Powerplant Background
Frank Perkins was absolutely convinced that the diesel was the powerplant of the future. His reasoning was fuel efficiency, but before his initial prototype was completed, the Depression had bankrupted the company
Perkins, the company namesake, was born in Peterborough, England, in 1889. Both his father and grandfather were engineers and the owners of the family firm of Barford and Perkins. Their main product, like others of this period, was agricultural machinery and field rollers, and heavy-duty steel rollers for road construction and maintenance.
Following in his family's footsteps, Frank pursued his mechanical engineering career at Aveling and Porter in Rochester Kent, England. While there, he became interested and started development of a light high-speed diesel unit, along with the engine designer, Charles Chapman. The project was left an orphan due to the company's demise.
Not to be denied, Perkins set up his personal enterprise on June 7, 1932. He was convinced that with proper drive and determination, he could carve out a profitable niche to develop diesel engines, which could be produced with comparable power to the established petrol (gasoline) units to serve the farm tractor market. Frank brought along his co-developer Charles Chapman from Aveling, and the two began work on their first project dubbed the Vixen.
On a Saturday evening in that autumn of 1932, the little diesel mill was brought to life with a manual crank and the aid of combustion caps heated red hot in a coke stove and rapidly fitted back into its combustion chamber. Obviously, there was joy all around when the little mill immediately fired and ran up to 4,000 rpm. Since there was no governor installed, the unit was promptly shut down. Thus, the Perkins diesel was born.
The company struggled during the Depression but managed to stay alive with a total production output of 35 engines in 1933. Though the Depression continued, the company managed to record an output of 556 units in 1936. A year later with the addition of a six-cylinder version, 650 different applications appeared in the catalog. More than 12,000 units were produced during World War II, making it a world player. Then, 25,218 engines were produced in 1959, the same year Massey-Ferguson took over the Perkins company. Perkins retired that year. In the '90s, the company supplied more than $150 million worth of engines to Case and an additional $80 million in sales to the fork lift industry. Caterpillar purchased Perkins by decade's end.