8J9 400hp stationary engine is shown, delivered in 1932 to Hong Kong. From simple single cylinder power units to complex industrial machinery, Gardner Oil was to be found at the heart of growing industry and commerce.