Ambrosia crankshafts again

[Dirk73]

Hi folks,
I suspect this has been discussed before but the only references i could find were on the later 1.5" sports crankshafts.
 
I found this on my 1924  1&1/8" crank which is original to the engine, and wondered who 'Ambrosia J.S' was?

An engine remanufacturer? (or just a custard-lover?)

[Belinni]

Ambrose Shardlow of Sheffield, manufactured crankshafts for Austin and other car manufacturers. These have previously been found on works Austin’s.

[JonE]

...does that mean you have a stamped engine number somewhere on the crank too? Do you have anything definitively linking it to a standard car, or could it have been an early Sports?

[Reckless Rat]

Shardlows also made the crankshafts for the Merlin engines. There's a couple on display in the Kelham Island industrial museum.

[Tony Griffiths]

One of the highly skilled men charged with making the stamping dies for the Merlin Crankshafts was Darce Kerwin a dour but friendly Liverpudlian and my childhood next-door neighbour. This was such a well-paid job that he could afford a decent new house in a lower middle-class area in the West of Sheffield. But, it was quite a treck to work for him; at 6am sharp the gate 'sneck' would click as left to walk down the very steep Greystones Road to catch the two trams that took him to work on Carslie Street. He took me round the works on two occasions - quite an experience that I can remember clearly.  He told me that after one air raid, the offices had been damaged so the men had a wander around, opened some filing cabinets, and discovered that jobs they were charging £5 for were being sold on by the company for four times as much (they were not paid a wage, they "bid" for different jobs as they arose). Needless to say, there was a great upset and the threat of a strike quickly persuaded the management to be rather more generous.

[Dirk73]

That's a great story Tony, shame we don't make the same volume and quality of steel components that we used to.

pretty sure the number on the crank was same as the engine number, 4337. The engine came from down-under via Hans Compter some years back so i have no idea of it's past lives. It's now re-united with a '24 chassis.

Were Shardlow's cranks only used on work's engines? (presumably of some improved quality over the Austin cranks?) Or were they just an alternative supplier of similar quality cranks i wonder...
Dirk

[Reckless Rat]

He must have had a fair old walk to work if he got off the tram in Carlisle St because Shardlow's factory was on Grange Mill Lane Wincobank (and had been since 1916). , unless he was working in the offices which were on Washford Rd, Attercliffe.

[Tony Griffiths]

He must have had a fair old walk to work if he got off the tram in Carlisle St because Shardlow's factory was on Grange Mill Lane Wincobank (and had been since 1916). , unless he was working in the offices which were on Washford Rd, Attercliffe.

You are correct, of course. I was remembering the factory he took me around - which must have belonged to his company - was on Carlisle Street. http://www.bifrangi.co.uk/history.html

[Duncan Grimmond]

In my shameful (but blissful) ignorance I had thought that "ambrosia" was a euphemism for the old saw "crankshafts made from rice pudding..."