Leader/Britannic

5/27/2015

In my 1925 Parker, Winder & Achurch vintage trade catalogue the next floor spring I will show you is advertised as The "Leader" Patent Floor Spring with hydraulic check. Having a square pin and somewhat of an overly complicated mechanism this floor spring was repaired for Knowle Parish Church. You can clearly see the square pin in the first photograph and in the later advert from Wm Newmans & Sons Ltd, describing it as the Britannic.

As you can see however from the 1961 patent, changes were made to the Leader/Britannic. These changes simplified the pin to spring transfer mechanism, the cover plate was slightly reshaped and the pin itself was changed to a more rectangular design.

After stripping the Leader/Britannic down, rebuilding and manufacturing a new pin our clients have a set of floor springs to be proud of!

2 Comments

Roy ODGERS

3/29/2016 11:31:00 pm

I have recently been given a brass plate which is rectangular with a semi circular bottom edge which is inscribed -
Wm Newman & Sons
The Britannic
Patent Applied for No.7281/47
Patent No. 606227
From your website this appears to be the cover plate for a floor spring as per your photos - am I correct?
Thanks for your reply
Roy Odgers
Coburg, Victoria,
Australia

Rod link

3/31/2016 08:42:13 pm

Hi Roy,

Thanks for your interest and comment on the site. You are correct it certainly does sound like you have the brass cover plate from a Britannic.

In the 1950's 'Newman's' based in Melbourne were marketing a number of floor springs for the Australian market, these being the Monarch, the Britannic, the 600 and the Avon. I understand that the Avon was the only one produced in Australia however.

If you would care to send me a picture of your Britannic I would love to put it on my site, there very well could be some differences with the Australian version that would be interesting to see.

Leader/Britannic

Leave a Reply.

Author

Archives

Categories