Bowen

Bowen & Co. grew from the Phoenix foundry business established at Mount Pleasant, Clerkenwell, in 1808. Brass casting remained its core trade, but its foundry and machine shop gave the firm the ability to cast engine and gearbox components, press or cast body panels and machine the parts for a small car of its own. Automobile manufacture began in 1906 under the Bowen name. The entire known range was one compact 9 hp, approximately 1.3-litre twin-cylinder chassis, recognizable by a short bonnet behind an unusually large frontal radiator. It was not subjected to annual model changes during its three-year life. A cone clutch, three-speed-and-reverse selective gearbox and propeller shaft transmitted power to a live rear axle, while a tubular front axle, irreversible worm-and-sector steering and wooden artillery wheels completed the chassis. At only 78 inches in wheelbase and 48 inches in track, it was claimed to run between 4 and 30 mph in top gear. The standard £175 open two-seater included oil lamps and tools; a light delivery van and other body arrangements used the same mechanical model. Only one catalogue and one contemporary photograph were known to later specialist researchers, and no production total or survivor is securely documented. Bowen abandoned car manufacture in 1908 before it threatened the healthier foundry operation. On 11 August 1909 partners Thomas William Bowen, Frank Leigh Ehrke and Cecil Harold Moffatt dissolved their partnership; Bowen and Ehrke continued a successor foundry business, reportedly until 1922. This company and car are distinct from J. Bowen & Company, an unrelated British concern that sold a different Bowen automobile in 1905–1906. The catalog therefore records the 9 HP as Bowen & Co.'s sole model family, with two-seater and van treated as bodies rather than separate models.

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