page_title: Arrol-Johnston
section_title: Arrol-Johnston Car Company Ltd.
hierarchical_section_title: Arrol-Johnston / History / Arrol-Johnston Car Company Ltd.
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; 1904 Arrol-Johnston 20 CV limousine during «&#160;110 ans de l'automobile&#160;» exhibition in the Grand Palais.Français&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; Une Arrol-Johnston 20 CV limousine à toit démontable de 1904 exposée au Grand Palais pour les 110 ans de l'automobile.
context_page_description: Arrol-Johnston was an early Scottish manufacturer of automobiles, which operated from 1895 to 1931 and produced the first automobile manufactured in Britain. The company also developed the world's first "off-road" vehicle for the Egyptian government, and another designed to travel on ice and snow for Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole.
context_section_description: In 1905 the company's name was changed to the Arrol-Johnston Car Company Ltd. In the same year, the company introduced a 3023cc 12/15hp model of more modern appearance; this, however, still used an opposed-piston engine.  There was also a three-cylinder version of the dogcart; this was an uncouth 16 hp with the centre cylinder being of greater bore than the outer two. A 1905 Dogcart with solid wooden disc wheels still survives in Khartoum, inside the Sudan national museum, where it was supplied as a searchlight tender for the Sirdar of Egypt.
  In 1906 came the 24/30 hp vertical four of 4654cc; followed in 1907 by the 38/45 hp of 8832 cc. The 12/15 hp twin survived in production until 1909.  This was the year that T. C. Pullinger (formerly of Darracq, Sunbeam and Humber) joined Arrol-Johnston; he swept out the old range in favour of the new 15·9 hp of 2835cc.  That model featured a dashboard radiator and four-wheel brakes (the latter were dropped in 1911). For 1912 a 1794 cc 11·9 hp, a 3640 cc 20·9 hp and a 3618 cc 23·8 hp were introduced.
  In 1913 Arrol Johnston bought land at Heathhall, just outside Dumfries, and commissioned an American firm to build a factory. This is said to be the first factory in Britain to use ferro-concrete (concrete reinforced with metal bars), and was designed by Albert Kahn, architect of the Ford factory at Highland Park, Michigan, where the Model T was produced. A-J contracted to build 50 electric cars for Anderson Electric, maker of the Detroit Electric, at the new plant but it is not certain how many were actually made. Several models of car including the six-cylinder 23/9 were built up to the outbreak of war.
  The first post war Arrol-Johnston was the Victory model in 1919 designed by G. W. A. Brown which had an ohc 2651 cc 4-cylinder engine of 40 hp. They introduced the model to agents in March 1919 but the first production car was not delivered until August; it was sold to the Prince of Wales. The Victory sadly proved "unsellable and unreliable", and broke down while on a Royal tour of the West of England, so that the publicity attending its debut was not of the kind it needed.  It was soon replaced by a modernized version of the prewar 15·9 hp; it was cheaper, but this was due to such cost-cutting measures as a black-painted radiator and fixed ignition. The 15·9 hp was revived as an urgent replacement for the Victory. A more modern version, the 20 hp, was introduced alongside the 15.9 hp in 1922.
  In 1921 the cheaper Galloway was launched as, in theory, a separate make, from the Tongland works near Kirkcudbright. The car was based on the Fiat 501 and started with the 10/20 with a 1460 cc side-valve engine, in 1925 growing to the 1669 cc 12/20 and 12/30. Production moved to the main A-J factory in Heathhall in 1922. A short-lived 14 hp appeared in 1924, only to be replaced the following year by a 12·3 hp model.  There also was a 4-cylinder 3290cc Empire model manufactured for the colonies.
caption: 3-cylinder car from 1904, on display in Paris.
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