Editing Henry Royce (section)

==Starts F. H. Royce and Company==
Despite not being that familiar with the city the 21 year old Royce with his savings of £20 decided to start his own business in [[Manchester]].<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46>Reese, pp. 27, 29, 31-38, 41-46</ref> It has been speculated that he choose it a due to it lower costs than Liverpool or London. As a result, it was in 1884 that he established F. H. Royce and Company which operated from a workshop in Blake Street, [[Hulme]], manufacturing small electrical and mechanical items. Within the first six months a friend called Ernest Alexander Claremont (1863{{snd}}4 April 1922) had entered into partnership with Royce, contributing £50 that he appears to have borrowed from his father.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> Royce normally did the design and manufacture of their products with his partner responsible for sales, payments and deliveries as well as assisting in the workshop. Their partnership was to continue until Claremont’s death.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> By 1895 they were employing a salesman, W. Sergeant. Having little money, the partners lived in a shared room above the workshop, living on sandwiches and sausages.

After starting out with small items they moved into sub-contacting manufacture of lighting components, such as filaments, holders and lamps, though to make ends meet they would undertake any engineering work, including repairing sewing machines. The business’s first successful product was an electric bell for domestic use. While things were tight during their first three years as they invested any profits back into the business they were still able progressively to employ a workman, Thomas Weston Seale to assist in the manufacturing while six young women were taken on to assemble the bells and light filaments.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> In 1887 Tom Jones joined the firm as a workman to assist in the manufacturing of other products. By 1889 there were nine employees.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/>

As their business situation improved and they expanded into undertaking complete installations of electrical plant the partners were able by 1888 to move out of their accommodation above the workshop to board with Elizabeth and John Pollard at 24 Talbot Street in the Moss Side district. In that same year they expanded into adjacent larger premises accessed from 1A Cooke Street off Stretford Road in [[Hulme]].<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/>

During this period Royce worked from a desk in the workshop, while Claremont had an office which he shared with the business’s office staff. By the end of 1888 Claremont, who was engaged to be married had moved into his own house, while Royce in 1889 was in his own house at 45 Barton Street in Moss Side.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> This allowed his mother to move in with him and he hired a servant girl, Patricia Brady to assist in the running of the house.<ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg9-11>Pugh, ''The Magic of a Name – The First Forty Years'', pp. 9-11</ref> Following his marriage Royce and his wife moved into a semi-detached house called “Easthourne” at 2 Holland Park Road.<ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg9-11/>  Prior to this he had moved his mother into her own accommodation at 21 Warwick Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy where up until her death in 1904 he visited her most days on his way home from work.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/><ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg9-11/> Following their marriages both Claremont’s wife and her sister who married Royce together invested £1,500 in their husband’s business and later increased their shareholding.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/>

A significant uptake in the use of electricity from 1889 onwards lead to an increase in the company’s turnover and profitably. The company was registered on 4 June 1891 as F. H. Royce and Co, to take over the business of electrical and mechanical engineers of the firm of the same name.<ref name=Grace1>{{cite web |date= 3 February 2025 |title= F. H. Royce and Co |url=  https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/F._H._Royce_and_Co |website= Grace's Guide To British Industrial History  |accessdate= 23 April 2025}}</ref>
The continued increase in the company’s fortunes lead Royce and Claremont to consider an expansion of the company in preparation for which in March 1894 they had a valuation preformed which calculated it had assets worth £2,721 18s 4d.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> This inventory included the 53 machine tools or various typeshoused in their rented factory premises.<ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg9-11/>

That same year they converted the business into a [[private limited company]] called F. H. Royce and Company Ltd, with the newly hired accountant John De Looze as company secretary.<ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg9-11/> De Looze took over much of the administration from Claremont and Royce and was to stay until he retired from Rolls-Royce in 1943. At this time the company described itself as "Electrical and mechanical engineers and manufacturers of dynamos, motors and kindred articles."<ref name=Grace1/> Royce was its managing director and Claremont was its chairman. Both had 5,349 shares with Claremont’s friend James Whitehead purchasing a large number of shares to provide more capital and became a director.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/><ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg9-11/> Claremont’s wife purchased 1,131 shares and Royce’s wife 1,101.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> De Looze purchased one share, as did Claremont’s brother Albert. The company by now had 100 employees.

The company continued to grow though the rest of the 1890s, undertaking complete electrical installations of factories and large private houses. In 1894 they started making [[dynamo]]s designed by Royce and by 1895 were producing [[Crane (machine)|electric cranes]] which required expanding into more space at Cooke Street and later the acquisition of more space in a three-storey building.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> As well as their highly regarded cranes, the company was manufacturing arc lamps, dynamos, electric motors and switchgear. Following the opening of the [[Manchester Ship Canal]] in 1894 they sold nine of their cranes for use on the canal as well as a major contract to supply and install the arc-lighting system for the [[Port of Manchester]] and the adjacent Trafford Park.

On 24 July 1897 Royce was awarded his first patent, which was for a bayonet-cap lamp socket.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/> By October of that same year the company had £6,000 of orders on their books, which by March 1898 had increased to £9,000 and by February 1890 to £20,000.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/>
By the late 1890s they needed more capital to complete their work associated with the Manchester Ship Canal, while at the same time the dramatic increase in work due to this project meant that the existing factory was proving inadequate. A new factory was expected to cost £20,000, so a prospectus was issued with the aim of increasing the company’s capital to £30,000.<ref name=Reese_Pg27-46/>