Foundation In the 1850s,
Joseph Lucas, a jobless father of six, sold
paraffin oil from a barrow around the streets of
Hockley. In 1860, he went on to found the firm that would later become Lucas Industries. His 17-year-old son Harry joined the firm around 1872. At first the firm made general pressed metal merchandise, and later in 1875, they branched out into
lamps for ships.
Joseph Lucas & Son was based in Little King Street from 1882 and later Great King Street,
Birmingham. The business of Joseph Lucas & Sons was incorporated into Joseph Lucas Ltd in 1897.
King of the Road In 1879, Joseph’s son Harry designed an
oil hub lamp for use on high wheel
bicycles and christened it the ‘King of the Road’, which birthed a Lucas sub-brand. ‘King of the Road’ would come to be associated with the manufactured products of Lucas Companies, although its use was reserved for their most prestigious, and usually highest priced,
electrical goods. The naming format lasted until the 1940s with the ‘King of the Road’ used profusely on communication material whilst product branding was limited to
bicycle lamps and
batteries. In 1896, Joseph and Harry Lucas formed a joint-stock corporation with the New Departure Bell Co. of America in order to manufacture their bicycle lamps in America and thus avoid import duties. The ‘King of the Road’ name is still used today on several products in the Lucas Classic parts programme.
1902 to World War I In 1902, Joseph Lucas Ltd started making automotive electrical components such as
magnetos,
alternators,
windscreen wipers, horns, lighting, wiring and
starter motors. The strike was depicted in the British crime drama
Peaky Blinders.
1931 women's strike Jessie Eden again organised another strike of Lucas factory workers in 1931, this time leading 10,000 non-unionised women on a week-long strike, during which she joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Before the strike, Eden had noticed that Lucas factory supervisors had been closely observing her work, and that the supervisors were monitoring her because she was a fast worker and that they planned to use her work speed as a standard for all the other workers in the factory. Eden approached the
Amalgamated Engineering Union; however, they did not allow women to join their membership so she instead approached the
Transport & General Workers' Union (T&G). In protest to the factory's plans, Eden organised a mass walkout of 10,000 Lucas factory worker women, who refused to work for a week. The strike was successful and the Lucas Electrics factory management was forced to back down. After the victory, the overjoyed factory workers were so ecstatic that the factory could not function during normal hours and had to be closed early. and led to the T&G's leader (then
Ernest Bevin) to award Jessie Eden with the union's Gold Medal. they started a
semiconductor manufacturing plant to make
rectifiers and
transistors.
Lucas Plan (1976) In 1976, the workforce within Lucas Aerospace were facing significant layoffs. Under the leadership of
Mike Cooley, they developed the Lucas Plan to convert the company from arms to the manufacture of socially useful products, and save jobs. The plan was described at the time by the
Financial Times as "one of the most radical alternative plans ever drawn up by workers for their company", and by
Tony Benn as "one of the most remarkable exercises that have ever occurred in British industrial history". The Plan took a year to put together, consisted of six volumes of around 200 pages each, and included designs for 150 proposed items for manufacture, market analysis and proposals for employee training and restructuring the firm's work organisation. In addition, the Plan had an impact outside of Lucas Aerospace: according to a 1977 article in
New Statesman, "the philosophical and technical implications of the plan (were) now being discussed on average of twenty-five times a week in international media". ==Acquisitions and agreements==