Mann & Overton Carbodies had built Mann & Overton's Austin taxis since 1948. Manganese Bronze Holdings had absorbed Carbodies Limited with portions of the former Birmingham Small Arms Company in 1973. Taxis became Manganese Bronze's core business carried out under the name "The London Taxi Company". The London Taxi Company continued the business of Mann & Overton and Carbodies until 2013 when production problems and consequent financial difficulties brought a halt to production.<br>There are plans to revive the business under the ownership of Geely UK Limited. Mann & Overton Mann & Overton Limited owned and operated a motor vehicle dealers business previously known
Manganese large consumer of manganese ores. Scheele and other chemists were aware that manganese dioxide contained a new element, but they were not able to isolate it. Johan Gottlieb Gahn was the first to isolate an impure sample of manganese metal in 1774, by reducing the dioxide with carbon. The manganese content of some iron ores used in Greece led to speculations that steel produced from that ore contains additional manganese, making the Spartan steel exceptionally hard. Around the beginning of the 19th century, manganese was used in steelmaking and several patents were granted. In 1816, it was documented that iron