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By 1911 the automobile industry had come into its own. Securities of
automotive companies were listed in the New York Stock Exchange. The
Ford Motor Company had been formed, and by 1908 had introduced the
historic Model T. The Buick Motor Company, the Olds Motor Works, the
Cadillac Automobile Company and the Oakland Motor Car Company had
already achieved individual success - and had been combined with
other firms by William Crapo Durant into the General Motors Company.
Durant then lost control of the organization and moved on to another
career, building and selling a new automobile, which had been
designed by and named for Louis Chevrolet, a French race driver.
Another promoter, Benjamin Briscoe, had brought together some 130
companies to create the United States Motor Car Corporation. This
ambitious merger soon ran into financial difficulties and ran into
receivership in 1912. Michigan, and especially Detroit, were now
established as centers of automobile production.
The general public took to motorized vehicles like moths to a flame.
While the heads of companies were inventing, merging, maneuvering,
suing, counter-suing, promoting, failing, or amassing fantastic
wealth, curious Americans from Oregon to Maine were interested enough
to open their wallets. Dealerships were set up in livery stables,
blacksmith shops and general stores in the largest cities and in the
smaller towns. Some of the mechanically-minded individuals assembled
their own vehicles, while others turned to their favorite source of
supply for anything - the Sears, Roebuck catalog - to order a motor
buggy "so safe that a child could run it."
Many of those who contributed to the automotive industry have faded
from memory and into historic oblivion (or those whose ideas were
stolen, into oblivion itself). Others have been engraved into
automobile history on nameplates. Walter Chrysler, Louis Chevrolet,
David Dunbar Buick, Ransom E. Olds, Henry Ford, John and Horace
Dodge, The White, Mack, and Duesenberg brothers have not been
forgotten. John Mohler Studebaker, John North Willys, Harry Stutz,
William Crapo Durant, Edwin Ross Thomas, Francis and Freelan Stanley,
Johathan Dixon Maxwell, Charles W. Nash, James Ward Packard, Thomas
B. Jeffery, E. L. Cord, George N. Pierce, Albert Augustus Pope,
Howard C. Marmon and others like them have a niche in the automotive
annuals because their names graced the automobiles and radiator caps
of their era.
Only an avid hobbyist or automotive historian is familiar with the
pioneers like H. Bartol Brazier of Philadelphia; J. L. Cato of San
Francisco; Dan J. Piscorski of St. Louis, Missouri; W. H. Kiblinger
of Auburn, Indiana; Percy L. Klock of New York; F. J. Fanning of
Chicago; C. Clarence Holden of Comanche, Texas; or J. A. Moncrieff of
Pawtucket, Rhode Island. They had cars named for them as well, but
for some reason, the vehicles failed to catch on and their creators
were ground into the oils of automotive history by more popular
models.
In 1904, Graham Fisher and James A. Allison organized the Prest-O-
Lite Company and introduced a new system of acetylene gas headlights.
In 1908, the year of the Model T, C. Harold Wills developed the use
of vanadium steel for Ford. At the same time, Charles Y. Knight was
perfecting his sleeve-valve engine, and the Fischer brothers founded
a company which was to gain fame as a producer of closed auto bodies.
Scientific experimentation of Charles Franklin Kettering of the
Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company helped bring about such
innovations as the electric starter and ethyl gasoline. Harvey S.
Firestone, B. F. Goodrich, Arthur W. Grand and others worked with
rubber to overcome deficiencies in tire construction. Edward G. Budd,
a young Philadelphia engineer, is credited with the idea for
all-steel bodies for automobiles. Before this time, many of the
manufacturers had been carriage makers and used the same techniques
and designs they had previously used for horse-drawn vehicles. The
heat of early-day motors caused wood to warp and weakened the glue
which held it together. Rough roads made joints give way so that the
automobile creaked and groaned. Budd left a good job to pursue his
idea with his own company; in 1912, he finally convinced the Oakland
and Hupmobile people to try his all-steel body frames, and the next
year he received his first large contract from John and Horace Dodge.
Arthur O. Smith, the son of a Milwaukee blacksmith and bicycle parts
manufacturer, shifted his interests from bicycles to the new-fangled
horseless carriage. He sold his first pressed steel frames to the
Peerless Motor Company early in the 20th century and when other auto
builders became interested, he offered a house and lot to a foreman
who could increase his production to twelve frames per day. It was
then that he was visited by Henry Ford. Ford ordered 10,000 Model T
frames for delivery in four months; a challenge that was accepted,
and by 1921, the A. O. Smith Corporation was capable of producing
Ford's first order in a single day.
Hundreds of ideas have come from unknown mechanics who achieved
neither fame nor pay for their contributions. The automobile, as it
progressed, was a product of many hands, of revolutionary concepts,
and of simple, almost unnoticed upgrading. In the end, the one who
received the most for these challenges and changes was the motorist,
whose interest, money, and enthusiasm have forced the auto-moguls to
upgrade, perfect, and add to previous achievements in order to stay
in the competition.
The Cadillac is named after the man who, in the 1700's, founded
Detroit. His name was Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.
Animal Names
Some of the cars that have been named after animals are:
Badger Colt Eagle Hawk
Barracuda Cougar Falcon Honey Bee
Beaver Coyote Fox Hornet
Black Crow Cricket Golden Eagle Impala
Bobcat Crow Great Eagle Jack Rabbit
Kangaroo Panther Stingray
Lark Pinto Wasp
Lion Rabbit Whippet
Lynx Road Runner Wildcat
Marlin Seven Little Buffaloes Wolf
Mustang Silver Hawk Wolverine
Star Names
Comet Jetstar Star
Eclipse Meteor Starfire
Flying Cloud Moon Sun
Galaxie Nova Sunset
Golden Rocket Satellite Vega
Hero and Mythology Names
Ajax Centaur Hercules
Apollo Cressida Mercury
Ariel Croesus Minerva
Argo Diana Nike
Argonaut Die Valkyrie Olympian
Atlas Electra Pan
Aurora Excalibur Sphynx
Ben Hur Goethe Vulcan
State Names
California Maryland Oregon
Carolina Michigan Pennsylvania
Illinois New Yorker Texan
Indiana Ohio Virginian
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