Chambers Motors

The founder, Jack Chambers, had earlier designed and constructed the first Vauxhall car in 1902-3 while Managing Director of the Vauxhall Iron Works, London. After resigning in January 1904, he filed a master patent in May 1904 for a Chambers car featuring coil springs and a twin cylinder transverse engine with chain drive.

Production was undertaken in Cuba Street, Belfast, in association with Jack's brothers Robert and Charlie who had been operating as millwrights from 1897. Their main product was an automatic bottle-wiring machine to fasten the corks of mineral-water bottles at the rate of 1200 per hour. Prior to the First World War, the company achieved notable success, particularly with its 12/16 Model, variants of which were built from 1907 to 1925. During this period of success, Chambers vehicles won several awards in IAC and SMMT reliability and hill climbing trials, while vehicles were exported as far as Australia, the British Raj and the United States. During the Great War, the company initially produced several ambulances for the military, however regulations were put in place that required a greater engine power than Chambers engines could provide and an initial supply of 6 ambulances were all that were produced. With no military orders for vehicles and massively reduced civilian demand, the company turned to munitions (such as shell cases and percussion caps for hand grenades), and aircraft components (for Avro 504 biplanes).