Simms then started to build the boats on Eel Pie Island for use on the Thames, using the imported Daimler engines to power them. In 1895, a businessman named Harry J. Lawson saw an opportunity to build cars using the Daimler engine and duly bought up all the patents he could, including the rights to the Daimler engine from Simms. The only problem at the time was that, as the law stood, any vehicle on a public highway had to have a person carrying a flag to precede it. This was a legacy from the steam carriage days, but Lawson had influential friends and in 1896 managed to have the law repealed, so that vehicles could travel at 12 mph. |
