Olds Benzinwagen
1897 · Petrol Carriage · Work 258 of 1,871
The first Olds Motor Vehicle Company gasoline carriage standing before the Lansing engine works, tall wooden carriage wheels, single-cylinder engine beneath the seat, folding leather top, tiller steering.
- What it was used for
- Ransom E. Olds came from his father's firm P.F. Olds & Son in Lansing, which built steam engines and repaired machinery. According to the National Park Service he built his first petrol car in 1896. On 21 August 1897 he founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, helped by the entrepreneur Edward Sparrow; Michigan State University gives $50,000 in start-up capital. According to a historical marker on Belle Isle in Detroit, four cars were produced that year. Who bought them and what they were used for is not documented in the sources checked. One 1897 car was given to the Smithsonian by Olds Motor Works, according to the museum's record and is now back in Lansing on loan.
- What was new
- No technical innovation is documented in the sources checked. Engine output and top speed appear only on enthusiast sites and are therefore left out. The Lansing marker calls the firm Michigan's first operating motor vehicle company; that is a regional ranking, not a technical one. In the United States the Duryea Motor Wagon Company had already built 13 identical cars in 1896. Olds became significant only later, with the Curved Dash.
Further reading
- HMdb: Ransom Eli Olds (Michigan Historical Marker S658, Belle Isle, Detroit)
- HMdb: Lansing marker (Michigan's first operating motor vehicle company)
- National Park Service: Reo Motor Car Company Plant
- Detroit Historical Society: Olds, Ransom E.
- MSU On the Banks: REO
- R.E. Olds Transportation Museum: Our Collection
- Farm Collector: Let's talk rusty iron (P.F. Olds & Son)
- Smithsonian NMAH: 1897 Olds Motor Wagon, nmah_694876 (Gift of Olds Motor Works)
- The Henry Ford: 1896 Duryea Runabout (thirteen identical vehicles)