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GhostCorp Apparel - resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Start the day with a reminder of Bown Manufacturing Company, a Birmingham business founded in 1862 and shaped by mechanical invention. Its patented Aeolus ball-race bearings, introduced in 1877, became significant as production increasingly turned toward bicycle parts. Bown later made a small number of early motorcycles, resumed motorcycle production in 1914 and eventually returned to unpowered bicycles. This design brings together the company’s engineering roots and changing transport story for collectors, cyclists and admirers of British industrial history.

Founded in Birmingham in 1862 by machinist William Bown, Bown Manufacturing made varied mechanical goods, including sewing-machine parts, horse clippers and roller-skate wheels. The company patented numerous designs. Its Aeolus ball-race bearings, patented in 1877, became an important product as production increasingly focused on bicycle parts. In 1893, Bown converted the business to a limited company. After William’s death in 1900, his second cousin William A.R. Bown took over. The company added engines to bicycles and produced a small number of Aeolus motorcycles from 1903 to 1905. Motorcycle production resumed in Birmingham in 1914, then stopped during the First World War. From 1919, motorcycles were sold under the Bownian or Bown Villiers names; production ended in 1924, when the factory moved to Chadwell Heath, Essex, and the company returned to unpowered bicycles. Aberdale Cycle Company acquired Bown in the mid-1930s. William A.R. Bown remained on its board in a technical role, and Aberdale continued using the Bown name, including for motorcycles into the 1950s.