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Pioneer
Ransom Eli Olds merged his Olds Gasoline Engine Works with the Olds
Motor Vehicle Company in 1899 and, after a disastrous fire destroyed
his factory and ten out of eleven models, started to produce his
remaining "Curved Dash" runabout as the first popular car in ever
increasing numbers. The fire at Olds Motor Works also brought the
Dodge Brothers the opportunity to convert their bicycle factory into
Detroit's leading automobile parts manufacturer. In 1901, Olds
ordered 2000 engines and in 1902, 3000 transmissions, from the Dodge
brothers.
John
Francis and Horace Elgin Dodge then joined Henry Ford in his third
automotive venture both as parts suppliers and founding
shareholders. In time, the alliance with Ford would make both Dodge
brothers multi-millionaires. With their Ford dividends, the Dodges
established their own car manufacturing plant in 1914, making Dodge
a strong contender in the American automobile market almost
overnight.
When
David Dunbar Buick sold his successful enameling business to devote
his time and money to the development of a motor car, William Crapo
Durant was already the country's leading manufacturer of horse-drawn
carriages and a millionaire. More accurately, the manufacturer was
his associate, Josiah Dallas Dort, who took care of production while
Durant toured the country to set up sales outlets and acquire
additional plants. As his cash resources run out, Buick turned to
Benjamin Briscoe, whose Briscoe Manufacturing Company supplied Olds
with radiators. Briscoe, like Durant more of a business developer
than a manufacturer, did not manage to turn Buick around and sold it
to the Flint Wagon Works, who in turn approached Durant.
Using
his sales skills and financial persuasion, Billy Durant managed to
build up Buick into one of America's foremost automobile producers
within a few years after taking over in 1904. In the meantime Ford
had succeeded in 1906 to gain control, if not yet absolute, of the
Ford Motor Company and thus imposed his vision of a low priced car
for the masses. In Lansing, Ransom Eli Olds had left the company
that bore his name after a dispute with his financial backers,
involving the very same issue as Ford's, as to the market to be
targeted by their cars. Oldsmobile consequently dropped the Curved
Dash in favor of heavier and more expensive cars. It fell back and
lay low in the production race for almost two decades, until the
pent-up demand for middle priced cars of the Roaring Twenties
enabled it to gain momentum among the various divisions of General
Motors. Olds founded his second automobile company, named it Reo and
set out to produce a popular line of cars and trucks.
After
unloading Buick, Benjamin Briscoe formed an automobile company with
Jonathan D. Maxwell, an engineer who had worked for the Olds Motor
Works. Their Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company was an immediate success
and Briscoe was the first of the Midwestern automobile tycoons, who
tapped the [J.P.] Morgan bank to sell its bonds. Building on his
elusive relations to Wall Street, Benjamin Briscoe attempted to
merge his companies with Durant's Buick, Ford and Olds' Reo in
January 1908, but the merger failed, because of Morgan's excessive
requirements towards Durant as well as Ford's and Olds' insistence
on receiving cash.
Automobile & Aviation
> Index
and Introduction
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