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Bicycles, Cars, Aeroplanes & Yachts

Innovations in technological engineering in the later nineteenth century led to the appearance of exciting new products on the consumer market, from bicycles to luxury yachts. George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1828-1892), the third Duke of Sutherland and his son Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1851-1913), the fourth Duke of Sutherland were enthusiastic owners of bicycles and automobiles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In addition to correspondence relating to the fourth Duke of Sutherland’s Amulet Bicycle, accounts and vouchers in the Sutherland Papers tell us about the Duke’s enthusiasm for automobiles in the early twentieth century. Malcolm Asquith describes the Leveson-Gower family as ‘pioneer motorists’, George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1828-1892), the third Duke of Sutherland owning Thomas Rickett’s steam car, the first car manufactured for commercial sale in 1858.

The Leveson-Gower family also owned a number of luxury yachts which they leased to wealthy associates and took on foreign voyages during the nineteenth century. Accounts, vouchers and correspondence in the Sutherland Papers tell us about the family’s famous yachts, the Catania and the Ondine.

Following developments in the engineering of automobiles, many inventors and engineers of the late nineteenth century became involved in aeronautical experiments. Enthusiastic about developments in aeronautical engineering, documents in the Sutherland Papers tell us that the third Duke of Sutherland served as Vice-President of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain and witnessed aeronautical experiments carried out by the American inventor Sir Hiram Maxim (1840-1916).

Contextual information on the Rickett steam car courtesy of Malcolm Asquith www.crossley-motors.org.uk taken from Beaulieu Encyclopaedia of the Automobile (The Stationery Office, 2000)