Archive Issue 124

From In the Showroom: Ladies at the Wheel : Miss Elizabeth Murrison is leaving Land’s End for John o’ Groats on Tuesday 22nd September 1903 at the helm of a six-seater Arrol-Johnston dogcart. It is one of two vehicles of the marque making a publicity run, and, incidentally, allowing Lizzie Murrison to become the first woman to drive between the farthest points on mainland Great Britain. The event came about by accident since the Paisley-built cars were to have competed in the second Thousand Mile Reliability Trial which was scheduled to commence on the 16th September 1903 from London’s Crystal Palace. Owing to a misdirection by stewards before the start of the trial, the Arrol-Johnstons arrived late at the registration point and were disqualified. Arrol-Johnston directors decided to put the cars to good use with the publicity run, and in so doing received help from Miss Murison. Lizzie was at the Crystal Palace to watch the start of the Trial, and on hearing of Arrol-Johnston’s predicament, bravely volunteered to drive one of cars as far as Paisley, where she had relatives. Never having driven an automobile, she was given motoring instructions on the streets of Penzance before driving all the way to John o’ Groats, where she arrived without incident. Tony Thorpe

From James Rothwell Ltd : Plain and Twill Weaving: Picanols with Unifil. This shot shows a Picanol Président loom fitted with a Leesona ‘Unifil’ loom winder. The first loom with automatic pirn change in the shuttle was invented by James Northrop, but automatic weft winding directly on the weaving machine was only mastered in the 1950s, by the Leesona Co. of Burlington, North Carolina, and launched as the ‘Unifil’ system. Picanol is a Belgian weaving loom manufacturer, which produced Président shuttle looms at its factory in Ypres.