David Napier (automotive engineer)

This article is about the automotive and aero-engine manufacturer. For other people of the same name see David Napier (disambiguation)

David Napier (1785–1873) was a Scottish engineer, notable for founding Napier & Son, an early automotive and aero-engine company.

Life

David Napier was born in Dumbarton to a family of engineers (the Kilmahew branch of the Napier family). He was the son of Robert Napier (1726–1790), and cousin of another Robert Napier – the "Father of Clyde Shipbuilding." One of David Napier's uncles had served as a blacksmith for the Duke of Argyll.

Engineering

He eventually moved south, and worked for Henry Maudslay before founding his own company in 1808 in Soho, London. In 1848, it became Napier & Son, when he added his son James Napier to the business partnership.

His engineering company produced machines for bullet-making, gun-boring and turning for a number of government arsenals, as well as coin-weighing machines for the Bank of England, two-cylinder printing presses (designed to print simultaneously on both sides of a sheet of paper) and a centrifuge for sugar manufacturing before turning to automobile manufacturing under his grandson Montague Napier. His machines were described as "delicate as any clock could be", and his printing press in particular earned praise by Thomas Curson Hansard.