The fascinating history of American cars . . .one story at a time.
The excerpt below was taken from a 1923 story featuring an interview with Walter Chrysler before THE Chrysler, when he was with Maxwell. It has some interesting facts regarding the state of the American automobile industry in 1923. Notice the complete dominance by Henry Ford at that point in time:
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This headline from 1910 caught my eye the other day:
The author of this story was expecting the two companies to start one of the greatest manufacturing wars ever seen, a war that would set the automobile world on end and “create sensations never before anticipated”. Maxwell did eventually become stiff competition for GM, but certainly not in the way the author of this headline was predicting it would happen. It all makes for an interesting story about the birth of one of the American auto industry’s “Big Three”.
The Maxwell-Briscoe automobile came into being when Jonathan D. Maxwell, who had worked for Oldsmobile as an engineer, combined forces with Benjamin Briscoe, owner of a Detroit sheet metal manufacturing plant. JP Morgan was an investor and the Maxwell-Briscoe became the third largest seller behind Ford and Buick. This success was due in part to an imaginative sales manager with the decidedly east-coast name of Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey who dreamed up an unending parade of publicity stunts.
The 1910 combine that was mentioned in the headline above became the United States Motor Company (USMC) and involved both Maxwell and a company called Columbia. Columbia was owned by the Electric Vehicle company. This was significant, and the reason some were forecasting war, because Electric Vehicle owned the Selden patent.
In the 1870s, attorney George Selden had begun the process of obtaining a patent covering the use of an engine to propel a vehicle, but Selden kept the patent pending so long that it was not granted until 1895. By this time, many others were creating automobiles and everything Selden claimed was already being used by others. Regardless, Columbia paid Selden for the rights to this patent for a lump sum plus a royalty for every car produced and claimed the patent covered every gasoline-powered automobile in the country.
Many major manufacturers formed a group called the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM), an organization that granted licenses to manufacture automobiles to those paying the royalty fee. The ALAM made it clear that they would not be granting licenses to all applicants, thereby keeping all the business for themselves. The decision-makers at the ALAM made the strategic error of denying a license to the always-combative Henry Ford, and that’s when the real war began.
Ford taunted the ALAM into suing him. Ever the master of publicity, Ford successfully portrayed himself as the underdog and made people sympathetic to his position. Both sides took out pages of advertising to argue their case in the court of public opinion, and the actual court case drug on for years, beginning in 1903 and not ending until 1911.
The dueling advertisements often appeared side by side:
The ALAM won in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York with a judge that admittedly knew nothing about engines. Ford appealed and the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit saw things differently. The panel of judges ruled that the Selden patent was limited to the use of a Brayton engine to propel a vehicle whereas the defendants were utilizing the Otto engine, that Selden had simply made the wrong choice and that the defendants neither legally nor morally owed him anything. They sent the case back to the trial court to be dismissed and even ordered the court costs charged to the ALAM.
The United States Motor Company collapsed a year after the suit in 1912, and Briscoe left to make a new car (the Briscoe). Jonathan Maxwell reorganized and moved to Detroit where he manufactured Maxwell Fours as well as trucks and buses. Things went well for a time, but the company was hit hard by the post-war recession. Enter Walter Percy Chrysler.
Chrysler had started his career in the railroad industry before catching the eye of GM executives. He went to work for GM in Detroit and was put in charge of the Buick division. He was an indefatigable worker who operated efficiently, making judicious use of his time. Before long, Chrysler made Buick into GM’s strongest unit. When he arrived, Buick was making 40 cars per day, and, when he left 8 years later, 560 Buicks per day was the output.
Chrysler made the move to Maxwell in 1920, and there were many problems for him to solve. A merger with Chalmers did not work out well, and the Chalmers automobile was phased out. The Maxwell’s reputation had suffered due to mechanical issues, so it was revamped and rebranded the “Good Maxwell”.
By 1924, Chrysler was ready to introduce a new car, one named after himself. The new Chrysler had a high-compression six-cylinder engine that cruised comfortably at 70 mph, hydraulic four-wheel brakes, and a reasonable price tag of $1395. It was an immediate hit with the public that shattered records with 10,000 new Chryslers being produced and sold within the first six months. People lining up to buy Chrysler’s creation included racecar drivers like Joe Boyer and Jimmy Murphy.
It is a household name now, but advertisements at the time had to instruct people how to pronounce the name of the new automobile:
1926 was the last year for the Maxwell as it was re-made into a 4-cylinder Chrysler.
In 1928, Chrysler continued his streak by purchasing Dodge Brothers and also introducing the Plymouth. So, the author of that 1910 story was sort of correct about Maxwell going to war with GM. It just took a number of years, a name change and the genius of Walter P. Chrysler to get there.
“Men who get very far ahead have some other qualities in addition to ordinary ability, capacity, energy and opportunity. Some are idea-resourceful. They possess imagination. They dare to take a chance and be different. They are willing to tackle anything. They refuse to acknowledge defeat until actually licked, and even then they are thinking about their next chance.”
-Walter P. Chrysler
Sources:
American Motor Car Manufacturers’ Association advertisement. Los Angeles Herald, 26 December 1909, part II p. 4.
Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers advertisement. The San Francisco Call, 24 February 1907, p.46.
“Big Auto War Expected Between Maxwell-Columbia Combine and General Motors Co. of Detroit.” The Los Angeles Record, 26 February 1910, p. 9.
Chrysler advertisement. The Detroit Free Press, 14 September 1924, p. 47.
Chrysler advertisement. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 28 June 1925, p. E5.
“Chrysler Six Breaks Record.” The Rutland News, 5 July 1924, p. 1.
“From Engine-Wiper to Motor Car Wizard.” The Spokesman Revie, 6 January 1924, p. 3.
Independent Automobile Manufacturers of America advertisement. The San Francisco Examiner, 29 May 1910, p. 42.
Licensed Motor Car Association of Los Angeles advertisement. Los Angeles Herald, 26 December 1909, part II p. 4.
Maxwell advertisement. The Tennessean Sun, 20 August 1922, p. 2.
“The New Chrysler Car.” The Tampa Tribune, 27 January 1924, p. E1.
“Selden Patent Decision Causes Furor in Auto Trade.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 10 January 1911, p. 3.
“Selden Patents Decision Not Particularly Important.” Williamsport Sun Gazette, 11 January 1911, p. 5.
“Talks of Plight of Independents.” Los Angeles Herald, 31 January 1910, p. 8.
“To Test Patent in Supreme Tribunal.” Moline Daily Dispatch, 10 January 1911, p. 5.
Henry Ford took his experimental automobile for a spin through Detroit in June of 1896, but he wasn’t the first to do so. That honor belongs to Charles Brady King. King and Ford were friends and collaborators, and Ford followed on a bicycle as King drove the very first car ever seen on the streets of Motor City. On March 6, 1896, King left his machine shop at 112 St. Antoine and sputtered up the street in a wagon with a high seat, rudder-like steering lever and a long brake lever on the side. It was powered by a 4-cylinder gasoline engine, the first of the “block” type motors.
In a 1946 interview, King humorously recalled that the noise from his new vehicle didn’t cause his neighbors to even raise their eyebrows because they were used to the noise generated by one of his other inventions, the pneumatic hammer. King was a successful inventor and the owner of many patents for things like transmissions and steam shovels. Many of his patents were purchased and used by other automobile manufacturers. The neighbors may not have noticed, but the police did. He was once arrested on Belle Isle and warned to keep his “infernal contraption” away from there because it scared the horses.
King helped Henry Ford obtain the parts Ford needed for his first car before King left to serve in the Spanish-American war as chief machinist on the USS Yosemite. Ford assembled his creation in the coal shed in back of No. 58 Bagley Avenue. According to King, “It was like the fellow who built the ship in his basement! When he got it done, it was too big to take out the door.” In order to get it out, Ford and friends had to tear out, and then later repair, part of the shed.
King and a partner founded the Northern Manufacturing Co. in 1902 and began building cars including the “Silent Northern”.
While at Northern, King designed the first automobile to have three-point motor suspension and the first with one universal joint between transmission and rear axle. In 1908, Northern merged with another company which was then taken over by E.M.F., but King had already left with the goal of building cars that carried his own name. With that objective in mind, he spent two years in Europe studying the best foreign cars.
King Motor Company was incorporated in 1911. Marketing at the time claimed the automobile was unique because it only had about 450 parts while the average automobile at the time had 1500-1600 parts.
It was initially powered by a long stroke 4-cylinder motor with a 3 13/16” bore and 5 1/8” stroke. The company had financial problems almost from the beginning, possibly due to expanding too quickly. One Indianapolis Star article from 1912 states that the company had already moved twice into larger quarters during its short existence. The company was purchased by a New York man, King stayed on as an engineer, and production continued. A King “8” was introduced, and its tagline was “The car of no regrets”.
The company was sold in 1923, but King had left in 1916 to serve with the US Army Signal Corps as an aeronautical engineer during World War I. During that time he designed the King-Bugatti 16-cylinder airplane engine that can be seen at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website. King had served in two wars, and such service was a family tradition for King. His father, John Haskell King, was a general in the United States Army and served for the Union during the Civil war.
King died in 1957 at age 89. His obituary states that he was a painter and etcher with works exhibited in Washington’s National Gallery, a practicing architect, a yacht designer and an accomplished musician on the flute and a half dozen other instruments. He was also a pioneer of the American automobile industry, and for that he should be remembered.
Sources:
“Builder of Detroit’s First Auto Arrives in City for the Jubilee.” Detroit Free Press, 25 May 1946, p. 9.
“Builder of Detroit’s First Auto Arrives in City for the Jubilee.” Detroit Free Press, 25 May 1946, p. 9.
“Charles Brady King Dies, Designer of Early Auto.” St. Louis Post Dispatch, 24 June 1957, p.21.
“Charles Brady King Drove First Car on Detroit Streets.” The Port Huron Times Herald, 15 November 1939, p. 16.
“Detroit Will Have New Auto Factory.” Hartford Courant, 20 May 1911, p. 19.
Kimes, Beverly Rae and Henry Austin Clark, Jr. Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. Krause Publications, 1985.
“King Motor Car Company Goes Into Receivership.” The Indianapolis Star, 4 Sept. 1912, p. 7.
“King Motor Car Company Invades Auto Field.” Buffalo Courier, 7 March 1911, p. 21.
“Offer Made in King Motor Case.” Detroit Free Press, 18 Sept. 1912, p. 10.
Stark, George. “Detroit Saw First Auto Just 50 Years Ago.” Muncie Evening Press,4 June 1946, p. 8.
This great article appeared in the December 9, 1917, edition of the Los Angeles Times:
The King Motor Company was founded by, and named after, Charles Brady King. He was a pioneer of the automotive industry and was the first to drive an automobile on the streets of Detroit (with Henry Ford following on a bicycle)! More on King next time . . . . . .
On November 3, 1916, the headlines of one paper read:
The Dodge brothers, John and Horace, owned 10 percent of the Ford Motor Company stock, and that stock had proved lucrative. From January of 1914 to October of 1915, special dividends of $34 million had been distributed to shareholders in addition to regular monthly dividends of 5 percent. With earnings of around $60 million for the year ending July 31, 1916, it looked like even bigger dividends were on the horizon. It looked that way, that is, until Henry Ford, the Detroit man accused of wild speculation, said otherwise.
Ford announced that there would be no special dividends issued because profits were going to be used, instead, for business expansion. Ford had plans to invest in iron ore mines and to build ships to transport the ore to steel manufacturing plants that would also be built and owned by Ford. The Dodge brothers obtained a temporary injunction blocking Ford’s plans. They accused Ford of engaging in reckless behavior during unstable post-war conditions and of depriving shareholders of a reasonable return on their investments.
For his part, Henry Ford denied the allegations of recklessness and said he was only continuing his successful business model of selling a tremendous number of cars at a small margin of profit. The LA Times quoted him as saying, “They own 10 percent of the stock and I own about 58 percent. I can’t injure them $10 worth without at the same time injuring myself $58 worth.”
The court proceedings were brimming with showmanship and hyperbole. The attorney for the Dodges asserted that much of Ford’s success was due to the mechanical and engineering abilities of the Dodge Brothers and questioned whether Henry Ford was “inventive genius or inventive crank.” He also stated that Ford’s goal was to crowd out all competition, and if he would only admit that purpose he would go to jail. Ford accused the Dodge Brothers of just being jealous competitors. He said the brothers tried to force him to buy them out and threatened to harass him until he did. During the court proceedings, Ford shook his finger at the Dodges’ attorney and said “If you sat there until you are petrified I wouldn’t buy the Dodge stock nor would I buy that of any other stockholder.”
The court eventually sided with the Dodges, and that judgment was mostly affirmed by the Michigan Supreme Court. Ford was ordered to issue dividends in the amount of $19,275,385 with the Dodges getting 10 percent of that. Also, despite the finger shaking, Ford did buy back the stock owned by the Dodges in July of 1919 for $25 million. The long-standing Dodge-Ford relationship had finally been severed.
Sadly, tragedy was about to strike the Dodge brothers. In January of 1920, Horace and John attended an auto show in New York. While there, they both contracted the influenza which had been a world-wide epidemic, and it developed into pneumonia. John never left New York, dying in his room at the Ritz-Carlton. He was only fifty-five years old. Horace continued to struggle with health complications until he died in December of that year with cirrhosis of the liver listed as the official cause. He was only fifty-two years old at his death.
According to author Charles K. Hyde in The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars and the Legacy, Henry Ford and the Dodge brothers maintained a remarkably cordial relationship after the lawsuit. It was well known that Ford was capable of carrying a grudge. For instance, looking back at all he had achieved, Ford once said that he considered his “outstanding achievement” to be defeating George Selden (in the the automobile patent court fight). He did not appear to retain any animosity toward the Dodges, however, and was reportedly very upset when he received the news of John’s death. He attended John’s funeral and both he and his son, Edsel, served as honorary pallbearers at Horace’s funeral.
Unlike many of the showmen in the early days of the automobile industry, the Dodge brothers were not interested in self-promotion. Perhaps that’s why John and Horace Dodge are not names as well-known as Henry Ford and others, and why there haven’t been numerous books written about them. Their goal was simply to build a quality product “that speaks for itself,” their company motto. The Dodge brothers made enormous contributions to the automobile industry and should be remembered accordingly. This ad was published shortly after the death of Horace Dodge, and it is a fitting tribute, short and sweet, and one that surely would have had their approval:
The Dodge Brothers had been working almost exclusively for Henry Ford, but Ford’s goal was to begin making the various parts of his automobile himself. With the future of the relationship uncertain, the Dodge Brothers informed Ford in 1913 that they would only produce his parts for another year. Then they went to work planning the design, manufacture and marketing of their own automobile.
The Dodge Brothers had an excellent reputation. In his book The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars and the Legacy, author Charles K Hyde quotes the Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record as saying, “The Dodge brothers are the two best mechanics in Michigan . . . when the Dodge Bros. new car comes out, there is no question it will be the best thing on the market for the money.” The Buffalo Times said, “There seems to be a strong undercurrent of feeling that any motor car manufactured by Dodge Brothers should promise something very unusual. Dodge Brothers have one of the best equipped automobile factories in the world, having been engaged on a large scale in the manufacture of motor car parts since the earliest days of the industry.”
This reputation generated great excitement about their new endeavor among both industry insiders and members of the general public. Many had speculated that the Dodge Brothers would be competing directly with Henry Ford and his Model T in the low-priced field, but others had pointed out that hurting Ford would also be hurting themselves as stockholders in Ford’s company. Clarification was provided in November of 1914 when the Dodge Brothers General Sales Manager stated, “In place of building the best car possible at a low price, Dodge Brothers determined to build the best car they knew how to build, and then place a moderate price on it.”
Dealers across the country were clamoring to be among those selling the new Dodge. At the auto show at the 1914 Michigan State Fair, the Dodge Brothers were the only manufacturer that did not exhibit a car, yet their reception room was the busiest spot in the building. During this show alone, 254 dealers filed applications for the sales rights to the new Dodge. There were many more, according to this ad appearing in October of 1914:
When the first Dodge cars reached the showrooms, huge crowds turned up to see the much-awaited and much-speculated-on new car. In Detroit, over 6,000 people made the first-day trek to the showroom. On a rainy day in New York, over 5,000 came to the Colt-Stratton dealership where they offered prizes for the first three sales, and these three prizes were award by 10 o’clock in the morning. Similar crowds appeared across the country in cities like Omaha and Chicago, and people were not disappointed by what they saw:
Built to compete against automobiles like the Buick, Overland and Studebaker, the Dodge was well-made and classy. It was built using Vanadium steel and had a wheel base of 110 inches. It featured a full floating rear axle, self-lubricating springs, and electric lighting and starting devices. Inside, it had a speedometer, oil and pressure gauges, hand pump for the pressure feed gasoline system and carburetor air adjustment. Under the hood was a 4-cylinder 35 hp engine. By the time this ad appeared in February of 1916, the Dodge Brothers had already sold $35,000,000 worth of their cars and were rank fourth in production in the United States:
The Dodge Brothers owned their company and did not issue stock. They were likely relying on the large dividends from the Ford stock to help finance their new automobile, so when Henry Ford announced that there would be no more large dividends and that all funds would be used for expansion, a fight was probably inevitable.
To be continued . . . .
This year marked the 100th anniversary of both the end of World War I and the influenza pandemic that was fueled, in part, by the large troop movements that accompanied that war. From 1918-19, the deadly flu virus infected approximately a third of the world’s population and was more deadly than the war itself, killing at least 50 million people. The casualties of the pandemic included two giants of the automobile industry, John and Horace Dodge. They are better known as the Dodge Brothers, and their deaths were a terrible loss.
I am frequently surprised at what is remembered, and what is not remembered, by history. For instance, when the charge up San Juan Hill is mentioned, most people immediately think of Teddy Roosevelt. He is certainly worth remembering, but fewer people know that a group of Buffalo Soldiers also fought valiantly there, led by “Black Jack” Pershing. The press’s fervent desire to mold history, not just report on it, is not a new phenomenon. In the case of the Dodge Brothers, a quick search on Amazon reveals only two or three books written about them compared to countless tomes written about Henry Ford. The irony is that Ford’s success is due, in no small part, to the efforts of the Dodge Brothers.
In Charles K. Hyde’s book titled The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars and the Legacy, the author describes the relationship between Ford and the Dodge Brothers in great detail. According to Hyde, Ford launched his third company in late 1902 and asked the Dodge Brothers to become his major parts supplier. The Dodges spent many thousands of dollars in equipment and materials to begin producing “running gear” for Ford, which consisted of the engine, transmission and axles, all mounted on a frame. The Dodge Brothers kept the blueprints for these early Fords, and buyers placed orders by visiting the Dodge plant. In a 1916 lawsuit filed by the Dodges, Henry Ford admitted that the Dodges made the entire Ford except the body, wheels and tires and that they also risked much financially while Ford himself invested no money or property and contributed only his experience and the design. Hyde also notes that no Ford investors or officials had any mechanical or manufacturing abilities other than Ford himself and the Dodge Brothers.
Ford had difficulty paying the Dodges for their work at first. In June of 1903, the Dodge Brothers agreed to write off $7,000 in overdue payments and to extend an additional $3,000 in credit to Ford in exchange for 10% of the Ford stock. The Dodge Brothers had given up other promising contracts to work exclusively for Ford, and their gamble did pay off handsomely. The Ford automobile was hugely successful and the money they earned providing parts, combined with the huge dividends paid on their Ford stock, made the Dodge Brothers very wealthy men. John Dodge was also a VP and director at Ford, and, by 1913, both Henry Ford and the Dodge Brothers were becoming uncomfortable with their dependence on each other.
To be continued . . . .
The Dodge Brothers and Henry Ford, Part 2
The Dodge Brothers and Henry Ford, Part 3
