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The History of The Fork Lift Truck - Episode 7 - The War Years
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 Warehouse & Logistics News is proud to bring you the latest instalment in an exclusive series on the history of the forklift truck, which over the decades has revolutionised the face of materials handling around the world.
The writer is James Brindley, an acknowledged authority on forklift trucks. In James's distinguished career he has worked in engineering and management roles with BT Rolatruc and served as a Director of the Fork Lift Truck Association, before setting up the National Fork Truck Heritage Centre in 2004.
You will be hearing a lot more from James and the Heritage Centre in these pages, as we will be telling you just why the Heritage Centre needs your support. Now sit back and enjoy the latest part of this fascinating series.
The History of The Fork Lift Truck
By James Brindley, Director, National Fork Truck Heritage Centre
As with the earlier conflict of 1914/18, the Second World War gave a tremendous boost to the materials handling industry, and in particular to the wider adoption of the pallet and engine powered counterbalance truck.
During the time of the supply agreements with America, this combination was seriously put to the test as vast quantities of goods were loaded onto wagons and then onto ships for transportation to British shores.
When American forces entered the conflict the pallet was also used extensively to supply their own troops in the Pacific war zones. From the outset the palletising of goods led to a significant reduction in manual labour, and so released more men from home for military duties overseas.
By the end of 1940 Hyster had launched the model "HA" or Handy Andy forklift. Sold in two forms, the junior and the senior, they could lift up to 4,000lb and 6,000lb respectively.
The main features included a three wheel configuration, petrol engine and, for the first time, hydraulic tilt cylinders. The most innovative feature was a clear view mast, made possible by utilising a hydraulically operated lift motor. This was fitted to the outer mast section to drive a worm gear for the chain hoist mechanism.
Various other models were produced over the next two years and included the model "JT," named the "Stevego," model "RT 150" and the model "VT75," which had the same lift capacity as the 'Stevego" but had pneumatic tyres.
One of Hyster's major contributions to the war effort during this time was the supply of 250 Karry Krane yard cranes to the British docks, to replace dockside craning machinery damaged or destroyed in air raids.
During the lease/lend period forklift trucks were also sent to Britain, as part of the ships' cargo, to help unload the palletised goods. A large majority of these machines were made in quantity by the Clark Company and were called "Carloaders" (Sub description "Plate.") These machines, which had petrol engines and a 4,000lb lift capacity, were all sit-on counterbalance trucks and were produced between 1941 and 1945.
In 1942, Clark introduced its first battery driven forklift truck. This was also named the "Carloader" and had the same lift capacity and four-wheel configuration as the petrol driven model. The battery was designed to have the capability of completing a normal working shift on a full charge. The launch of this truck, however, had to be delayed until after the war, due to problems with Government wartime restrictions.
In the UK these early war years also brought problems to the newly formed Lansing Bagnall and Company Ltd, but these difficulties were of a more serious kind as customer demand for their type of equipment faded away. As a consequence manufacturing output went down and F.E.Bagnall resigned as Managing Director.
On 16 April 1943, the company was sold to Emanuel Kaye and John R Sharp, who between them owned a small precision engineering company called J.E.Shay Ltd, in Mortlake in West London. By August the same year, Lansing Bagnall and Company Ltd was officially renamed Lansing Bagnall Ltd.
The new company was not allowed to build materials handling equipment, due to a concentration of industries, but they did take on the distributorship for the American models produced by Baker Industrial Trucks and the Automatic Company Limited.
If you would like to support the National Fork Truck Heritage Centre, call James Brindley on 0780 195 4167
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