The next time you throw the anchor out the back because that bend was a bit tighter then you thought, spare a thought for Yorkshireman and inventor, Herbert Frood, who braked his last on this day in 1931.
Whereas other inventors concentrated on the means of placing pressure on the vehicle wheel in the braking system, Frood was one of the few to look at the type of material being used for contacting the wheel’s surface - a more efficient frictional surface. He developed better brakes because of the inadequacies of (primitive) shoe brakes on the Derbyshire hills. After the success of his invention, Frood started the company we’re all familiar with - Ferodo, based on the letters of his name, with an additional “E” which was his wife’s initial (Elizabeth).
His invention initially used solid woven cotton impregnated with natural resins for brake pads (because that doesn’[t sound dangerous at all…) Later, phenol formaldehyde resins were used.
Riders in, or familiar with, the UK will know about the A537 road between Macclesfield and Buxton, better known as the Cat and Fiddle. In September 1918, Herbert Frood bought the landmark Cat and Fiddle Inn. The pub was in danger of being closed, and Frood planned to build a garage next to the pub. He stated that after the war, he was going to rebuild the Inn along the lines of a Swiss chalet, providing ‘first-class accommodation for motorists and residential visitors’, but this never came to fruition.
