Sidney Horstmann

Sidney Adolph Horstmann, OBE (July 7, 1881 - July 11, 1962) was a British engineer and businessman.

Sidney was the youngest son of the German clockmaker Gustav Horstmann, who moved to England about 1850. Gustav designed the world's first micrometer with an accuracy greater than 1/10000 of an inch. Sidney was born in Bath.

In 1904, Horstmann and his brothers founded Horstmann Gear to produce a variable speed gearbox he had invented for cars and motorcycles, which later became a general engineering company but specialising in gas street lighting controls, time switches, gauges, and latterly central heating controls. In 1915 a large factory, Newbridge Works, was opened in Newbridge, Bath, and Newbridge was used as a trade mark. In 1994 the Horstmann family sold their remaining shares and Horstmann Group became part of Clayhithe plc, which in 1998 was acquired by Roxspur plc. The factory was moved from Newbridge to Bristol in 2000. In 2001 the company became Horstmann Controls.

In 1913, Horstmann founded an automotive company Horstman Cars that eventually became Horstman Defence Systems. He was responsible for developing a coil spring suspension system known as the Horstmann bogie, which is used on many western tanks, including the Centurion and Chieftain. He patented this system in 1922, some nine years prior to Dr. Ferdinand Porsche's similar system which was featured in many German tanks in the Second World War.

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