Road maps and atlases issued by lubricating oil companies in the UKRoad maps and atlases issued by lubricating oil companies in the UKLubricating Oil manufacturers and blenders have occasionally issed road maps in Britain and Europe, either for use as an on-pack promotion or for sale through service stations stocking their oils.
Millers PistoneezeThe Miller Oil Company has operated in Brighouse, West Yorkshire since at least the 1930s and is still in existence today, concentrating on speciality industrial lubricants and ones for the classic car market. In the 1950s and earlier it sold to the general retail market using the "Millers Pistoneeze" brand under the slogan "the Ace of Motor Oils".
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This is the only map known to have been produced by Millers Pistoneeze. The front cover shows a rather outdated spout pouring oil, but the rear shows a can and (in the black and white images) a Jowett Javelin, a short-lived car that was made in nearby Bradford. This proves the map to be from around 1951, although the light card covers contain a fold out sheet map from Bartholomew that appears to be dated 1939. This map is similar to pre-war designs from ZIP and the R.A.C. so may possibly have been sitting in a warehouse unused for a dozen years before being used. |
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Price's MotorineEdward Price & Co was established by William Wilson and his partners in 1830 to manufacture candles using a recently discovered process from coconut oil. (There never was an Edward Price; the name was invented to hide the true owners' involvement in the business.) Developing new saponification techniques to create better candles in the 1850s, Price's found that a by-product - oleine - made an excellent lubricant and initially sold it to cloth companies. By the turn of the century, Price's had introduced their "Motorine" for the growing number of cars and even attempted, in 1902, to drive a car to the South Pole to demonstrate the quality of their lubricants!
The soap giant Lever Brothers bought the company in 1919 and three years later sold an interest to a consortium of Shell, BP and Burmah Oil, who supplied it with raw materials. As the lubricants became more important than the original candles, Lever lost interest and sold out to its partners in 1936; by then Motorine had acquired a reputation as a high quality product marketed as the "oilier oil".
In 1951, it introduced Britain's first multigrade oil (Energol, a name originally used by a BP predecessor in France), which proved so successful that BP dropped the Price's name on lubricants altogether in 1954. The candles business remained owned by the three oil companies until 1982, when Shell bought out its partners, before selling the company to management in 1998.
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In 1936 Morris drivers were "Presented, with the Compliments of Price's, makers of Motorine Oil", with this Morris Owner's Road Map of England and South Scotland. John Bartholomew specially printed the map at 1:1,000,000. |
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In the mid-1930s Price's Motorine sold a pair of "Foldex" maps of North and South Britain at 8 miles to the inch (12 for Northern Scotland). Printed by John Bartholomew these cost 3/3d each or 6/9d for the pair in a red leather wallet. |
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Thelson OilsThelson Oils was the trading name of Alan Thelwall Limited, with five depots in London and the Northeast of England.
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Two versions of this Thelson Oils atlas are known with identical covers. One dates from 1931-2 and has fairly basic maps by W & K Johnston Ltd at 12 miles to the inch: it has a more detailed list of the right oils to use for specific makes and models of car. The other version has colour contour maps by George Philip & Son at 10 miles to the inch, as well as a four colour street plan of Central London. This version is probably a year or two younger. |
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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 2000-8 |
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