Buckeye gasoline buggy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Buckeye gasoline buggy or Lambert gasoline buggy was the first practical gasoline automobile available for sale in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, according to automobile historians.

History

John William Lambert

John William Lambert was an American automotive pioneer, inventor, and automobile manufacturer.-Biography:...

made America's first such automobile in 1891, according to a five year extensive study by L. Scott Bailey, a well-known automobile historian, editor, and publisher. The study found substantial evidence to enter this claim on Lambert's behalf. The evidence from Bailey's study shows that Lambert designed, built, and ran a gasoline engine automobile in the early part of 1891 that he put on the market. It shows that neither Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

nor the Duryea Brothers have the distinction of building the first such practical working internal combustion gasoline engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

automobile in the United States. In Europe Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...

produced the first gasoline automobiles in 1885/1886. The Duryea brothers made their automobile in 1893 and started the Duryea Motor Wagon Company

Duryea Motor Wagon Company

The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, established in 1895, was one of the first American firms to build gasoline automobiles.Founded by Charles Duryea and his brother Frank, they built a one-cylinder "Ladies Phaeton", first demonstrated on September 21, 1893 in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Taylor...

in 1895 mass producting cars. Henry Ford started mass producing cars in 1899 at the Detroit Automobile Company

Detroit Automobile Company

The Detroit Automobile Company was an early American automobile manufacturer founded on August 5, 1899, in Detroit, Michigan. It was the first venture of its kind in Detroit. Automotive mechanic Henry Ford attracted the financial backing of three investors; Detroit Mayor William Maybury, William...

.

Lambert initially designed and built his "horseless carriage" gasoline automobile in 1890. He successfully tested it in January 1891 inside an 80 feet (24.4 m) farm implement showroom he owned in Ohio City, Ohio

Ohio City, Ohio

Ohio City is a village in Van Wert County, Ohio, United States with a population of 784 as of the 2000 census. It is included within the Van Wert, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Ohio City is located at ....

. Lambert's three-wheeled surrey-top gasoline-powered buggy was his own design. It had a single cylinder, four-stroke engine. This, the Buckeye gasoline buggy, was a one-seat tricycle

Tricycle

A tricycle is a three-wheeled vehicle. While tricycles are often associated with the small three-wheeled vehicles used by pre-school-age children, they are also used by adults for a variety of purposes. In the United States and Canada, adult-sized tricycles are used primarily by older persons for...

with large rear wheels.

Lambert designed a sales brochures advertising its specifications in January 1891. He mailed this brochure out to prospects in the first part of February 1891 with a price of $550. Later in the month of February 1891 he was running his automobile on the main street of Ohio City. Bailey points out there are several letters on file dated in the latter part of February and the early part of March 1891 requesting additional information on this "horseless carriage" that Lambert described in the brochure. Other letters of inquire continued, however Lambert ultimately was not able to sell any.

This first model had a wipe spark ignition and dry cell batteries. The automobile had two speeds forward and none going backwards. A hand steering device was added later when the automobile was used outside on the roads. The weight of the car was 585 pounds. It had wooden wheels with steel rims for extra wear. The carburetor

Carburetor

A carburetor , carburettor, or carburetter is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It is sometimes shortened to carb in North America and the United Kingdom....

was a surface vaporizer with a flexible diaphragm "compensator." This was patented by Lambert on May 17, 1902. The original model cost Lambert $3200. In 1904 it was lost in a fire when a grain elevator building that he was having remodeled burned to the ground.

In 1895 Lambert decided to manufacture stationary gasoline engines. He moved to Anderson, Indiana

Anderson, Indiana

Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses Madison county. Anderson is the headquarters of the Church of God and home of Anderson University, which is...

and there started Buckeye Manufacturing Company

Buckeye Manufacturing Company

The Buckeye Manufacturing Company was a company originally formed to manufacture horse and buggy parts. It was started in the later part of the nineteenth century and by the early part of the twentieth century was making parts and materials for the Buckeye gasoline buggy automobile as well as for...

. In that same year he announced he would "soon have a gasoline vehicle on the market" to be called the Buckeye. He sent a picture to the newspapers, which was of the Buckeye gasoline buggy he made in 1891. This endeavor also did not come to fruition. Instead he continued experimentation and devised the friction gearing disk drive transmission

Lambert friction gearing disk drive transmission

The Lambert friction gearing disk drive transmission was invented by John William Lambert originally in 1904. The invention relates to a friction disk drive transmission for automobiles that is gearless. He saw the need for a simple transmission of engine power to an automobile's drive...

. He invented and developed a friction transmission that would be the key feature on all of his future automobiles he would make. Lambert's first model design of 1891 was eventually modified and developed into the Union automobile

Union (automobile)

The Union automobile was based on Lambert's "horseless carriage" gasoline buggy. It had four wheels instead of his 1891 three-wheeled version. The automobile was made by the Union Automobile Company from 1902 through 1905...

which first was sold in 1902.

Others of pre-Duryea

In the late nineteenth century there were many individuals in the United States working on a "horseless carriage", some of which paralled the time frame of Lambert. Some notable individuals with verifiable primary sources that invented such vehicles before the Duryea brothers were Henry Nadig, Charles H. Black, and Elwood P. Haynes.

Henry Nadig

Henry Nadig of Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

invented a vehicle that history records he built somewhere between 1891 and 1893. In 1905 Nadig reports that he began to construct a "horseless carriage" in 1891 and when he finished it, he then ran it on Fourth Street in Allentown. The original 1891 vehicle was extensively modified in the winter of 1892–93 to the point it could be almost considered a different vehicle. This vehicle was driven "for pleasure" for the next ten years. As of 1992 this vehicle was owned by a David K. Bausch of Allentown. About 70% of the original vehicle still existed, however it was in "rough" condition and needed complete restoration. The historical importance of this particular vehicle is that it may be the oldest America-made gasoline-powered automobile that still exists.

Charles H. Black

Charles H. Black was an American carriage maker and automobile pioneer whose business was in Indianapolis, Indiana.-Early life:...

reported that he completed and tested his first steam engine "chug buggy" in 1891. He rejected a steam engine "as too cumbersome and hard to manage" for use in an automobile. He then went about making a gasoline engine vehicle. Later in 1891 he then tried such a "horseless carriage" out in Indianapolis
on the paved streets of Circle and Delaware. He drove this vehicle around Indianapolis for the next twenty years. A business card of C.H. Black Manufacturing Company showed a picture of this vehicle with the writing "Estimates furnished for power-equipped vehicles of any style." The business card was dated 1892.

Elwood P. Haynes

Elwood P. Haynes, who successfully made his trial run of his automobile on July 4, 1894, arranged a meeting with Lambert shortly thereafter. He told Lambert, a close friend of his, that he planned on manufacturing the car and wanted to advertise it as "America's First Car" to be able to promote sales. Lambert agreed not to refute this even though Lambert's three wheeled automobile is considered to be the first successful gasoline automobile available for sale in the United States. He let his friend Haynes take the honors. A mistake Haynes made was that the Duryea brothers and others predated him. Lambert never broke his promise to his friend, however when he went into production he often made reference to his "1891" gasoline engine horseless carriage buggy but never said it was "America's First Car" made. The Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

has not declared Lambert the inventor of the first commercially available self-powered gasoline engine automobile because he himself never made this claim.

Others with prior patents

George B. Selden

George B. Selden applied for a patent on a vehicle in 1879 of an "improved road engine" based on a compression engine that used liquid-hydrocarbon fuel (i.e. gasoline

Gasoline

Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...

). The patent covered the basics of constructing a horseless carriage of a self propelled automobile, however he had not actually built such a vehicle. Selden worked off the principles of George Brayton

George Brayton

George Brayton was born in Rhode Island, son of William H. and Minerva Brayton. He was an American mechanical engineer who lived with his family in Boston, and who is noted for introducing the continuous combustion process that is the basis for the gas turbine, and which is now referred to as...

's two-cycle gasoline engine patented in 1872. Blayton had exhibited his engine at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and Selden then decided to use that engine or a modified version of it as the basis for a patent. He went about drawing up a model of a vehicle and applied for a patent strictly based on the drawing alone. Selden then used legal evasive tactics to stall the patent's acceptance each year making minor amendments until he felt it was favorable for commercial production of the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

automobile. The idea behind this was that he wanted to secure the claim of being the first to have invented the automobile and get the seventeen year legal rights to all the automobile royalties

Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...

. He legally stalled the process until he was forced to complete the application process. This was sixteen years after he first applied for the patent
and a few months before the actual mass-production of automobiles by car manufactures. History records of automobile technology do not support his claim as being the first to have invented the automobile because at the time he was issued the patent Selden had not been able to make a working model. This evasion and stalling of finalizing a patent then had much influence as to how future automobile patents were handled from then on.

Frank A. Huntington

A "vehicle" was patented by a F. A. Huntington

Frank Atwood Huntington

Frank Atwood Huntington was an American inventor.-Biography:Huntington was born in Atkinson, Maine on August 9, 1836. He had twelve siblings, being number thirteen and the last child born in the family. Huntington's ancestors were interested in the lumber trade. His father owned a sawmill and a...

of San Francisco on January 11, 1889. This was about six months after Carl Benz received a patent in the United States for a "self-propelling vehicle." There seems to be no further record if Huntington built his 1889 gasoline engine vehicle or if there was a west coast

West Coast of the United States

West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

sales distribution of the vehicle before 1891. Huntington's 1889 patent was four years before the Duryea brothers built their first car in 1893. Huntington's patent number 411,196 states:

Primary sources

Biography of John W. Lambert , written by his son January 25 1935 — obtained from the Detroit Public Library, National Automotive History Collection
Dolnar, Hugh, Automobile Trade Journal, article: The Lambert, 1906 Line of Automobiles, Chilton Company, v.10 January 1906
Forkner, John L., History of Madison County, Indiana, New York and Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1914
The Horseless Age: The Automobile Trade Magazine, The Horseless Age Company, 1902

Secondary sources

Bailey, L. Scott, Historic Discovery: 1891 Lambert, New Claim for America's First Car, Antique Automobile magazine, Vol. 24, No. 5, Oct–Nov 1960
David Burgess Wise, The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles ISBN 0-7858-1106-0
Dittlinger, Esther et al., Anderson: A Pictorial History, G. Bradley Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0943963168
Flink, James J., The Automobile Age, MIT Press
MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...

(1990), ISBN 0-2625605-5-0
Georgano, G. N., The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 1-5795829-3-1
Huffman, Wallace Spencer, Indiana's Place in Automobile History in Indiana History Bulletin, vol 44, no. 2, Feb. 1967; Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Bureau
Huhti, Thomas, The Great Indiana Touring Book: 20 Spectacular Auto Tours, Big Earth Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-9315990-9-2
James, Wanda, Driving from Japan, McFarland, 2005, ISBN 0-786417-3-4X
Kimes, Beverly Rae, Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942, Krause Publications, 1996, ISBN 0-8734142-8-4
Madden, W. C., Haynes-Apperson and America's First Practical Automobile: A History, McFarland, 2003, ISBN 0-7864139-7-2
Rubenstein, James M., Making and Selling Cars: Innovation and Change in the U.S. Automotive Industry, Johns Hopkins University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press
The Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The Press publishes books, journals, and electronic databases...

, 2001, ISBN 0-8018671-4-2
Scharchburg, Richard P., Carriages Without Horses: J. Frank Duryea and the Birth of the American Automobile Industry, SAE, 1993, ISBN 1-5609138-0-0

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