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BACK | | From Outback engineer to motorcar mogul
Austin’s Australian adventure |
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DESCRIPTION Sheep Shearing Head Cutter Machine
MANUFACTURER Wolseley Engineering Ltd., Birmingham, Britain
INVENTOR/DESIGNER Herbert Austin, British
MATERIAL Steel, paint, copper alloy
DIMENSIONS 520x720x640
PROVENANCE Gift from English Sewing Cotton Co. Ltd., 1968
LOCATION Thinktank
CAT. NO 1968.S.02248.00001 | |
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Machine designed by Herbert Austin and used at the Wolseley factory for making mechanical clipper parts | © Thinktank Trust | Come and see it in the Making Things gallery at Thinktank
By 1887 Austin had become the manager of an engineering workshop in Melbourne. There he met Frederick Wolseley, the inventor of a mechanical clipper for shearing sheep. Austin worked with him to improve the design. After spending months in the Outback with farmers, he understood that reliability was essential.
Austin returned to England to become Manager of Wolseley’s Birmingham workshop. To improve the clipper’s reliability, Austin insisted that the company should make the entire machine itself, rather than buying in parts. He even forced the directors to recall faulty models. MORE |
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