Vickers

Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor formed it in Sheffield as a steel foundry that soon became famous for casting church bells. It went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons and Company and branched into marine shafts, propellers, forgings, armour plate and artillery. In 1897 it bought the Barrow-in-Furness shipbuilder and the Maxim Nordenfelt gun company to become Vickers, Sons and Maxim, and in 1901 the Royal Navy first submarine, Holland 1, was launched at its Barrow yard. In the same year it set up the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company, and in 1911, renamed Vickers Limited, it began making aircraft and opened a flying school at Brooklands. In 1927 it merged with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrongs.