The 1893 Duryea Automobile In the Museum of History and Technology Part 4

_Inventor_, Chas. E. Duryea by Chaprictlo Attys.=

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 28.--A DRAWING AND THE FIRST PAGE of the specifications of the first patent issued to C. E. Duryea. It can be readily seen that this drawing was not made after the plan of the first vehicle.]

As the work moved nearer completion Frank realized that the final tests would have to be conducted on roads made icy by falling snows. He had considerable doubt whether the narrow iron tires would have enough traction to move the phaeton. Soon he devised an expedient for this situation, communicating to Charles on December 22 that he was "having Jack Swaine [a local blacksmith] make a couple of clutch rims so we can get over this snow and ice.... Our detachable rims referred to will be of 1/8 iron 1-3/4 wide and drawn together at one point by two screws, one on either side of felloe. It will be studded with calks in two rows."[34]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 29.--MR. AND MRS. FRANK DURYEA examining vehicle in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution before restoration.]

January 18, 1894, was a day of triumph for Frank Duryea. Writing Charles about his success the next day he said, "Took out carriage again last night and gave it another test about 9 o'clock." The only difficulty he mentioned was a slight irregularity in the engine, caused by the tiny leather pad in the exhaust-valve mechanism falling out.[35] Speaking of this trip, Frank recalled in 1956:

When I got this car ready to run one night, I took it out and I had a young fellow with me; I thought I might need him to help push in case the car didn't work.... We ran from the area of the shop where it was built down on Taylor Street. We started out and ran up Worthington Street hill,[36] on top of what you might call "the Bluff" in Springfield. Then we drove along over level roads from there to the home of Mr. Markham who lived with his son-in-law, Will Bemis, and there we refilled this tank with water. [At this point he was asked if it was pretty well emptied by then.] Yes, I said in my account of it that when we got up there the water was boiling furiously. Well, no doubt it was. We refilled it and then we turned it back and drove down along the Central Street hill and along Maple, crossed into State Street, dropped down to Dwight, went west along Dwight to the vicinity where we had a shed that we could put the car in for the night. During that trip we had run, I think, just about six miles, maybe a little bit more. That was the first trip with this vehicle. It was the first trip of anything more than a few hundred yards that the car had ever made.

= DURYEA AUTOMOBILE BUILT BY J. F. AND C. E. DURYEA 1893 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM CAT. #307,199 SMITHSONIAN INSt.i.tUTION SEPT. 1960 A. A. BALUNEK=

Now Frank could give demonstration rides with the motor carriage, hoping to encourage more investors to back future work. Cautious Mr. Markham finally got his ride, though Frank had to a.s.sure him that the engine of the brakeless vehicle would hold them back on any hill they would descend. The carriage on which he had spent so many hours was to see little use after that. Its total mileage is probably less than a hundred miles. Little additional work is known to have been performed on the carriage after January 1894; there is, however, a letter[37] Frank sent his brother on January 19 which tells of contemplated m.u.f.fler improvements. Another message was dispatched to Charles on March 22, mentioning the good performance of the phaeton on Harrison Avenue hill.[38] This was possibly the last run of the machine, for no further references have been discovered.

Frank spent the months of February and March in preparing drawings, some of which accompanied their first patent application,[39] while others were to be used in the construction of an improved, 2-cylinder carriage.

Work on the new machine started in April. The old phaeton, in the absence of used-car lots, was put into storage in the Bemis barn.[40]

Later, on the formation of the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in 1895, it was removed to the barn of D. A. Reed, treasurer of the company.[41]

There it remained until 1920, when it was obtained by Inglis M. Uppercu and presented to the U.S. National Museum.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1967

For sale by the Superintendent of Doc.u.ments, U.S. Government Printing Office Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. 20402--Price 30 cents

Footnotes:

[1] S. H. OLIVER, _Automobiles and Motorcycles in the U.S. National Museum_ (U.S. National Museum Bulletin 213, Was.h.i.+ngton: Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, 1957), p. 24.

[2] G. R. DOYLE, _The World's Automobiles_ (London: Temple Press Limited, 1959), p. 67.

[3] Recorded interview with Frank Duryea in the U.S. National Museum, November 9, 1956.

[4] Charles Duryea's statement to _Springfield Daily Republican_, April 14, 1937.

[5] FRANK DURYEA, _America's First Automobile_ (Springfield, Ma.s.s.: Donald Macaulay, 1942), p. 4.

[6] Letter from Charles Duryea to Alfred Reeves, March 25, 1920; copy in Museum files.

[7] History notes dictated by Charles E. Duryea in the office of David Beecroft, editor of _Automobile Trade Journal_, on January 10, 1925.

Copy in Museum files. Hereinafter, these notes are referred to as "history."

[8] Frank Duryea in statement made to the Senate Committee on Public Administration of Ma.s.sachusetts, February 9, 1952.

[9] DURYEA, op. cit. (footnote 5), p. 6.

[10] Copy of contract in Museum files.

[11] Affidavit of William Rattman, March 19, 1943, states that the Russell ledgers give that date.

[12] Recorded interview with Frank Duryea in U.S. National Museum, November 6, 1957.

[13] Letter from Frank Duryea to David Beecroft, November 15, 1924; copy in Museum files.

[14] Letter from Charles Duryea to C. W. Mitman, March 21, 1922; copy in Museum files.

[15] See "history" (footnote 7), p. 6.

[16] DURYEA, op. cit. (footnote 5), p. 8.

[17] Copy of letter in Museum files.

[18] DURYEA, op. cit. (footnote 5), p. 12.

[19] Letter from Frank Duryea to Charles Duryea, November 3, 1893, states that the engine could be run at 700 as well as 500 rpm. Copy in Museum files.

[20] DURYEA, op. cit. (footnote 5), p. 14. Also in letter from Charles Duryea to C. W. Mitman, January 11, 1922; copy in Museum files.

[21] Letter from Charles Duryea to C. W. Mitman, January 11, 1922; also letter from Frank Duryea to David Beecroft, November 15, 1924. Copies in Museum files.

[22] Letter from Charles Duryea to F. A. Taylor, December 5, 1936, says he "thought" they had five teeth. Copy in Museum files.

[23] Frank later wrote his brother, January 1894, that he fixed the tank so it would not draw sediment from the bottom. Copy of letter in Museum files.

[24] The number of m.u.f.flers Frank Duryea constructed is not known. He wrote Charles, December 22, 1893, that he "will try a new m.u.f.fler also."

[25] Selden Patent Evidence, vol. 9, p. 110.

[26] See "history" (footnote 7), p. 2. Charles wrote, "Some parts of these [referring to the batteries], like the jars, I had on hand for six or eight years, and did not need to buy."

[27] Ibid., p. 15.

[28] Ibid., p. 15

[29] Frank stated in this letter that the friction drum originally had two belts, forward and reverse, but since they tended to foul each other, he removed the reverse belt and left the other to serve for both directions. How the s.h.i.+pper fork might have handled two belts is not understood.

[30] As actually constructed there are only two gears on the secondary shaft. He obviously discovered that one gear secured to two clutches would serve for both forward and reverse. s.p.a.ce was also limited.

[31] Recorded interview with Frank Duryea in U.S. National Museum, November 9, 1956.