Lucas

Joseph Lucas, who had begun in the 1850s selling paraffin from a cart in Birmingham, opened a workshop in Little King Street in 1875 with five employees. The 'King of the Road' oil hub lamp for bicycles, designed by his son Harry, appeared in 1878 and was patented in 1880, and the name became the mark of the firm's best electrical goods into the 1940s. Trading as Joseph Lucas and Son from 1882, the business was floated in 1897 as Joseph Lucas Ltd with a nominal capital of £225,000, and built a five-storey factory in Great King Street, the address it kept for the rest of the century. Joseph Lucas died in 1902 and Harry succeeded him as chairman.

Motor electrics followed the bicycle trade: magnetos, dynamos, starters and windscreen wipers from 1902, the Thomson-Bennett magneto business in 1914, and a Morris contract the same year that drove the firm's growth. By 1923 Lucas was selling in increasing quantities to other makers including Rover. In 1926 it bought its two largest rivals, C. A. Vandervell (CAV) and Rotax, and won the Austin electrical contract; British Bosch and Globe and Simpson followed in 1937 and the Girling brake business in 1943. Through both wars the company made electrical equipment for military and civil vehicles and for aircraft. The parent became Joseph Lucas (Industries) Ltd in 1951, took over Simms Motor and Electronics in 1968, and was renamed Lucas Industries in 1974-75, adopting the diagonal logo; it listed as Lucas Industries plc in 1982.

Lucas supplied Rover, and issued dedicated catalogues of 'Lucas C.A.V. quality equipment and spare parts' for Rover vehicles (CCE 905H, 1959) and 'Lucas equipment and service parts, Rover' (PEZ/468/A, 1968, 28 pages). For the Ministry of Defence's Land Rovers the electrical fit was to Fighting Vehicle specification: the six-way convoy light switch and harness, a Lucas assembly fitted to military Series IIA Land Rovers and to military Defenders until 1993 (Land Rover part PRC2089, later 547162), controlled the convoy lighting, while the rear convoy or number-plate lamp No. 1 Mk 1, FV14933, later Land Rover part RTC4771, was fitted to military Series II, IIA and III, Lightweight, 101 Forward Control and Defender, and to Bedford trucks and Sankey trailers.

Lucas Automotive was formed in 1988 and the green house colour adopted worldwide in 1994. In 1996 Lucas Industries merged with the North American Varity Corporation as LucasVarity plc, and in 1999 TRW Inc. bought the group; ZF Friedrichshafen bought TRW in 2015. The Lucas name is now a ZF aftermarket brand for starters, alternators and electrical parts, and in Britain and Europe ELTA Automotive has held the Lucas licence for lighting, wiper and ignition products for more than thirty years. A monument to Joseph Lucas stands on Great King Street North in Newtown.