Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies
 Company name plate on steam engine boiler |
|
| (from 1911) public listed company | |
| Industry |
Agricultural engineering, General engineering, Manufacturing |
| Fate | Taken over |
| Successor | Textron Inc. |
| Founded | of company 1884, of enterprise before 1789 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Ipswich, England |
| Products | Ploughs, Traction engines, Threshing machines, Combine harvesters, Lawn mowers, Trolleybuses, Forklifts etc |
| Website | www |
Ransomes, Sims and Jeffries Limited was a major British agricultural machinery maker also producing a wide range of general engineering products in Ipswich, Suffolk including traction engines, trolleybuses, ploughs, lawn mowers, combine harvesters and other tilling equipment. Ransomes also manufactured Direct Current electric motors in a wide range of sizes, and electric forklift trucks and tractors. They manufactured aeroplanes during the First World War. Their base, specially set up in 1845, was named Orwell Works.
Ransomes' railway equipment business was hived off in 1869 with a different ownership as Ransomes & Rapier and based nearby at Waterside Ironworks.
The enterprise was started by Robert Ransome (1753-1830), a brass and iron-founder in Norwich before moving to Ipswich in 1789 where he started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St Margaret's Ditches in Ipswich, with capital of £200 and one employee. As a result of a mishap in his foundry, a broken mould caused molten metal to come into contact with cold metal, making the metal surface extremely hard – chilled casting – which he advertised as 'self sharpening' ploughs, and received patents for his discovery.
In 1809 Robert Ransome made his eldest son, James Ransome (1782-1849), his partner and they called themselves Ransome & Son. In 1826 James's son known as Allen but technically James Allen Ransome (1806-1875) went to live at Yoxford, Suffolk, where he established a branch of the business. In 1839 Allen Ransome moved from Yoxford to Ipswich and under his direction the firm of J, R & A Ransome (James, Robert and Allen Ransome) was to assume huge proportions. After about 1841 the manufacture of ploughs and other agricultural machinery was supplemented by production of portable, traction and other steam engines and thrashing machines.
...
Wikipedia