Today in motorcycle history, January 24, 1901

  Edward Turner is born.  Or dare I say Triumph is born.  Edward Turner was not just a British motorcycle designer but he created motorcycle history time and time again.

  He was born in Camberwell in the London Borough of Southwark, on the day King Edward VII was proclaimed King.

  In 1915, Turner had his first ride on a motorcycle, a Light Tourist New Imperial.  Ten years later in 1925 "The Motor Cycle" published drawings by Turner of an OHC single he had designed, using a series of vertically stacked gears to drive the overhead camshaft.  A subsequent redesign used bevel gears to drive a vertical camshaft, operating the valves through rockers.  The only shared aspects of the two designs were the bore and stroke, 74 mm × 81 mm (2.9 in × 3.2 in), with the barrel being sunk into the crankcases.  The head could be removed from either design complete with undisturbed valve gear.

  Turner built his first bike in 1927, using his second design, a 350 cc OHC single.  "The Motor Cycle" published a photograph of Turner's patented engine, mounted in his motorcycle called the Turner Special.  The Special was registered for road use with the London County Council as YP 9286.  It used Webb forks and a three-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox. 

   In 1928, while working for a motorcycle shop on Peckham Road, he conceived the square four.  The idea was laughed at by BSA, but Ariel jumped at it.  It would become the legendary Ariel Square Four.

  In July 1937, Turner introduced the 500 cc Speed Twin.  The 5T Speed Twin became the standard by which other twins were judged, and its descendants continued in production until the 1980s.

  In 1901 Edward Turner was born and the world rejoiced.