Early Automobiles

By Gabrielle Meyer

The first vehicle known to move under its own power (in recorded history) was 1769 in Paris. The first patented internal combustion engine was created in Paris in 1860. Several variations of motorized vehicles were built and driven in the following thirty years, but it wasn't until 1891 that motorized vehicles were being built in the United States, in Connecticut.

While the internal combustion engine was being perfected, people were also experimenting with steam powered automobiles in the United States as early as the pre-Civil War era. These tended to be heavy and cumbersome.

Duryea's First Car

The Duryea sold for $1,250
in 1898

Things started to really heat up in 1893 when brothers Charles and Frank Duryea built the first gasoline powered car in America. The first time it ran on a public road was September 21, 1893 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Using an old horse drawn buggy, which they had purchased for $70, they installed a 4 HP, single cylinder gasoline engine.

In 1896, the Duryea brothers built thirteen motorized wagons, creating the first automobile manufacturing company in the world.

Ford's First Car

1893 marked the year Henry Ford had an engine running, but it was 1896 before he built his first car. At the end of 1896, Ford sold that car for $200 and used the money to build another one. In 1899, he formed the Detroit Automobile Company with the financial backing of the Mayor of Detroit and other wealthy Detroiters. The company was dissolved in January 1901 and it wasn't until 1903 that Ford would offer another car for sale.

Ransom E. Olds at the tiller

The engraving to the left shows Ransom Eli Olds at the tiller of his first powered car. This automobile was built in 1896, but the Olds Motor Vehicle Company of Detroit was not in production until 1899.

In 1899, the Curved Dash Oldsmobile sold for $650. By 1901, the company had sold 600 vehicles. In 1902 they sold 2,500, 1903 it was 4,000 and in 1904 they sold 5,000. Though Duryea was the first manufacturer with his 13 cars, Ransom E. Olds was the first mass producer in the United States.



Charles Duryea in the winning auto

The public was fascinated (and skeptical) with the idea of a horseless carriage. A notable event happened in November 1895 that helped to improve public opinion. The Chicago Times-Herald held the first automobile race in the United States and they awarded $5,000 to the winning team. Six vehicles participated, but only two finished the 54-mile trek from Chicago to Evanston and back. It was only 38 degree outside and it had just snowed. Charles Duryea took first place with an average of 7 mph, and made his name common among automobile enthusiasts of the day.

After 1899, automobiles became a more common sight in America, but there was still much progress to be made. Ford's assembly line began operation on December 1, 1913 to create the Model T, and the rest is history.

Your Turn: Are you surprised that self-propelled automobiles have been around for so long? Did any of this history surprise you? I was surprised to discover there were earlier producers than Ford, were you?

Gabrielle Meyer
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Stutz Bearcat ~ America's First Sports Car

by Ramona K. Cecil

My husband loves cars, especially vintage cars. I can’t tell you how many hours this past summer and fall we’ve spent perusing car shows. Some of his favorite models among the vintage cars are sports cars. While he doesn’t own one himself, he knows a lot about them and loves looking at them. What he might not know is that the vehicle considered “America’s first sports car” was built in our own home state of Indiana.

The Bearcat, originally “Bear Cat,” made its debut in 1912. A high performance roadster built by the Stutz Motor Company of Indianapolis, Indiana—formerly the Ideal Motor Car Company—the Bearcat was designed to appeal to the wealthy client with a “need for speed.”

1912 Stutz Bearcat - Notice small "monocle" windshield 

A century ago, the Stutz Motor Company was among the most prestigious of car companies, their automobiles highly sought by the rich and famous. Several innovations by company engineers earned Stutz a reputation for building fast, durable, safe, and stylish cars, and made the name synonymous with automotive excellence. The groundbreaking innovations included the most powerful and quietest V-8 engine on the market, the first under-slung chassis, dual overhead cam engine, and the first use of safety glass.

Stutz Wisconsin Engine design

The first car to bear the Stutz name was build in five weeks and then immediately entered in the 1911 Indianapolis 500 race where it finished in eleventh-place, earning the moniker “The car that made good in a day.”

Number 8 Stutz car lined up for a race

A year later the company rolled out the Bear Cat; America’s first sports car. In its debut year, the Bear Cat was entered in thirty automobile races and won twenty-five of them.

1912 Stutz Bear Cat

                       

In 1915 driver Cannonball Baker—for whom the Cannonball Run car rally is named—broke speed records when he drove a Stutz Bearcat from San Diego, California to New York in 11 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes.

Edwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker in Stutz Bearcat

The Stutz Bearcat put the “roar” into the Roaring Twenties. Along with flappers, gangsters, speakeasies, and raccoon-skin coats, the Bearcat became an iconic symbol of the era. 

Hollywood movie featuring a Stutz Bearcat

1923 Stutz Bearcat

Hollywood fell in love with the Stutz automobiles, but seemed to have a special affinity for the sporty Bearcat, which became a status symbol. In 1923 a Stutz Bearcat cost $2,765.00; almost $48,000.00 in today’s money. Famous owners of the Bearcat included illustrious names like actor Gary Cooper, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Jay Leno numbers among the current celebrity owners of a Stutz Bearcat sports car.

Jay Leno with his 1918 Stutz Bearcat

Made for speed and beauty, the Bearcat somewhat lacked in comfort. The exceedingly stiff clutch gave rise to the rumor that it was purposely engineered that way to discourage women from driving what was considered a “man’s” sports car.

Despite all the time my husband has spent admiring Stutz Bearcats at car shows while doubtless dreaming of driving one, I don’t see a Stutz Bearcat in our future. But should our fortunes change and my husband find himself behind the wheel of one, I wouldn’t decline an offer to climb in beside him and take a spin around town in America’s first sports car—one of Indiana’s own. 

Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com 

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NASCAR. Formula 1. Rally Car by Guest Author Anne Mateer

The Brickyard. Talladega. Daytona.

We think of auto racing as a modern phenomena. And yet auto racing has not only been around since practically the invention of automobiles, it was extremely popular and big business in the years before World War I.

Take 1916, for instance. As war raged in Europe, Americans were as yet unaffected (for the most part). They continued on with their lives, with their work and their pleasures. And for many people, following the men with the courage to get in a new-fangled automobile and drive at unheard of speeds either around a track or across the country, had become one of their pleasures. Throngs attended races in person. Even more followed the results in local newspapers.

There were national and international stars, just like today. And outrageously expensive race tracks, like the one in Cincinnati that cost around $1 million to build. Races promised excitement, danger, money to be made–all very much like the sport today.

Races even at tracks were different lengths. For instance, Cincinnati’s inaugural event was a 300 hundred mile race with a $30,000 purse. Twenty-nine cars entered. Seven finished. All watched by 50,000 spectators! (A race in Philadelphia was said to have drawn a crowd of 400,000.)

On the other hand, the Harvest Classic, a race held at the Indianapolis Motor

Speedway in September of 1916, boasted three short races of 20, 50, and 100 miles each. Winners there would take home $1000, $2000 and $5000, respectively. These participants raced in front of a “disappointing” crowd of 10,000.

When I tell people about the history of auto racing in the years before World War I, I often get a scoffing look, followed by, “But those cars only went about 25 mph, right?”

Actually, no. In these years prior to World War I, drivers competed at speeds between 80-100 mph. If you think those are scary speeds to drive these days, consider the rest of the experience for these early daredevils.

Many of the race tracks were made of wooden boards, not asphalt. Boards that would get slick with rain or dripping oil or any other kind of substance. Boards that might be uneven in places. Or rough. I can’t even imagine the level of noise generated by all the cars rattling all those boards.

But driving on a board track wasn’t the only danger for these early drivers. Here is a close up view of a 1916 race car.

Can you imagine? No doors. No seatbelts. And remember, they were traveling close to 100 mph! Also notice there is no top, no windshield. The air rushing into these drivers’ faces, generated by their speed, was laced with gasoline, burning oil and rubber and all kinds of other substances. In fact, when a driver finished a race, his face had a layer of these pollutants plastered to his face, often rendering him unrecognizable.

Notice, too that there are no mirrors on the car. How did a driver see the competition? He didn’t see much. That was the job of the 2nd man in the car, the mechanic—a requirement in the early years of auto racing. The mechanic watched the cars before, behind and beside them as well as keeping an eye out for other obstacles and knowing how to fix the car should it malfunction. This might have been an even scarier position than driver, given that this man had no control over the car. He had to really trust his driver! I have a huge respect for the skill and courage it took to get into one of these early racing cars and drive it up to 100 mph beside other cars doing the same speed on a track slick with oil in air so thick with smoke you could hardly see.

1917 and 1918 saw a significant decrease in auto racing in America, with automobiles, gasoline, and men needed for the war effort. Many tracks were disbanded or repurposed. As the war ended, the depression came, further stalling out the auto racing craze that had existed before the war. Of course auto racing never ceased completely. And it eventually grew again, until it is the sport it is today. But now you know a little bit about its beginnings and those who pioneered both competition and speed.

If you enjoyed this history of pre-WWI auto racing, check out At Every Turn

(2013 Carol Award finalist) by Anne Mateer and meet Alyce Benson, a young woman passionate about auto racing and missions in 1916. Available in print and ebook. 


Anne Mateer enjoys reading about and visiting history then bringing it to life through fiction. She is the author of four historical novels. Anne lives in Texas with her husband of 29 years. They are the parents of three young adults. 

Read more about Anne Mateer on her website http://www.annemateer.com/

"Fast Eddie" Rickenbacker

by Ramona K. Cecil

The 29th of this month, in my state of Indiana, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will host the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. The Speedway’s important milestone will doubtless spark many conversations about the early years of the track and the pioneers in the sport of automobile racing that have left their mark on the place. Among those pioneers, the name Eddie Rickenbacker stands out; not because he ever won an Indianapolis 500—he didn’t—but because of his amazing life that included a significant contribution to automobile racing and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.      

Eddie Rickenbacker, race car driver and
WWI flying ace

                                                                                                 

Born in Columbus, Ohio on October 8, 1890 to Swiss immigrant parents, Eddie was, from an early age, a daredevil. By his own count, he survived 135 brushes with death during his lifetime. The first came at age 8 when young Rickenbacker, as the leader of mischievous gang of boys called the Horsehead Gang, slid in a metal cart down a hill into a gravel pit. The cart flipped, slicing his leg to the bone. At age twelve his father died forcing Eddie to quit school and support the family doing an array of jobs from selling eggs and goat milk to working in various local factories.

In 1906 at the age of 16, Eddie found his passion when he went to work for Lee Frayer, a race car driver and head of Frayer-Miller Automobile Company, who let Eddie ride with him as a mechanic in major races. In 1912, Eddie joined car designer Fred Duesenberg and began racing cars on his own. Earning the nickname “Fast Eddie,” he participated in the 1912, 1914, 1915, and 1916 Indianapolis 500 races. Though he never won any of those races, in 1914 he set a world speed record of 134 mph at Daytona. In 1916, while preparing for an automobile race in California, Rickenbacker took his first ride in an airplane and was hooked.

Eddie Rickenbacker in race car

Eddie Rickenbacker at Indianapolis 500

            


















When America entered WWI Eddie joined up, learned to fly airplanes and was assigned to the 94th Aero Squadron, also called the “Hat-in-the-Ring” Squadron. He changed the spelling of his surname from “Rickenbacher” to Rickenbacker, replacing the “h” with a “k” to appear less Germanic. He also adopted the middle name, Vernon, which his parents hadn’t given him, but that he thought sounded classy. Later in his autobiography, he claimed that the change of spelling he made to his last name forced his Rickenbacher relatives to follow suit. Called the “Ace of Aces,” Rickenbacker’s accomplishments as a WWI fighter pilot won him worldwide acclaim as well as a chest full of medals, including the Medal of Honor. Between April 29th and October 30th of 1918, Rickenbacker shot down twenty-six enemy planes and survived; an amazing feat considering WWI aviators were three times more likely to die than any other combat forces.

Eddie Rickenbacker and 94th "Hat-in-the-Ring Squadron

After the war, in 1920, Rickenbacker started the Rickenbacker Motor Company. Though the company eventually went bankrupt, Rickenbacker helped develop the four-wheel brake system. Interesting that he kept the same "Hat-in-the-Ring logo used by his old squadron.             

Two years later Eddie, who’d vowed to eschew marriage, married Adelaide Frost Durant, ex-wife of a former rival race car driver. The couple adopted two sons.

Eddie Rickenbacker and family

In 1927 Rickenbacker bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and operated it until 1941, closing it at the entrance of WWII before finally selling it in 1945. During the 1920s and 1930s Rickenbacker worked for General Motors and several air line companies, finally taking the helm of Eastern Airlines in 1935. Three years later, he bought the company.

Among Eddie Rickenbacker’s less known accomplishments was the comic strip Ace Drummond, which he wrote from 1935 to 1940.                 

It was in 1942 that Rickenbacker experienced his most famous brush with death. While on a tour of the air bases in the Pacific Theater during WWII, Rickenbacker’s plane was forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean. For 24 days Rickenbacker, his friend and business partner Army Captain Hans C. Adamson, and their crewmen drifted at sea in life rafts before being rescued by a U.S. Navy float plane, earning Rickenbacker the new nickname of "Lucky" Eddie.  

After cheating death so many times throughout his amazing life, Eddie Rickenbacker died of pneumonia following a stroke in 1973 at the age of 83.  

So should the name Eddie Rickenbacker come up during the celebration of the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, I will give a mental salute and waggle of wings in honor of the amazing life of “Fast Eddie” Rickenbacker, the American Ace of Aces.

Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com