120 years of Stuart Turner
In the late 19th century, Britain was a place of rapid change for both its people and its industries. The second industrial revolution was underway, and an incredible concentration of scientific discovery, along with the rapid adoption of new technologies and manufacturing techniques, made it an exciting place to be for those with a passion for innovation.
Enter Sidney Marmaduke Stuart Turner, a young man whose technical know-how, engineering excellence, problem-solving skill and pioneering vision would become the pillars on which Stuart Turner still stands today.
From small beginnings
He used his interest in the burgeoning field of electricity (with skills learned working with a local millwright) to find employment at a large house that boasted its own small generator, which lit the property. While here, his evenings were spent designing and selling model steam engines in kit form, which proved so popular that he soon started his own business to meet demand.
To Antarctic exploration
Joining forces with another talented engineer, Alec Plint, the company was incorporated in 1906 and entered the mainstream market, producing small gas engines for domestic electricity generation. They moved into their first workshop in Henley-on-Thames. They soon expanded to occupy four buildings on the site, with its own foundry producing fine castings for models, do-it-yourself motorcycles, and many types of precision engines. The quality and reliability of which saw one small engine being enlisted to join Earnest Shackleton on his famous 1914 Endurance voyage, providing electricity for the ship’s lighting.
Powering the nation
Throughout WW1, the company was kept busy supplying the war effort, and shortly after hostilities ended, it introduced another technical breakthrough. This two-stroke engine became a mainstay of the business for the next 30 years. These versatile units made the most of the reduced scale enabled by the internal combustion engine and were soon put to work in a whole host of applications, including smaller maritime craft, post offices as generators, and even dodgem cars at fairgrounds.
This work with small engines led to a logical exploration of the machines they could power and, in 1935, a non-leaking, frictionless pump gland was developed and patented by Mr. Plint. A groundbreaking idea, with a clever design that meant pumps did not drip and could be left standing without fear of leaks.
Innovating for victory
Cut to the next major 20th century conflict – WWII – and Stuart Turner was again ready to help with small pumps to cool gun barrels and engines for lifeboats, portable generators (designed to be carried by packhorse) for radio communication in the field and power plants for anti-submarine radar. They even secretly manufactured disposal engines to allow dinghies to enter occupied Norway and be destroyed to avoid discovery.
Following the war, the hothouse climate of technical development and production refinement created by the demands of conflict meant Stuart Turner’s engines were leaner, more efficient and built to more exacting standards than ever.
Pumps take the lead
Though marine engines remained the main product at the Broad Gates site, pumps also became a hugely important part of the business, earning a global reputation for quality. By 1958, the firm was making 20,000 a year using precision components cast onsite, which were the envy of the industry.
As world events again took centre stage and oil prices increased, a move towards electric power made the engines themselves obsolete, powered by the technology they once powered. Now, the company had the perfect combination of powerful electric motors and high-performance small pumps. Seizing the opportunity this created, new markets were explored, and they were soon put to use across a wide range of industries over the next few decades, working hard to help everyone from pub landlords pulling pints of beer to dairy farmers extracting gallons of milk every morning.
More power to the nation’s showers
As always, the company was on the lookout for more problems their pumps could solve. Fittingly, they found their most enduring evolution in the Victorian technology that had brought it to life back in 1906. In this case, turn-of-the-century plumbing, which many modern households were still using, was found to be woefully inadequate to meet their water demands. Particularly showers – a relatively new feature of the 1970’s British bathroom. Recognising the opportunity this created, the shower booster pump was born.
An overnight success, this application condensed 100 years of Stuart Turner innovation and experience into a range of small, capable and reliable units that have turned hundreds of thousands of weak showers into powerful cascades and are trusted and recommended by installers all around the UK.
The Stuart Turner domestic water boosting range now offers versatile solutions to a wide array of pressure issues and applications. Manufactured in the UK, the products are still made to the same exacting standards that Sidney Marmaduke Stuart Turner himself insisted on 120 years ago.
