Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/04/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Aha! I can help here, David Brown was my first employer. His grandson was also my flat-mate for a while in 1969. The Brown family are industrialists based in Huddersfield in Yorkshire. The company was started by David's (eventually Sir David) grandfather but it was he who built it up the most as David Brown Gear Industries. This company makes mainly specialist gears and gearboxes such as for tanks, Frigates, Aircraft carriers plus stationary gears used in winding gears for mines, steelmill roller transmissions and such like. They made a range of commercial worm gear reduction units which were sold in the USA through the Falk Gear Corporation in Milwaukee WI. I worked there in my University vacation in summer 1970. Sir David was car mad and bought Aston Martin, probably just post WWII, The DB in the model number stands for David Brown and is still used despite him having sold the company in the '70s. He ran it for his own pleasure building sports prototypes for racing and winning Le Mans, he never made any money from it. When asked by one of his friends if he could buy an Aston Martin at cost price he famously said that it was less than that from the dealer...... David Brown had been involved as a subcontractor in the design of the revolutionary Ferguson tractor but he and Harry Ferguson fell out, as was often the case with these egotistical entrepreneurs and David Brown started a successful agricultural tractor business not far from the main Gear company. I applied for the student apprenticeship scheme with them because I wanted a broad general engineering training, theirs had the highest of reputations, and I wanted to design racing cars. By the time I had graduated Sir David was retired with a wife 40 years younger than him and the Company was doing badly under his son. It got cut back more or less to the original Gear business, now I believe run by Sir David's younger grandson and another of my old friends from my apprenticeship. Probably more information than you wanted! Frank On 5 Apr, 2007, at 17:21, David Rodgers wrote: > John, > > I've spotted this car parked around my neighborhood but I've yet to > actually see or hear it run. > > I photographed the car straight on from the front and enlarged the > medallion (the crop of which is just below the photo of the whole > car). > > Something happened in processing, btw, and the entire roll of film and > prints didn't turn out well. They're technically poor (thankfully > Sonny > improved them a bit). Shame on me. The subject matter here deserved > better! > > In spite of everything, the medallion is very readable. The new 50/2.8 > collapsible is quite a good lens. But I'm curious as to why the > medallion reads "DAVID BROWN ASTON MARTIN"? > > Who is David Brown? > > DaveR > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Collier [mailto:jbcollier@shaw.ca] > Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 8:46 AM > To: Leica Users Group > Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG AstonMartin > > This is a good example of where a photo just doesn't do justice to > the real thing. Aston Martin's sixes make one of the most glorious > sounds possible. > > John Collier > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information