White and Poppe Limited was a proprietary engine building and gearbox manufacturing business established in Coventry in 1899 by Alfred James White (1870-) and Norwegian Peter August Poppe (1870-1933). Many early motor vehicle manufacturers bought in their major components so the company supplied up to 15 customers and employed around 350 people by 1914. Market changes reduced the customer-base but Dennis Brothers, always an important customer, took much of their output and purchased the company in 1919.
White and Poppe remained a distinct entity but during the Great Depression Dennis Brothers manufactured engines in their Surrey works and sourced diesel engines elsewhere. Thus the Coventry operation was disposed of by mid 1933.
Proprietors
This business was established in 1899 by Coventry-born Alfred James White (1870-) and Norwegian Peter August Poppe (1870-1933). They had met in Austria at a weapons factory where Poppe was on secondment from his job in Norway with Kongsberg weapons factory. White was the son of a retired watchmaker, supplier of chronometers to The Admiralty and director of White and Poppe customers Swift and Singer. White's family provided most of the capital for this new business and initially White looked after the accounts and called himself general manager. Poppe, an engineer, took charge of design and together they produced precision components for the automotive industry. Though Peter Poppe went to Rover in 1923 and a younger son left before the company closed its doors Alfred White and Poppe's eldest son Erling remained with the business until they had completed the transfer of operations to Guildford.
History
"High speed" petrol engines, carburettors, gearboxes, clutches . . .
White's partner, Peter August Poppe was designer and chief engineer. He and White and Poppe Limited jointly held many patents for inventions made by him.
Prior to World War I they served the booming motor industry with their engines in such high demand that at the 1906 British International Motor Exhibition 15 different firms displayed automobiles with White and Poppe engines.
By 1910 the White and Poppe carburettor was used by a large proportion of engine builders for motor boats, motorcars and aero engines. A variable jet provided a constant mixture. The petrol jet orifice and the air supply (throttle opening) were designed to cover the whole range of speeds.
The first Morris Oxford used a White and Poppe engine, carburettor, clutch and gearbox.
Dennis Brothers customers
W & P made high speed petrol engines for many motor manufacturers but most of their large engines were for Dennis Brothers Limited who became their largest customer. By the outbreak of war some kind of fusion of interests was being considered by the two boards.
Fuses, filling shells, aeroplane wings
During the war, in addition to the engines for Dennis Brothers and Hallford, by the end of the war some 4,000 of them, White and Poppe also made fuses. More specifically Fuse 80 bodies and 18pdr shell sockets, rings, caps and base plugs. White and Poppe also managed the Ministry of Munitions No.10 (later 21) National Shell Filling & Fuse factory, part of which was switched at the end of 1916 from fuses to making aeroplane wings. By November 1918 they employed 13,500 people.
Discussions resumed after the war and in April 1919 Dennis Brothers shareholders were asked to consent to the issue of new capital for Dennis Brothers to acquire W & P Later that year White and Poppe became a Dennis Brothers subsidiary but maintained its separate identity. The extent of the fuse-making business was such that there were severe difficulties in winding it up.
Dennis Brothers owners
Both Poppe and White were made directors of Dennis Brothers. In the recession of 1920 Poppe and another director were sent to USA to investigate their most modern manufacturing methods. At the end of 1921 the shareholders were told the Coventry factory had not been adequately employed and there was a search for new type of work away from motor transport.
