The glory and tragedy of the Dodge brothers' story

The death of the Dodge brothers marked the end of an era and sent shock waves through the American auto industry.

THE implications of the Spanish Flu pandemic that began its relentless march around the world in 1918, much like COVID 19 today, were far reaching.

While at the National Automobile Show in New York City in January 1920, both John and Horace Dodge became sick. There is still some debate over their illness but at the time the consensus was that they had been infected with the last wave of the devastating Spanish flu pandemic that killed more than 50 million worldwide.

As with many victims of COVID 19, on January 14, mere days after becoming ill, John was afflicted with pneumonia and died in his hotel room at the age of 55. Even though he suffered from cirrhosis of the liver, the official cause of death, Horace recovered from influenza and pneumonia but was nearly bedridden for most of a year in Florida before dying on December 10 at the age of 52.

The death of the Dodge brothers marked the end of an era and sent shock waves through the American auto industry. It also brought an end to plans to revolutionize the industry from manufacturing to sales and marketing.

The brothers epitomized the American dream of rising from humble beginnings to vast wealth. They were rough and tumble, hard drinking blue-collar men from Niles, Michigan.

John Francis was born in 1864, Horace Elgin in 1868. Their grandfathers, father and uncles were machinists. Both were mechanically inclined. John was somewhat reserved; Horace developed a reputation for a hair trigger temper.  Together the redheaded Dodge boys were an inseparable team.

The brothers never were able to move beyond their brusque blue-collar ways even with the acquisition of tremendous wealth. In 1910, the Detroit Times enhanced their reputation as brawlers with an article that detailed a wild bar room fight. John Dodge responded by first publicly apologizing to the bar owner and then paid for damages. He then threatened to kill the paper’s owner. Horace once beat a man unconscious in the street after he made fun of him for being unable to crank his Ford. The brothers were known throughout the Detroit area, as well as in Chicago and New York City, for hard drinking exploits while wearing identically tailored suits and speedboat racing.

Even though they were counted among the wealthiest men in America, they were excluded from Detroit high society. So, when the Grosse Pointe Country Club wouldn’t admit him, Horace built an enormous mansion on the adjacent property, with a 12-car garage and testing facility that faced the country club. They also funded the Detroit Symphony and led the effort to build their Symphony Hall.

The brothers began making their mark in Detroit almost as soon as John moved to the city in 1886. The following spring Horace joined him. The brothers were bright, ambitious, and hardworking, and soon John was earning $16.50 a week as a foreman and Horace $13.50 as a machinist in a boiler manufacturing company.

In 1892 they began working for an equipment manufacturer in Windsor on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. They also developed a ball bearing bicycle, the Evans and Dodge Bicycle, in the hope of profitably tapping into the tsunami of interest in the two wheeled transportation phenomena. In 1900 they established their own machine shop in Detroit. They placed an advertisement in the city directory that mirrored their confidence and ambition, “we are prepared to do any class of work that can be done in a first-class modern shop."

They soon established a reputation for quality work and within one year had secured a contract from Ransom E. Olds to supply engines for his fledgling Olds Motor Works. The brothers began supplying transmissions for the company six months later. In February 1903, the second major contract was secured. This time the customer was Henry Ford who retained their services to manufacture the running gear for his forthcoming Model A.

As this was Ford’s third attempt to launch an automotive company, and as he had a reputation of being pursued by creditors, the Dodge brothers entered the agreement with concerns that were made manifest a few months later. In June 1903, with Ford owing the brothers more than $7,000, they negotiated an arrangement that would change their lives and the course of the auto industry. They agreed to write off overdue payments and extend Ford an additional $3,000 in credit, due in six months, in exchange for ten percent of Ford Motor Company stock.

For a decade, the Dodge Brothers worked almost exclusively for Ford, and John Dodge accepted a position as vice president of the company. By 1910 their production facilities had become a bottleneck and so they opened a massive, state of the art factory complex in Hamtramck, an enclave surrounded by Detroit.

By 1913, the Dodge brothers had 2,500 full time employees and were the largest supplier of automotive parts and components in the United States. It had been a meteoric rise and the brothers were wealthier than could have been imagined when they moved to Detroit. But as John Dodge once quipped, “I'm tired of being carried around in Henry Ford's vest pocket.”

And so, the brothers initiated an ambitious 18 month plan that included suspension of their agreement with Ford, additional factory expansion, designing an automobile, and purchasing the machine tools needed for manufacture. Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company, one of one hundred and twenty automobile manufacturers launched that year, was established on July 1, 1914. The initial announcement was made in the Saturday Evening Post in August. This was followed by simple advertising and promotion designed to pique interest. "Dodge Brothers."

Then, “Dodge Brothers, Reliable, Dependable, Sound." were added. There were no illustrations or details. This was followed by carefully selected interviews and press release distribution. "The Dodge Brothers are the two-best mechanics in Michigan … When the Dodge Brothers car comes out, there is no question that it will be the best thing on the market for the money," wrote the Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record in August.

In November, the first Dodge dealership opened in Detroit, and at the debut display of the new Dodge more than 6000 people came to see it in just one day. The five-passenger open touring car was an instant success. It had a 35-horsepower four-cylinder engine with a sales price of $785. A new Ford Model T sold for just $490 but it was rated at only 20 horsepower. And unlike the Ford, the Dodge had as standard equipment an electric starter and lights, a 12-volt electrical system, and a speedometer. The cars were also the first to use an all-steel body. Dodge Brothers manufactured everything for their new cars but the bodies, tires, glass, lights, and batteries.

The Dodge brothers had entered an extremely competitive market. An industry study determined that cars selling for $676-875 accounted for 15.5 percent of the market in 1915 and 19.8 percent in 1916.

There were 15 manufacturers competing in that narrow price range. The Dodge brothers were undaunted. They exported to nearly 50 countries and targeted a multifaceted commercial market that included aircraft companies, communication companies, ship lines, and taxi franchises.

The company was launched with 5000 employees but grew to more than 7000 within a few months. By mid-1919 there were 17,000 men and women working for Dodge Brothers in Hamtramck. Besides Ford they were also the only manufacture to hire African American workers. Other innovations included the first dedicated test track built on the factory grounds.

Like Ford, Dodge Brothers did not make annual model updates. Instead the focus was on mechanical improvements. They also added a wider range of models and commercial vehicles. It proved a recipe for success. Sales soared from just over $US11 million for the year ending June 30, 1915 to $US161 million for 1920. In that same time production had gone from 370 vehicles in 1914 to more than 145,000 in 1920.

In less than 20 years, John and Horace Dodge had built an empire. Then in 1919 their fortunes were magnified exponentially when Henry Ford bought their Ford Motor Company shares for $25 million in cash. This and the dividends cashed over the years gave the brothers a mind-boggling $32 million return on their initial investment of $10,000 in 1903. 

One can’t help but wonder what might have been. With the death of John and Horace Dodge, their widows inherited the company. But management foundered without the brothers and in 1925 financial advisors recommended that the Dodge Brothers’ widows sell their interests in the company. Three years later, Walter P. Chrysler purchased Dodge for $170 million in cash and stock options.

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica

From bicycles to automotive marvels

Alexander Winton successfully convinced the American public that automobiles were more than a passing fad.

BORN in 1860 in Grangemouth, Scotland, Alexander Winton immigrated to New York City at the age of 19.

He worked as an engineer apprentice on an ocean steamship for several years before accepting a position as superintendent at an iron factory in Cleveland, Ohio; a city was at the heart of what would soon become a tsunami of national interest in bicycles.

To capitalise on the rapidly expanding market he founded the Winton Bicycle Company in 1891 with his brother-in-law as a partner.

As bicycles became a national mania, and Winton and his partner had a head for business, the company profited almost as soon as the doors were opened. But as with many successful businessmen of the era, Winton found himself increasingly drawn to self-propelled vehicles. Winton filled every available minute with study and the reading of everything he could find on the subject and began developing his own engine designs.  Soon his company was producing bicycles as well as motorised bicycles.

Then in 1896, Winton unveiled his first “motor wagon” to the press. The following year he incorporated the Winton Motor Carriage Company. He introduced the cars with great fanfare and a drive through town to the Glenville Track where he was clocked at a then astounding 33 miles per hour. By 1898 he was selling cars and perfecting as well as promoting them through racing.

As a bit of historic trivia, one of Winton’s most notable racing losses came against Henry Ford. Ford’s success put him in the automotive spotlight and eased his ability to find needed investors for the establishment of the Henry Ford Motor Company.

There is another Henry Ford connection: Leo Melanowski, Winton’s trusted chief engineer, had proposed hiring Ford as a mechanic. Winton, however, felt that Ford lacked the temperament needed to take orders or focus on bringing a project to completion.

In 1902, Winton built the first of three custom race cars, all named the Bullet.

Bullet No.1 was the first car to win a sanctioned race at Daytona Beach, Florida. Bullet No.2 was built for the Gordon Bennett Cup in Ireland in 1903 and was one of the first eight-cylinder automobiles built.

As a result of mechanical issues, this car did not complete the race. However, after being brought back to the United States and repaired, Barney Oldfield drove it to a near-record of 80mph at Daytona. Before retiring from racing Winton retired built a Bullet No.3. Oldfield toured the country with that car and launched an award-winning racing career that would span decades.  

Aside from racing, Winton used practical application as a promotional platform. In 1897, Winton and William Hatcher, shop superintendent, drove from Cleveland to New York City with tremendous media attention. In 1899 he made a second trip with Charles Shanks, a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter as a passenger and sales soared with 100 vehicles finding buyers by the end of the year.

Not all the customers were satisfied. James Ward Packard purchased a vehicle in 1898 and broke down several times on the way home. In a heated argument with Winton, Packard was told that if he thought he could build a better automobile he should do so. The challenge was accepted and the Packard Automobile Company was born.

In 1901, Winton set his sights on an unprecedented adventure that would also ensure international media focus on his automobiles. With Charles Shanks on board to cover the odyssey, Winton proposed a coast-to-coast drive of the United States, the first by automobile.

The ill-fated venture left San Francisco with great promise but ended abruptly on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Shanks wrote: “That the expedition failed is no fault of the machine Mr. Winton used, nor was it due to absence of grit or determination on the part of the operator. Neither was the failure due to roads. The utter absence of roads was the direct and only cause.”

Dr. H Nelson Jackson triumphed where Winton had failed and became the first to cover the distance, in 1903. As Jackson was driving a Winton, the company benefitted mightily from the endeavor. Sales soared to 850 cars in 1903, and 1100 by 1907.

Winton quickly developed a reputation for inventiveness and generosity. Over the course of his career he would develop, and patent more than one hundred items related to automobiles, engines, and bicycles. Indicative of his character, he offered his safety related patents for free to interested manufacturers.

Winton continued building cars through 1924 with innovations like a steering wheel in 1901, shaft drive, external and internal brakes on the same brake drum, and the first American diesel engine in 1913. The post WWI economic recession struck the auto industry hard and even pioneering companies such as Winton were not spared. Sales plummeted and in 1922, Winton issued a statement that the company was “financially embarrassed.” In 1923 there was a stillborn initiative to merge Winton with Haynes and Dorris. On February 11, 1924, Winton closed the automobile company and initiated liquidation.

However, he continued operation of a subsidiary company, the Winton Gas Engine and Manufacturing Company, that manufactured marine and diesel engines. The company prospered into the early years of the Great Depression before being sold to General Motors.

In the pantheon of automotive pioneers Winton is in good company, as he is but one of many that has been relegated to obscurity. Still, one can’t help but ponder what the world would be like today if Winton hadn’t added a motor to a bicycle, selected a steering wheel rather than the traditional tiller or perfected the diesel engine.

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com

Style leader from small beginnings

 Auburn made numerous pioneering contributions and was known for innovation, style and performance.

 IN 1900, Frank and Morris Eckhart saw merit in making automobiles. With funding from their father, Charles, they established the Auburn Automobile Company that year.

The initial product was an assembled car built with parts sourced from an array of companies. The assembly process took place in a corner of the carriage company factory, whose craftsman built the wood framing for the bodies.

Nothing much came from their enterprise until the brothers displayed a car at the 1903 Chicago Auto Show. That put them into the spotlight.

By 1909 the brothers were successful enough to absorb two local automobile manufacturers and relocate production to a larger facility in 1909. The company enjoyed moderate and steady sales growth until the First World War, a shortage of materials dramatically curtailed manufacturing.

For investors and in media interviews the brothers painted a rosy picture, but the truth is that the company was in serious financial trouble. In 1919, on the cusp of bankruptcy, the company was sold to a group of Chicago investors that included William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum mogul. Still, the company languished result of the economic recession, dated styling and a limited dealer network.

By 1924 only six cars a day were rolling from the factory and yet there was a surplus of unsold cars that was growing. Then to salvage something from their investment, the board of directors turned to E.L. Cord, the Chicago whiz kid that had transformed the St. Louis-based Moon from a moribund automobile manufacturing company to solvency.

After evaluating the operation Cord accepted the position of general manager at Auburn in exchange for a modest salary, stock options, and the option of buying controlling interest in the company.

His first step? Add nickel trim and repaint unsold stock. Then he cut the wholesale price but added an options list and hosted an auto show for area dealers on the town square.

He offered the dealers huge discounts and, within a few months, had sold off his overstock. As the log jam of unsold inventory began to move, in 1925 he contracted with Lycoming for eight-cylinder engines that were then installed in the formerly six-cylinder Auburns. This as well as a slight tweak to the bodies to present a more streamlined appearance and two-tone paint options led to a dramatic increase in sales.

Incredibly by 1926, Auburn was not only a profitable company, it was also counted among the top 20 manufacturers in the United States; no mean feat as there were dozens of automobile companies in operation at the time.

Rather than rest on his laurels, Cord hired Alen Leamy and Gordon Buehrig, cutting edge young automotive designers, and entered a limited partnership with the Duesenberg Company that had limited production of high-performance automobiles. He also established an extensive nationwide dealer network with a focus on select cities.

Cord used the Duesenberg association as the cornerstone for building a diverse industrial empire that included a new line of performance-oriented luxury cars. He incorporated some of these features into the L-29 Cord, the American automobile industry’s first successful front wheel drive car. Then with acquisition of controlling interest in Duesenberg, he shifted into high gear even though the economy was beginning to falter.

In 1928, the Auburn 8-115 was introduced with hydraulic rather than mechanical brakes. These cars were used to establish Auburn’s reputation for speed, performance, and luxury at the price of a Buick. At Daytona that year the Auburn 8-115 was driven to a speed record of 108.46 miles per hour.

The resultant media attention and a brilliant marketing strategy resulted in 1929 being the best year yet for the Auburn Automobile Company. Dealers clambered for cars and production was unable to meet demand even though manufacturing facilities were expanded.

Using the profitable company as leverage, Cord began acquiring companies to streamline operations, diversify income streams, and lessen the company’s dependence on other manufacturers. He purchased or acquired controlling interest in Stinson Aircraft, Anstead Engine Company, Lycoming, Limousine Auto Body, Duesenberg Motors, and Columbia Axle Company. He also expanded into the commercial market by introducing the Auburn Saf-T-Cab, a car purpose built as a taxi. This led to a limited partnership with Checker Cab Manufacturing Company.

  Even thought the economic situation had deteriorated dramatically, and automobile sales had plummeted, in 1932 two new Auburns were introduced, the eight cylinder Model 8-100 and the astounding Model 12 series with V-12 engines at an incredible price of just $975 for the coupe. And as an option, a Columbia dual ratio rear axle was available. For promotion, a fully loaded Auburn Twelve Speedster set several speed records at Muroc Dry Lake, many of which stood until the late 1940s.

Even though sales and profits were plummeting precipitously at the end of 1932 the Auburn 851, a boat tail speedster designed by Gorden Beurig, with a Lycoming straight eight engine and a Schwitzer-Cummins supercharger was introduced. The car was sold with a written guarantee of 100 miles per hour and a plaque on the dash stating that the car had been tested to that speed by Indianapolis 500 driver Abe Jenkins. About 500 of these stunning Auburns were built and sold for $2,245. Still, the company lost money on each car sold as it had been conceived to get buyers into the showroom with the hope of selling them one of the cheaper Auburns. Initially the scheme was a success as sales of Auburn increased by 20 percent, but overall sales had declined by nearly 60 percent since 1929.

To stave off impending collapse, a six-cylinder model was introduced in 1935, initial development of a proposed diesel-powered limousine for 1936 was launched and production of the V-12 and the straight eight were cut. Then precious resources were diverted to the now legendary 810 and 810 Cords. As a result, the last Auburns rolled from the factory in 1936 with little fanfare.

Under investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission, largely resultant of a questionable partnership with Checker Cab Manufacturing, and the Internal Revenue Service resultant of accounting practices, Cord sold his interest in Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg. On August 7, 1937, the Auburn Automobile Company went out of business and assets were liquidated. In the grand scheme of things, it was a small loss for Cord as at this time he was one of the richest men in the world. He owed airlines, aircraft companies, communication companies, ship lines, and other businesses including taxi franchises.

The Auburns that have survived into the modern era are treasured and revered. When equipped with the Columbia two speed axle, they blend modern road manners with classic car styling and luxury making them an ideal touring car for the modern enthusiast.

Written by Jim Hinckley

Film star, inventor – automotive pioneer

She proposed the turning indicator, electric windscreen wiper and stopping alert on a car and never made a cent from these breakthroughs.

FLORENCE Lawrence was a very unusual woman, to say the very least.

One of the first superstars of the silver screen she also became a passionate automobilist as well as an accomplished mechanic.

And if that wasn’t enough to ensure that she was a media sensation in an era when women in America were not allowed to vote and the Jaxon was promoted as ‘a car so easy to drive, a child or woman could operate it’, she also became an inventor who contributed to the early evolution of the automobile.  

The swirling mists of time have obscured much of her early history. Lawrence was born in Ontario, Canada sometime between 1886 and 1890. Her father, George Bridgwood, worked as a carriage builder and her mother, Charlotte, was a vaudeville and stage performer that used the professional name Lotta Lawrence. So, it was only natural that Florence would join her mother on stage and become an important part of the Lawrence Dramatic Company.

With the advent of the motion picture, Florence Lawrence transitioned from the stage and made her film debut in 1906. Early studios often refused to put actors’ names in the credits, especially women. Nonetheless she quickly became a familiar face to a legion of fans and soon the media had dubbed her the “The Biograph Girl” as she was working for Biograph Studios. Her career spanned decades and the film credits included more than 300 motion pictures.

As her fame soared so did her income and soon, she was earning an astounding $500 per week. Now she was wealthy enough to afford an automobile, something she had become enamored with after a friend provided her with an exhilarating ride through the countryside. She often noted that driving provided her with an unbridled sense of excitement and of freedom. After ownership of a succession of ever more powerful automobiles, in 1912 she purchased a Lozier.

Since 1907 this company had been establishing a reputation for speed and endurance. Over the course of a four-year period cars built by Lozier had been driven in every major race in the United States and several in Europe. No other car of the era broke as many records for speed, for 24-hour endurance runs or for long distance touring without mechanical failure.

All of this came with a price. As an example, Lawrence’s six-cylinder Knickerbocker Berlin model carried a factory list price of $US6500. As the beautiful starlet performed much of her maintenance and repairs, and often took long drives unaccompanied by mechanic or driver, she was a popular focus of interviews and news stories.

After a friend was severely injured in an accident, Lawrence began giving thought to ways for improving automotive safety. In 1914 she devised an innovative mechanism that signaled turns to trailing drivers. With the simple push of a button, a flag was raised and lowered on the rear bumper of the automobile to inform other drivers what direction the car was turning. Next, she developed an ingenious device to alert drivers of a pending stop. When she depressed the brake, a small sign reading “stop” would pop up at the rear of the car.

Unfortunately, she failed to patent any these developments. Likewise, with another that she developed in 1916, the first electric windshield wiper. Even without the patent she prospered from the invention by establishing the Bridgwood Manufacturing Company for the manufacture and distribution of the wiper motors as well as other aftermarket items. As other companies began producing the wiper motor, Lawrence’s mother would try to remedy the patent oversight, but it was too late.

In the late 1920s her movie career was, for the most part, over. After suffering severe burns while attempting to save an actor in a studio fire, and extensive surgeries, she found herself more and more relegated to working as an extra or making step on appearances.

Still, Lawrence maintained an active interest in automobiles and automotive development and invested heavily in various companies including the manufacturers of automobiles as well as parts. And she continued developing aftermarket components such as a radio antenna that could be installed under the running board for Bridgwood Manufacturing Company and established a makeup company. With the crash of the stock market in 1929, and the onslaught of the Great Depression, her companies were forced into bankruptcy and Lawrence was financially devastated. Tragically on December 28, 1938, Lawrence committed suicide.

Lawrence was not the only woman to contribute to the embryonic auto industry. In 1902, Mary Anderson was visiting New York City and became increasingly frustrated as the trolley driver was continuously stopping to clear snow from the front windows. Shortly after returning home to Alabama she designed and patented a hand operated blade that would clear the window without leaving the trolley. Soon numerous automobile manufacturers began offering a “windshield wiper” as an option or as standard equipment.

In 1924, Marie Luhring made history by becoming the first female truck designer when she was hired by Mack Trucks. She also became one of the first woman to join the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Raymond Loewy was an automotive designer of renown. He was also a progressive visionary as evidenced by his hiring of Helen Dryden and Audrey Moore Hodges for the design studio at Studebaker. Nash was another progressive company. They hired Helen Rother Ackerkncoht at assist with development of streamlined bodies. The functional artistry of the 1941 Hudson instrument panel was the creation of Betty Thatcher.

Today Lawrence and her many accomplishments, as well as those of Helen Rother, Marie Luhring and Mary Anderson are less than historic footnotes. But they are only a few of the woman who contributed to the evolution of the automobile, and yet today are largely forgotten.

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com

The age of the cyclecar

The purpose was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car; placing the engine of the first into a construct used by the second. It was a budget experience that bloomed … for a while.

Without a doubt the most intriguing manifestations of the cyclecar in the United States manifested from the fertile imagination of James Scripps-Booth.

IT was an interesting concept, a vehicle that bridged the gap between the automobile and the motorcycle.

 For a time during the early to mid-teens, it was an international fad that launched hundreds of manufacturing endeavours.

 And then in an instant the entire movement became less than an historical footnote. Yet in a way it was a glimpse of the future, the post WWII years when microcars would enjoy popularity, especially in Europe.

As understood at the time, the term cyclecar was in reference to a vehicle with a single cylinder or V-twin engine. They were often air cooled, carried one or two people, had open air light weight bodies, and had two or three wheels. They were born of taxation, especially in Europe, that provided a sizable discount for registration and license of cars with engines under a certain displacement.

 The first cycle cars appeared in 1910. By 1912 they were popular enough to justify Temple Press’s investment in a new magazine, The Cyclecar, on the 27th of November. Also, in that year the Cyclecar Club, forerunner of the British Automobile Racing Club was established.

 But truly indicative of the diminutive car’s popularity are the explosion in manufacturers. As an example, in 1911 the number of cyclecar manufacturers was less than a dozen in Britain and in France. By 1914, there were over 100 manufacturers in each country, as well as others in Germany, Austria, and other European countries, and in the United States.

 Even though the cyclecar was a niche market of the burgeoning automobile industry, especially in the United States where the consumer was already beginning to show affection for larger vehicles, more than one automotive pioneer invested in the idea.

 Benjamin Briscoe had been involved with the auto industry almost from the beginning. As a Detroit sheet metal manufacturer, he had supplied materials for body construction to Ransom Olds, Henry Ford and a multitude of automotive pioneers. He was the initial money man behind David Buick and had partnered with Jonathan Maxwell to create Maxwell-Briscoe. After an ill-planned venture to create a General Motors styled company that led to the collapse of Maxwell-Briscoe, he turned his attentions to European automobile companies. This led to Briscoe’s role in the cyclecar fad.

On his return to the United States, Briscoe purchased the manufacturing facilities of the defunct Standard Electric Car Company in Jackson, Michigan. After acquiring investors, he launched the Argo Motor Company in early 1914 to manufacture an American version of the Ajax, a car Briscoe and his brother had produced in France. Even in 1914, the customer could not expect much of a car for a mere $295, but the Argo was a surprise.  

Essentially this was a luxury version of the diminutive cyclecar. It was a 12-horsepower two-passenger roadster with a four-cylinder water cooled engine, shaft drive, sliding gear transmission that had 44-inch tread and weighed a mere 750-pounds.

For, Briscoe it proved to be a short-lived endeavour. In 1916 he radically transformed the Argo into a more traditional car, and then sold the company to Mansell Hackett. Hackett had built a profitable business buying and liquidating bankrupt automobile manufacturing companies. He continued producing the Argo for two more years alongside the Hackett, a car built from a hodgepodge of parts.

Without a doubt the most intriguing manifestations of the cyclecar in the United States manifested from the fertile imagination of James Scripps-Booth. His first vehicle debuted in 1912. A feature article about the car appeared in The Automobile under a headline that read, “Detroit Man Designs Strange Vehicle.”

The headline was an understatement as the BiAutogo was unlike any vehicle built before or since. It was a two-wheeled, two passenger vehicle with two stabilizing wheels like a bicycles training wheels that could be raised or lowered with a lever in the drivers cockpit.

It was powered by a 45-horsepower V8 engine, the first to be manufactured in Detroit. It had a compressed air starter and four speed transmission. The chain drive enclosure was incorporated into the body. But what people found most striking was the bright red paint and a cooling system that consisted of 450-feet of copper tubing that flowed from the hood and along both sides. Scripps-Booth spent $25,000 building the prototype, and then decided not to manufacture the oddity.

This was not the case with the Rocket, a tandem seat cyclecar. Power was produced through an air cooled Spacke manufactured vee-twin. The car had a wheelbase of 100 inches, and tread 36 inches. It was belt driven with a two-speed transmission and sold for $395. Four hundred cars were produced before the fad began to pass on the US side of the Atlantic. And so, Scripps-Booth turned his attention to the manufacture of a more conventional automobile, at least in appearance.

By 1920 the cyclecar craze was on the fast track to becoming an historic footnote. Today it is a nearly forgotten chapter. And the Argo and the Rocket, the National and Nebraska, Daisy and Fifty-Fifty cyclecars that have survived into the 21st century are revered and treasured. They are tangible links to a brief time in automobile manufacturing history when smaller was better.

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com

Remembering C Harold Wills

He was known for an infectious and boundless energy, a sharp mind and a profound ability to transform ideas into reality.

A Wills Saint Clair 1921 Roadster

THE pantheon of men and women who played a role in putting the word on wheels at the dawning of the 20th century is lengthy.

A select few such as Henry Ford, John and Horace Dodge, Louis Chevrolet and Charles Nash were awarded a dubious form of immortality as brand names. Others have faded into obscurity with the passing of time. Counted among the latter is C. Harold Wills.

Wills was known for infectious and boundless energy, a sharp mind, and a profound ability to transform ideas into reality. His mother was an avid fan of the writings of Lord Byron, specifically Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

Childe Harold Wills despised his name and insisted that instead people use his first initial. His father was well known in Fort Wayne, Indiana as a railroad master mechanic, and began teaching his son the use of tools almost as soon as he could walk, according to stories told by Wills. At age 17 his four-year apprenticeship with the Detroit Lubricator Company commenced. In the evenings he took night courses and studied metallurgy, mechanical engineering, and chemistry. With completion of his studies he accepted a position with the Burroughs Adding Machine Company and by age 23 was employed as the company’s chief engineer.

Fortuitously in 1902 he was introduced to Henry Ford. Intrigued by Ford’s work with the building of a performance cars, Wills began assisting at nights with two legendary race cars, the 999 and the Arrow. This relationship would last seventeen years before ending in a heated argument.

As Ford’s principal shop assistant Wills’ first major contribution drew upon his metallurgical training as he worked on a means to produce lightweight, strong, nickel-chrome vanadium steel in volume. A relentless search to find a mill that would work with him led to a small company in Canton, Ohio. The new lightweight but strong steel was used in production of the 1907 Model N. He was also a major contributor to development of the Model T as it was Wills that conceived and developed its planetary transmission. As a curious historic note, he was an amateur calligrapher and designed the now legendary Ford script.

By WWI Wills and Ford's relationship was strained. Time and again Ford had claimed credit for his work and Charles E. Sorensen was hired as Ford’s right hand man. In 1919, to strengthen his hold on the company Ford began buying out shareholders. This included the Dodge brothers (John Dodge had served as the vice president of Ford). Rather than meekly submitting to Ford’s power grab Wills threatened legal action if a full accounting of the accrued profit-sharing income owed was not completed. With more than $5 million in his pocket Wills parted ways with Ford. He also had nearly $4 million from investment in steel companies that he had persuaded to produce vanadium steel.

Wills had long toyed with the idea of manufacturing an automobile of his own design. But he was a dreamer, a visionary and launching an automobile company was but one component in a much larger plan for the future. In 1920, he initiated plans to build an automobile manufacturing factory that was to be the anchor in an industrial park as well as a planned housing community for employees that included a park, schools and a complete business district with theater.

The car was named Wills Sainte Claire, after the St. Clair River that separated Marysville, Michigan from Ontario, Canada. The fatal flaw in Wills planned automotive empire was an absolute obsession to create a mechanically perfect automobile. Resultant of that attention to detail, the Wills Sainte Claire introduced in 1921 stunned the automotive community. The car was powered by the industry’s first overhead-cam V-8 designed for automotive use. It had a displacement of 265.4 cubic inches and that was rated at 67-horsepower. That engine was a refined version of an overhead valve V-8 engine Wills had designed for aeronautical application during WWI. The engine made extensive use of molybdenum steel, had crossflow induction and exhaust routing, and the block and cylinder heads were cast as a single unit.

The car was doomed from its inception. It debuted with a $3,000 price tag in the midst of a post war reception that had decimated automobile sales. As a comparison, a comparable Cadillac could be purchased for $2,800. Mechanical complexity equaled a high cost of repairs. Still, Wills had realistic expectation and set his breakeven point as 1,500 cars annually. The first year’s production was a mere 900 cars. Anemic sales, and Wills near constant improvements to the manufacturing facility and the cars fueled mounting losses. Even eye-catching plaid paint jobs were not enough to keep the company solvent and in 1927 production ceased. Only 12,000 cars were manufactured under the Wills Sainte Claire name.

Wills was out but not finished. He signed on with Ruxton to assist with development of a transmission for the front wheel drive automobile. He then went to work at Chrysler as a metallurgist. Unfortunately, his attempts to sell or collect royalties under a limited license arrangement for a patented process for production of all steel body shells were unsuccessful. Both Ford and General Motors deemed the process cost prohibitive and continued using wood framing for their vehicles. The smaller independent companies such as Hudson, Packard, Studebaker and Nash could ill afford the investment either, especially amidst the economic troubles of the Great Depression.

Interestingly enough, Wills patents expired in 1937, the year that Ford and GM introduced their first all steel bodied automobiles. It was the final chapter in an amazing automotive career. In the closing days of 1940, Wills suffered a major stroke and was rushed to the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He died there before the dawn of the new year.

C. Harold Wills, a forgotten automotive pioneer.

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com

Henry Leland: The genius of precision

He came into the automotive industry late in his lifetime, but in that short span of years founded two of America’s most storied automotive brands.

A 1922 Lincoln … the brand was renowned as a producer of well-crafted luxury product.

“THERE is a right way and a wrong way to do something. Hunt for the right way and then go ahead.”

That was a favourite saying of Henry Leland, a truly gifted machinist, a mechanical engineer with vision and an obsessive perfectionist. It was a winning combination during the dawning of the American auto industry.

Born in 1843, Leland earned engineering degrees from the Universities of Michigan and Vermont and studied precision machining in the Brown and Sharpe plant at Providence, Rhode Island and Colt, the firearm manufacturer.

During the American Civil War, he worked as a toolmaker in the United States Arsenal. His first forays as an inventor, first with electric barber clippers and then with a unique toy train, the Leland-Detroit Monorail proved financially lucrative.

In 1890 Leland moved to Detroit and established Leland and Faulconer Manufacturing Company to build marine and stationary engines. The company soon established a reputation for quality, innovation, and precision engineering, and by the turn of the century, was also making engines for automotive application. Counted among the company’s ardent supporters was Ransom E. Olds, who had hired the company to design an engine for the Olds in 1902.

By the dawning of the new century Leland found himself embarking on a new business endeavor as financiers and bankers retained his services to appraise the assets of moribund companies that manufactured automobiles and automotive components. In 1902, he was hired to appraise the assets of the Henry Ford Company and to create a plan for making the company viable. The company namesake, Henry Ford, was incensed and left the business taking several partners with him. Leland seized the opportunity.

A devastating fire at Olds Motor Works had led to termination of his arrangement with that company. It also left him with a single cylinder engine designed for automotive application.

After appraising the company’s assets, he suggested that the investors should reorganize, use the chassis designed by Henry Ford and the engine Leland had designed for Oldsmobile. Hoping to cut their losses, and perhaps even turn a profit, the investors agreed. The new company was named for Cadillac, the French explorer that had established Fort Detroit.

Leland established unprecedented manufacturing principles that soon became industry standards. He and Ransom Olds had used interchangeable components on several vehicles but on the 1907 models of Cadillac, Leland took the concept of uniform parts to an entirely new level. The idea had originated with firearms manufacturing. Eli Whitney had displayed the advantages of interchangeable musket parts at an exhibition before the president of the United States in 1801.

On Saturday, February 29, 1908, three Model Ks were randomly selected from the stock of the Anglo-American Motor-car Company, the British agent for Cadillac automobiles. The three cars were driven 25 miles to the Brooklands racetrack and then completed 10 laps of the track, approximately 30 miles. Under strict supervision the cars were locked away until Monday, March 2, 1908. Then before an audience of reporters, mechanics, engineers, automotive enthusiasts and automobile agents, the cars were displayed and fully disassembled. Each car was reduced to a pile of 721 component parts that were scrambled into one heap. Next Cadillac mechanic E. O. Young began reassembling the cars with the help of his assistant, M. M. Gardner. By Thursday morning, March 12, the third car was completed. The following day they were all driven 500 miles.

On completion of this test, one of the cars was locked away until the start of the 2000-miles reliability trials in June, 1908. That car finished in first place and was awarded the R.A.C. Trophy for its class. Cadillac was deemed the Standard of the World.

In 1910, Leland began working with Charles Kettering to develop an improved electrical system. Two years later Cadillac became the first company to offer an electric starter and lights as standard equipment. But the company had been acquired by William Durant in 1909, and folded into the General Motors combine, and that proved to be a turning point for Leland’s association with Cadillac.

Durant had an abrasive and overbearing personality that had become his trademark. In late 1916, after a heated discussion about Durant’s refusal to accept a government contract for the manufacture of aircraft engines, Leland left the company. In the years that followed, Charles Nash, Walter Chrysler and others would also leave General Motors after disagreements with Durant.

And so, Leland and his son Wilfred formed a company for the manufacture of Liberty Aircraft engines in 1917. It was named for the first president Leland had cast a vote for in 1864, Abraham Lincoln. As testimony to Leland’s reputation he received the government contract to produce 6000 engines without review. But before full production could commence, the Armistice was declared, and the contract voided. This left the Leland’s deeply in debt and with a huge factory as well as a workforce of nearly 6000 men.

And so, the decision was made to shift to automobile manufacturing. Again, Leland’s reputation proved to be a valuable commodity as the initial $6.5 million capital stock offering for Lincoln Motor Company sold in less than three hours. Without a single car being produced, trade journals and automotive journals praised the Lincoln based solely on Leland’s plans for the vehicle.

Leland’s obsession with detail and extensive testing resulted in a near continuous string of delays. As a result, the new Lincoln debuted in September 1920 amid a severe economic recession and nine months after the cars planned release. Mechanically it was a technological masterpiece, powered by a 60 degree V8 engine. Seventy mile per hour speeds were guaranteed. Innovations included circuit breaker electrical system, full pressure lubrication, thermostatically controlled radiator shutters, and a sealed cooling system with condenser tank.  Prices ranged from $4500 for the Town Car to $6000 for the roadster.

The cars mechanical prowess was proven almost immediately. In April 1921, a Lincoln was driven to a first-place finish in race from Los Angeles to Phoenix. The second-place finisher arrived almost an hour later. But technological advancement, performance, and ecstatic press was not enough to overcome the delayed debut and the resultant company debt, the economic recession, the high sales price and dated styling. A mere 674 cars were sold in 1920, and 2800 in 1921.

In November 1921, the company was forced into receivership. As a touch of dark irony, the company was acquired for $8 million dollars by Henry Ford. The Leland’s were retained as consultants, and Edsel Ford was installed as president. It proved to be a short association as the company’s founders left within four months and initiated litigation to force Ford to reimburse original creditors and stockholders.

Leland’s last act was pure class. In 1931, as the ongoing legal battle with Ford continued, he wrote letters to the former stockholders, parts suppliers, and investors, and personally apologized for the fact that Ford had not compensated them as promised. He died in March of 1932.

It was truly the end of an era. Leland’s career had spanned the period between the beginnings of the industrial age to the mass production of automobiles. He had made contributions to manufacturing, to the automobile industry, to barbershops, to children’s toys and to business management. He had launched an automotive empire that would come to symbolize prestige and luxury. Leland’s contributions transformed our world. 

  To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

 

Edel’s grand adventure was no smooth run

It was the ultimate roadie … at a time when there were not always roads.

The adventurers took a a variety of vehicles but, of course, for Edsel there could be but one choice: the Model T

EDSEL Ford’s odyssey in the summer of 1915 might seem as epic as the voyages of Captain James Cook.

What the son of the great Henry Ford and his college buddies H. V. Book, Thomas Whitehead, William Russel, J. H. Caulkins Jr. and Robert Gray Jr. embarked on was a great road trip, right across the heartland of America, from Michigan to California.

This was no easy drive. After all, the first transcontinental trip by automobile had occurred a mere 12 years prior. Many companies, including Studebaker, were still manufacturing horse-drawn vehicles. In Arizona, a state that was only three years old in 1915, stagecoaches were still in use in rural areas. It would be 1936 before there was a single highway that was paved across the entire United States.   

Technically it was a business trip. The Shell Oil Company of California was a partial sponsor and in exchange they were given a promotional boost, especially with limited publication of Souvenir Transcontinental Tour: Detroit to San Francisco June 17, 1915 to July 25, 1915 after the trip. For Ford Motor Company it was also a promotional opportunity. Additionally, Edsel was unofficially tasked with the chore of evaluating Ford agencies along the way.

Cross country trips by automobile were still somewhat of a novelty. Still, Edsel and his buddies were not alone on their trip to the Panama Pacific Exposition in California. Event organisers noted that in 1915 tens of thousands of people arrived from outside the state, some by train but many came by automobile. Even though the exposition was held in San Francisco, many travelers chose to follow a southern route along the National Old Trails Road. Then as now, and in the era of Route 66, this course was the portal to the very best of the great southwest, Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Oak Creek Canyon, Petrified Forest to name but a few attractions.

Edsel and Henry Ford with a V8 in 1934.

As the sons of very wealthy families Edsel Ford and his friends did not lack for funds as evidenced by their vehicles. Edsel had a new Ford outfitted with wire wheels instead of the standard wooden spoke wheels. Book and Gray started the trip in a new eight-cylinder Cadillac. Russel had a new Stutz. They had new camping gear, tools and even traveled with a portable phonograph.

The travel journal entry for Thursday, June 17, 1915, provides a glimpse of travel by automobile in 1915, and the troubles faced by Edsel and his friends. “Encountered some mud in vicinity of Saline. Ford had puncture and blow out on both rear wheels. Roads good but dusty.” The following days troubles included the Stutz running out of gas, and a couple of flat tires on the Ford. The latter led to Edsel’s purchase of hand tire pump, and a pocket lamp that ran off the magneto for night work.

On the 19th, the group managed to travel a mere 85 miles. The Stutz required roadside repair after dirt clogged the vacuum pump. The Ford became mired in the mud just 18 miles after departure, and when it would not budge with use of the block and tackle, a farmer with team was hired. Then the Ford skidded on wet pavement and broke spokes in a rear wheel.   

Even though the entries are concise, Edsel’s travel journal provides fascinating insight into the times; real world reports on the durability of certain automobile brands, on travel, on people adapting to changing times, and on a world in a rapid state of transition. “Wigwam Ranch, Colorado, Thursday July 1 – Took one hour to go four miles up long steep hill. Had to remove all superfluous weight from car such as cushions, tent, baggage, and tools. Had to carry items up by hand.”

“Williams, Arizona, Thursday July 15 – All got supplies at garage. Talked to Ford agent. Bought some gas and oranges at Seligman. Stutz broke another spring about 15 miles out and returned to Seligman. Very rough and dusty roads. Wired Los Angeles for axle parts. Day’s run 146 miles.”

“Needles, California, Saturday July 17 – Started west at 6:15 P.M. in procession of eight cars – a Jeffrey, two Fords, two Chalmers, two Stutz and a Cadillac. Thirty miles out Chalmers broke a spring. Roads in desert were fair. Stopped for midnight lunch. Played phonograph, fixed a tire. Stopped at Ludlow for gas.”

Judging by Edsel’s trip the Ford was far better suited for the grueling road conditions than the Stutz, but not as well as the Cadillac. The Stutz was plagued with a litany of problems large and small. There is no mention of issues with the Cadillac aside from tires. The Ford suffered a series of mechanical failures, not surprisingly. Some were serious but the ease of repair hints at the reasons for the popularity of the legendary Model T.   

“Dodge City, Kansas, Saturday June 26 – Had excellent lunch in Syracuse. Afterwards went to examine peculiar noise in transmission; found universal joint housing broken. Bought new one at Ford agent and installed it at the café.” “Camp near St. John, Arizona, Friday July 9 – Took car to garage in Holbrook. Had rods tightened and rear axle examined. Found chewed up ring gear and pinion. Back on the road by 1:00 P.M.” “Flagstaff, Arizona, Saturday July 10 – Found friends with Stutz at hotel. Had left them in Albuquerque as Stutz had to be shipped by rail.” 

Edsel and his friends had a grand adventure. I am confident that they talked of it often in the years that followed. Surely the trip also provided Edsel with valuable insight into the shortcomings of the Ford, and how it could be improved. Unfortunately, it didn’t provide him with the ability to buck his famous father, and so cars such as the six cylinder Ford designed by Edsel in the late teens was stillborn.

Automotive travel journals and guidebooks, as well as newspaper and magazine features written in the first decades of the 20th century are more than mere time capsules. They are fascinating windows into a world in a dramatic state of transition and a glimpse at how our now revered vintage cars were driven when still new. If you have interest in these wonderful stories, I have two great books to recommend.

The first is Motoring West: Automobile Pioneers 1900 – 1909. This book is a compilation of articles, travel journals and factory sponsored features that together present a multifaceted picture of automobile travel in the American west in an era when roads were little more than trails.

The second book was a best seller when first published in 1916. Now being reprinted, By Motor To The Golden Gate by Emily Post is an illustrated chronicle of the odyssey that she made by automobile from coast to coast.

 To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

Going with … and against … the flow

Carl Breer and fellow Chrysler engineers initiated a series of wind tunnel tests, in cooperation with Orville Wright – yes, THE Orville Wright one - to study efficient shapes for automotive bodies.

TESLA’S Cybertruck is the latest manifestation of Elon Musk’s eccentric genius and  sense of vision.

There is, however, a question. Is a vehicle described by one leading magazine as looking as if were “dropped off by an alien race” a glimpse of the future or was it just a manifestation of eccentricity that with the passing of time will be relegated to historical curiosity?

In 1934, during the depths of the Great Depression, a vehicle that was just as futuristic made its debut and the reviews were even less favorable. And it was also a manifestation of the future as seen through the eyes of a visionary, Walter P. Chrysler.

Carl Breer, along with fellow Chrysler engineers Fred Zeder and Owen Skelton, initiated a series of wind tunnel tests, in cooperation with Orville Wright, to study efficient shapes for automotive bodies. Chrysler had built the wind tunnel at the Highland Park site, an industry first, and tested at least 50 scale models by April 1930. Engineers were not surprised to learn that the industry standard two-box design was aerodynamically inefficient. In fact, they learned that most automobiles were more efficient when turned around backwards.

The engineers also studied numerous models produced by other companies and learned that in most of these vehicles 65 percent of the weight was over the rear wheels. When loaded with passengers, the weight distribution tended to become further imbalanced, rising to 75 percent or more over the rear wheels, resulting in unsafe handling characteristics on slippery roads. 

To compensate and create a smoother ride, spring rates were higher in the rear. However, this had a mixed outcome; the weight distribution and seat position subjected rear passengers to a harsher ride on anything but glass smooth highways, a rarity at the time.

Innovative weight distribution on the new Chrysler Airflow provided the car with superior handling dynamics. The engine was moved forward over the front wheels, another innovation, and the rear passenger seating was moved so they were seated in front of instead of over the rear axle. As a result, the weight distribution had approximately 54 percent of the weight over the front wheels, which evened to near 50–50 with front and rear passengers. 

As with the Edsel introduced in late 1957, Chrysler launched an extensive promotional and marketing campaign before the public was even given a glimpse of the Airflow. Since this was the first new model of a production car that was designed with engineering focused on aerodynamics, the company launched a publicity stunt in which they reversed the axles and steering gear of a conventional 1933 model.

This allowed the car to be driven “backwards” throughout Detroit. The stunt captured the public’s attention. Related advertising campaigns including print, automotive feature articles and even short films to be shown in theatres called attention to the fact that most cars were more streamlined in the rear than the front. Promotion also hinted that soon Chrysler would introduce the car of the future, a vehicle that would transform the driving experience.

Styling for the Chrysler and DeSoto Airflow was heavily influenced by the then popular streamlining and Art Deco movements that was influencing everything from hotel construction to home radio design, logos, and kitchen appliances.

Apart from costly custom models and special orders from companies such as Duesenberg, Hudson and Packard, and the Czechoslovakian Tatra, there wasn’t a car on the road that compared with the Airflow. 

It was sleek and low, the grille presented a smooth, rounded waterfall look, and headlights were built into the fenders rather than in the conventional design of pods on stanchions or on a bar that crossed in front of the radiator. In the rear, Airflow models encased the rear wheels using fender skirts adorned with sedate but noticeable chrome accents.

Instead of the industry standard of a flat panel of glass windshield, on the Airflow two sheets of glass were used in a deeply racked “vee.”  All windows used the recently introduced laminated multilayer safety glass. And as with the Cybertruck, in a vehicle debut a professional baseball player pitched a ball into a side glass with dramatic results. While most companies were still using a metal attached to wood framing construction method, the Airflow was built entirely of steel which provided superb structural integrity. Except for the Essex Terraplane, the Airflow also possessed a better power to weight ratio almost every car in production. 

Again, just as with the Edsel, the initial models introduced in January, 1934, were plagued with an array of problems, many were resultant of the rush to production and others came about because of the significant manufacturing challenges required to mass produce such a futuristic car. The first Airflows to leave the factory had major defects such as engines that broke loose from their mounts at 80 mph. These problems as well as the resultant bad press, and the unconventional styling kept customers away in droves. Only 6212 units had been produced by May of 1934.

Publicity stunts, including rolling a car off a high embankment and driving the car away when it hit bottom, and having Pawnee Bill shoot out a tire at high speed, expensive marketing campaigns, refinements, and positive reviews were of little avail. The Airflow sold poorly, and in 1937 the company discontinued the model. As an interesting historic footnote many attributes of the Airflow would be incorporated in other models and influence automotive design and engineering for decades to come.

Today the Airflow provides a glimpse of the future as seen from 1934. And for the savvy collector that wants a vintage car that can be driven as a modern car, the Airflow is the best of both worlds.

 To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

Remembering the pioneers

Some found fame, many did not – but all left an imprint

THERE were motorised bicycles and vehicles with four, six and even eight wheels. They were powered by steam, gasoline, kerosene, electricity … even oversized clock springs and compressed air.

They began as a manifestation of eccentricity and scientific curiosity but soon morphed into side show curiosity and promotional gimmick.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the automobile was a multimillion-dollar industry.

Names became brands. Streetscapes were transformed with gas stations, garages, electric vehicle charging stations, billboards, and dealerships. Society was transformed. The world of transportation was transformed. Our lexicon was transformed with the addition of words like motel. Generational businesses were decimated. Time honored careers were transformed into historic footnotes.

In 1872 Studebaker based in South Bend, Indiana was billed as the largest manufacturer of wheeled vehicles in the world; wheelbarrows, freight wagons, prams, carriages, surreys, ambulances, buckboards. In 1897 the company built the first of several prototype horseless carriages, and in 1902 their first production models, an electric designed by Thomas Edison, rolled from the factory. The company continued producing horse drawn vehicles until 1920 albeit in ever smaller numbers as the company evolved into one of the largest automobile manufacturing companies in the United States.

In 1889, Elmer Apperson and his brother Edgar opened the Riverside Machine Works on Main Street in Kokomo, Indiana. As the brothers were talented machinists and blacksmiths, they prospered and development a reputation for quality workmanship. This was the reason that an eccentric Kokomo businessman named Elwood Haynes retained their services to install a Stintz marine gasoline engine in a carriage. That horseless carriage took to the street on the Fourth of July 1894. From these humble beginnings the Apperson Brothers Automobile Company was launched. Even though it is largely unknown today, the company continued producing automobiles until 1926, and pioneered an array of developments.

Clinton Woods lacked the business savvy needed to attract investors or successfully form a corporation. But he was a visionary obsessed with a simple idea; the horseless carriage was the future and the future of horseless carriages was electric vehicles. In 1899 financier Samuel Insull and several board members of Standard Oil purchased Woods designs and patents, and with an astounding $10 million in capital stock launched the Woods Motor Vehicle Company.

The company immediately began producing an electric Hansom Cab that sold well in New York and other cities. In 1900 they began producing a Victoria that was displayed at Chicago’s first auto show. It was here that the manager of the Honolulu Iron Works saw a Woods, placed an order, and imported the first automobile into Hawaii.  

The company enjoyed moderate success even though the electric vehicle was being quickly eclipsed by gasoline powered vehicles. But the companies crowning achievement was the Woods Dual Power introduced in the summer of 1916. The car used a Woods designed four-cylinder engine as an auxiliary to the electric motor. At speeds under 15 miles per hour, the gasoline engine idled and the car was driven by the electric motor. Faster speeds were obtained by using the gasoline engine with the electric motor as an auxiliary. The Woods Dual Power was a hybrid!  

Alexander Winton established the Winton Bicycle Company in 1891, and five years later took his first experimental horseless carriage for a spin. On March 1, 1897, he organized he Winton Motor Carriage Company, and to promote his new vehicle, proceeded to drive from Cleveland, Ohio to New York City. By 1899, with the production of 100 vehicles, he became the largest manufacturer of horseless carriages in America. That was also the year he turned away a young mechanic as he was turned off by his ego and launched a rivalry that would last for years. That mechanic was Henry Ford.

Winton played a pivotal role in the launching of one of America’s most famous automobile manufacturers. In 1898 car number twelve was sold to James Ward Packard who proved to be a very dissatisfied customer. During the drive from Cleveland to his home in Warren, Ohio, his new machine broke down numerous times and was eventually towed by a team of horses. Packard confronted Winton and made several suggestions for improvements. Winton was heard to say, “Mr. Packard, if you are so smart, why don’t you make a car yourself.” And so, Mr. Packard launched the Packard Automobile Company in 1899.

The establishment of automobile companies in the first years of the 20th century was a tsunami. But the market was very finite. This and a major economic recession in 1907 decimated the industry. An increased demand for vehicles, advancements in production and a growing middle class fueled another gold rush in the industry before WWII.

The post war recession and the growing dominance of major manufacturers including General Motors, Ford, Hudson, Nash, Studebaker, and Packard forced many companies to close or merge. And then came the Great Depression, and the industry that was birthed with such promise for the independent thinker was forever transformed.

Before the launching of Tesla by Elon Musk, only one man was able to successfully launch an American automobile manufacturing company after 1925 – Walter Chrysler.

  To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

Essex – all about affordability

Originally for budget-minded buyers, designed to compete with Ford and Chevrolet, Essex found great success. This story continues from last week’s ‘Roscoe Jackson – consumed by ambition.’

THE introduction of Essex in 1919 as a separate company that was in essence a lower priced companion model to Hudson left American Motors sited.

Primarily, it was in excellent position to garner a larger share of the market as the economy recovered from the post war slump.

Though priced $US900 more than a Ford, the Essex sold briskly. Further fueling sales was the introduction of a closed sedan with a price of just $US1495. No other manufacturer was offering a closed car at this price.

Essex dealers were encouraged by Hudson to capitalize on the growing reputation for speed and endurance, the unique F head engine, and the familial association with Hudson.

Some ambitious dealers were so inspired by this message they staged speed and endurance tests in demonstrator models with customers on board!

For the abbreviated model year 21,879 cars were sold in 1919. With minor changes to styling, and slight improvements mechanically the Essex remained relatively unchanged until 1924 when the then legendary F-head four-cylinder engine was replaced with an all new L-head six-cylinder.

The Hudson built engine offered features unheard of in a mid-price automobile. Deeper oil trough to improve lubrication for the rear main bearing on steep grades. A fully balanced three bearing crankshaft. Aluminum pistons. Roller valve lifters. Automatic spark advance. A cast enbloc intake manifold. The styling was also all new.

It proved to be a winning combination as 74,523 vehicles were shipped to dealers in 1924. Meanwhile, the parent company, Hudson, was positioning itself for a mid-decade surge with all new models and the introduction of technologically advanced features.

In mid-June 1923, for the 1924 model year. Hudson a fully restyled car with an array of mechanical improvements from engine to suspension. More than 59,000 models sold. The stage was set for Hudson to become a dominant manufacturer.

For calendar year 1925, 269,474 Hudson and Essex automobiles rolled from the factory. This placed Hudson Motor Company in a solid third place position behind Chevrolet and Ford. But this was only the beginning.

With profits exceeding $14.5 million the company initiated aggressive expansion. An all new $3 million body plant was built. An additional $7 million was spent to modernize and expand production, improve the engine casting facility, and develop a training program for dealers and their mechanics. The line between Hudson and Essex was blurred in 1927, but the Essex continued to outsell its parent.

The year 1929 was pivotal for the company and for the world. The boom times of the 1920s were largely fueled by expansive corporate loans and the introduction of consumer financing programs such GMAC.

Still, in rural areas, the post war collapse in agricultural prices had devastated local economies and for most of the decade small town banks failures were a common event. The decline in agricultural prices also resulted in a marked decline in exports to countries such as Australia where wool prices had plummeted.

Through the closing years of the 1920s, Hudson continued to dominate motorsports. And this translated to sales. For 1929 the company set a new sales record with more than 300,00 Essex and Hudson units produced. This as also the year the company dropped the time honored Super Six and began promoting new models as the Greater Hudson.

Marketing touted 64 improvements as well as a long list of new standard options including electric gas and oil gauge, windshield wiper, electrolock anti-theft device.

Essex mirrored Hudson for 1929. Distributors were encouraged to stage well publicised demonstrations that highlighted braking and acceleration. With an improved engine, lower rear axle ratios and all new carburetion, the Essex was also promoted its fuel economy, 20.35 miles per US gallon. All of this marketing was enhanced with the setting of records and entry into racing as well as hill climbing events.

The stock market crash in October of 1929 heralded the dawn of a deteriorating economic climate. It would be two years before the full impact of the decline was made manifest.

In the meantime, Hudson introduced an all new line of vehicles for 1930 that had been on the drawing board since 1927, this included the stunning Model T and Model U powered by an all new in-line eight-cylinder engine. Even though Essex was not given such dramatic improvements, there were enough changes to the body as well as mechanics to warrant promotion of an all new model.

But the economic downturn, magnified by the growing environmental catastrophe that was a significant drought leading to the Dust Bowl and massive displacement of people in central farming states, was decimating sales throughout the industry.

For calendar year 1931, only 40,338 Essex automobiles rolled from the factory. Hudson fared even worse with only 17487 vehicles shipped to dealers.

But as bad it was for this company; Hudson was in a better position than many manufacturers. Studebaker, production, of all lines, was a mere 44,218 models. Ford, in 1929, produced 1,507,132 passenger cars. In 1931 production plummeted to 541,615 vehicles.

Unlike a number of manufacturers Hudson would survive the ravages of the Great Depression. They would continue to be an industry leader with innovation, and they would continue setting records for speed. They would even enjoy a short post WWII renaissance. But the company would never eclipse the sales successes of 1929.

 To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

Roscoe Jackson – consumed by ambition

The story of American Motors, the last independent manufacturer to challenge the big three.

Hudson knew how to impress the customer when it came to displaying their cars.

AS with so many tales told of the origins of the American auto industry, this story begins with one man.

By all account, Roscoe Jackson was a gifted young mechanical engineer. He joined the Olds Motor Works in 1902 as part of a team of youthful visionaries that included Roy D. Chapin, Howard E. Coffin, James J. Brady and Frederick O. Bezner. Together they would transform the automotive industry.

But Jackson was also a man consumed with ambition. His career at Olds was meteoritic and within five years he had risen through the ranks to the position of manager at the main assembly plant. Meanwhile, spurred on by Jackson, Chapin, Coffin and Brady began laying plans to launch a company of their own. In 1908, shortly after marrying the niece of Detroit retail magnate Joseph L. Hudson, they brought Bezner who had left Olds for a position at Chalmers-Detroit into their planning session.

With his father in law as a major investor Jackson and his cohorts took the plunge. An article dated June 19, 1909 in the Saturday Evening Post noted the formation of a new automotive manufacturing company in Detroit – Hudson. Initially Jackson served as the company’s general manager and treasurer. The partnership was short lived. Within two years Coffin and Bezner cashed out and left the company. Chapin assumed control of Hudson product management. Jackson assumed control of most other aspects of the company from engineering to production.

From the date that the first car rolled from the factory on July 8, 1909, the company reputation for speed and durability began to grow exponentially. Before WWI, Hudson consistently ranked in the top ten American automobile manufacturers, an amazing feat considering the fact that there were literally dozens of companies producing automobiles.

 In 1916 shortly after introducing the now legendary Super Six, Chapin and Jackson rebuffed a proposal to merge Hudson with Willys-Overland and Chalmers. Instead they initiated a series of meetings with plans to merge Hudson with Dodge and Continental as well as Timken, the leading manufacturer of automotive bearings. The mergers were stillborn and so Hudson was reorganized with a new stock issuance that made Hudson's surviving founders fabulously rich men. In 1923 Chapin resigned but assumed a position as chairman of the board. Jackson assumed Chapin’s former role as president.  

In March 1929, Jackson died suddenly of influenza while on a trip to Europe. But Hudson was only one facet of his legacy. In the early 1920s, Jackson and several wealthy Detroit tycoons including Edsel Ford began vacationing along the coast of Maine near Bar Harbor and todays Acadia National Park. One year while on vacation they came to know the former president of the University of Maine, a Harvard-trained biologist and medical researcher named Clarence C. Little.

Little was a pioneer in the development of cancer research and at the time of the first meeting with Jackson and Ford, was in the planning stage of establishing a research laboratory on the Maine coast. This was to be an expansion of the cancer research facility he had established at the University of Michigan. Impressed with his work, Jackson, his brother-in-law, president of the expansive Hudson retail businesses, Richard Webber, and Ford become benefactors to Little's University of Michigan of facility. In 1929, shortly before his death, Jackson agreed to underwrite establishment of the Maine facility in Bar Harbor. Stunned at the abrupt loss of their key supporter, Little and the board unanimously agreed to rename the research unit the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory.

Jackson died four months before the 20th anniversary of Hudson. It was a tumultuous time for the company. Chapin had accepted appointment as Herbert Hoover's commerce secretary, a position fraught with scandal after he organized a “to big to fail” campaign to bail out key Detroit banks, many of which were affiliated with the Guardian Group, an organization that was chaired by Chapin. With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Chapin returned to a position of management at Hudson.  

Hudson was greatly diminished by the time this 1937 model arrived.

The leadership void created by Chapin’s departure and Jackson’s death, coupled with the deteriorating economic climate had left Hudson in a precarious financial position. The strain of restoring the company to solvency was credited as a contributing factor in Chapin’s death at age fifty-six in 1936.

Hudson would survive the Great Depression. But as with Studebaker, Nash and Packard, the company was greatly diminished. In the post war years there would be numerous successes such as the introduction of the legendary Hudson Hornet. Still, by 1950 it had become increasingly apparent that the company could not successfully compete against the big three auto manufacturers. Survival required hard decisions and the board of directors turned toward the idea of merger for the first time since 1916.

President George Mason of Nash initially planned a merger with Packard in 1948. He and the President of Packard James Nance had created a proposal but neither man was able to finalize the plan with their respective board of directors. In 1954, Mason’s second attempt was more successful when he facilitated the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company to create American Motors. Mason envisioned this as the first step in the building of a powerful automobile manufacturing combine that would also include Packard and Studebaker.

The brilliant strategy came up short when Packard merged with Studebaker two months after the formation of American Motors. The plan to merge the four companies died with Mason on October 8, 1954. When George Romney, former vice president, assumed the leadership position he terminated discussions to merge with Packard-Studebaker, and began focusing on making American Motors a contender.

First, he phased out the Nash and Hudson names in late 1957. Next, he focused all resources on the development of the Rambler. The success of the small car that was in stark contrast to the large chrome bedecked and finned cars that were rolling from the factories of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors was aided in part to a major economic recession. In 1959 a Rambler won the 1959 Mobil Economy Run as well as accolades from numerous automotive publications. Incredibly by 1960, Rambler by American Motors was the third most popular brand of automobile in the United States, behind Ford and Chevrolet. Chrysler was a distant fourth.

To compete Chevrolet unveiled the Corvair and then Chevy II. Ford unveiled the Falcon, and Chrysler the Valiant and Dart. These cars were the ghost of Christmas future when a decade later an energy crisis would leave manufacturers scrambling to recreate what AMC had done in 1958.

And it all began with one man, one visionary that inspired others to transform a dream into a reality. Roscoe Jackson, the forgotten pioneer with a legacy that bridged the modern era with the origins of the American auto industry.

 To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

A hallmark for low price, good quality

The Hudson Motor Car Company was the brainchild of four talented young engineers.

THEY stopped making cars in 1957, yet the make remains a legend, with a significant enduring fanbase.

For decades, their cars set speed records, featured advanced engineering, and provided customers with stylish durable transportation.

The brand enjoyed an enviable brand loyalty that proved crucial for survival during the Great Depression.

And for a new generation, this marque has been forever linked to Route 66 as result of achieving a starring roll the animated Cars movies.

It is, of course, Hudson.

Fortuitously the company was named for the primary investor, Joseph L. Hudson, owner of the largest department store in Detroit.

The Hudson Motor Car Company was the brainchild of Roscoe Jackson, Roy Chapin, Howard Coffin and George Dunham, talented young engineers that had launched their automotive careers at Olds. Dunham and Coffin further perfected their skills at companies such as Thomas-Detroit and Chalmers Detroit. Their goal was an ambitious one, build a durable and stylish automobile that could be sold for under $US1000.

Launched in 1909 against an ever-rising tide of automobile manufacturers, including Ford Motor Company that had recently introduced the Model T, Hudson Motor Car Company stunned the industry with its immediate success.

The Model Twenty was an instant hit with the consumer. Available only as a roadster the 20-hp, four-cylinder cars were marketed with a 50mph guarantee and a $900 price tag. The price included headlamps, dual side lamps, generator, three speed transmission, tool set and horn. They were available in but one-color scheme, dark maroon with black striping, black fenders, and the interior was dark blue leather. The options list included Bosch magneto, windshield, rumble seat and twenty-five-gallon fuel tank.

In 1910 4508 vehicles were produced. This was a new first year record for an automobile manufacturer. Production in 1911 increased to 6486 vehicles, and Hudson found itself in an enviable position, they had outgrown their production facilities within two years.

A new facility was built on a 22-acre parcel at Jefferson Avenue and Conner Avenue in Detroit diagonally across from the Chalmers Automobile Company factory and sales continued to climb.

Management was not content to rest on its laurels and in 1911 the Howard Coffin designed Model 33 was introduced. Buda was replaced by Continental who manufactured the revolutionary engine with balanced crankshaft to Hudson specifications.

The signature clutch with cork face in an oil filled unit that would be a Hudson standard for decades was introduced in the Model 33. The following year the company continued offering this model with limited mechanical changes, but the big news was that it was now available in seven body styles including the Mile A Minute Roadster.

The company had moved far beyond its original plan of offering cars for a $1000 price. For 1912 the most reasonable model was the three door Torpedo with a list price of $1600.

Then, in 1913, with introduction of the four-cylinder Model 37 and six-cylinder Model 54, the company was able to expand the list of available body types and offer a vehicle in the mid-price range or the luxury market. The base Model 37 coupe had a factory list price of $1400. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the Model 54 seven passenger limousine priced at $3750.

For 1914 the company began promoting themselves as the largest manufacturer of six-cylinder automobiles in the world, and discontinued production of four-cylinder models.

But the big news came in 1916 with the introduction of the astounding Series H Super Six with the first Hudson built engine, a car that would transform the company and the automobile industry. Even though it continued to be refined and improved, the Super Six would remain the company’s foundation into the early 1950s.

After a series of impressive wins on various tracks, the eagerly anticipated car drew immediate attention for its styling as well as mechanical prowess when it was officially introduced in January 1916 at the New York Auto Show. For the remainder of the year the company fueled media attention with an array a record setting races, and endurance runs.

One of the most astounding was a transcontinental drive from New York to San Francisco in five days, three hours and 31 minutes. Then (after an eight-hour break) the team returned to New York in just over six days. Incredibly, aside from issues with tires, both trips were completed without mechanical failure.

Before the end of the year drivers behind the wheel of a Hudson Super Six had shattered numerous records including the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and the stock chassis 24-hour record with an average speed of 74.9mph. This record stood until 1931 when it was eclipsed by a V16 powered Marmon.

Record setting wins translated into sales and fierce brand loyalty. Sales remained steady through the WWI years, and only dipped slightly during the post war recession. Exemplifying the durability and racing prowess of the Hudson was the 1919 Indianapolis 500. Ira Vail rolled across the line in eighth place with an average speed of 94.1mph. Denny Hickey finished with an average speed of 80.22mph. Ora Haibe started in 26th place and finished in 14th but the most astounding fact was that each of these contenders was driving a used Hudson. The newest one was a 1917 model.

As the price for a Hudson had continued to climb the company introduced the Essex as a lower priced companion car in 1919. The Essex had a sales price $700 less than the base model Hudson. Even though it was a bare bones vehicle that lacked some of the amenities Hudson owners had come to expect the car was a proven performer.

Under strict AAA supervision a stock 55-horsepower, four-cylinder Essex was tested at the Cincinnati Speedway in December 1919. In 50 hours, the car was driven 3037.4 miles for an average speed of 60.75mph.

In 1920 a brilliant promotional initiative was launched. The drivers and relief drivers of four Essex cars were sworn in as US post Office letter carriers. Then a bag of mail was loaded in each car, two on the west coast and two on the east coast. The average time for completion of the coast to coast run was an astonishing four days, twenty-one hours, and thirty-two minutes. Not surprising is the fact that by the beginning of 1921 the Essex was outselling its parent.  

But this was just the beginning.

Part two next week.

 To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

From horses to horsepower

After the horse fell out of vogue, carriage-makers had to adapt – and fast. Some did well.

 THE dawning of the automotive age was the death knell for countless carriage building companies. And yet the infancy of the American auto industry was also an era of unbridled opportunity for the owners of carriage manufacturing concerns - if they had vision.

Counted among the companies that successfully made the transition from horse drawn to horsepower was an outfit based in South Bend, Indiana: Studebaker. The company’s origins were as a simple blacksmith shop. Then came the manufacture of wheelbarrows in the California gold fields. By the mid-1880s this was one of the largest producers of wheeled vehicles in the world, prams, freight wagons, surreys, coaches, gun carriages, and ambulances. At the dawning of the 20th century the company took a tentative step toward automobile manufacturing with the production of electric car designed by Thomas Edison. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jacob J. Deal established a blacksmith and wagon repair shop in Jonesville, Michigan in 1858. In 1865, with a workforce of twelve men, he initiated the manufacture of wagons, buggies, and sleighs. By 1890, as one of the largest manufacturers in the upper Midwest, the company was turning out hundreds of carts, freight wagons, surreys, carriages and sleighs each year. For the company’s owners the automobile the automobile represented new opportunity and by the early 1900s Deal was a major supplier of commercial van bodies for fledgling automobile manufacturers in nearby Jackson and Hillsdale.

By 1908 even a company as successful as Deal could no longer ignore the increasing dominance of the automobile. And so, the company was reorganized and diversified to include automobile manufacturing. By all accounts, the automobile was as quality a product as the carriages and wagons that rolled from the factory. Still, it proved to be a short-lived endeavor and the company abandoned automobile production, returned to the manufacture of wagons, and then quietly closed its doors in 1915.

The McFarlan Wagon Manufacturing Company of Connersville, Indiana was established in 1856. As with Deal, the company prospered, expanded, and by the late 19th century was a leading manufacturing of horse drawn transportation. But unlike Deal, McFarlan successfully made the transition from wagon manufacturer to the manufacturer of luxurious automobiles that became an industry standard.

A key to the company’s transition was the vision displayed by the owners in 1886 when they established a modern industrial park. The McFarlan park provided immediate access to the railroad and cheap energy as McFarlan also owned a natural gas company. By leasing property to manufacturers and suppliers of carriage and buggy equipment, and furniture companies, McFarlan was able to lower their production costs. In the early 20th century the park would be dominated by the manufacturers of automotive components, and this too would work in McFarlan’s favor.

In June 1909, there was a simple, short announcement in a trade journal, “The McFarlan Carriage Company of Connersville, Indiana has announced that they will soon begin manufacturing a motor buggy.” The company was embracing the future but with the crippling mindset of the 19th century. Just as Henry Ford was on the cusp on launching mass production to lower the cost of each vehicle, the McFarlan business model centered on manufacturing two hundred vehicles per year for the “discriminating buyer.” As a result, the company began pricing themselves out of the market almost from the beginning. The first models had a factory list price of $US2000 (a Ford was $850) but by 1918 prices were surpassing $5000.

The first McFarlan’s rolled from the factory in late 1909 and were immediately track tested at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the first race, they claimed third and fifth place, and in the second race, fourth and fifth. Surprisingly, even though the car continued to earn recognition through racing, the decision was made to focus exclusively on the production of luxury cars, and in 1913 wagon manufacturing was abandoned.    

During the teens the three “P” s – Packard, Pierce Arrow and Peerless – dominated the luxury car market, but McFarlan was in a league all its own. Before the company closed its doors in 1928, the company had established a reputation for the limited production of huge luxury cars with ostentatious body work that appealed to movie star, gangsters, and oil men. The list of owners included boxer Jack Dempsey and Virginia governor E. Lee Trinkle. Al Capone bought a McFarlan for his wife, Mae, in 1924 and bought a second one in 1926 for his use.

As an example of the companies over the top luxury appointments, in 1922 a special model was built for display at the Chicago Automobile Show. Standard models made extensive use of nickel plating. On the display car this was replaced with 24 carat gold! It was purchased by a wealthy Oklahoma oil tycoon as a gift for his wife for the princely sum of $25,000. 

Initially the company used engines produced by a variety of companies including Buda, Continental, and Brownell. For the line of commercial cars developed in 1920, the company would continue its association with Continental but in the cars built for the discriminating buyer the engines were produced by McFarlan. This included the monstrous 573-c.i.d Twin Valve Six with triple ignition and three sparkplugs per cylinder that was rated at 120-horsepower. Quirky options, often trouble prone, were also a part of the cars appeal. These included vacuum assist starting, heated steering wheel, and front and rear heating, and self-lubricating chassis.

By 1922, the company’s best year with production of 235 vehicles, the proverbial handwriting was on the wall. The company was in dire financial condition. The post war recession had crippled a number of auto manufacturers and a company such as McFarlan was in no position to compete. They were still using the antiquated T head engine, and their prices now ranged from $6,300 to $9,000.

With no money for restyling the company soldiered own in a valiant attempt to remain solvent. By contracting with Lycoming, the cars were updated mechanically but the styling was increasingly dated and ever more luxurious interiors, and gadgets, were not enough to maintain even mediocre sales. Then in 1924, Harry McFarlan fell ill and turned over management of the company to Burton Barrows. The final blows came in 1928. Both McFarlan and Barrows died within weeks of each other. And this was shortly after the company was forced into receivership.

The final chapter in the McFarlan story was written by E.L. Cord, the swashbuckling entrepreneur behind the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg empire. In 1926 Cord began building his automotive empire by trading Auburn stock for a controlling interest in Duesenberg. The following year he gained control of the Lycoming Engine Company of Pennsylvania and bought major auto plants in the McFarlan industrial park, the Lexington Automobile Company and the Ansted Engine Works. Then in 1928 he acquired the Central Manufacturing Company followed a few months later by the acquisition of McFarland. He then consolidated the factories and transformed 82 acres of the park into a manufacturing complex for Auburn.

By 1930 McFarlan was on the fast track to becoming an historic footnote. With no resale value as a used car, McFarlan’s were relegated to the back of car lots, to salvage yards and were converted to trucks. Survivors were consumed by the scrap drives during WWII. Today only nineteen cars are known to exist, and they seldom change hands. Each is a tangible link to a bygone era, a time when an automobile company could cater almost exclusively to the rich and famous and turn a profit.

 To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

Big dreams, crashing realities

The car he designed at age 17 was a flop “that never did run.” C W Kelsey soon found the fast last for another talent – in advertising and marketing.

 “Whether you need to break up a lawn or prepare a garden patch for sowing, Husqvarna has a tiller for you.”

The advertisement went on to say: “Our range comprises two different models - rear-tine and front-tine. The rear-tine models are designed for use on densely packed earth and lawns. The front-tine tillers are suitable for smaller landscaping work, such as preparing flowerbeds and garden patches.”

Throughout the world, for those with home gardens, the power garden tiller has become a tool as important as a shovel, rake, or hoe.

Few people, however, know that the man credited for transforming the powered tiller from cumbersome, heavy workhorse to home gardening mainstay has also been credited with the initial success of Maxwell, development of the filmed automobile commercial and the pioneering of corporate financing programme such as GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation).    

His name was not easily forgotten but for obvious reasons Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey used C.W. and preferred that he be called Carl. In an interview given in 1920, he reflected on the first automobile that he had built in 1897 at age 17.

“It was a 100 percent flop that never did run.” Completed the following year with assistance from a classmate at Haverford College, his Autotri, a three wheeled vehicle powered by a one-cylinder engine provided transportation for the duo until it was sold a few months after they put it on the street. The third endeavor had four wheels and two cylinders, was also a success, and was sold before it was completed.

After graduation he put aside tinkering and focused on making a living. But automobiles were in his blood and so he acquired a garage in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, his hometown, and began selling vehicles manufactured by Autocar. This endeavour enabled Kelsey to develop his greatest gift – sales and marketing. Within a year he was a leading automobile dealer in the area, had relocated to nearby Germantown and established a larger facility, and acquired the Locomobile franchise to accompany Autocar. Then he discovered Maxwell.

After purchasing a Maxwell and giving it a thorough real-world test, he sent a letter to the Maxwell-Briscoe headquarters in Tarrytown, New York and boldly requested exclusive rights to selling the company’s cars in Philadelphia. After a brief investigation, Benjamin Briscoe himself responded and offered the agency for $US5000. Kelsey paid the sum in cash, acquired a larger facility on Broad Street and built a stylish dealership with gas station.  

He quickly honed a natural skill of stunting for sales and harnessed new technologies for promotion. After contracting Lubin Film Studios, a pioneer cinematography company that specialized in producing films for nickelodeon’s, he hired drivers to pilot Maxwell’s up the steepest stairs at the poshest locations in the city as cameras rolled. The he launched a 1,000 mile, nonstop, drive up and down Broad Street in a car adorned with signage promoting his dealership. The films, the headlines, the stunts and even the occasional arrest of his drivers fueled sales at an exponential rate.

It would have been impossible for Benjamin Briscoe and Jonathan Maxwell to overlook Kelsey’s success. After all, his Philadelphia agency was selling more Maxwell’s than all the dealers in the United States combined! At age 25 in 1905, Kelsey was made sales manager for the Maxwell-Briscoe company, and given free reign with development of marketing. The Maxwell was a well-built automobile, and sales growth had been steady but now they soared. Soon cars were selling as fast as the company could produce them, and then, even with construction of a new factory that allowed for expanded production, the orders were pouring into the company faster than they could be produced.      

As Kelsey worked to coordinate the expansion of the dealer network, develop nationwide advertising and marketing campaigns, and establish the industry’s first nationally trained sales force, sales doubled in each successive year. And he also continued developing new stunts for sales techniques; 10,000 miles driven in 30 days on the streets of Boston, cars entered in the prestigious Glidden and Deming Tours, and a Mount Washington Hill Climb. And then in 1909, he launched his most ambitious stunt to date and the result was international headlines, a cross country trip made by Alice Huyler Ramsey. She was given a new car for her efforts, and the one that carried her across the country was sent on a nationwide tour to be displayed at dealerships.  

One can only speculate on the success of Maxwell if the company had stayed the course. But Benjamin Briscoe was dreaming big. His first attempt at creating a massive conglomerate of companies was still born but the concept had been brought to fruition by William Durant under the General Motors banner. Briscoe’s second attempt would be as a GM competitor and Maxwell-Briscoe would be the foundation. Kelsey openly voiced strong opposition to the creation of United States Motor Company, resigned form his position, and set out to develop a car of his own design.

Shortly before departing Maxwell, Kelsey had presented plans for an all new vehicle, but they were soundly rejected. This would survive as the foundation for what he envisioned as an all new automobile manufacturing company. He built a prototype and displayed it under the Spartan name as he solicited investors. As it turned out this would be the only car produced. The project had been made relevant by Henry Ford that was expanding production and cutting the sales price for his Model T.

In a daring display of bravado, Kelsey decided that the key to success was to build a vehicle that could be sold for a lower price than the Model T. He was going to take on Ford in a head to head battle with a revolutionary vehicle of his design named the Motorette that had a sales price of just $385, almost half the price of a Model T. 

There was nothing like the Motorette on the road. It had three wheels, two in the front and one in the rear. To keep the rear wheel at right angles to the road surface, he designed the first anti-sway bar. The diminutive car had a 74-inch wheelbase, a 56 ¾ inch front tread and weighed a mere 900 pounds. The engine that propelled power to the rear wheel via chain drive was a two-cylinder, ten horsepower wonder designed by Kelsey. A forged I-beam drop axle at the front and pressed steel frame ensured rugged durability. The two-speed transmission mimicked that used in Buick. The car used thermosyphon cooling and a tubular radiator mounted behind the body.    

Kelsey created a stylish display for the cars debut at the Grand Central Palace’s 1910 New Year’s Eve party in Manhattan. Surprisingly, the car attracted the attention of the wealthy as well as the working man. More importantly it attracted newspaper men. With receipt of fifty orders, with cash deposits, Kelsey considered the cars introduction a success.   

He had organized the C.W. Kelsey Manufacturing Company in New York, and established production facilities in Hartford, Connecticut. Production commenced immediately to fill orders, and simultaneously, a marketing campaign was launched with signature Kelsey touch. The focal point of his wild stunts was to assure the public that the revolutionary three-point suspension system assured a smooth ride, that the vehicle was stable, and that it was durable. To accomplish all of this in one masterful stroke, Kelsey orchestrated the sale of 75 units to the United States government for rural mail delivery.

In a publicity stunt with full media coverage, Kelsey had a Motorette tow a 5,700-pound Alco truck through the streets of Philadelphia. He pressed cars into service during a blizzard to deliver local newspapers. In another highly publicized stunt, he sent two drivers on a coast to coast run with only one incident, three days in the jail at Ludlow, California for driving on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad bed across the Mojave Desert.

Aside from durability, promotional materials focused heavily on the low sales price and the cost of operation as well as maintenance. “The Motorette sports two heavy duty motorcycle tires in front, and an automobile tire for the drive wheel. A whole set can be purchased for $47.50 American gold.” “The elimination of a four-gear transmission, a rear axle housing with five bearings, a drive shaft and u-joints reduces maintenance and repair costs.” “The two-cylinder, two-stroke, water cooled engine has but five moving parts. There are no valves to grind, no springs to get out of order, no push rods, no cams, no cam shaft, and no cam shaft gearing.” “The most primitive automobile skills are required to operate it and a healthy girl of ten can crank it.”

Kelsey transformed letters from satisfied customers into marketing. The Hillers Poultry Plant claimed that, “…in two months of service over the roughest rural byways, transporting 100 pounds of eggs on each trip, we had no breakage.” A buyer in New York noted he regularly drove his Motorette at 25-miles per hour and had yet to experience mechanical issues. Another owner claimed that his Motorette, a Stanley and a Napier were the only cars to crest Mount Washington in a hill climbing event.  

The demise of Kelsey’s Motorette came swiftly in December 1911. With business picking up steam, Kelsey turned his full attention to development, experimentation, and promotion. And he contracted with Lycoming for engine production just days before the company was struck by labor organizers. Completed cars minus engines piled up at the factory as dealers and buyers clamored for cars. Settlement of the strike did not end the labor problems.

With the shipment of engines Kelsey instituted a three-shift work schedule to fill orders. Then complaints began pouring into the factory, and soon the complaints became lawsuits. Engines were freezing up or exploding due to bearing failure. Kelsey ordered dealers to evaluate damaged engines as well as unsold cars. He also initiated inspection of all engines in stock. As Kelsey later noted, “In every blessed one of them about a half cup of fine sand was removed.” The engines had been sabotaged at Lycoming and the Motorette was finished.

Kelsey would later make one more attempt to manufacture a vehicle but only one prototype friction drive Kelsey was completed. Then he pioneered automobile financing programs, and in 1930 became the distributor for the imported Siemens tillers and established The Rototiller Company in New York City. In 1932 the Swiss Simar tiller was added to the Rototiller line of equipment. Though they were quality machines, they proved unsuitable for rocky American soils. So, Kelsey designed and patented a tine shock absorber to install on the imported tillers.

 By 1932, Kelsy registered the trademark Rototiller and began manufacturing the All-American Rototiller, a smaller, inexpensive, and easy to operate tiller, two years later. After WWII rotary tillers became a hot commodity with commercial growers and five American companies were established to build the large tillers. What was missing was a small tiller for the home garden. In 1946 Kelsey’s company converted manufacturing to exclusively produce a small home gardener model.  

Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey, a dreamer, a visionary, another forgotten automotive pioneer.

 To read more by Jim Hinckley go to jimhinckleysamerica.com

Continental - an early industry powerhouse

The 1923 Auburn Beauty Six was one of many products powered by proprietary engines from Continental.

These pioneers reached for the sky.

IF YOU were asked to compose a list of the 10 men most responsible for the development of the American automobile industry, who would you include?

Henry Ford and David Buick? Perhaps Walter Chrysler, Ransom Olds, John Dodge, Benjamin Briscoe, Louis Chevrolet, and Charles Nash? Would that list include A.W. Tobin and Ross Judson?

In the 21st century Tobin and Judson may be less than an obscure footnote to automotive history but the business they created was the cornerstone for an astounding number of famous and forgotten automobile manufacturers. Their business also featured prominently in the development of the fledgling American aeronautical industry and during WWII played an important role in America’s defense industry.

The establishment of the Tobin and Judson automotive empire can be traced to 1901 when Ross Judson, a gifted mechanical engineering student, examined a Mercedes L-head four-cylinder engine and noticed a number of inherent flaws. Following on the heels of this discovery was the conviction that he could resolve these issues and vastly improve that engine.

In 1902, after his graduation from the Armour Institute of Technology, Judson drafted a sales pitch and daring business plan that he presented to his brother in law, A.W. Tobin. Against the backdrop of a rapidly developing automobile industry his enthusiasm and their meeting ended with Tobin as an enthusiastic partner, a $2,000 investment of capital, and an agreement to lease a hayloft in Chicago and convert it into a machine shop. Their newly minted company was named Autocar. 

As per the business plan, Judson developed an engine that was tested extensively for durability. He then launched promotion with an eye-catching display at the1903 Chicago Automobile Show. Judson and Tobin were confident that the engine would sell but the resultant inundation of orders overwhelmed their small company. In an incredible display of brash bravado, the partners obtained loans, hired additional workers, added a second shift at the factory, and launched an expansion of production facilities. 

By 1904, the exponential increase in orders forced Judson and Tobin to find a location suitable for dramatic expansion. Eager to capitalize on the rapidly expanding automobile industry numerous communities and municipalities were offering prospective automotive manufactures a wide array of incentives. After evaluating several communities, a series of meetings to discuss incentives, and looking at prospective sites the partners decided to relocate all Autocar operations to Muskegon, Michigan. With completion of a state of the art 16,000 square foot factory in late 1905, the company launched an aggressive campaign to solicit business from automobile manufacturers throughout the Midwest.  

The following year was a tumultuous one for the company. A company in Ardmore, Pennsylvania that had used the Autocar name since 1899 sued for infringement. As a result, Tobin and Judson reorganized their company under the Continental name. Studebaker increased its order from 100 engines to 1,000. A line of stationary engines was developed and marketed which led to the establishment of a new division of the company and the hiring of 600 additional employees.

As an example of their visionary leadership, in 1910 a division was established for the development and production of aircraft engines. This division, as with the rest of the company, would evolve with the rapidly changing technological innovations of the era and in 1929 it would become a subsidiary, Continental Aircraft Engine with the A-70, a 170 horsepower radial engine, as the foundation.

In 1910, Continental received its largest order to date; 10,000 engines for a new automotive manufacturing concern, Hudson. This served as the catalyst for an ambitious expansion program that included additions to the Muskegon facility, construction of a factory in Detroit, and the outfitting of both factories with state-of-the-art equipment. Two years later Walter Frederick, a former engineer for the truck manufacturing concern Autocar in Pennsylvania, assumed Judson’s position as chief engineer. Harnessing his extensive experience and knowledge, the company expanded the engineering department and launched the development of an innovative programme that included catalogue sales of standardized engines to automobile manufacturers, companies in need of stationary industrial engines, aircraft firms, and tractor manufacturers. Additionally, the company offered various options for these engines. As a result, if a client requested engine specifications not listed in the catalog, staff engineers modified existing models accordingly.

The next two decades were a golden era for Continental. Automobiles manufactured by Apperson and Case, Crawford and Jordan, Ace and Vellie, Erskine, and dozens of other companies utilized engines by Continental. Numerous companies that manufactured trucks exclusively including Corbitt, Federal, Schacht, Selden, Sterling, and Reo (derived from the initials of the founder, Ransom E. Olds) used Continental engines as well.

It was also another pivotal period of transition for the company. Ross Judson retired, and W.R. Angell was appointed president of the company. One of Angell’s first projects was to finalize an agreement with William Durant, the founder of General Motors who was building a similar company, to supply engines for his new line of automobiles – Durant, Star, and Flint. He also initiated tentative merger negotiations between Continental and three manufacturers that utilized that company’s products: Peerless, Moon, and Jordan. This had the potential for making a tremendous impact on the American automobile industry, but negotiations collapsed in the initial stage of development largely resultant of the collapse of Jordan, and the financial insolvency of Moon.

The year 1930 was the dawn of a new decade at Continental. First the company expanded the diesel truck, aircraft, and agricultural engine divisions, a fortuitous move as it kept Continental afloat during the opening days of the Great Depression. The company was poised for growth when in 1932 the decision was made to initiate the launch of a Continental manufactured automobile, and to purchase the Divco truck manufacturing enterprise.

Together the short-lived Continental Beacon, Flyer, and Ace, and the acquisition of Divco resulted in the company’s first financial crisis. But the company proved resilient and the diverse legacy of Continental did not end with the Great Depression or the post war era of unprecedented optimism. Continental engines powered the grandfather of the Jeep, the Bantam Reconnaissance and Command Car prototype, and the iconic Checker taxi through early 1964. During WWII, under contract to Willys, the company produced engines for the Jeep. Even when the company was reorganized and engine production was discontinued, the contributions continued as innovation flowed from Ryan Aeronautical, and Teledyne Continental Motors, a fitting legacy of two forgotten pioneers, Tobin and Judson.

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Race track to battlefield

The story of an American engineer and inventor best known for developing a suspension system used in World War II-era tank designs. 

MANY automotive pioneers were innovators. Some were absolute geniuses. They were all visionaries; some were just a bit more eccentric than others.

Few, however, were businessmen. As a result, many made money for investors or company owners but died destitute. For a rare few fortune proved elusive yet they transformed dreams into reality and enjoyed a modicum of financial success. J. Walter Christie was on of the latter.

Christie was born in New Milford, New Jersey on May 6, 1865 and at an early age astounded his teachers with his quick mind as well as an ability to grasp complicated mathematics. At the age of 16 he began an apprenticeship with the Delamater Iron Works while taking classes at the Cooper Union in New York City. Before turning 25, he was employed as a consulting engineer for a steamship line and began preliminary work on submarine designs.  

Shortly after the Spanish American War he launched a consulting and engineering company under the Christie Iron Works name and designed an improved turret track for naval artillery pieces for which he acquired a patent.

His next endeavour was revolutionary, the design and development of a front-wheel-drive automobile. The first incarnation was powered by a four-cylinder, transverse mounted engine with the crankshaft supplanting the front axle. The front wheels were driven directly by flywheels coupled to leather faced clutches and telescoping universal joints. In January of 1904 he tested the unusual behemoth at Ormond Beach (Daytona Beach) in Florida.

That year and 1905 were consumed with development, racing, and manufacturing. He successfully competed at the Readville Race Track and in the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup race, events that ensured international press coverage.

Of the six racers Christie built in 1904, one featured a 60-horsepower engine. But his most astounding creation was a car with two engines; a 60-horsepower engine coupled to his front wheel drive mechanism, and a second engine at the rear that utilized a transaxle. The following year he reorganised the company as the Christie Direct Action Motor Car Company and set his sights on competing in the Grand Prix.

Christie became an international celebrity. He was the first American to drive in the Grand Prix, and his front wheel drive racer was the first American vehicle to compete. And the 19,881-cc V4 was the largest engine ever used in the race. Tragically that race consumed Christie’s attentions and finances, and as a result there was no opportunity to develop or market the front-wheel drive touring car he had planned as the foundation for his automobile manufacturing company. And so, in 1907, the company went into receivership.

Christie easily found new investors as his innovative front wheel drive components were patented in the United States, Australia, Russia, and most European countries, and launched the Walter Christie Automobile Company in 1908. He also continued to race despite injuries sustained in a 1907 crash, and to offer his services as a consultant. One of his new company’s first clients was Vincenzo Lancia, an internationally claimed racer who was about to build a car of his own, the Lancia Lambda.

On September 9 of 1907, Christie was racing at Brunots Island Race Track near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A Haynes driven by Rex Reinertson lost its right front wheel and flipped crushing the driver. Christie struck the debris, was thrown from the car, was knocked unconscious by the impact and also sustained a broken left wrist, a cut on his right eye from the broken glass of his goggles, and a significant spinal injury.

Doctors expressed concern that he would likely be crippled resultant of his injuries and lose the sight in his damaged eye. Though the doctor’s concerns proved unwarranted, Christie did suffer from his injuries for the remainder of his life.

Christie’s next major accomplishment came in 1909 when he designed and manufactured the front wheel drive Christie Racer that was driven to a first-place finish by Barney Oldfield in several races. Once again, his company suffered from Christie’s inability to focus on development of a vehicle that could be sold to the public.

To placate investors, he dedicated resources to the manufacture of a revolutionary front wheel drive taxicab. As an interesting historic footnote, this taxi with transversely mounted engine/transmission assembly that could be detached and replaced in less than one hour would inspire future automobile engineers. Fifty years later Alec Issigonis who played a key role in the development of the BMC Mini, studied Christie’s taxi extensively and incorporated several ideas in that milestone vehicle.

Christie’s taxi was innovative but it required a major investment for development as well as manufacture and as a result, the sale price was $US2600. That astronomical price resulted in sales that were less than anemic. In fact, only three were sold and once again Christie faced bankruptcy.  

Christie was obsessed with racing, but money proved elusive, so he was forced into creating a saleable product. As he once quipped to a friend, “It’s no shame to be poor but it’s damn inconvenient.” In 1912, he struck gold with his next creation, a line of front wheel drive fire engine tractors that enabled fire departments to modernize horse drawn equipment without the major investment of buying a fire truck. Orders flooded the factory.

Flush with cash Christie again turned to consultation, experimentation, and development. In 1916, he developed a prototype four-wheeled front wheel drive gun carriage and submitted it for testing to the United States Army Ordnance Board. Christie's Achilles heel, stubbornness, and inflexibility, that had plagued him since youth reared its head and he refused to revise his designs to suit their requirements.

Still, Christie was able to attract the attention of United States Marine Corps Major General Eli K. Cole with his design for an amphibious light tank. He also garnered the attention of the British army who tentatively used the "Beetle Boat" during the Gallipoli landings in 1915.  An improved version was tested during the Marine Corps Winter Maneuvers of 1924 at Culebra, Puerto Rico. It performed as promised but it was determined that the vehicles were to slow, to cumbersome, and as a result, were impractical for use in combat due to limited suspension capabilities that restricted cross-country performance.

Christie invested five years and more than $US380,000 to perfect the tank. The result was the revolutionary M1928 prototype tank chassis. He referred to it as the "Model 1940" as he considered it to be 12 years ahead of its time, and it was. What made this prototype revolutionary was its "helicoil" suspension system with each wheel having its own spring-loaded assembly. This reduced allowed for unprecedented high-speed cross-country mobility. Christie’s tank also featured sloped armor to allow for thinner plating and thus a lighter weight.

The Army purchased several prototypes for testing purposes. In October 1928, the M1928 was demonstrated at Fort Myer, Virginia, where the vehicle impressed Army's Chief of Staff, General Charles P. Summerall and other high-ranking officers.

The Infantry Tank Board agreed to further testing but expressed concern about the lightweight armour. Christie stubbornly defended his vehicle claiming that in future wars lightweight tanks with long range and high speed that were designed to penetrate enemy lines and attack their infrastructure and logistics capabilities would have the advantage.

The Army, however, were locked in a WWI view and saw the tank as an infantry support vehicle. One member of the Cavalry Evaluation Board who appreciated Christie's design and shared his vision was Lt. Colonel George S. Patton.

With rejection of his design by the army, Christie displayed very poor judgment and began looking to foreign governments including Britain, Poland and the Soviet Union even though the Soviet Union had no diplomatic relations with the US at the time, and was barred from obtaining military equipment or weapons. The problems multiplied. Christie reneged on a deal to sell units to Poland. The government intervened in a sale to the Soviet Union but through a complicated subterfuge two Christie tanks that were obtained and falsely documented as agricultural farm tractors were shipped. These would become the basis for famous Soviet T-34 tank of WWII.

The British War Office also arranged for purchase of a Christie prototype tank chassis and licensing of the design through the Morris Motors Group. Again, the United States government intervened and required that the vehicle be dismantled sufficiently to meet specification as an "agricultural tractor." Following the United States entry into WWII in 1941, Christie again submitted improved tank designs to the army. Again, his efforts ended in frustration and rejection. It was to be his last project as on January 11, 1944 Christie died in Falls Church, Virginia.

Christie’s many contributions transformed transportation from front wheel drive to tracked vehicles. He was deemed the father of the modern tank, and inspired generations of automotive engineers, and yet today J. Walter Christie remains one of hundreds of forgotten automotive pioneers.

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Deusenberg days

“It’s a doozy.” A simple phrase. A superlative. And testimonial to the genius of two brothers.

FREDERICK and August Duesenberg arrived in the United States from Germany in 1885.

They were ambitious, talented and visionaries. As did many automotive pioneers, they capitalised on the bicycle craze that swept the country in the 1890s by building bicycles and promoting them through racing. By 1900, the brothers began modifying gasoline engines, installing them in their bicycles and launching a line of motorcycles.

In 1901, Fred Duesenberg opened a garage and repair facility for automobiles in Des Moines, Iowa, and then acquired a used Marion car. Through experimentation they redesigned the air-cooled engine making an array of improvements that enhanced performance. Then Fred entered the car in a race at the annual County Fair in Mason City, Iowa, and claimed first place. This was only the opening act. The brothers Duesenberg were about to change the world.

In 1906, Edward R. Mason, a Des Moines attorney, launched the Mason Motor Company with Frederick Duesenberg as the developmental engineer. The engine designed by Duesenberg was an overhead valve twin-cylinder engine with both the bore and stroke being equal at 5 inches that produced 24 horsepower from its 196 cubic inches. It enabled the Mason to quickly earn a reputation as a rugged and powerful automobile as well as a superb hill climbing competitor. As Alanson Brush had done to demonstrate the prowess of the introductory model of the Cadillac, Fred drove the vehicle up the steps leading to the Iowa Capitol building in Des Moines. And then, at the top of the steps, he turned the vehicle around, descended the steps, and repeated the display in reverse.  

In 1910 the Mason Motor Company was sold to Fred L. Maytag, but the Duesenberg brothers chose to continue work on the development of high-performance cars for use on the race circuit with financial backing from Edward Mason. In June 1913, Fred and Augie struck out on their own and established the Duesenberg Motor Company in Minnesota for the manufacture of engines for aircraft, automobile, and marine applications.

Undercapitalized, the company struggled until 1916 when a United States government contract was received for the manufacture of marine and aircraft engines. This allowed for relocation of manufacturing to a large, modern facility in New Jersey. The brother’s reputation for the engineering of high-performance engines was growing and shortly afterwards Ettore Bugatti contracted the Duesenberg Motor Company to build a 500 bhp V-16 engine.

In 1919, the brothers sold their interests in the New Jersey manufacturing facility and relocated to Indianapolis to develop a performance luxury car that used the recently developed prototype single overhead cam Duesenberg Eight engine. In early spring 1920 production commenced at the new factory established for the manufacture of racing vehicles and components under the Duesenberg Brothers name, and passenger cars under the Duesenberg Automobiles and Motors name.

The first Duesenberg passenger car rolled from the factory near the Indianapolis Speedway in 1921. It featured the brother’s revolutionary straight eight engines as well as four-wheel hydraulic actuated brakes and carried a hefty sales price - $6500 to $8800. Reputation and advanced engineering were not enough to carry the company, and in a relatively short time bankruptcy was looming. 

Errett Lobban Cord was still in his teens when he began buying used Fords, converting them with speedster bodies, and reselling them for a tidy profit. The trucking company he launched to provide services to remote western mining companies did not fare as well. But he rebounded quickly, relocated to Chicago, began selling Moon automobiles and in a few short months had risen to regional sales manager. Then through contacts in the banking industry and deft maneuverings, he gained control of the nearly moribund Auburn Automobile Company. In 1926 he purchased Duesenberg Automobiles and Motors, and within five years would acquire Stinson Aircraft, Lycoming Engines, gain controlling interest in Checker Cab Manufacturing Company and launch the revolutionary front-wheel drive Cord as part of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg enterprise.

 The Model X harnessed the power of the 100-horsepower, 322 cubic-inch displacement single overhead cam inline eight-cylinder engine that had been used in the Model A, but with modifications that included the generator and water pump being relocated to the rear, and manifolds moved to the right side. The Model X was the last model built by Duesenberg before its acquisition by Cord. The car continued in limited production, but E.L. Cord had shifted focus and resources toward development of the Model J.

The new company was renamed Duesenberg, Inc. and Fred was appointed vice president of engineering and experimental work. August was tasked with producing Duesenberg racing cars. Resultant of his work a number of engineering achievements, including centrifugal superchargers, would find their way on to production models of the Auburn and Cord.  

In 1928 at the New York City Auto Show, Cord introduced the Model J. It was the most powerful and most technologically advanced production car in America. It was also stylish with luxurious interior appointments. The twin overhead cam developed a reported 265-horsepower. The base sales price of a chassis without coachwork was an astounding $8500. In comparison a top of the line Ford sold new for just $585!  

As Cord’s goal was to create the world’s most luxurious and most powerful automobile to compete with the likes of Rolls Royce or Hispano-Suiza, the Model J underwent a near continuous series of improvements. The 265-horsepower, 420 c.i.d. inline eight-cylinder engine produced 80-horsepower more than the competing Cadillac powered by a 452-c.i.d. V16. The launch of the companion SJ model was a game changer. Outfitted with a supercharger the SJ was rated at an astounding 320-horsepower.

Even thought the production models averaged 5,000 pounds in weight, their performance was extraordinary. An SJ convertible coup was tested at the Indianapolis Speedway and reached a sustained speed of 129-miles per hour, a new record for an American production automobile. In 1935, Ab Jenkins broke this record by reaching 152.1 miles per hour. A streamlined car dubbed the Mormon Meteor was then driven for twenty-four hours at Bonneville with an average speed of 135.5 miles per hour.

By October 1929, the company had manufactured two hundred cars, and only an additional one hundred by the end of 1930. Fittingly the limited production Duesenberg was marketed with bold slogans. “The only car that could pass a Duesenberg is another Duesenberg - and that was with the first owner’s consent”. The Model J and SJ quickly became the ultimate status symbol for the rich and famous throughout the world who commissioned custom bodies from companies such as Derham, Judkins, Murphy and LeBaron in the United States, and in Europe by Saoutchik and Gurney Nutting. Counted among the proud owners were Harpo Marx, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Howard Hughes, Mae West, Greta Garbo, William Randolph Hearst and members of European royalty; the Duke of Windsor, Prince Nicholas of Romania, Queen Maria of Yugoslavia, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

Even in the best of times, a company that manufactured limited production cars that sold for astronomical prices would be challenged to survive. Even bolstered by Auburn sales, the bread and butter of the company, and Cord, the company struggled during the depths of the Great Depression. Compounding the company’s woes, Fred Duesenberg died on July 26, 1932 of pneumonia that resulted from injuries sustained in an automobile accident in Pennsylvania while behind the wheel of a Murphy-bodied SJ convertible on his way from New York City to Auburn, Indiana.

In 1937 Cord’s intertwined financial empire collapsed. The final chapter for the once mighty Duesenberg was rather anticlimactic. Parts on hand were gathered and two more cars were assembled, one for German artist Rudolf Bauer in April 1940. Used Duesenberg’s appeared on car lots and even with prices equal to that of an old Ford, remained unsold. A few savvy buyers acquired the once prestigious automobiles and taking advantage of the powerful drive trains and heavy frames, converted them into trucks.

The Duesenberg name is enshrined as the car to which all others are compared, the doozy. Today the survivors are highly prized among collectors. When they change hands, the price is often in the millions of dollars, and the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg Museum housed in the former factory and headquarters is a revered shine for automobile enthusiasts from throughout the world.

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Charles Nash: Farm boy who became a titan

His innovative, hands on management style and conservative fiscal policies proved to be a winning combination

The 1930 Nash Eight still used cable-operated brakes at a time many others had gone to hydraulics.

CHARLES Nash had a philosophy that was at the heart of all that he did: "There is only one sure recipe for success in any field of endeavour: Determination, close application to details, plus hard work and then more hard work.”

It was a philosophy that had been developed in the formative years of a life that was literally a rag to riches story. It was the philosophy that enabled Nash to transform Buick and General Motors, and that enabled him to launch an automobile company that became an industry leader.    

Nash was born to an impoverished farming family in Cortland, Illinois, on January 28, 1864.  He was abandoned at age six by his parents when they separated. As a ward of the court he was “bound out.” In essence this was an agreement that made him an indentured servant until age 21 to a farmer in Michigan who was required to provide at least three months of formal education per year. Nash ran away and became a farmhand, at age 12, first in Grand Blanc, Michigan for $US8 per month, then for Alexander McFarland in Mount Morris, Michigan for $US12 per month.

Newly married, Nash moved to Flint, Michigan in 1890 where he found employment at the Flint Road Cart Company owned by Josiah Dallas Dort. In the fall of 1895, Dort reorganised the company as Durant-Dort Carriage Company with William C. Durant, owner of Coldwater Road-Cart Company as a partner.

Nash was initially employed as a cushion stuffer but his work ethic, attention to detail and ambition caught the attention of Durant, the man who would launch General Motors and within six months Nash was promoted to the position of superintendent at the factory. Free to innovate Nash transformed the company with the introduction of the straight-line belt conveyor belt that cut cost, increased productivity, and boosted profits. And then, shortly after the turn of the century Nash further expanded the company’s profits by adding the manufacture of automobile bodies. A primary customer was Buick which had been acquired by Durant in 1904.

In September 1908, General Motors was capitalised by William C. Durant as a holding company. The next day he purchased Buick Motor Company, and over the course of the next few weeks acquired more than 20 companies including Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland. By 1910 the rapidly growing conglomerate had left Durant increasingly short of capital as well as skilled management.

For bankers and the board of directors, increasingly worried about their investment Durant’s attempt to purchase Ford for $US8,000,000 proved to be the final straw. A banker’s trust acquired GM and forced Durant from the company.

 It was this crisis that served as Nash’s entry to the American auto industry as the board at GM unanimously accepted the proposal that he be given the position of general manager of the Buick division. In less than a year he had resolved the stagnation that had resulted in a glut of inventory, initiated an industry leading program of quality control that curtailed customer complaints, and had given development of a six-cylinder engine priority status. His efforts were rewarded by elevation to the presidency of General Motors in 1912, the year that Walter Chrysler assumed the presidency of Buick.

After leaving GM, Durant established Chevrolet, and through a complicated process of exercising stock options, stock swaps, and other manipulations regained control of GM. The new policies and plans he instituted resulted in a mass exodus of management from the company. Counted among those that walked from GM were Walter Chrysler and Charles Nash.  

Nash was undaunted and saw the departure from GM as an opportunity. He had been entertaining ideas of launching his own manufacturing company for quite some time. After evaluating several companies, he set his sights on acquiring the Thomas B. Jeffrey Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin, manufacturer of the popular Rambler, the Jeffrey and the Jeffrey Quad 4, a line of heavy duty 4x4 trucks.

By the late 19th century Thomas B. Jeffrey’s Rambler company was the second largest manufacturer of bicycles in the United States. Jeffrey was also a partner in the G & J Tire Company, forerunner of United States Rubber. His son, Charles, had initiated experimentation with automobiles in 1897 and in 1900 displayed a vehicle at the auto show in New York City and in Chicago. Reviews of the Rambler and receipt of orders resulted in Jeffrey selling the bicycle manufacturing company, purchasing a factory in Kenosha and initiating production.

This company would earn a reputation for innovation, such as introduction of the steering wheel, and durability. By 1910 the company had become a leading manufacturer of vehicles, and the factory was recognized as one of the largest and most modern in the country.

Tragedy struck the company in April 1910 when Thomas B. Jeffrey died suddenly of a massive heart attack. In 1915 tragedy struck the company again. Charles Jeffrey was in England negotiating sales of Jeffrey trucks and cars throughout the British Empire and had booked his return trip on the Lusitania. He survived the torpedoing of the ship but was devastated by the incident and began withdrawing from the business. This led to his sale of the company to Charles Nash in July of 1916.

Nash quickly reorganized his acquisition as the Nash Motor Company. His innovative, hands on management style and conservative fiscal policies proved to be a winning combination. In 1918, 10,000 cars rolled from the Kenosha factory. With establishment of a strong dealer network, sales the following year climbed to 27,000 automobiles and 12,000 trucks. During World War I, Nash negotiated a contract to supply the U.S. Army with 4x4 trucks. This coupled with prewar sales to the British Empire made the Nash Motor Company the largest manufacturer of trucks in the United States.

Nash was unique among auto manufacturers in that rather than incurring debt he preferred paying cash for expansions. This was such an unusual practice that it was made the focus of an article in a financial journal. “Nash is a man who, in the short space of nine years, has built up a business on which there is not a dollar of bonded indebtedness, whose stocks have a market value approximating $137,000,000, whose profits have exceeded $56,000,000, and whose bank balance tops $30,000,000. Surely he must be regarded as a very practical authority on what makes for success.”

It was from this position of financial strength that Nash began acquiring other Wisconsin automobile manufacturers, including the Mitchell Motors Company of Racine in 1923 and LaFayette Motors of Milwaukee in 1924, modernizing their production, and then introduced them as companion lines to Nash.

From its inception Nash realized that his company would never be able to compete head to head with GM, Ford, or Chrysler. So, he focused on producing a car that could be sold in the mid-price range yet provide the customer with well-engineered, durable vehicles and foster development of fierce brand loyalty. There were brief forays into the production of less expensive models such as the Ajax, and during the opening years of the Great Depression, the introduction of a luxury car line under the Ambassador name.

Stylish and powerful with highly advanced components such as dual point ignition, the Ambassador received the ultimate compliment when it was deemed the "Kenosha Duesenberg" in a review published in 1932.

Attesting to Nash’s success, a 1929 evaluation of the American industry noted that even though there were several dozen automobile manufacturers in the United States, GM, Ford, and Chrysler controlled 75 percent of the market. Nash was in fourth place.

The year 1932 proved to be pivotal in the history of the company. Charles Nash resigned as president but retained his position as board chairman, and appointed George W. Mason as executive vice president. A limited partnership was entered into with Kelvinator, a leading manufacturer of refrigerators and in 1937 a merger was initiated with the new company named Nash-Kelvinator. Nash relinquished all control of the company in 1937 and died in 1948 in Beverly Hills, California.

His namesake company would live on for almost another decade before being folded into a new conglomerate, American Motors. The cars, however, were but a small part of Charles Nash’s legacy even though they are revered by passionate collectors today. His rags to riches story is still inspiring entrepreneurs, and his revolutionary management style is used as a template by an array of progressive companies.

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When Brush was the new broom

Alanson Partridge Brush was a gifted, self-taught mechanical engineer. William Durant would often refer to him as a genius.

IT was an odd way to market an automobile.

In 1908, after taking first place in a number of prestigious hill climbing events, the Brush Runabout Company initiated a marketing campaign that noted the superiority of the Brush in hill climbing was best understood by a prospective owner if they reflected on the reason a squirrel can climb a tree better than an elephant.

Odd marketing aside, the Brush was a popular selling automobile with a reputation for durability. And that was why Benjamin Briscoe wanted to acquire the company to bolster United States Motor Company and William C. Durant wanted to add the company to the General Motors line of vehicles.

The story of the Brush Runabout begins with Cadillac in 1902. With great fanfare a crowd estimated to number in the thousands gathered on a crisp October morning to witness an automotive feat, a car was to be driven up the steps at the entrance of the newly constructed Wayne County Courthouse in Detroit, Michigan. They were not disappointed. A diminutive little horseless carriage drove down Randolph Street, turned and without missing a beat, climbed the steps and then descended. It was the first Cadillac produced and the man in the driver’s seat was Alanson P. Brush. As an historic footnote the park in front of the courthouse would be renamed Cadillac Square in commemoration.

Alanson Partridge Brush was a gifted, self-taught mechanical engineer. William Durant would often refer to him as a genius. During the closing years of the 19th century he accepted employment as an apprentice in the workshops of French automakers Darracq and Mors. His apprenticeship was brought up short by the Spanish American War and fighting with an infantry unit battling in Cuba.  

After the war Brush accepted a position at Leland & Faulconer Machine Shop, in late 1899. The company that was established in 1890 by Henry Leland, who had learned precision machining from Samuel Colt, and Michigan lumber baron Robert C. Faulconer, had a well-established reputation for quality machine work. Brush did not arrive empty handed as he had already filed for a number of patents.

Shortly after his arrival, Leland accepted a contract to manufacture hundreds of gasoline engines for Ransom E. Olds. Before production could commence Brush modified the design boosting engine output by more than twenty percent. And then, just as production was ramping up, Olds canceled his order. In March 1901, a fire ravaged the Olds factory making it impossible to retool for the new model that he planned to release later that year.

Fortuitously a few months later Leland was retained as a consultant by William Murphy and Lemuel W. Bowen, two of the primary financiers of Henry Ford’s Henry Ford Company, to appraise the Ford factory and equipment so they could liquidate it and recoup a portion of their investment. Ford was incensed and left the company with a small check as a well as a demand that his name no longer be used. Leland seized the opportunity, convinced Murphy, and Bowen to keep the factory open and presented the engine designed by Brush for Olds. Then the company was reorganised under the Cadillac name. 

Following the highly publicized demonstration drive up the courthouse steps, the prototype Cadillac was displayed at the New York Automobile Show. Within one week, sales manager William E. Metzger had taken more than 2,200 orders with cash deposits. In 1903, the Cadillac Model A was introduced with numerous Brush patented components. Working with Leland, Brush, now Cadillac's chief engineer, continued perfecting the 10 horse-power, single-cylinder engine that displaced 98.2 cubic inches, and that had a detachable cast-alloy cylinder assembly with a copper water jacket for more efficient cooling. The car also featured an improved carburetor as well as adjustable rack-and-pinion steering and Brush’s patented two-speed planetary transmission.

In the years that followed Brush would build an impressive resume. The first four-cylinder Cadillac engine in 1905 was a Brush design. Shortly afterwards he left Cadillac, teamed up with Edward Murphy, owner of the Pontiac Buggy Company, and assisted in the launch of Oakland Motor Car Company. Then he established a consultation company in Detroit with a long list of prestigious clients including William Durant who had recently founded General Motors.

Then in the summer of 1907 Brush revisited the idea of manufacturing a light, two-cylinder runabout of his design that had been rejected by Leland at Cadillac. For financing Brush approached an old associate, Frank Briscoe, whose brother Benjamin had founded Maxwell-Briscoe with Jonathan Maxwell in 1904. By year's end, the Brush Runabout Company was producing one of the most successful light cars of the period. Even though it was initially sold for an astounding low price of $500, the car bristled with innovation.  As an example, it was the first production vehicle in the United States to feature coil springs and shock absorbers at all four wheels.

The Brush won critical acclaim through competition. It was one of the few vehicles to complete the grueling 2,636-mile Glidden Tour in 1909. The same year a Brush was driven to a new Pikes Peak hill climbing record. A 1912 Model F Brush Runabout was the first motor vehicle to cross Australia from east to west, a 5600km tour from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Melbourne accomplished in 1913 by Francis Birtles. But that astounding feat was the company’s swan song.  

By 1910, Durant was gobbling up companies for inclusion in the General Motors conglomerate. Oakland was one of his acquisitions. Meanwhile Benjamin Briscoe had established United States Motor Company as a competitor and was also purchasing a number of manufacturers including Stoddard-Dayton and Brush. By the end of 1912, the United States Motor Company, and by association Brush, had collapsed.

The Brush Runabout may have been history, but Alanson Brush would go on to build a distinguished career as a consulting engineer for his company, the Brush Engineering Association. He designed the 150-cu.in. inline-four-cylinder engine for the Monroe driven by Gaston Chevrolet to victory in the 1920 Indianapolis 500 as well as engines for Marmon and American LaFrance. He also successfully launched a second career as an expert witness in patent-infringement cases. When Brush died in March 1952, the Detroit News mourned the passing of "a colorful auto pioneer.”

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