VINTAGE TOY SUBMARINE WINDUP NAUTILUS SERIES

This was possibly due to the great loss of the lives of local men in the Great War.Īfter turning to clockwork propulsion Sutcliffe quickly abandoned the use of bought-in German motors and devised his own mechanism. It also mentioned the fact that the workforce in the Sutcliffe factory at this time was mainly made up of girls. The last of the hot air vessels was a chunky 16” Cabin Cruiser which, like most of the others in this range, has now become a rare collectors’ item.Īn article placed in Meccano Magazine by Sutcliffe in the late 1920s suggests that a pennyworth of spirit would power one of the big boats for up to three hours. Two were simple cruisers, the smallest being only 8” long, and these were aimed towards those who couldn’t afford the big battleships. One of the big problems with the early hot air boats had been the heat that inevitably built up inside them and despite the use of deck vents emitting this heat was a problem that usually led to severe paint blistering of the vessel and the occasional burning of fingers… these were not the safest of toys!Īlongside the battleships several other hot air boats were produced during the 1920s. They remained in production until the late 1930s and are very hard to find in good condition today. The clockwork version of the 12” battleship was eventually given the name ‘Valiant,’ while the big clockwork 16” boat was given the name ‘Nelson’ and was also slightly reduced in height. The early Sutcliffe ships were finished in a variety of colour combinations of grey, red and cream.Īround 1929 production of the hot air battleships came to an end and a switch was made to clockwork motors.

This was a lot of money in the 1920s placing the ships well out of the reach of the average working class man or boy. Constructed from nearly fifty different parts and hand assembled at the factory the retail price of this toy boat was expensive at fifteen shillings. This ‘big brother’ boat was powered by a burner with two water coils and double wicks angled inwards towards each other with a pair of deck vents allowing heat from inside the hull to escape. Not long after the launch of the 12” battleship it was joined by a mighty 16” vessel of similar design.

The name and address of the maker was stamped into the stern of the early ships prior to the arrival of the more familiar oval trade-marks. The first battleships were branded as ‘Cliffe’ boats for a short period before a change was made to ‘Sutcliffe’.

VINTAGE TOY SUBMARINE WINDUP NAUTILUS SERIES

The series began with a 12” boat which was sold in a plain card box with a simple glued on label. These became known as the hot air battleships. Sutcliffe’s first toy boats were based on World War One Dreadnought type battleships powered by methylated spirit fired burners. Now there were fresh opportunities for British companies to enter the tin toy market and Sutcliffe realised the potential in self-propelled boats.

Prior to the First World War the tin toy industry in Britain, especially boats, had been dominated by German manufacturers who imported their goods in high volume, but the war altered this. Small metal items made by hand at Atlas House included photographic equipment and oil cans and it was not until 1920 that Sutcliffe Pressings first began making toy boats initially just as a sideline.Ī year earlier in 1919, Frederic Adolphus Lappin, who was a resident of Middlesbrough, had invented and patented the ‘Flash Boiler’ water circulation engine similar to the ‘Pop-Pop’ system of water propultion and it was this type of coil tube hot air system that Sutcliffe adopted for his first toy boats. This workshop became known as Atlas House. Initially sharing a workshop with a relative who traded as a joiner, in 1903 John Sutcliffe managed to acquire his own premises located behind the family home on Town Street, Horsforth. There was plenty of work about in those days in and around Leeds where industry was thriving. In 1885 John William Sutcliffe began trading as a sheet metal worker and tinsmith at the age of twenty, whilst also carrying out repairs to industrial equipment.

Vintage toy submarine windup nautilus