Ailsa Craig Engines was a manufacturer of marine and specialist 'made-to-order' engines from 1891 to 1972. Named after the island off the coast of Ayr, Scotland Ailsa Craig, the company began as a bicycle manufacturer in Glasgow in 1891, later moving to Putney, London, where the then owner went into partnership and set about building early vehicles, going on in 1904 to produce the world's first V12 engine intended for a Russian airship and even a petrol engined vacuum cleaner for Hubert Cecil Booth in 1904.