Scripps-Booth was a United States

United States

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

 automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 company based in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, which produced motor vehicles from 1913 through 1923.

History

The company was founded by artist and engineer James Booth

James Scripps Booth

James Scripps Booth was an artist and automotive engineer.-Early years:The eldest of George Gough Booth and Ellen Booth's five children, James was born on May 31, 1888 in Detroit, Michigan. He received his education at private schools, he left school before graduating from the tenth grade...

 (of the Scripps

E. W. Scripps Company

The E. W. Scripps Company is an American media conglomerate founded by Edward W. Scripps on November 2, 1878. The company is headquartered inside the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way."On October 16, 2007, the company...

 publishing

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

 family), who also built the Bi-Autogo

Bi-Autogo (automobile)

The Bi-Autogo was a prototype American motorcycle, built in 1913.Designed and built by Detroit artist & engineer James Scripps Booth, it had the usual two wheels , plus two pairs of smaller, retractable outrigger wheels in the three-seater body...

. Scripps Booth company produced vehicles intended for the luxury market. In 1916 they consolidated

Consolidation (business)

Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...

 with the Sterling Motor Company to become the Scripps-Booth Corporation By this time Scripps Booth had been purchased by Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

 whose founder, William C. Durant

William C. Durant

William Crapo "Billy" Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, the founder of General Motors and Chevrolet who created the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars....

, was also the founding president of Sterling Motor Company. General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 discontinued the brand name in 1923.

Vehicles

For 1914, Scripps Booth offered a three-passenger torpedo

Torpedo (car)

The torpedo body style was a type of automobile body used from the early twentieth century until the mid-1930s, and which fell quickly into disuse by the Second World War....

 roadster

Roadster

A roadster is a two-seat open car with emphasis on sporty handling and without a fixed roof or side weather protection. Strictly speaking a roadster with wind-up windows is a convertible but as true roadsters are no longer made the distinction is now irrelevant...

, powered by a 103in³ (1702 cc) (2⅞×4-inch, 3½×102 mm) 18 hp (13 kW) watercooled four cylinder of valve-in-head

Overhead valve

An overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...

 design (very sophisticated for the period), with Zenith

Zenith Carburetters

Zenith Carburetters was a British company making carburettors. In 1955 they joined with their major pre-war rival Solex Carburettors and over time the Zenith brand name fell into disuse...

 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....

 and Atwater-Kent automatic spark advance. It featured a 110 in (2794 mm) wheelbase

Wheelbase

In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...

 and 30×3½-inch (76×8.8-cm) Houk detachable wire wheels, with three speeds and (still a rarity then) shaft drive. With complete electrical equipment, from Bijur starter to ignition (on a separate switch from starter) to headlights to Klaxet electric horn (with a button in the steering hub, rather than a bulb) to pushbutton door locks, it sold for US$775, compared to US$700 for the Ford

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 Model S (new in 1909), US$650 for the high-volume Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...

 Runabout

Oldsmobile Curved Dash

The gasoline powered Curved Dash Oldsmobile is credited as being the first mass-produced automobile, meaning that it was built on an assembly line using interchangeable parts. It was introduced by the Oldsmobile company in 1901 and produced through 1907...

, Ford's Model T

Ford Model T

The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...

 at $550, Western

Western Tool Works (automobile company)

Western Tool Works was a pioneering brass era automobile manufacturer in Galesburg, Illinois.Western in 1905 produced the Gale Model A, an open roadster, for sale at US$500, which was less than high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout, at US$650, the Ford "Doctor's Car" at US$850, or the Holsman high...

's Gale Model A at US$500, the Black

Black Motor Company

The Black was a brass era United States automobile, built at 124 East Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois, in 1906.It was a high wheeler buggy priced at a surprisingly low US$375-$450, when Gale's Model A was US$500, the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout went for US$650, and the Ford "Doctor's Car" was...

 starting as low as $375, and the Success

Success Automobile Manufacturing Company

Success was a brass era United States automobile, built at 532 De Ballviere Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906.It was a high wheeler buggy priced at an exceedingly low US$250...

at an amazingly low US$250.

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