---
title: This is What YOU are Making... A Mighty Engine of British Workmanship (The Bristol Hercules Sleeve Valve Engine)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-mighty-engine-british-workmanship-1940/
description: A numbered cutaway drawing of the Bristol Hercules aero-engine fills the sheet, with a key of 54 parts and a panel listing the bombers and fighters that
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. This is What YOU are Making... A Mighty Engine of British Workmanship

[![This is What YOU are Making... A Mighty Engine of British Workmanship, 1940 UK poster: A numbered cutaway drawing](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-mighty-engine-british-workmanship-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-mighty-engine-british-workmanship-1940.jpg)

# This is What YOU are Making... A Mighty Engine of British Workmanship (The Bristol Hercules Sleeve Valve Engine)

A numbered cutaway drawing of the Bristol Hercules aero-engine fills the sheet, with a key of 54 parts and a panel listing the bombers and fighters that use it. The banner 'A Mighty Engine of British Workmanship' attaches a virtue phrase to the factory worker addressed as 'YOU', while the parts list and aircraft names supply the factual detail.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
This is what YOU
are making . . .

THIS ENGINE IS INSTALLED IN THE LANCASTER,
HALIFAX, STIRLING, WELLINGTON AND
BEAUFIGHTER. OPERATING IN ALL SPHERES OF
ATTACK AND DEFENCE, INCLUDING LONG RANGE
DUTIES OVER CONVOYS. HORSEPOWER OVER 1,650.

MINISTRY OF AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION

THE BRISTOL HERCULES SLEEVE VALVE ENGINE

A MIGHTY ENGINE of BRITISH WORKMANSHIP

[numbered parts key 1-54, e.g. 1 AIRSCREW SHAFT; 16 MASTER CONNECTING ROD; 54 HAND TURNING CONNECTION; not transcribed in full]
```

[← "Let Us Go Forward Together" (Churchill photograph poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-let-us-go-forward-together-churchill-1940/) ["Never Was So Much Owed by So Many to So Few" (The Prime Minister) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-never-was-so-much-owed-to-so-few-1940/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)