Blackstone Engine Plate, No.100717, Carters Patent

The first factory on Blackstone’s new Ryhall Road ten-acre site was completed in 1887. The firm of Blackstone and Company Limited was formed in 1889 and traded under this title until the mid-1930s. The future was seen as being in oil engines and so in 1896 the company acquired the sole use of the Carter Brothers patents along with oil engine patterns, castings, parts and fittings. The brothers, Frank and Evershed, were employed by the company and received a royalty of ten shillings per horse-power on each engine that left the factory that used their patents, with a minimum payment of fifteen shillings per engine. They continued to innovate the design of engines into the early 1930s.