A PIONEERING interactive reality archive has been created at Coventry University to allow visitors the chance to discover the genius of the ‘British da Vinci’ for the first time.
Praised as the Leonardo da Vinci of his time, 19th century engineer Frederick Lanchester was behind the creation of the first all-British motor-car and theorised the principles of flight a decade before the first plane took off.
He set up the Lanchester Motor Company with brothers Frank and George, and went on to develop theories behind power steering, turbo charged engines, disc brakes, and stream-lining.
And now his forward thinking creation have come to life in the Lanchester Interactive Archive.
The public exhibition space tells the story of Frederick’s life and work through an extensive archive and a working part-model of one of the company’s well-known cars.
The exhibition was opened by the project team at Coventry University and members of the Lanchester family on Wednesday (April 25).
Project manager Cathryn Thompson-Goodwin said: “Frederick Lanchester had a brilliant mind.
“He theorised flight before the Wright brothers got their first plane off the ground and patented technology that we still use in our cars today.
“He is referred to as the British ‘da Vinci’ which is perfectly apt when you see what he was creating in his notebooks.
“His creativity was incredible, and he was inventing these things at the turn of the 20th century which makes it all the more staggering and saddening to see the breadth of his unsung creative genius.
“We owe so much to him and it’s wonderful that we can now show his thought processes and inventions to inspire young engineers.”
A Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £466,600 made the exhibition possible, with additional funding and support from Coventry University adding to the attraction’s appeal.
The University now owns the world’s largest Lanchester archive including blueprints, letters, sketches and notes showing calculations on his theories of flight, power steering, disk brakes and gears in cars.
Historian Chris Clark, who helped put the collection together, said: “I am delighted my long-standing ambition to create a Lanchester exhibition for the public’s enjoyment has come to fruition.
The exhibition seems the perfect way to promote the genius of Dr Frederick Lanchester – a scientist, engineer, mathematician, and inventor.”
The archive space is now open to the public at Coventry University’s Lanchester Library on Gosford Steet.
Email [email protected] for access and further information.
