Talk:Lucas Industries

"Prince of Darkness"
Rewritten / reverted to represent a Neutral_point_of_view (Again). User:Champion150, 13th June 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Champion150 (talk • contribs) 17:08, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Seems to be non-neutral, and it's full of weasel words. Also unsourced.


 * 71.173.3.251 (talk) 08:23, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

The section "Prince of Darkness" has been rewritten and renamed. I have reviewed this page.

Dmbrunton (talk) 11:44, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

I have removed the NPOV Tag -  following re-write and subsequent lack of comment from any source.

I have also marked the text (in hidden text) as not to be edited without prior review of this page.

The principles which should be remembered are that the wording must represent a Neutral_point_of_view.

User:Champion150, 09th October 2007

The previous wording was re-inserted by a different user! As no further comments have been added to this page, I have re-edit the "Prince of Darkness" comment to highlight this as an opinion and provide a possible explanations of the reason for this opinion.

I hope this will close the issue (but I don't think that it will)

User:Champion150 18:25 (BST), 22nd September 2007

I have removed the "Prince of Darkness" comments. These are a matter of opinion and not fact. Any car over 10 years old can have electrical problems, sometimes even new cars have them. It is not established whether electrical faults in older British cars are the fault of the Lucas electrical components, or the fact that they were badly put together in factories where industrial action in the form of strikes were commonplace.

Leesonic 01:25, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Fact: For decades, MGs, Triumphs, and other British Leyland cars had very poor electrical systems. For example, a friend's new Spitfire had two Lucas batteries fail (he was heartbroken when the dealer told him they wouldn't have another Lucas battery in stock for months, so the only viable option was to install a non-Lucas battery) and the car blew one of its three fuses--just three for the whole car!--about every other month. Whether the fault was cost cutting by BL or poor product from Lucas, the *fact* remains that Lucas *was* known as the Prince of Darkness due to the inept electrical systems bodged together with Lucas parts. This was very much a part of the reputation and culture of British cars in the US, notably celebrated in the movie Gumball Rally--though I don't recall that "Prince of Darkness" was used in the movie. Neutrality is being confused with weasel-wording. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.233.119.55 (talk) 07:48, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Having worked on British cars here in the USA for 50 years, I think I can add a bit to this discussion. The two MAJOR problems with Lucas equipment were 1) Lack of knowledge of it by US mechanics-who as often messed stuff up as they fixed it and 2) corrosion of connections. Unfortunately problem #2 fed into problem #1! Where a few minutes of cleaning some contacts with emory would have solved the problem, the US mechanical would replace an entire component and in the process mess up something else, or connect it wrong, etc. On my first British car 50 years ago a mechanic messed up my electrical system by installing a battery with reversed polarity.... and then charging me to replace the generator and regulator. He also fried my positive ground radio.... It was then I decided to learn about auto electrics myself! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.76.254.35 (talk) 11:42, 1 March 2009 (UTC)


 * At the time IIRC, most British cars were positive earth (positive ground) so any inexperienced mechanic used to working on negative earth (negative ground) systems might well connect up the battery first without checking the polarity. This would lead to frying of components, which, it being the mechanic's fault for not doing the job right in the first place, he would then try and put the blame elsewhere - otherwise he might get made to pay for the repairs.


 * Having said that, most of BLs products in the 1970s were pretty ropey, often due to inadequate investment and/or unwillingness to fix design faults that showed up on early cars, and poor industrial relations caused by, for the most part, 'red' union shit-stirrers. Luckily, that's no longer a problem for the unions, as they effectively put themselves out of a job back in the 1980s.

The CAV section is in error with regard to closing. I went to work for CAV in July 1981 when the plant was making DPA pumps and microjectors for Oldsmobile. In 1983 we started on gasoline fuel injector with a disc design creating by John Kenning and Matt Potts from GKS. The Greenville SC plant became a part of Lucas Engine Management Systems (LEMS), then Sagem-Lucas, then Sagem and is now part of Standard Motor Products. From around 1987 on the Greenville plant was an OE supplier of gasoline fuel injectors and fuel rails and at various times was a supplier to Saab, BMW, PSA, SMP and VW. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saabie22 (talk • contribs) 16:32, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Just my two cents. Theres a danish saying. Edison invented the light bulb, lucas invented the short circuit. would be nice to have mentioned also ;-D Browsem (talk) 11:35, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

A common saying among Brits is, "Lucas, they brought darkness to the light." I heard this many times, as I worked for a variety of dealerships selling British products, including Ransomes, Coventry Climax, Conveyancer, Shawloader, Lancer Boss, Lansing Bagnall, and Henley forklifts. UrbanTerrorist (talk) 14:38, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

The following OR/POV/contentious content was relocated to Talk this date:


 * , into the present day. However, Lucas did not use the "King of the Road" epithet for every lamp manufactured. They used this name on only their most prestigious and usually highest priced lamps and goods. This naming format would last until the 1920s when the "King of the Road" wording was pressed into the outer edge of the small "lion and torch" button motifs that frequently decorated the tops of both bicycle and motor-car lamps. The public were encouraged by Lucas to refer to every Lucas lamp as a "King of the Road", but strictly speaking, this is quite wrong, as most lamps throughout the 20th century possessed either a name, a number, or both.

Joseph Lucas, the founder of Lucas Industries was humorously known as the Prince of Darkness in North America, because of the electrical problems common in Lucas-equipped cars, especially British Leyland products. Whether the fault lay with Lucas or British Leyland cost-cutting is open to dispute. As Joseph Lucas died in 1902 and British Leyland was not formed until 1968, some 66 years later, this title is undeserved. This perception is also connected with early supply problems of "King of the Road" lighting products within the North American Markets during the early 1900s, and also be attributed to the reputation that in vehicles the company used small gauge wiring, which tended to wear out or corrode quickly. Interestingly, Joseph and Harry Lucas formed a joint stock corporation with the New Departure Bell Co., of America in 1896, so that Lucas designed bicycle lamps could be manufactured in America to avoid import duties.

50.163.88.251 (talk) 22:50, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Rotax
This section needs expanding and correcting. My father worked for Rotax in Maxwell Road, Beaconsfield, from the late 40s till the factory closed and work moved to Lucas in Hemel Hempstead in the late 50s/early 60s (my father chose not to move and got another job elsewhere). So the statement that the final move of Rotax was to Willesden in 1913 is clearly wrong. A web search for Rotax and Beaconsfield shows several film studio history sites saying that Rotax moved to the site of Beaconsfield Studios in 1939 to manufacture aircraft magnetos for the war effort. This seems odd as the present site of the Beaconsfield Film Studios is halfway between the Old and New Town, not in Maxwell Road. There was also a parliamentary question thrown up by a web search from 1959 by the MP for Beaconsfield about giving Rotax more defence work.
 * This is taken from the indicated source, which may not be reliable. I took it to mean 'final' in the sense of 'finally' becoming 'Rotax', rather than implying there were no other factories elsewhere later - you might like to reword it. Pterre (talk) 07:38, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

I am wondering if there was more than one company called Rotax, and that explains the apparent confusion here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DigbyJames (talk • contribs) 23:19, 7 April 2011 (UTC)
 * As far as I know there were only two companies called Rotax, this one and this one. Pterre (talk) 07:38, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Just a FYI, Lucas worked on the design and manufacture of the combustion chambers for almost every British gas turbine engine through the 1940s to the 1960s and their extensive knowledge of combustion and combustion chamber design is one of the reasons that production British jet engines of the period didn't produce massive amounts of black smoke from the exhaust, unlike many others of the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.57.101 (talk) 14:59, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

POV Edit War on This Article
No matter what any particular experts may say about Lucas electrical systems, Wikipedia's basic rules are clear. There is no way comments fighting to restore Lucas' reputation are acceptable. That's something for history to judge. Arguing that they should have done this or that with their wiring, had bad suppliers, or whatever, is beside the point as far as Wikipedia is concerned. That should go on old car discussion sites, not here. "Harumph" and "I was there" at us all you like, but that's how this place works. I have similar experience on other subjects, but that's irrelevant. It needs to be edited.Andacar 14:19, 1 July 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andacar (talk • contribs)

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Sources for Lucas' reputation for poor quality/jokes
user:BilCat Below are reliable sources for Lucas industries reputation for poor quality and the origin of the Lucas jokes. Would these be useable for the article? The first link is behind a paywall, but I am a member and can provide my login information if need be. Also, just a quick anecdote. I was a drag racer back in the 1980's and raced primarily at US-30 dragstrip in Indiana. At that time, ALL AHRA dragstrips had a strict prohibition on Lucas Electrical products due to their inherent safety and quality issues. If you breeched this rule, you could be banned - for LIFE - from all AHRA events. That's how serious the problem was. In any event, please check out the links below...

https://www.autonews.com/article/19941010/ANA/410100719/lucas-chief-campaigns-to-shed-new-light-on-dark-reputation

https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/lucas-electricals-as-bad-as-everyone-says/

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2019/02/08/know-ye-fear-lucas-once-tried-to-build-an-entire-car

https://jalopnik.com/lucas-once-built-an-entire-car-so-get-your-jokes-ready-1833755033

Also, the general consensus in the 1970s and 1980s was that Lucas engineers were deliberately sabotaging designs such as to make them unsafe in operation. This was related to The Troubles. Again, this is something that is rather difficult to source as it was more of a rumor you would hear in garages at the time. If we cant include the rumors I mentioned, we should be able to include the reliably sourced info above. I eagerly wait input from other contributors. 2600:1700:1250:6D80:A53E:C445:DB6F:9C33 (talk) 21:19, 30 October 2022 (UTC)


 * If no one objects I would like to add a section regarding Lucas' reputation for poor quality as sourced by the links above. In Lucas's defense, I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never had any trou....  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:1250:6D80:A53E:C445:DB6F:9C33 (talk) 21:31, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Lucas History and Diversification Into Home Appliances
Lucas refrigerators were instrumental in establishing the tradition of warm beer in the UK. Additionally, Lucas was responsible for some important inventions. For example, back in the 70's, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck. Later, in the 1980s they attempted to market a computer. However, this effort failed as they could not find a way to get it to leak oil. Also, Lucas developed their own three-position switch: Dim, Flicker and Off. This switch was developed in concert with the first self-dimming headlamp and the first intermittent wiper.

Contrary to universal opinion, not all Land Rovers were troublesome. There was a man whose Land Rover didn't leak oil. The factory recalled it and worked on it until it did.

I also believe we should also include a section on the Lucas motto: "Get home before dark"

You'll have to forgive me if there are misspellings in my edits - a Lucas engineer used my computer and left white-out all over my monitor. And finally, from a personal point of view, I have had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never had any trou...

Assembly of Lucas Components
To be fair to Lucas you have to understand that all their components were assembled in the dark. Reminds me of a Triumph I had back in the 1970s. The vehicle had three toggle switches in a row, but none of them were labeled. I asked the dealer "How can you tell one switch from another at night, since they all look the same?" The dealer replied to me: "The switches were made by the English. It doesn't matter which one you use, nothing happens!" 2600:1700:1250:6D80:E85C:2479:124D:FFBD (talk) 23:47, 11 January 2023 (UTC)