Morgan Advanced Ceramics, Rugby

When the Lodge brothers first went to work in ignition, motoring was still a pantomime turn, so wildly different from its present efficiency that the modern generation finds it hard to understand what a radical transformation has been packed into a brief fifty years.

The first cars were mostly close cousins of the bath-chair and the station waggonette, with an engine from a fishing-boat lashed on courageously behind. Apart from that, the thing that strikes you when you look back at photographs of early motoring is the dignity and calm of its gallant pioneers, as they sat bowler-hatted and bolt upright at their tillers, as if being the master of a horseless carriage were not a matter to be taken lightly. In a way they were right, but a truer picture of the dawn of motoring comes from the comic artists of the day, who were delighted to discover a brand new human dilemma, and went to town on the agonies of the driver whose vehicle ran away, cannoning madly off horses, houses and pedestrians, to blow up finally in the grand manner.

Even the comic artists, however, missed the main point, in this easy assumption that motorists could start their engines. The facts were far otherwise. Blistered and nerve-wracked at the end of a long day's cranking, owners must sometimes have viewed the utter dissolution of their machine in a sheet of flame as a relief and an achievement. If they could have seen us shutting the door, pressing a button, and driving off without thought, they would probably have gone back in disgust to horses.

The chief trouble was ignition. In the very first cars the mixture was fired, in principle at least, by a platinum tube that ran into the cylinder and only started work after its outer end had been heated with a blow lamp. The procedure was sufficiently exciting for the most foolhardy. Petrol was poured into a tray round the blow lamp, and a match thrown into it. If the resulting fire proved unmanageable, as it often did, the motorist had to choose quickly between his bonnet and his fingers. When he judged the tube to be hot enough, he got out an enormous handle and began to wind. At this point he could always tell if the tube had been heated too near the cylinder, as in that case the engine back-fired with gusto and the handle flew away. frequently leaving its owner with a broken wrist.

Among the minor pleasures of the blow lamp, which was very temperamental in the lightest wind, was cleaning it with a piece of wire that was apt to break off and jam in the hole of the burner. And among the many drawbacks of the whole method was the impossibility of switching off. As even the most patient motorists grew tired of waiting until the tube had cooled after the burner was out, engines began to be fitted with handbrakes on the fly wheel.

It was therefore not surprising that the introduction of electric ignition was hailed as a miraculous advance which would immediately subdue the motorcar to safety and obedience. But the proud owners who adopted it soon found their first enthusiasm had been a little optimistic. Each cylinder had its own trembler coil, operating a wipe or make-and-break contact for timing. As no two experts could agree on the right note for the trembler, hours were commonly spent in fiddling with it, and re-wiring the coil was a regular pastime made more dangerous because all the symbols were in French. Not only motorists but their intrepid passengers suffered continually from electric shocks. The coils were usually mounted in a mahogany box on the dashboard, with the terminals underneath to protect them from wet; and when the passenger put his feet into the right position under the box a friendship was broken and the engine shorted. On the other hand, if the coils were mounted on the engine side of the dash the box grew hot, and molten wax poured into the engine. There can never have been so much vague and blasphemous prodding with a screwdriver.

The current came from small wet batteries, which were supposed to be charged at home. The acid spilt so freely that the carriers were soon corroded, and the batteries fell out on the road. As for the plugs, they were very large and very bad. The least bad came from France. Cleaning and setting points was a matter of endless controversy, and almost a religious rite.

This, then, was the uncertain but exciting world into which the Lodge brothers came. They were the sons of Sir Oliver Lodge, the famous scientist, and although they had brains and courage they had very little money. Brodie was twenty-three, and had served five years in the office of a shipping line in Liverpool. Alec was a year younger, and was working in the drawing office of the Lanchester Motor Car Company at Birmingham.

From their schooldays the brothers had been determined to go into business together. In 1903 they decided to try their luck, and began by taking out a patent for an improved system of high-tension ignition, which their father had discovered during his experimental work on electric condenser discharges. It was a "B" spark igniter using a Leyden jar. Alec looked after the technical side, while Brodie dealt with letters and accounts, doing the typing on his bed in his father's house at Edgbaston.

It could scarcely have been a shakier start, but they survived, and next year went into official partnership as Lodge Bros., renting a one-room office at 14 New Street, Birmingham. After a short time a second room became possible, so that they were able to enjoy the unbelievable luxury of a general office, with a live clerk in it, opening out of their original room. As sales gradually increased they took on more rooms and more staff. It was very hard work, but already they were finding their feet.

In 1907 was their first big year, when they not only built a new workshop and offices in Wrentham Street, Birmingham, but made the bold decision to take a stand at the Motor Show at Olympia (the second to be held). Alec Lodge's original mind was soon busily devising unheard-of ways of drawing attention to his products. At their first Show the brothers were content to stand on a soapbox in the gallery and shout themselves hoarse in praise of their ignition system, but in the following year Alec went one better and fixed an enormous plug on their stand which sparked continually and caused an immense sensation. Less inventive exhibitors were furious, and the fact that the plug had secretly been connected with the mains was also against it. A ban was issued, but Alec Lodge was undeterred. He arranged a battery of ordinary plugs which sparked the words LODGE PLUGS, and when this in turn was vetoed he spelled out the same proud message in lamps.

The firm had turned to selling plugs when the introduction of the Bosch magneto made their heavy coil system obsolete. This new departure was suggested by H.G. Longford, of the Sphinx Sparking Plug Company at Birmingham, who urged that Lodge should design their own plugs and let him make them under their name. At first reluctant, the partners finally agreed, and Alec Lodge's designs soon proved their superiority to the ramshackle plugs of the day. Gastightness and insulation were his two main difficulties. To begin with he used porcelain insulators, made by French peasants, which sounds strangely amateur today. A single shoulder was seated on a soft copper asbestos washer, its top being wrapped with several turns of asbestos string secured-and, it was hoped, made gastight-with a brass gland nut. When plugs were returned to the factory as defective they were given a bench test on a 3╜ h.p. motor cycle engine, for in those days nobody expected them to stand up to the tresses of high compression.

At the Motor Show - already a social feature of London's autumn season - Lodge Bros. continued to cut a dash, but in addition Brodie Lodge, who was now in charge of publicity and staff management, began to advertise widely in both national and trade papers. And further interest was stirred up among the new and very keen motoring public by Alec Lodge's provocative letters in editorial columns on the whole subject, still highly debatable, of electric ignition. In these ways the name Lodge became increasingly known for sparking plugs suitable for cars, motor cycles, motor boats, and for gas and oil engines as well.

In the meantime another inventor of resource was developing the sparking plug. Bernard Hopps had left the British Thomson Houston Company in 1908 to form his own Mascot company, and a year afterwards he took out his important patent for making a gastight joint in a plug by means of fused glass. This idea was such a great advance that it quickly gained recognition for the Mascot Plug, in particular from Herbert Austin, who fitted it as standard in the Wolseley car. Originally occupying a part of the premises at Hunter's Lamp Factory, in Lower Hillmorton Road Rugby, the firm moved two years later to a small factory in Albert Street.

Both Lodge Bros. and the Mascot Company had the common aim of producing the best possible sparking plug. Both firms had much to offer one another, and so in 1913 they decided to amalgamate, under the title of the Lodge Sparking Plug Company Ltd. this retained the Wrentham Street premises in Birmingham and the factory in Albert Street, Rugby. It was still a private company, with the Lodge brothers and Bernard Hopps as joint managing directors, and Alfred Hopps, a well-known Leicester accountant, as Chairman. And it still remained very much a family business, in which Raymond and Honor Lodge, brother and sister of the Lodges, took part.

As a result of the merger the hopeful motorist gained for the first time an efficient, gastight, non-detachable plug; and when a little later mica was introduced for the insulation of the centre-pin the internal combustion engine was carried a stage further towards reliability. New cars were beginning to roll out of the factories in much greater numbers, and far fewer now died by the side of the road from spark failure. Lodge continued to do a minor trade in coils and distributors as well as plugs, and about this date added to its products an electric lighting set whose magnificence was the envy of all those hardy drivers still struggling with the nightly horrors of oil and acetylene. No one who has not stood striking match after match in the rain can begin to understand the feelings of the early motorist when he first pressed a lighting switch inside his car.

It was lucky for the nation as well as for the company that the fertile minds of Alec Lodge and Bernard Hopps had had a year's intensive work together before the outbreak of war. Although many senior officers were still thinking on terms of the horse, the internal combustion engine was soon put to offensive use on land, in the fast armoured cars, equipped with Lodge Plugs, which borrowed their tactics from the cavalry and did good service, especially in the desert. But of course the chief recruit was the aeroplane. It was still in its infancy and notoriously unreliable, but the Government realised that if it could be developed quickly it might turn the scales. In particular the improvement of engines and their ignition was at last regarded as a matter of high priority.

Lodge were honoured when they were labelled a Controlled Establishment, and told to concentrate on aero plugs. At the same time they had to think smartly, for the problems of the aircraft engine were entirely fresh to them. Experimental research was started immediately at the company's laboratories, in an urgent hot-house atmosphere, and resulted in a novel type of mica-insulated plug to be known throughout the R.F.C. as the Pepper Box Type. This was fitted mainly in Rolls-Royce engines, whose designs were themselves being developed with equally dramatic speed. Engine temperatures rose considerably, and the new plugs had to be able to stand up to them while sparking at high pressure, and rates already reaching 1500 sparks a minute.

In this field two particular advances in their wartime plugs helped Lodge to establish a unique position: copper sheathing to disperse the heat in the electrodes, and the mounting of the washers within the body of the plug. From the point of view of manufacture mica insulation was an extremely laborious process, but in spite of that millions of Lodge aircraft plugs were contributed successfully to the new arm.

During this intensive period the inconvenience of premises divided between two towns became apparent, and in 1916 the present factory in St. Peter's Road, Rugby was completed. When the whole business was transferred to it plans for increased production went ahead more easily.

Just after the First War, in 1919 the capital of the company was increased, and its name shortened to Lodge Plugs Ltd. But still it remained a private concern.

When peace came the enormous advance in the petrol engine was soon reflected in a new public interest. The Motor Show had ceased to be an exhibition of expensive curiosities beyond the reach of the ordinary man; mass-production of sound, cheap cars of surprising quality was beginning, and for the first time families flocked to Olympia not only to criticise but to buy. From being an attraction for experts the Motor Show became a domestic institution, and one of the biggest dates in London's winter season.

As soon as the war was over it became obvious that the aeroplane would not be widely used again for some time. The newly formed R.A.F. had been severely cut, and civil air transport was still only in its infancy. Lodge therefore decided to soft-pedal their production of aero plugs, and concentrate on the land market. A witness to this intention was their publication, in 1920, of the first plug Recommendation Chart in the motor industry, from which a motorist could see at a glance the type of Lodge most suited to his vehicle. For a year or two the great number of war surplus plugs in circulation made selling conditions difficult, but in the meantime the Lodge Laboratories were working on new methods and new designs. The use of steatite (soapstone) insulation was tried. It was not, however a complete success, and in the famous C 3 plug the company returned to mica insulation. This plug had a mica-wrapped core round the electrode, and was finished externally with a steatite sleeve as a protective cover. Its versatility was shown in 1929 when it was chosen by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith for his record non-stop flight from England to Australia, in the "Southern Cross." It was the parent of the well-known BR series of Lodge motor-racing plugs, and a stepped-up sales campaign soon made it extremely popular with the ordinary motorist.

During the 1930's Lodge advertising began to hit very hard, on a national scale. Almost every back page of the motoring papers was reserved, and Lodge became a familiar name in the rear panels of London's buses, where it had every right to be, since it was already under their bonnets. The Motor Show continued to be a vital focus for publicity, and while it was open many central column advertisements appeared in the leading daily papers. With the sales of their plugs for land and marine engines increasing steadily, the directors had felt able to revive their interest in the aero plug. Research work begun about 1926 resulted in the A 30 and the KR 3 series, the latter to win a great name for itself as the plug used by the British team in the Schneider Trophy Race of 1931.

The excitement of that race seized the whole country, for foreign competition seemed dangerous. Into a tiny seaplane built specially by Vickers Supermarine, a Rolls-Royce "R" engine, developing nearly 3,000 h.p., had been crammed successfully. For those days the strain on the ignition system of 3,200 revolutions a minute was considered fabulous, but the KR 3 plugs behaved beautifully. Over Southampton Water Flt-Lieut. Boothman put up a record for the course at the incredible speed of 340 m.p.h.; while Flt-Lieut. Stainforth captured a new world record by averaging 379 m.p.h. for a straight flight of three kilometers, covering one circuit at 388 m.p.h.

This was one of the first air races to be broadcast, and all over Britain the public cowered by its loudspeakers as the scream of the seaplanes rose to a menacing roar. British prestige in the air was raised enormously by these achievements, but even so nobody then guessed the true importance of the winning machine - which proved to be the forerunner of the Spitfire. The whole operation was typically British, with very little preliminary fuss, and a good deal of ingenious improvisation. Nothing could have been more effective in confirming Lodge as the leading designers of aero plugs.

But not content with this spectacular success Alec Lodge and Bernard Hopps had set on foot large-scale experiments to test out their idea of producing an improved insulator from aluminiumn oxide. They worked first with Mr. Gatecliffe as their chief chemist, and then with Mr Donald Turner. The experiments took time and capital, but the partners were confident they were on the verge of a great revolution in plug design. Special chemical laboratories had to be built in the factory, and new plant laid down with very high temperature tunnel ovens.

All this complex research triumphed in 1935, with the arrival of Sintox, a pink ceramic that came from sintered aluminium oxide and possessed remarkable thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. As an insulator it had all the advantages of mica, yet none of its drawbacks. To the old porcelain and the other ceramics it was found immeasurably superior. Soft and pliable in the first stages of manufacture, it could be extruded, moulded and turned on a lathe as if it were metal. Fired in a very hot oven it became as hard as glass but not in the least brittle. And apart from its extraordinary inherent qualities, it brought smiles to the faces of the production engineers, for whereas the mica sheets from which the insulators had previously been wound were fragile as well as expensive, Sintox was far more easily handled. Its commercial introduction into Lodge plugs, in 1936, changed the most difficult stage in their manufacture from one that called for highly skilled labour to one in which careful control of machine processes was all that was necessary.

The first application of Sintox was to high efficiency plugs for motor racing, and it came at a good moment. From the middle '30's British drivers, using the Bonneville Salt Flats at Utah, U.S.A., were reaching speeds undreamed of a few years earlier. The engines of their cars had been greatly increased in power, and the new science of streamlining was beginning to give steadiness as well as a sharp reduction in wind resistance. George Eyston in "Thunderbolt" raised the land speed to 345 m.p.h. in 1937, and the next year to 357 m.p.h. In Eyston's records Sintox was already playing its part, standing up stoutly to temperatures and pressures under which the older types of insulation would certainly have failed.

For the many colleagues who held him in deep affection it was comforting that Alec Lodge had seen ample proof of the full success of Sintox before his death in 1938. His qualities of inspiration and foresight, which were to be so much missed, were also the qualities which while he lived had placed the firm in a secure position where it could carry on efficiently without him; for in his long association with Bernard Hopps he had continuously developed its technical resources, and brought on a group of younger scientists able to make their full contribution towards research and design. And fortunately Bernard Hopps (now in charge of production) and Brodie Lodge were still there to lead them when a year later, for the second time, Lodge Plugs became of national importance in a world war.

In 1939 a historic meeting took place at Rugby. Feeling that scientists working on ignition had much to offer one another, Dr. C.J. Smithells, the Lodge general manager, called the first British conference to discuss the co-ordination of research into the whole field. This meeting was in the nature of a trial balloon. Not much came of it immediately, but it marked the course for the annual, and very important, European Ignition Conferences which Lodge initiated in 1950.

Between 1939 and 1945 Lodge doubled their output. Soon after war began the firm was registered as "an undertaking under the Essential Works Order." Plugs were produced for almost every kind of internal combustion engine - fitted in motor torpedo boats, landing craft, air-sea rescue launches, all varieties of military vehicle (including tanks), and stationary power equipment, Special adaptations of the sparking plug had to be designed for flame-throwers. And for the new radar branches of all three Services radio screening fittings were made in large quantities.

But of course the biggest Lodge effort was to the R.A.F. and the American Army Air Force, which between them absorbed seventy-five per cent. of total production. As in the First War, the effect of emergency was to force the pace of aero-engine development so rapidly that the stresses were too much for existing types of plug. In particular the increased heat of the engine and reaction of lead content in the fuel corroded nickel electrodes, and reduced the life of the plug to no more than a few hours of flying time. Lodge found the answer to this trouble in platinum electrodes, but before the method could be considered a complete success two major difficulties had to be overcome. In the first place it was very hard to fix the platinum electrode to the steel body of the plug until Lodge scientists devised a way of melting the steel around the electrode with an electric current, and then allowing the steel to contract on to the platinum. This process was carried out very quickly by a machine tool, and so ingeniously that the platinum itself was unmelted, the joint formed between it and the steel body being admirable, mechanically and thermally.

The second problem which had to be solved speedily was that with high-boost engines, such as the Rolls-Royce "Merlin" installed in the Hurricane and Spitfires, the platinum alloy was simply blown off. In the early days of 1940 Fighter Command was greatly worried about this failure. The answer was found in "S" Alloy, an extremely important invention that came from the Lodge laboratories at a very critical moment. It provided and electrode of thoriated platinum, made by a powdered metallurgy process, and it stood up bravely to all the fury bottled in the new engines. By 1942 it had proved itself completely, for bombers as much as for fighters, and the service life of a plug had been increased to more than three hundred hours, with all that meant in added safety and confidence to tired crews, The value of these inventions was quickly recognised by the Air Ministry. They have since been adopted universally by both British and American manufacturers, and now are used by airlines all over the world, as well as in plugs for racing cars.

When America came into the war, and the Liberators and Flying Fortresses of the Eighth Air Force began to arrive in England, they were suffering from the same plug troubles which we had encountered earlier. Lodge immediately adapted their latest ideas to a special plug to fit the American engines, and this was so successful that it became the rule to fit all American bombers with Lodge plugs (or those of Lodge design) on arrival in this country.

It was enough for Lodge to know that they had helped to save American crews fighting so gallantly, but nothing could have been more gratifying than the very generous tribute to the plug made by President Roosevelt in an address to Congress at the end of 1944. He said:

"Reference is made to the British aircraft supplies to the Americans. More important than these aircraft, in many ways, however, has been the assistance given to our air forces by the British under reverse Lend-Lease on several vitally important special productions projects. Before and during the Battle of Britain, when the R.A.F. had to work its out-numbered planes around the clock and the Spitfire and Hurricane engines got punishing treatment, the British developed a new type airplane spark plug. It has a life from four to five times longer than the standard aeroplane engine spark plug. Although the plug was hand-tailored, the British worked out production techniques for increasing their limited output during the next two years. After the United States Eighth Air Force began operations from Britain in the summer of 1942 the British undertook to double their production so they could provide all our Eighth Air Force Fortresses with these plugs. Since early in 1943 virtually every United States Flying Fortress has taken off from British bases with these plugs in each of its four engines. It would be impossible to estimate how many thousand United States bomber crews may since then have owed their lives to these spark plugs, but the performance record of the plugs speaks for itself,"

No other plug has ever received such a historic testimonial from a Head of a State.

Another remarkable plug introduced during the war, and remembered with affection by the R.A.F., was the Long Tom, a very portly member of the Lodge series which was designed for the Bristol sleeve-valve engines used in some of the biggest British bombers. Needless to say, in all these new patterns Sintox proved invaluable as an insulator. It was exceedingly lucky that this had passed all its tests and become standard to Lodge production before the emergency began. With Sintox the Mosquitos broke the record for the Atlantic crossing, and the Lancaster flying laboratory, "Aries", carried out its famous flight over the North Pole.

Towards the end of the war the development of the jet engine demanded fresh thought about ignition, for in the absence of cylinders a single jet-igniter took the place of the vast array of sparking plugs needed in a conventionally driven aircraft (as many as 244 in an airliner with four piston-engines). Once more Lodge worked out such a satisfactory answer in an untried field that today its jet-igniters are the only type used in the jet-engines made by Rolls-Royce and De Havilland. And by a curious chance it was found that the circuit employed by Sir Oliver Lodge in his original "B" spark igniter system was ideal for the new engines.

Of all the novel equipment produced by the Lodge scientists under the pressure of war, none was to be of more far-reaching benefit in peace than the Thermo-Couple Plug developed by Dr. C.J. Smithells. Engine designers had always been handicapped by the impossibility of telling the exact internal temperature of an engine while it was going, a fact which had led to a great deal of guesswork, and indeed of controversy. Now at last the inner mysteries of the cylinder-block could be accurately probed, for the Thermo-Couple measured electrically the internal heat of each cylinder of an engine under actual running conditions; and for the first time the engine designer could till at a glance if his product was behaving as mathematics had prophesied it would.

This new instrument acted as a normal sparking plug, while at the same time it recorded the temperature of the tip of the central electrode, in the very flame of the power explosion. Valuable information, about which designers had previously been obliged to conjecture, soon came to light. It was found, for instance, that a considerable difference is possible in the heating of the individual cylinders of a car engine. Measurements of the thermal effect of mixture strength showed that maximum heat corresponds with maximum power output, and that - contrary to the general belief - a weak mixture is not necessarily a cause of rising engine temperature. Other tests revealed the range of temperatures during which pre-ignition and auto-ignition occurred, and the surprising fact that the wartime Pool petrol produced greater heat and quicker pre-ignition than 100 Octane.

Obviously the invention of such an ingenious device was of the greatest interest to manufacturers of piston engines; and the Thermo-Couple is now widely used, both in bench tests and on the road, where it operates with the same efficiency.

When the war ended it was clear that Lodge would have to be ready for a still greater demand for their plugs; a rapid increase in commercial flying would certainly be added to the inevitable boom in private motoring. The factory at Rugby, which has an area of 105,000 square feet (all of it convenient on the ground floor, and almost entirely glass-roofed) had seemed adequate in the '30's, but was now obviously insufficient. And so as soon as possible, mainly for the production of commercial plugs, the company took over the shadow factory at Olney, near Northampton, which it had operated during the war. This is a three-storey building with a floor area of 37,000 square feet. Shortly it was working at full capacity, and is helping to step up the Lodge export drive, which already has reached about fifty per cent. of total production.

The genius of Sir Oliver Lodge, which had unexpectedly showed itself again during the designing of the jet-igniter circuit, was recalled once more when in 1947 a new electro-filter plant was installed at the Rugby factory, for it was developed from some of his early research work. This plant recovers the dust from the ceramic machining operations. Under the bag-filter system previously used, machines had to be stopped every hour or so while the bags were cleared, and this resulted in a loss of between ten and fifteen per cent. of the workers' time. With the new plant there is no interruption of work; it is only necessary to stop the machines at the dinner hour and again at the end of the day, when the collected Sintox powder is decanted into sacks. Even in powdered form Sintox in not harmful to health, but the cleaner atmosphere produced by the plant makes for much more pleasant working conditions.

Equally important is the enormous saving. In one year enough raw ceramic material is now recovered to make more than four million plug insulators. The new plant is ninety-nine per cent. efficient, and is similar to the dust-extractors at the great power stations.

In 1949 the shareholders elected to sell their interest, and Lodge Plugs Ltd. was floated as a public company. Mr. Brodie Lodge, who had seen the firm grow to its present prosperity from its modest beginning in his Birmingham bedroom, and had done so much to make it famous, now retired, after 45 years in the saddle; and Mr. Hopps became Chairman and Managing Director, continuing his overall responsibility for design.

In 1953 there was a further re-arrangement, when Mr. V. Martin-Jones was appointed Managing Director, Mr. Hopps remaining Chairman and still directing the company's research.

Since the war the history of Lodge plugs closely reflects the remarkable advances inspired by military need. This time there was no lag in civil aviation, and the proved efficiency of the new platinum electrode made of "S" Alloy created an immediate demand among the airlines getting under way again. Experience with the special Fortress plug led to the production of a new type of plug for American engines, and as these were installed in almost all the aircraft then used by continental airlines the quantities required were very large. Other plugs were standardised for such firms as Rolls-Royce and Bristol, and are now extensively used by B.O.A.C., B.E.A., Aer Lingus, K.L.M. and Trans-Canada Airline. In the introduction of the jet engine to civil flying the Lodge jet-igniter is also playing a leading part, and both with jet-igniters and conventional plugs Lodge remain busy on the military side as well.

This great expansion in its business of aircraft plugs has led the company to set up a special section to keep close liaison with the airlines of the world, and with manufacturers of aircraft engines. The problems with which this has to deal are more and more intricate, for a plug suitable for one engine is seldom so for another, and prolonged testing by makers and operators is required by authority before a new design is allowed to be used in flight.

The peacetime application of the platinum electrode was not confined to the air. In the same way that the speeds and compression of aircraft engines had risen, so had those of the racing car and motor cycle, to a point where the older types of plug were quite inadequate, Soon after the war, using all their special knowledge, Lodge were able to introduce the first modern racing plug, and immediately this began to win a fantastic series of successes on track and road which has gone on without interruption. The bare list of these triumphs would itself fill a booklet. The car races include a mounting number of Grand Prix in Europe and South America, and carry such famous names as Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Talbot, B.R.M., Jaguar, E.R.A., Connaught and Cooper among the makers relying on Lodge; and among the drivers Fangio, Ascari, Farina, Villoresi, Stirling Moss, Parnell, Chiron, Bira, de Graffenreid, Rosier, Flockhart and Etancelin. For his notably successful attacks on the world's records in small cars Lt.-Col. A.T. Goldie Gardner has also fitted Lodge.

And the list of motor cycle races won with Lodge is as impressive, for since 1949 to 1953 every 500 c.c. and ten other capacity class World Motor Cycle Championships have been won by machines doubly armed with Sintox and "S" Alloy. Since 1952 the motor-cyclist has had further reasons to fit Lodge. The most frequent causes of ignition troubles in motor-cycles have been the severe vibration and the fact that the plug terminals so easily grew wet. These dangers are now countered by two new Lodge inventions, the insulated shock-proof terminal cover, and the watertight terminal cover. The latter is moulded in rubber, with an integral metal insert to clip over the terminal fitting. It is so designed that the cover cannot shake loose, yet is easily fitted and quickly detachable. It provides absolute protection against water, and shorting and irregular firing owing to bad weather conditions have become bogies of the past.

These racing glories are apt to steal the news, and clearly have done a great deal to make the world reputation of Lodge, but the company's main output still goes to equip the ordinary motorist and commercial transport. With the new importance of the export trade, car manufacture in this country has been steadily raised to figures which would have amazed the industry between the wars. Now that it has reached a point at which the flow to the home market is making a new car an immediate reality instead of a distant dream on a waiting-list, Lodge plugs are going out in huge numbers and many specialised varieties to ensure smooth ignition in the shining new vehicles crowding the roads of England, in all the queer new monsters on which mechanised agriculture depends, and in the marine engines of the fast small motor craft which have become so popular since the war.

At Rugby fresh ideas are constantly being explored. A great new field is the extension of Sintox to a growing number of industrial articles for which the insulation properties and extraordinary hardness of this material make it ideal. The thread-guides used in spinning nylon and other textiles are a good example, and so are the cutting-tips of machine tools. In these and similar cases it is found that the miraculous toughness of Sintox reduces wear to a minimum. This is a fascinating departure, and its extent is still incalculable.

Lodge's latest development, in conjunction with the Ministry of Supply, is the first practical chemical cleaner for aircraft plugs. This was designed to supersede the old sandblast system, which caused damage and failed to remove the heavier deposits. In the Lodge cleaner ammonium acetate solution, heated to 80 degrees Centigrade, is injected at an angle into the plug at a pressure of 12 lbs. per square inch. The jet impinges on the internal bore, and is deflected round it and up into the insulator nose, before returning to the tank by way of a filter - when the cleaning cycle begins again. The deposits are removed by the chemical action combined with the temperature and pressure. The cleaner is simple to operate and maintain, and at a low cost 36 plugs can be cleaned at the same time. It is proving a godsend to airlines, where a very large numbers of plugs may have to be cleaned in a hurry.

Like so much else in British commerce, the story of Lodge Plugs begins in the imagination of a few men of exceptional skill and enterprise, takes us on through the comfortable growth of a family business, and finally opens out into the unlimited field of major industry, with a world market for a widening range of products.

It is now fifty year since Alec and Brodie Lodge made the decision, that then seemed so reckless, to risk their tiny capital in the uncertain gamble of the motorcar. During that time the evolution of their plug from a novelty waved from a soapbox to a vital component in so many forms of transport has been continuous, and marked by special moments whose drama may now be dimmed but which remain significant when we look back. Sir Oliver Lodge's ignition system; the first Lodge plug; Bernard Hopps' development of the fused glass gastight joint; the amalgamation of the two promising young companies; the first Lodge aircraft plugs; in the First War; the building of the Rugby factory; the Schneider Trophy; the invention of Sintox and "S" Alloy; President Roosevelt's tribute to the Fortress plug - these are among them. Half a century is a short time to have contained so much in the life of one company.

Progress so sustained depends on a constant watch on quality, and an open mind in the laboratory. Lodge scientists have never been content to rest on their laurels. Research goes on at Rugby all the time, making certain that no new knowledge is untried which can possibly help to make the sparking plug even more efficient. In the same way production methods are always under review, in the light of the latest manufacturing techniques. For only the best can survive modern competition in a world where science and industry are now equal partners. And, to put it simply, the very best is still the aim of Lodge.

Additional Historical Information

Brief History of the Rugby Plant to Date

The Lodge Sparking Plug Company Ltd (read original 1956 history document)

The Life and Works, Sir Oliver Lodge

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About Morgan Advanced Ceramics 
Morgan Advanced Ceramics is a global business of The Morgan Crucible Company plc. It is focused on excellence of application engineering to deliver value-added solutions in several markets, including, Medical, Telecommunications, Electronics, Semiconductor Processing, Industrial and Aerospace. With manufacturing operations strategically located across three continents, Morgan Advanced Ceramic's core competencies include metallising capabilities; braze alloy technology, ceramic-to-metal assemblies, metal injection moulding and engineered coatings.