Skinners Union

SU carburettors are a brand of carburettor of the constant depression type. The design remained in quantity production for much of the twentieth century.

The S.U. Carburetter Company Limited also manufactured dual-choke updraught carburettors for aero-engines such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin and Rolls-Royce Griffon.

Herbert Skinner (1872-1931), pioneer motorist and an active participant in the development of the petrol engine, invented his Union carburettor in 1904. His much younger brother Carl (Thomas Carlisle) Skinner (1882-1958) also a motoring enthusiast had joined the Farman Automobile Co in London in 1899. He helped Herbert to develop the carburettor. Herbert's son could remember his mother sewing the first leather bellows. It would be given on loan to The Science Museum, South Kensington in 1934. In 1905 Herbert applied for a patent which was granted in early 1906. Later Carl sold his interest in footwear business Lilley & Skinner and became a partner in G Wailes & Co of Euston Road, London, manufacturers of their carburettor. Herbert continued to develop and patent improvements through to the 1920s including the replacement of the leather bellows by a brass piston though he was a full-time director and divisional manager of Lilley & Skinner.

S. U. Company Limited —Skinner-Union— was incorporated in August 1910 to acquire Herbert's carburettor inventions and it began manufacture of the carburettors in a factory at Prince of Wales Road, Kentish Town in North London. Sales were slow. Following the outbreak of war in 1914 carburettor production nearly stopped with the factory making machine gun parts and some aircraft carburettors. With peace in 1918 production resumed but sales remained slow and the company was not profitable so Carl Skinner approached his customer, W. R. Morris, and managed to sell him the business. Carl Skinner (T C Skinner) became a director of Morris's privately held empire and remained managing director of S.U. until he retired in 1948 aged 65. Production was moved to the W R Morris owned Wolseley factory at Adderley Park, Birmingham. In 1936 W R Morris sold many of his privately held businesses including S. U. to his listed company, Morris Motors.

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