Chambers Motors

Template:New unreviewed article Chambers Motors was the first auto manufacturer in Ireland. The company built vehicles by hand featuring high-quality components designed and fabricated in-house. Passenger cars were built to suit doctors and wealthy businessmen, and commercial vehicles were produced for duty as ambulances and hearses. A key feature of the vehicles was a unique design of epicyclic gearbox in the rear axle. Chambers Motors employed around 75 people and built approximately 500 vehicles in 25 years of operation.

The founder Jack Chambers had earlier designed and constructed the first Vauxhall car in 1902-3 while Managing Director of the Vauxhall Iron Works, London. After resigning in January 1904 he filed a master patent in May for a Chambers car featuring coil springs and a twin cylinder transverse engine with chain drive.

Production was undertaken in Cuda Street, Belfast in association with Jack's brothers Robert and Charlie who had been operating as millwrights from 1897. Their main product was an automatic bottle-wiring machine to fasten the corks of mineral-water bottles at the rate of 1200 per hour. The company produced munitions in the First World War including shell cases and percussion caps for hand grenades, and aircraft components for the Avro 504 biplane.

The company became less profitable in the face of competition from mass-produced cars. The operation was voluntarily wound up in 1929. Only four Chambers cars are known to exist today, including an 8 hp model from 1908 displayed in the newly-refurbished Ulster Museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Chambers cars competed in many hill-climb, reliability, and time trials. In the Irish Reliability Trial of 1906 during non-stop runs an average petrol consumption of 43 miles to the gallon was achieved.

Specifications of Chambers cars:

Model	Years	Cylinders	Engine orientation	Bore	Stroke	Wheelbase	Track	Feature
7 hp	1904-1905	Two	Horizontal	3 1/8 in	4 1/4 in	6 ft 6 in	4 ft
8 hp	1905-1909	Two	Horizontal	3 1/8 in	4 1/4 in	6 ft 6 in	4 ft
10 hp	1906-1909	Two	Horizontal	3 3/4 in	4 1/2 in	7 ft	4 ft
10-12 hp	1908-1909	Two	Horizontal	4 in	4 1/2 in	7 ft	4 ft
12-16 hp	1907-1909	Two	Horizontal	3 3/8 in	4 1/4 in	8 ft 6 in	4 ft
12-14 hp	1909	Four	Vertical	85 mm	4 in	8 ft	4 ft
12-16 hp	1910-1924	Four	Vertical	3 3/8 in	4 in	9 ft 6 in	4 ft 3 in
11-15 hp	1912-1924	Four	Vertical	3 1/8 in	4 in	8 ft 3 in	4 ft
11-15 hp	1919-1924	Four	Vertical	3 1/3 in	4 in	8 ft 6 in	4 ft	Sliding gear gearbox
14/34	1925	Four	Vertical	2 15/16 in	4 in	9 ft 6 in	4 ft 3 in	Sliding gear gearbox
18/48	1925-1929	Six	Vertical	2 11/16 in	4 in	10ft 6 in	4 ft 8 in

References

Moore, John S (2000). Chambers Motors 1904-1929. Ireland: Dreoilin Specialist Publications Limited. ISBN 1-902773-09-8.