Month: August 2018

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Packard Hood Ornaments

These Packard hood ornaments are among the most beautiful ever produced, but don’t call them “swans,” at least not around any Packard aficionados.  This Packard mascot was originally called a pelican and was based on the Packard family crest.  There seems to be considerable disagreement on the specifics, but somewhere along the line Packard began referring to the design as a “cormorant.”  No matter what you call it, there is no denying that it is one gorgeous bird.

Other Packard-related posts:

Packard Hood Ornaments by Year – 1940s

Packard Hood Ornaments by Year – 1950s

1934 Packard

1937 Packard

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American Ingenuity

I have been reading a book about Henry Ford called I Invented the Modern Age by Richard Snow.  In it, Snow makes the point that, at the same time that Ford was building his first automobile, there were many men in many garages around the country attempting the same feat and, incredibly, each of those men was operating in a vacuum.  Snow quotes Ford as saying, “I had to work from the ground up – that is, although I knew a number of people were working on horseless carriages, I could not know what they were doing.”

It is a testament to American ingenuity that so many were successful in creating a working automobile, and I recently discovered there was one such man right in my home town.  His name was T. H. Bolte, and he was a machinist and bicycle builder in Kearney, Nebraska.  He completed his automobile in the summer of 1900 after working on it for approximately a year and a half.  With the exception of the engine, he had to create everything, down to the last gear, by hand.  When he started building the automobile, he had never seen one in person.

Bolte’s machine weighed about 650 pounds and used a double gearing, one on each side.  It initially had a 2 hp gasoline engine that could only go 10 mph.  Happily, the local paper published this photo so we know what it looked like:

 

Bolte continued to sell bicycles and began selling automobiles as well.  This is one of his ads:

He later went into the cement business and improved, patented and sold cement mixers.  Bolte was also serving on the city council in 1904 when they passed an ordinance making it illegal to drive any vehicle other than a bicycle or tricycle within the city at a greater rate of speed than 12 mph.  The punishment for violating this ordinance was arrest and fine of not more than $100 or imprisonment not to exceed 30 days!  Every councilman voted in favor of the ordinance except for Bolte who said it “would make lawbreakers of the people.”

Bolte was absolutely correct in voting against it, but another little blurb that was published in 1901 further explains his stance.  His 2 hp engine had given out and he had replaced it with a 4 hp engine capable of making a speed of 15 mph.  Bolte was definitely my kind of guy.

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With a V8 Here and a V8 There . . . . A Guide to Early Ford Hub Caps

Identifying early Ford hubcaps can be difficult due to the many “V8” variants.  This is a little guide I put together for myself that covers Ford cars 1932-48.  Please note that I have not included the locking spare tire hub caps or the spiders (because, sadly, I don’t possess any.)    Hope it helps!

 

1932

1932, 1933 4-cylinder

1933

1934

1935

1936 (V8 is recessed)

1937 (V8 is raised)

1938 Standard

1938 Deluxe

1939 Standard

1939 Deluxe

1940 Standard

1940 Deluxe

1941

1942

 

1946

1947-1948

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The Least Expensive Date You Ever Had

A few years ago my husband brought home a box of hood ornaments for my anniversary present (he knows me so well)!   Among them was this streamlined beauty:

This gorgeous gal originally flew on the hood of a Nash, and she is autographed by George Petty, the artist that designed her:

George Petty was the original American pin-up girl artist.  Petty’s career shifted into high gear after he went to work for a brand-new magazine called Esquire in 1933.  The Petty Girl became the standard in advertising and was also overwhelmingly popular with American servicemen during WWII.   Hundreds of American bombers featured a Petty Girl on the fuselage including the renowned Memphis Belle, the first bomber to return to the United States after completing 25 missions over Europe.   Ernie Pyle, famed war correspondent, wrote from Tunisia in 1943 that “Petty’s drawing of his famous girl stretched out on her stomach musing about something is tacked up in hundreds of soldier billets in North Africa.”

My hood ornament was designed for the 1950 Airflyte according to this piece from the Late Fall 1949 issue of Nash Airflyte Magazine:

It reads:  “This new Nash Flying Lady was created especially for the 1950 Airflyte (both Ambassador and Statesman models) by the famous George Petty of Petty Girl renown.  Her wide wings and soft contours, finished in heavy chrome, will add a distinctive note to your car.  You can get this stunning ornament (for any Nash Airflyte model) from your Nash dealer – she’ll be the least expensive date you ever had!”

This hood ornament was used again in 1951.  This excerpt appeared in the 1951 Nash Accessories brochure:

Petty went on to design another hood ornament for Nash, and his designs stand out even among the other beautiful and aerodynamic hood ornaments of the 1950s.   What a glorious time period it was in American automobile history, one filled with style, class and individuality.

 

1950 Nash

1951 Nash

 

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So Many Choices

What a wild and combative time it was in the early days of the automotive industry in America.  Studebaker and EMF were duking it out in court.  George Selden was filing patent infringement suits against anyone who wouldn’t pay his licensing fees, and Henry Ford was fighting him tooth and nail.  The Dodge Brothers worked for Ford and then sued to force Ford to continue paying dividends on their Ford stock after they left to start their own company.  Ford was biding his time to get revenge on Henry Leland, the man who founded BOTH Cadillac and Lincoln, and Leland’s son even crashed Ford’s New Year’s Eve party to serve a subpoena.  There were so many competitors, and most of them were playing hardball.

It is difficult to grasp just how many choices consumers had when they went to buy an automobile, but I recently discovered an old article in the archives of our local paper that illustrates the options available at one point in time, the year 1917.  While writing the article, dated March 30th of that year, the reporter spoke to a local repair man who stated that there were 134 U.S. automobile manufacturers.  The reporter then reviewed tax sheets from the County Assessor’s office and discovered that 90 of the 134 makes were owned by the residents of just our one county (which would have had a population of around 23,000 at the time).  A few of the names on the list are illegible, a few are misspelled, and a couple seem like they might refer to motorcycles, but here is the list of legible names.  I have never heard of many of them, and who knew that Maytag made an automobile?   How many do you recognize?

Ford
Saxon
Buick
Oakland
I. H. Co.
Excelsior
Dayton
Brush
Carter-Car
Winton
Chevrolet
Pullman
Rambler
Chalmers
Apperson
Mitchell
Studebaker
Overland
Maxwell
Racicle (Racycle)
National
Thomas-Flyer
Cadillac
White-Steamer
Oakland
Marion
Hupmobile
Paige
Hudson
Reo
Wagner
Stanley
International
Pope
Auburn
Locomobile
Yale
Sears-Roebuck
Firestone
Regal
Maytag
Merz
Hollier
R.C.H.
Premer (Premier)
Fall (F.A.L.)
Velie
Enger
Henderson
Kelley (Kelly)
Kissell (Kissel)
Columbia
Detroiter
Rider-Lewis
Briscoe
Orient
Abbott
Marquette
Franklin
Cutting
Hallier (Hollier)
Sayers-Scoville
Krit
Monitor
Everett
Avery
Flanders
Jeffrey
E.M.F.
Stoddard
Grant
Willeys-Knight
Reading-Standard
Case
Dort
Abbott-Detroit
Stephens-Six
Crow-Elkhart
Chandler