Castrol now and then

THE HISTORY OF CASTROL 
In the early nineteenth century the only means of road travel was the railway, stagecoach and the horse, while the steam engine provided an alternative for water travel. At the later stage of the century, internal combustion engines were invented to give way to modern engines used in different machines thereby creating demand for lubricants for the thriving industry.
At this stage in 1899, an entrepreneur named Charles Cheers Wakefield formed a company with eight of his colleagues and named it C.C. Wakefield and Co., Concentrating mainly on sale of oils for the railway. The new company had only a handful of staff with three rooms in which to operate its business. Incidentally, in 1909 cars used in British roads were nearing 50,000, motor cycles were around 35,000 while aeroplanes were been tested. This was the time Castrol oil was invented by mixing castor beans ingredient as its most important features which was named ‘Castrol brand’.
The special quality of the lubricant was it could remain fluid at operating temperatures way below -26 deg.F where other standard oils would have become too thick to be of any use. This was valuable for aircrafts from the war years that move to high altitudes hence securing the smooth running of their engines to meet the needs of the time, moving from a vegetable oil based product to a mineral base. 
The desire for speed by these new machines caused the need by drivers on land, air and sea to break world records thus nearly all successful record achievements used the Castrol lubricants for their engines. Further improvement to the engines made enhancement of the brand with the introduction of Patent Castrol in 1935 heralding the first generation of what was termed ‘lighter oils’.
Since the creation of the company it had been privately owned, without an heir to carry on with the business lord Wakefield’s death in 1941 created commercial problems for the company. The only alternative was to turn C. C. Wakefield and Co. into a public company completing the transformation in 1943. Now a public company with even more success in engine lubrication, the name changed to Castrol Ltd in 1960. In 1966 Castrol was purchased by a British company called Burmah Oil Company.
Unfortunately, Burma oil did not perform so well having been affected by the global oil crisis of the 1970s, to bail it out the bank of England acquired its BP shares. Burmah oil and Castrol became part of BP group in the year 2000 with Castrol retaining its name while Burma oil folded into the group.
Castrol was a pioneer in marketing, using record breaking sporting activities to advertise the quality of the lubricant even from the early twentieth century. The company sponsored sporting events from automobile, motor cycles, speed boat racing and air travel bringing unprecedented sales and awareness.