Armstrong Siddeley Motors were enthusiastic adopters of light alloys for engines. This was a common enough approach for aircraft engines, but Armstrong-Siddeley were also early at applying them to motor cars. To provide a supply of the most sophisticated new alloys for pistons, Siddeley funded Wallace Charles Devereux to set up High Duty Alloys Ltd. in 1927, as a replacement for Peter Hooker, who had gone into liquidation.