The Arnold was one of the first motor car

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

s manufactured in the United Kingdom. It was produced in East Peckham

East Peckham

East Peckham is a village in Kent, England, made up of nine hamlets and situated about east of Tonbridge on the River Medway. It was the centre for the hop growing industry in Kent and is still home to the Hop Farm which has the world's largest collection of Oast Houses.-History:The Domesday entry...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 between 1896 and 1898.

History

William Arnold & Sons of East Peckham

East Peckham

East Peckham is a village in Kent, England, made up of nine hamlets and situated about east of Tonbridge on the River Medway. It was the centre for the hop growing industry in Kent and is still home to the Hop Farm which has the world's largest collection of Oast Houses.-History:The Domesday entry...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, was an agricultural engineering company founded in about 1844.

In 1895 they acquired a licence to build Benz cars. As the Arnold Motor Carriage Co. from 1896 to 1898. the firm built twelve cars patterned after the Benz but fitted with their own engines. Two Arnolds were exhibited at Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...

 in 1896.

One Arnold from 1896 was fitted with the world’s first self-starter, by electrical engineer H. J. Dowsing. This was a dynamotor coupled to the flywheel, designed to assist the car on hills and well as starting the engine,

Two Arnold cars survive.

Sources

"Arnold", in G.N. Georgano, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars 1885–1968 (New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1974).

External links

• Photo of one of the two surviving Arnold cars