Automotive History Review Spring 2018 Issue Number 58

VW in Postwar Europe

Travel History of Trailers Motometers in the USA

The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. An Affiliate of the American Historical Association battle between competing forms of power for early automobiles. One would have to imagine my surprise to actually come into con - tact with a genuine 1912 Rauch & Lang Victoria just a few miles from our new home in Florida. My fiancée, Ann, and I decided to meet some friends early on the morning of April 15th at a “Cars and Coffee” meeting at the DuPont Registry building in St. Petersburg. Still a bit groggy after a cup of French Roast, I immediately perked up at the sight of what was obviously an electric vehicle. Upon looking the car and its showboard over, I found out that it was indeed a Rauch & Lang. It was in perfect condition and it was still in the family of the original Editor’s Note least partially obscure the fact that owner! Last issue, I mentioned how I was these were real people and events. I had the pleasure of speaking interested in incorporating modern History happens in color but is with Mr. Alexander Johnston photography wherever possible to often told in halftones, so some - Williams, of Clearwater Beach, help bring stories into a more direct thing is inevitably lost in transla - Florida. He is the owner of this perspective. Period photography is tion. electric masterpiece and he had necessary and should be part of the Featured in issue #57 was Bob quite a story to tell. telling of any story but I have Ebert’s extensively-researched his - The car was originally ordered always lamented the abstract, dis - tory of the Rauch & Lang electric by his great-grandfather, Alexander tancing quality that grainy, faded car company. It was a fascinating Johnston, who was a prominent old photos have. They tend to at read that put into perspective the continued on page 46 Automotive History Review (ISSN 1056-2729) is a period - ic publication of the Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Automotive History

Don Keefe, Editor Review

Spring 2018 Issue Number 58 Officers President Louis F. Fourie Vice President Edward Garten CONTENTS Secretary Robert Casey Treasurer Rubén L. Verdés From the Editor Inside front cover

Board of Directors Terms ending October 2018 Firm Competitiveness and Postwar Economic Robert Casey Carla R. Lesh Integration in Europe: The Case of Volkswagen Vince Wright in the ECSC and EEC Andrew Beckman ex-officio By Grace A. Ballor 4

Terms ending October 2019 Robert Barr Don Keefe The History and Evolution of Motometers Matt Short By Francis G. Clax 18 Terms ending October 2020 H. Donald Capps Kevin Kirbitz John A. Marino The Trailer Revolution: The Origins of Recreational Vehicles in American Culture Publications Committee By David Burel 30 Thomas S. Jakups, chair Kit Foster Louis F. Fourie Don Keefe Rubén L. Verdés Front Cover: The electric-powered 1912 Rauch & Lang Victoria owned by Alexander Johnston Williams. Photo by Don Keefe. Steve Wilson

Back cover: A vintage countertop display for Boyce Motometers. © 2018 Photo by Francis G. Clax. The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. All rights reserved. Correspondence in conjunction with Automotive History Review should be directed to: Back Issues of Automotive History Review  SAH offers sets of remaining issues of Automotive History Review for Don Keefe, Editor $145.00 postpaid in USA. Issues available are numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 1448 Seagull Drive, Apt. 312, 12, 14, 15, 16. 23, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, Palm Harbor, FL 34685 USA 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 plus the Index

Further information about the Society may be obtained by to Issues 1-43. Single copies are $10.00 each, postpaid. Inquire for writing to The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc., c/o international shipping. Checks in US funds, MasterCard, Visa, Amex. Cornerstone Registration, Ltd., P.O. Box 1715, Maple Order from SAH, 1102 Long Cove Road, Gales Ferry, CT 06335- Grove, MN 55311-6715 USA or at www.autohistory.org. 1812 USA . Firm Competetiveness and Postwar Economic Integration in Europe: The Case of Volkswagen in the ECSC and EEC

By Grace A. Ballor Photography and ads from the author’s private collection unless otherwise noted Abstract whose history as an auto manufac - became so successful in the post - By many accounts, Volkswagen, turer began under Adolf Hitler, war period that it undergirded the

Page 04 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 05 German economic miracle. But tions and to preserve peace in protection of the regional common how did Hitler’s car become the Europe, Germany quickly became market systems established in the peoples’ car for all of Europe? This Europe’s dominant economic early stages of postwar economic paper argues that Volkswagen’s power in the immediate postwar integration. This myth of postwar survival and subsequent success period and has remained such ever German economic success as a were made possible by early post - since. The core of its post-war eco - product of German liberalism dis - war integration, namely by the nomic success, which is often torts the truth of economic history. institutions of the European Coal hailed as the “German economic Perhaps the best counter-argu - and Steel Community (1951), miracle,” was West Germany’s ment to the claim that postwar which first united six core member robust exportation of manufactured German liberalism produced the states and managed key resources goods, especially automobiles. 1 Wirtschaftswunder is the example for all of them, and Simultaneous to the rise of the of German automobile manufac - the European Economic German economy was the momen - turer Volkswagen, the leading firm Community (1957), which created tous project of economic integra - in postwar Germany and largest a common market for those mem - tion in Europe, beginning with the producer of cars in Europe from ber states and formed the founda - creation of the European Coal and 1960 to today. 4 tion of the European Union as we Steel Community by the Treaty of Founded by Adolf Hiter’s Nazi know it today. By analyzing Paris in 1951 and the establish - Labor Front in 1937, Volkswagen Volkswagen’s company history, ment of the European Economic continued to operate well into the relationship with the ECSC and EEC Community by the Treaty of Rome 1950s according to Hitler’s original and the company’s production and in 1957. Both the ECSC and EEC plan to mass-produce a single sales data from the 1950s and restructured the economies of model of a low-cost vehicle, the 1960s, this paper argues that even Western Europe and worked to cre - Volkswagen “Beetle.” Even with its with its efficient business model, ate a common market for certain efficient business model, because Volkswagen could not have over - goods. of Germany’s war guilt, the deci - come the stigma of Germany’s war While published scholarship on mated domestic economy in post - guilt or the fact that the “Beetle” German economic success in the war West Germany, and the fact had been a major Nazi propaganda twentieth century tends to focus on that the “Beetle” had been a major piece during the war if it were not the country’s “liberal economic Nazi propaganda piece during the for these institutions. Without insti - policies,” few have considered the war, Volkswagen owed its survival tutional regulation and moderated relationship between postwar and especially its success in the access to both resources and con - industry and postwar institutions. 2 1950s and 1960s to the regulated sumer markets in Western Europe, When making the case for the common markets created by the Volkswagen could not have trans - German postwar economic boom, ECSC and EEC. Without such insti - formed “Hitler’s car” into the vehi - or the Wirtschaftswunder , scholars tutional protection and without cle of choice for the burgeoning often focus on the infrastructure access to consumer markets in middle class in postwar Europe, laid by Hitler’s war machine and other Western European countries, nor could it have become itself a on the socio-political re-landscap - Volkswagen could not have trans - force for European integration. ing of Germany in the 1940s. 3 formed “Hitler’s car” into the vehi - As a result, they forget the strong cle of choice for the burgeoning Introduction continuity between pre-war, middle class in postwar Europe. Despite considerable losses in the wartime, and post-war institutions The case of Volkswagen, more Second World War and Allied and the extent to which the West than any other West German firm, attempts both to exact war repara - German economy required the presents the opportunity to consid -

Page 04 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 05 Figure 1: Hitler with his cabinet members and Ferdinand Porsche at a design meeting in 1934, discussing the Type 32 prototype. Dr. Porsche is at the far left with his arm outstretched. er German economic ascendancy Such a study must necessarily Volkswagen’s history and success in the postwar period from all employ the methodologies of both are extraordinary, its place within angles: the totalitarian legacy of Economics and History, since nei - German heavy industry and the Nazi labor, production and con - ther approach can adequately postwar production economy at sumption programs, the influence address the complexities of the large enables this analysis of VW to of postwar Allied Occupation, the postwar economic situation. resonate with a huge majority of its shift in perception of Western Moreover, such a study must probe contemporary West German firms. Germany and its exports, the revi - deeper than a simple aggregate talization of the domestic economy analysis of firm data in the postwar I. Hitler, “Father of Volkswagen” of West Germany, the distribution - period. As his party ascended to power in al structure of steel resources in the Thus, this paper proposes a new Germany in the early 1930s, Adolf ECSC, and most importantly the multi-disciplinary methodology, Hitler began to develop his com - effect of the creation of a common which attempts to answer macro - prehensive political platform. In market on the competitiveness of economic policy questions using addition to his hope for German West German firms. This paper microeconomic policy analysis. By territorial expansion throughout examines the effect of postwar eco - analyzing the competitive index of Europe and for German primacy, nomic integration in Europe, which the single Volkswagen firm, this Hitler envisioned a German econo - facilitated the rise of the German paper aims to provide new insight my as robust in consumption as it economy, the health of West into the effect of postwar econom - was in production. Perhaps more German business, and the particu - ic integration on business competi - than any other consumable good, lar success of the Volkswagen firm. tion. 5 While it is true that the automobile was for Hitler a

Page 06 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 07 Figure 2: A map of Germany’s Autobahn network, 1939.

symbol of strength, freedom, and ened, however, by the First World 1,000 RM, or a nine-month salary power. 6 According to Wolfgang War, war reparations, and the for the average working wage. 10 Konig, German political and eco - Depression of the early 1930s, At the same time, Hitler capital - nomic historian, “For Hitler, the necessitating major state interven - ized on the opportunity to present number of cars and miles of road tion to capitalize the production of his automobile campaign as a were a measure of one's nation's low-cost vehicles. 8 Not only did compelling propaganda piece, cultural standards. His personal Hitler’s Volkswagen campaign sat - promising to mobilize the nation advisor, the Daimler-Benz manag - isfy his eagerness to augment on “four wheels, rather than two,” er Jakob Werlin, called the ‘idea of German middle class consump - since the economic pressures of motorization the symbol of nation - tion, but it also provided the Nazi the previous decade had limited al socialist revolutionary develop - Labor Front with yet another politi - the German people to bicycle ment.’” 7 cal tool: a way to legitimize the transportation and had entrenched Because Germany lagged far Nazi promise to revive the German automobiles firmly within the luxu - behind her European neighbors in economy by solving the unemploy - ry market. 11 His call for a true the 1930s race for cars per capita, ment problem. 9 “volks auto,” a “people’s car,” rang Hitler resolved to invest tremen - A secret admirer of Henry Ford, out across the industry and in the dous energy into automobile pro - Hitler began to make tandem ears of his audiences, who became duction and to regulatory measures appeals to German auto manufac - increasingly intrigued by his to ensure the availability of cars for turers such as Opel and even implicit claims that Germany could every German family. The German Daimler-Benz to mass produce a soon enjoy a consumer society as economy had been severely weak - car that could sell for less than robust as that of the United States.

Page 06 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 07 chase of a Volkswagen car. 14 Although the Nazi party enrolled a quarter of a million Germans in the “Volkswagen savers’ fund,” not a single finished Volkswagen was ever delivered to a customer. 15 Not only had Hitler overestimated the purchasing power of the domestic consumer market, but the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 had also re-directed the resources of the German state—including those of the Volkswagen factory—to the war effort. Some speculate that behind Hitler’s public vision for economic revival through the Volkswagen campaign lay his true intention for nationalized auto pro - Figure 3: Volkswagen export and production statistics from 1945-1962. duction: the creation of an essen - tial cog in the Nazi war machine. 16 When no existing manufacturer Hitler had orchestrated a massive In addition to his Volkswagen satisfied his request for a mass-pro - building project to construct a program for German automobile duced low-cost vehicle, Hitler Volkswagen manufacturing plant production and consumption, resolved to nationalize the produc - in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, yet Hitler began work on a revolution - tion of his “people’s car.” He asked another example of German eco - ary transportation network for his his friend, Ferdinand Porsche, to nomic nationalism at work. By soon-to-be mobilized population, design “a small 4-seater car … a 1937, the Nazi Labor Front began a project he called the sort of low-priced family car in production of Porsche’s Beetle, Motoriesierung program. 17 He which one could go for weekend and Hitler claimed the title of sought to continue the work begun trips,” which would be mass-pro - “father of Volkswagen.” during the Weimar Republic of the duced by the first German national Within just a few months of the previous decade and connect the firm, Volkswagen. 12 Figure 1 is a Volkswagen production launch, previously disjointed regions of photograph of Hitler, his cabinet however, sales reports for the new Prussia, Austro-Hungary, and members, and Porsche at a design Beetle fell embarrassingly below Western Germany with a vast net - meeting in 1934, discussing the Hitler’s anticipated demand. In an work of paved highway systems. Type 32, which is a recognizable attempt to remedy the situation, Like the state-run auto production predecessor of the Volkswagen Hitler devised a payment plan to project, the plan to construct giant “Beetle,” with a descendent still in accommodate self-financing of freeways promised to be a huge 13 vehicle purchases. Essentially, production today. economic stimulus as well as a employees of the state, who out - After a few more of these design solution to the troubling unem - numbered private employees by meetings, Porsche presented Hitler ployment problem in Germany at the late 1930s, could elect to des - with a model that could be pro - the time. Massive injections of ignate a portion of their regular duced efficiently on an assembly state capital and totalitarian labor wages to apply toward the pur - line for a low cost. Meanwhile, organization resulted in an

Page 08 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 09 unprecedented roadway system by the great value of such a massive firm of the Wirtschaftswunder. the late 1930s. and well-capitalized factory. On the whole, the West German Figure 2 depicts this autobahn Although the factory had produced auto industry revived slowly rela - network as it existed in 1939, after amphibious military vehicles tive to other countries in Western just six years of Nazi-led construc - exclusively since 1942 after the Europe for several reasons. First, tion. Of course, as was also the failure of the Nazi consumer auto the commitment of the Allied pow - case with nationalized auto pro - program and the start of the war, ers to peace on the continent led duction, the construction of the British officers discovered two pro - them to dismantle German heavy autobahn served a primary military totypes of Porsche’s original Beetle industry in 1945 and to discourage purpose, and as such became a design in the factory’s storage facil - a rebirth of German industrialism major asset to the Nazis just ity. A shrewd businessman in his until 1949. 23 Second, the war had months later when the Second own right, British Major Ivan Hirst, depleted the readily available sup - World War began. Regardless of leading Allied occupation of Lower ply of steel in Western Europe, and the original Nazi motive behind its Saxony in 1945, recognized the what quantities were available construction, the autobahn, cou - potential of both the Volkswagen were diverted away from West pled with the Volkswagen project, design and the Wolfsburg plant, Germany in favor of France. 24 revealed deep interest of the Nazi and he resolved to take control of Third, the West German auto party in a comprehensive motor - the factory, “to make essential industry lacked both a production ization program. By the late 1930s, repairs, and to begin building small supply chain and a consumer mar - the Nazi motorization program had numbers of the original VW ket in the immediate postwar peri - established a legacy of efficient cars.” 21 od. 25 Volkswagen, however, production. The program also In an effort to revitalize thanks in large part to Hirst’s fore - inspired in the German bourgeoisie Volkswagen production, Hirst sight, was exempt from all three of a budding faith in state interven - solicited the investment of British these impediments to recovery and tion that would continue to flourish and American businessmen, who quickly became the largest firm in in the postwar period. 18 immediately rejected the proposal West Germany. By making use of for two reasons: they found the his esteemed reputation among the II. Post-War Allied Control Porsche design to be highly unat - Allied leaders, Hirst defended With the defeat of Germany at the tractive, and, more importantly, Volkswagen from the dismantling end of the Second World War, the they refused to involve themselves program, employed a bartering sys - Allied powers divided the manage - in a formerly Nazi operation. tem in order to acquire steel, parts, ment of German territory among Always the optimist, Hirst appoint - and supplies, and funneled fin - themselves. In 1945, the British ed himself general manager of the ished Volkswagens to the con - military occupied the region of Volkswagen factory and produced sumer market in Britain in the Lower Saxony, in which the several thousand vehicles per year absence of qualified German con - Volkswagen factory at Wolfsburg from 1946 until 1948, which he sumers. 26 was located. 19 sold to the British military. 22 In fact, the war had created a When the British forces discov - Without resurrection by the British high recovery demand for a small ered the manufacturing plant, it and without the British military’s and inexpensive middle class fam - was in a state of disrepair and was purchase of Volkswagen autos in ily car, and, as “the only cheap car missing portions of its roof and pro - the immediate postwar years, the widely available, the VW sold eas - duction floor due to heavy Allied company would not have survived ily.” 27 Hirst’s decision to continue shelling in the area in the months into the 1950s and certainly could to produce “Hitler’s car” Hitler’s prior. 20 Still, the British recognized not have become the paradigmatic way proved so successful that the

Page 08 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 09 Soviet Union, whose occupational was the Occupation Powers who, step in the fulfillment of the dreams border lay just five miles outside of after unconditional surrender, of utopian visionaries like Jean Wolfsburg, asked the British to brought Hitler’s dream into reali - Monnet, who pined for a cohesive renegotiate the dividing line in ty.” 33, 34 “European federation.” 37 order to take control of Unfortunately for Germany and Volkswagen. 28 III. The ECSC and the First Steps especially the West German auto By 1948, the United States’ Toward Economic Integration industry, France had led the cam - Marshall Plan had provided Thanks to the stabilizing effects of paign for economic integration Germany with sufficient means for the U.S. Marshall Aid program, by with her strong desire to cripple the economic recovery and with the 1951 Western Europe was pre - German economy. German support it needed to embark on pared to accept the view of the Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, well major currency reform, which French politician Robert Schuman, aware of French intentions, acqui - facilitated tremendous economic who argued that Europe needed to esced to French demands in an recovery because it closed the create an economic union so as to effort to project a new image of “dollar gap” and allowed German “make war not only unthinkable Germany as a willing and able firms to trade on the international but materially impossible.” 35 partner to the nations of Western market with a convertible Leaders from six core Western Europe. Thus, although the Treaty 29 Deutsche mark. When a new European nations, namely, France, Establishing the European Coal and West German government was Germany, Italy, and the three Steel Community outlines the pri - established in 1949, Hirst relin - Benelux states, Belgium, mary tasks of the Community as quished control of Volkswagen to Luxembourg and the Netherlands, the obligation to “‘assure to all the state, under the care of former met to negotiate the Treaty of Paris. consumers in comparable posi - Opel executive, the very “knowl - Because of the crucial importance tions within the common market, edgeable, ambitious, and autocrat - of heavy industry to both the war equal access to the sources of pro - ic” Heinrich Nordhoff, who and recovery efforts, these leaders duction,’” German industries expanded production and market - were eager to preserve peace and received proportionally far less ed the VW to the rising West promote prosperity by creating the coal and steel than did industries in German consumer. 30 first system of mutual regulation other Community member coun - By 1951, the West German and the first common market for tries. In fact, according to econom - automobile industry had “regained coal and steel, the production reg - ic historian Steven Tolliday, “one its prewar level of output,” solely ulation of which would be placed of the greatest difficulties for VW, as for most other German manufac - because of the success of under a common High Authority. 36 31 turers between 1949 and 1952, Volkswagen. Figure 3 evidences The Treaty of Paris also placed was securing adequate steel sup - the continued boom in export sales under Community control the 38 in the early 1950s, rising from one resource-rich regions of Western plies.” Nevertheless, due to third of total output in 1950-1951 Germany, namely, the Ruhr and Nordhoff’s leadership and because to over half in 1955, requiring the the Saar, from whence most of his esteem among political lead - establishment of many new pro - Community coal and steel would ers of the ECSC member countries, 32 duction facilities.” come. This common market agree - Volkswagen was uniquely able to When asked to comment on the ment, which effectively created the barter for the steel supply so cru - reason for Volkswagen’s tremen - European Coal and Steel cial to automobile manufacturing dous progress, Nordhoff said, “By Community, or ECSC, became the and so was spared from the totality one of those ironic jokes history is world’s first international econom - of the strong anti-German bias 39 sometimes tempted to produce, it ic system and was the first practical maintained by the French.

Page 10 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 11 Despite France’s strong anti- and the suspension of the gold Netherlands, determined to German platform, the German standard had rendered the Deutche lay the foundations of an economy continued to thrive under mark as valuable as bathroom tis - ever-closer union among the the ECSC arrangement. In Special sue. 41 Thanks in large part to the peoples of Europe, resolved to Report number 34, Great Britain’s creation of the ECSC and its institu - ensure the economic and Economist Intelligence Unit tional framework, by the mid-nine - social progress of their coun - explained that, of the many and teen fifties, VW was the largest tries by common action to varied reasons for economic inte - auto producer in Germany, and eliminate the barriers which gration, perhaps the most com - with the next stages of economic divide Europe, affirming as pelling was “the need to derive the integration, it would become the the essential objective of their cost saving benefits from operating largest in all of Europe. efforts the constant improve - at economies of scale; furthermore, ment of the living and work - in the context of ever increasing IV. Further Integration with the EEC ing conditions of their peo - competition in world markets, the By the late 1950s, the economies ples, recognizing that the quest for these economies has of the six core member states of the removal of existing obstacles intensified.” 40 ECSC had recovered to such an calls for concerted action in Volkswagen’s early 1950s boom extent that momentum toward fur - order to guarantee steady proved the power of market expan - ther integration proved imminent. expansion, balanced trade sion. While the firm had saturated In 1957, the leaders of France, and fair competition, anxious the qualified domestic market with Germany, Italy, and the Benelux to strengthen the unity of their its Beetle by the late 1940s, the states convened upon the ancient economies and to ensure their opening of a new common market Capitoline Hill to sign the Treaty of harmonious development by in 1951 paved the way for Rome, which established the reducing the differences exist - Volkswagen’s rapid rise to industry European Economic Community, ing between the various preeminence, in part because, in or EEC. Primarily, this new com - regions and the backwardness addition to its common market for munity agreement aimed to of the less-favored regions, coal and steel and its general regu - remove trade barriers between desiring to contribute, by latory measures, the ECSC served member countries, establish a cus - means of a common commer - to bolster the European middle toms union, and create a common cial policy, to the progressive class, thereby creating a new gen - market of goods, capital, and labor. abolition of restrictions on eration of qualified consumers for An excerpt from the preamble to international trade […] have VW’s cars. the Treaty details the vision of the decided to create a European Also, simultaneous to this first six member states for the new Economic Community. 42 stage of economic integration in Community: Europe and thanks in large part to Thus, inspired by the success of the Community regulation was the “His Majesty, the King of the ECSC stage of integration, the lead - reform of German monetary policy Belgians, the President of the ers of the six member states created and the stabilization of its Federal Republic of Germany, the EEC out of a desire for deeper Deutsche Mark. Without such the President of the French economic integration in Europe, reforms, Volkswagen could not Republic, the President of the believing that together, by “elimi - succeed in an international market, Italian Republic, Her Royal nating the barriers” to trade, they not only because of the insur - Highness the Grand Duchess could rise to greater heights of mountable “dollar gap” but of Luxembourg, and Her “economic and social progress” because war-time hyperinflation Majesty the Queen of the than could any one country on its

Page 10 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 11 Beetle. 47 Despite admonition for its viola - tion of the Treaty of Rome’s anti- trust law, Volkswagen continued to annex its smaller German competi - tors and even some of its supply chain producers. Herein lies yet another advan - tage of EEC membership for Volkswagen: practical enforce - ment of the anti-trust clause fell to Figure 4: Volkswagen pre-tax profits as a percentage of sales receipts, 1956-1960. the member states, which, in the own. 43 agreement. case of Germany, was “sufficiently In the words of the newly In 1957, the Volkswagen lenient to allow licensing of almost appointed EEC Commission head, Company seemed anything but a all merger applications” such as Roland Mussard, “It is no exagger - monopolistic cartel. Of course, it VW’s acquisitions of Audi and ation to state that, economically, had claimed the greatest market NSU, yet the anti-trust clause pro - the Rome Treaty is basically Treaty share by the time German tected Volkswagen from cartel-like for more competition… it has been Chancellor Konrad Adenauer competition that could arise in 48 considered as one of the principal signed the Treaty of Rome, but it other EEC member states. pillars on which our building continued to experience fierce Ultimately, even with the moot rests.” 44 domestic competition from anti-trust clause and its loose Competition stimulated techno - Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, or enforcement policy on the part of logical innovation and would, BMW, Daimler-Benz, and Opel, the German state, the creation of according to the liberal policy and even stronger international the EEC allowed Volkswagen makers of the late 1950s, control competition from French Renault, access to an even broader common firm size and strength. 45 Yet, lead - Italian Fiat, and American General market in a customs union and ers of the Commission—men like Motors and Ford. Within a decade, access to increased production Hans von der Groeben—also knew however, after its acquisition of resources and financing opportuni - that the greatest threat to the future both Audi and NSU Motorenwerke ties. By the time the EEC came into of free trade in the EEC was the AG, Volkswagen would become full effect in 1958, Volkswagen “erection of private barriers to the largest European auto manufac - was the largest automobile manu - trade by international cartels,” turer and an increasing concern to facturer in Europe, and VW Beetles whose actions would “virtually proponents of the Treaty’s anti-trust dotted highways and dirt roads undo the opening of the markets clause. Yet, even as early as 1959, alike from Normandy to Napoli. 49 and to prevent, or at least unduly to the Commission recognized delay the action needed to adapt Volkswagen’s dominance in the V. Economic Analysis them to the Common Market.” 46 affordable auto market. At the During the later stages of the eco - As a result, the Treaty of Rome behest of the EEC Commission, the nomic integration project in included an anti-trust clause in German Federal Government was Europe, liberal European econo - Articles 85 and 86, which con - required to intervene in mist Andreas Predohl proclaimed tained a description of the conse - Volkswagen’s pricing structure that “Since the late 1950s, when quential price controls that awaited because of the lack of competition the major European currencies violators of the treaty’s anti-trust for its iconic and wildly popular became convertible, a multilateral

Page 12 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 13 trade liberalization would have been more advantageous than Western European regional inte - gration.” 50 Predohl continued to argue that “Although the net effect of west European economic inte - gration has been beneficial, a reduction of trade restrictions on a non-discriminatory, multilateral basis—with liberalized imports competing with the products of the most vulnerable domestic indus - tries—would have generated even more economic growth.” 51 In quantifiable terms, Predohl was correct. Access to an even larger, even more qualified consumer market in the 1940s and 1950s could have resulted in even more Figure 5: Coal and road motor vehicles as percentages of West Germany’s intracore and extracore exports of all commodities, 1952, 1957, 1963, and 1968. remarkable success for firms like Volkswagen. After all, German Hitler in the 1930s—the mass pro - with the principles of comparative economic growth, even at a micro - duction of a single low-cost vehi - advantage. 55 economic level, had always cle—within the economic commu - By 1968, West German auto depended more on foreign markets nities of the 1950s, Volkswagen firms—Volkswagen in particular— and exports than it had on its own enjoyed massive profit margins, exported to EEC core countries domestic consumption. 52 even relative to its West German only 60% of what they exported Historically, however, Predohl competitors. outside of the core. Such a surge in was wrong to dismiss the ECSC and Similar to Figure 4 (preceding auto exports outside of the EEC EEC as unnecessary and onerous. page), Figure 5 (above) illustrates also correlated to an increase in Like all German firms in the imme - the success of Volkswagen in the West German importation of for - diate postwar period, tainted by 1950s. 53 This table quantifies the eign automobiles from other core the stigma of Nazi association, West German exportation of road countries, most notably French and Volkswagen required the protec - motor vehicles from 1952 until Italian firms like Renault and Fiat, tion and opportunities afforded by 1968 reveals the extent to which as a result of mediated EEC compe - the creation of the economic com - the West German auto industry, tition. 56 munities of the 1950s. The exigen - led by Volkswagen, relied on the Moreover, the increase in cies of the immediate postwar peri - intracore market during the recov - Volkswagen exports outside the od made Volkswagen’s participa - ery period, as intracore exportation core in the 1960s substantiates the tion in a liberal international mar - was almost equal to total extracore claim that Volkswagen’s multina - ket impossible, had such a market exportation (96%). 54 It also tional transactions facilitated even existed in the late 1940s. demonstrates the remarkable speed European integration, merging Thus, as is shown in Figure 4 (pre - of the West German auto industry’s economies via trade even before ceding page), by employing the recovery and its ascendancy in those economies were united insti - business model established by extracore markets in accordance tutionally. Thus, Volkswagen’s

Page 12 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 13 relationship to European integra - Only within the structures of the 1990s have published reports on tion is multi-dimensional; without ECSC and EEC, only by the process the industry from 1945 until 1965. the early institutions of the ECSC of economic integration in Western 3. Mancur Olson, The Logic of and EEC, Volkswagen could not Europe could Volkswagen survive Collective Action . Harvard have survived the immediate post - the postwar recovery period and Economic Studies, 1965. In this war period By the 1960s, later become the preeminent auto - work, Olson described the way in Volkswagen’s success in markets mobile manufacturer on the which war minimizes the strength throughout Europe integrated European continent. Ultimately, as and reduces the number of cartels economies before the institutions the reconstruction period ended and special interest groups whose did. 57 and the period of twentieth century power could otherwise dominate As both Figure 4 and Figure 5 economic boom began, Germany’s an economy. make clear, firms like Volkswagen own domestic policies, which 4. Globalization or regionaliza - needed the ECSC and EEC during eventually became relatively more tion of the European car industry? , postwar recovery. Only by recov - liberal than those of its neighbors, eds., Michel Freyssenet, Koichi ering within the regional core contributed to the increasing suc - Shimizu, Guiseppe Volpato. New Community could Volkswagen cess of German business, including York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003. then rise to international trade pre - the Volkswagen firm. In the imme - 5. This project was largely in- dominance outside of the diate postwar period, however, spired by the extraordinary work Community postrecovery. Thus, Volkswagen owed its growth to its of the Bruegel Economic Think this economic analysis offers quan - place within a common European Tank, headquartered in Brussels. tifiable support for the rejection of market. The common markets for Bruegel recently published its Predohl’s liberal claim that the both resources and trade and the EFIGE dataset, which examines ECSC and EEC were of no benefit communities that governed them the competitiveness of firms in to European firms such as facilitated the German Wirtschaft- seven Western European countries Volkswagen in the postwar period. swunder and enabled Volkswagen from 2008 until 2012. not only to become the largest 6. Wolfgang Konig, “Adolf Conclusion automobile producer in Europe but Hitler vs. Henry Ford: The Volks- In the immediate postwar period— also to, in turn, facilitate the inte - wagen, the Role of American as a in a time of physical devastation, gration of new economies into the Model, and the Failure of Nazi resource scarcity, hyper-inflation, European core. Consumer Society,” German and non-controvertibility of nation - Studies Review , Vol. 27, no. 2 al currencies—in a time when no Endnotes (May, 2004), 251. European would willingly drive 1. Andreas Grotewold, “West 7. Konig, “Adolf Hitler vs. “Hitler’s car,” even if it could be Germany’s Economic Growth,” Henry Ford,” 251. produced—liberalized bi-lateral Annals of the Association of 8. Konig, 251. international trade, especially of American Geographers, Vol. 63, 9. In the 1990s, Volkswagen the German Volkswagen, was no. 3 (Sept., 1973), 353. was forced to make reparations to inconceivable. Anti-German bias - 2. There exists a huge gap in several hundred Holocaust vitims, es, a desire to control valuable the literature on this topic. For who claimed that they were resources, an absence of trade example, none of the seven major spared from the Dachau and mechanisms, and a lack of a con - economic think tanks that pub - Auschwitz concentration camps in sumer market necessitated the cre - lished regular volumes of analysis exchange for their forced labor at ation of economic communities in on the European auto industry in the Volkswagen factory at Wolfs- the postwar period. the late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and burg. They reported that as many

Page 14 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 15 as 15,000 Jews and enemies of the Volkswagen Chronicle, Vol. 7: Germany received about 12% of Nazi regime were made to work Historical Notes. (Stadtoldendorf: the total Marshall Aid funds given as slaves in Volkswagen produc - Werbedruck Lonnecker, 2003), by the United States to its partners tion during the war. 10. in Europe. 10. Konig, 251. 21. Laux, The European 30. Laux, 170. 11. Konig, “Adolf Hitler vs. Automobile Industry, 168. 31. Laux, 168. Henry Ford,” 251. 22. Volkswagen AG, 32. Laux, 185. According to Wolfgang Konig, Volkswagen Chronicle, Vol. 7: 33. Laux, The European Hitler hoped that he could emu - Historical Notes, 10. Automobile Industry, 185. late Henry Ford’s success in mass 23. Laux, 168. 34. Tolliday, “Enterprise and producing middle class vehicles 24. Laux, 168. State,” 326. and transforming the German pop - 25. Laux, 168. 35. Robert Schuman, “Notion ulation into a people of motorists. 26. Laux, 169. of Structural Peace” speech, 1950. 12. Tolliday, “Enterprise and Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen 36. Grotewold, “Western Ger- State,” 278. Chronicle, Vol. 7: Historical many’s Economic Growth,” 354. 13. 1934 design meeting, Adolf Notes, 10. Coal was an absolutely 37. For Monnet, the common Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche, dis - essential resource for auto manu - market would be just one small cussing the Type 32 facturing in the postwar period. part of a larger project of Euro- Heinkelscooter, Volkswagen. Volkswagen’s own company pean integration and the creation 14. James Michael Laux, The Chronicle admits that Volkswagen of a single, unified European fed - European Automobile Industry. would not have ob-tained the coal eration. (New York: Twayne Publishers, it needed to produce cars without 38. Hans A. Schmitt. “The 1992), 137. first the leadership of Ivan Hirst European Coal and Steel Comm- 15. Tolliday, “Enterprise and and second without the institution unity: Operations of the First Euro- State,” 283. of the ECSC. pean Antitrust Law,1952-1958,” 16. Tolliday, 279. Here, Toll- 27. Laux, The European The Business History Review, Vol. iday cites the work of Richard Automobile Industry, 170. 38, No. 1, International Govern- Overy, who rejects the claim that 28. Laux, 169. I dispute the arg- ment-Business Issue(Spring, 1964), Hitler intended the Volkswagen uments of those like UCLA’s own 105. Treaty Establishing the Euro- factory not to produce cars for the Roland Francis Stephen, who, in pean Coal and Steel Community, German people, but to manufac - his Political Science PhD disserta - English translation published by ture military vehicles for the war tion advised by Comparative Gov- the High Authority of the Euro- he anticipated in the late 1930s. ernment expert Dr. Ronald Rog- pean Coal and Steel Community According to Overy, the VW proj - owski, claimed that the German (Luxembourg, n.d.), Art. 36.) ect was driven much more by government embraced a very “lib - Tolliday, “Enterprise and State,” “national, symbolic and economic eral” policy towards its auto sec - 313-314. motivations rather than by rearma - tor, aside from its efforts to priva - 39. Laux, The European Auto- ment and war preparedness.” tize the formerly state-run Volks- mobile Industry, 169. 17. Tolliday, “Enterprise and wagen company. In actuality, VW 40. Economist Intelligence Unit State,” 279. production in the late 1940s and (Great Britain) West European 18. Laux, The European early 1950s was carried out in motor industry: where now? 1976. Automobile Industry, 123. accordance with Hitler’s original, EIU Special 19. Laux, 169. very regulated business model. Report No. 34. (Spencer House, 20. Volkswagen AG, 29. By some calculations, West 27 St. James’s Place, London

Page 14 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 15 SW1A 1NT), 63. mined that “The Member States 56. Grotewold, “Western Ger- 41. Grace A. Ballor, “Forged are not inclined at present, or in many’s Economic Growth,” 360. from Fire: An Exploration of the the near future, to divest them - 57. Grace A. Ballor, “An Eco- Bundesbank’s History and Its selves of their prerogatives and nomic History of Multinational Influence on E.U. Finance,” hand over to a supranational Firms and the European Union, University of California, Los authority the task of condemning 1950-2000,” Ph.D. diss. Univers- Angeles, March 2013. or approving the cartels.” ity of California, Los Angeles, 42. Treaty of Rome, Preamble, 48. Schmitt, “The European forthcoming. 1957. Coal and Steel Community,” 122. 58. Grotewold, “West Ger- 43. It is important to note that, 49. During this time, Great many’s Economic Growth,” 358. while German Chancellor Aden- Britain and the United States also Grotewold borrowed this statisti - auer practiced a great deal of began to import an increasing cal data from: Commodity Trade political posturing in the early number of Volkswagens. Their Statistics, Statistical Papers Series 1950s, his agreement to the 1957 markets responded to the growing D (New York: United Nations Treaty of Rome stemmed from his esteem of the German firm be- Statistical Office, annual report). belief that membership in the EEC cause of its status as an industry was truly best for Germany and leader within the Community. In Works Cited for Europe as a whole. addition, consumers all across the Deubner, Christian. “The Ex- 44. D. L. McLachlan and D. Western world came to prefer the pansion of West German Capital Swan, “Competition Policy in the unique aesthetic of the Beetle, and the Founding of Euratom,” Common Market,” The Economic and, ironically, it became a count - International Organization, Vol. Journal, Vol. 73, no. 289 (Mar., er-cultural product particularly 33, No. 2 (Spring, 1979), pp. 203- 1963), 54. within the United States. 228. 45. Grotewold, “Western Ger- 50. Grotewold, “Western Economist Intelligence Unit many’s Economic Growth,” 361. Germany’s Economic Growth,” (Great Britain). “West European 46. McLachlan and Swan, 353. motor industry: where now? “Competition Policy in the Comm- 51. Grotewold, 364. 1976,” EIU Special Report No. 34 . on Market,” 54. 52. Grotewold, 360. Spencer House, 27 St. James’s 47. Federal Cartel Office, 53. Germany’s growth was his - Place, London SW1A 1NT. Annual Report for 1959, p. 57. torically export-led. Tolliday, Economist Intelligence Unit It seems as though Germany, “Enterprise and State,” 337. (Great Britain). “West European eager to prove itself a cooperative 54. The term “intracore” refers motor industry: where now in the partner to its European neighbors, to transactions and trade within 1980s?” EIU Special Report No. more readily embraced any EEC the common market for goods, 77. Ed. Richard Phillips and Arth- measures than any other country. established by the ECSC and EEC. ur Way. Spencer House, 27 St. Whereas the Italian, French, 55. An increase in extracore James’s Place, London SW1A Dutch, Belgian, and Luxembourg- trade was facilitated by the post - 1NT. ian governments put the anti-trust war revolution in shipping net - Globalization or regionalization laws into effect slowly (if ever), works, which kept the cost of of the European car industry? eds. Germany had exercised the puni - transporting a finished Volks- Michel Freyssenet, Koichi Shim- tive powers of Articles 85 and 86 wagen across the Atlantic at just izu, Guiseppe Volpato. New York: several times by 1962. In 1961, 1/10th of the purchase price. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. the Economic and Social Comm- Grotewold, “Western Germany’s Grotewold, Andreas. West ittee of the EEC Commission deter - Economic Growth,” 361. Germany's Economic Growth.

Page 16 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 17 Annals of the Association of Am- automobile industry. New York: Operations of the First European erican Geographers, Vol. 63, No. Twayne Publishers, 1992. Antitrust Law, 1952-1958,” The 3 (Sep., 1973), pp.353-365. McLachlan, D. L. and D. Swan. Business History Review, Vol. 38, Gunthert, André. La voiture du “Competition Policy in the Com- No. 1, International Government- peuple des seigneurs: Naissance mon Market,” The Economic Jour- Business Issue (Spring, 1964), pp. de la Volkswagen. Vingtième nal, Vol. 73, No. 289 (Mar., 102-122. Siècle. Revue d'histoire, No. 15 1963), pp. 54-79. Spier, Leo. “Restrictive Business (Jul. - Sep., 1987), pp. 29-42. National Economic Develop- Practices and Competition in the Heywood, Robert W. “London, ment Office. Motor industry statis - European Economic Community,” Bonn, the Konigswinter Confer- tics, 1959-68. London: Her Maj- California Law Review, Vol. 53, ences and the Problem of Euro- esty’s Stationery Office, 1969. No. 5 (Dec., 1965), pp. 1337- pean Integration,” Journal of NBER Working Paper Series. 1376. Contemporary History, Vol. 10, Market Integration and Conver- Stephen, Roland Francis. “Integ- No. 1 (Jan., 1975), pp. 131-155. gence to the Law of One Price: rating Europe: interests, institu - High Authority of the European Evidence from the European Car tions, and the liberalization of the Coal and Steel Community, Treaty Market. Prepared by Pinelopi Kou- European automobile industry,” Establishing the European Coal jianou Goldberg, Frank Verbo- Ph.D. Diss. UCLA, 1993. and Steel Community, English ven. Working Paper 8402, July Teuber, Jörg. trans. Luxembourg. 1951. 2001. “Interessenverbände und Inter- König, Wolfgang. “Adolf Hitler Richter, Ralf. “Die Währungs— nationalisierung Dachverbände, vs. Henry Ford: The Volkswagen, und Wirtschaftsreform 1948 im Automobilindustrie und Einzel- the Role of America as a Model, Spiegel unternehmerischer handel in der Europäischen and the Failure of a Nazi Personalpolitic—Volkswagen, Union.” VS Verlag für Sozialwiss- Consumer Society,” German 1945-1950,” Zeitschrift für Unter- enschaften, 2009. Studies Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 nehmensgeschichte / Journal of Tolliday, Steven. “Enterprise (May, 2004), pp. 249-268. Business History, 48. Jahrg.,H. 2. and State in the West German Krugman, Paul. Geography and (2003), pp. 215-238. Wirtschaftswunder: Volkswagen Trade. MIT Press, 1993. Schmitt, Hans A. “The Euro- and the Automobile Industry, Laux, James Michael. European pean Coal and Steel Community: 1939-1962,” The Business History Review, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 273-350. Vonyo, Tamas. “Postwar Reconstruction and the Golden Age of Economic Growth,” Euro- pean Review of Economic History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 221-241. Volkswagen AG, Group Comm- unications, Corporate History De- partment. Volkswagen Chronicle, Vol. 7: Historical Notes, ed. Manfred Grieger. Stadtoldendorf: Werbedruck Lonnecker, 2003.

Page 16 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 17 The History and Evolution of Motometers

By Francis G. Clax Photography and ads from the author’s private collection unless otherwise noted ince 2008, interest in Indicators”) has been significantly 1920s as the internal-combustion motometers (more technical - growing. Most of that interest is type engine was generally accept - Sly termed, “Early Twentieth centered around selling and col - ed as the go-to engine type of auto Century Automobile Radiator- lecting these artifacts belonging to manufacturer and buying public mounted Engine Temperature the long bygone era of the early preference.

Page 18 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 19 generally accepted “accurate” records, exhaustive research and information unfortunately got cer - extensive artifact collection and tain portions of that “history” preservation not in his possession wrong or incomplete. but now in this author’s. In the Spring 1976 Issue In the years that followed, (Number 5) of the Society of another automobile enthusiast, Automotive Historians’ Auto- Victor Koma, picked up on motive History Review , automo - Pulfer’s motometer account and bile enthusiast and then SAH wrote his own brief historical member Harry Pulfer of La account “Reaching the Boiling Crescenta, California, wrote the Point—A History of Boyce Moto article “Highlights of the Meters” that Internet sources have Figure 1: Can you tell which is a reproduc - Development of Moto Meters and proliferated without consideration tion and which is an authentic original? Heat Indicators” that appeared for accuracy, corroboration or evi - Interest for these automobilia within. Mr. Pulfer included copies dence. collecting enthusiasts seems to be of various motometer brand The inaccuracies in Pulfer’s arti - based upon acquiring these last advertisements and statements as cle begin with his statement of vestiges of defunct automobile evidence and proofs; however, “1910—An ad in The Antique manufacturers, such as Mercer, certain portions of his writings Automobile, [January] 1961, by Haynes, Packard, Nordyke & have since been found incorrect Omega Service Parts Company of Marmon or, even Mitchell for based upon numerous authentic New York City, pictured a radiator example among hundreds of oth - original company documents, temperature gauge ‘made by ers no longer with us as opera - tional business concerns. Just as fervent motometer col - lecting began to heat up in this century serious elite motometer automobilia collectors began wanting to know more about their truthful origins and to have a more accurate historical record estab - lished, hence this article. The article author offers a rare and unique opportunity albeit condensed to provide a fact and physical evidence-based historical account on these devices whose descendents are still a vital com - ponent in today’s vehicles. A couple of attempts were made to put forth a record of invention for motometers. However, the two main sources of Figure 2: Boyce fundamental Indicator Apparatus Patent (1914).

Page 18 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 19 accident the Messko “Radiator Thermometers” are of the same dimensions and design as Boyce Moto-Meter “Standard, Junior and Midget” Types, which were patented and in full circulation before Messkos. By the time the earliest Messko Radiator Thermometers were actually commercially marketed in Germany (1925) Harrison Boyce had long since received a patent for his “Indicating System and Apparatus for Internal Combustion Engines” (U. S. Patent Number 1,090,776, issued March 17, 1914, see Figure 2) and been selling his devices in Europe as the Boyce Moto-Meter had been com - mercially marketed, available and introduced since approximately March, 1913. In December of 1913 the Motometer Company released its earliest general public commer - Figure 3: Boyce print advertisement (1914). cial advertisement for the Boyce Moto-Meter (see Figure 3). Messko (since 1910 in West advertisement wherein the com - It is also a fact that beginning in Germany).” pany promotes its sale of Messko 1913 leading auto speedway race - The Messko information is fully Tire Gauges (Popular Mechanics , car drivers, like Indianapolis unsupported by the Messko Volume 108, Number 5, International 500-Mile Sweep- Corporation’s own historical November 1957, page 48), which stakes winners, Peugeot French founding records along with the might explain their motivation in driver Jules Goux (1913) and race incontrovertible fact that the putting forth less than truthful winner, Delage French driver, Messko Hauser company was information regarding the earliest Rene Thomas (1914) were already founded on November 1, 1911 by manufacturing date of the Messko using Boyce’s device on their Albert Hauser, who only in 1922 “Radiator Thermom-eter,” and racecars long before the existence began work on his Messko (auto - possibly bolstering Pulfer’s repro - of Messkos. Boyce Moto-Meters mobile) “Radiator Thermometer” duction product business sales would go on to be the only brand (not commercially available until interest. of radiator-mounted engine tem - 1925). No patents for the Messko perature indicators documented to Research of the Omega Service “Radiator Thermometer” are have ever been installed on race - Parts Company brings forth an known to exist. Seemingly by no cars excluding pre-1920’s coolant

Page 20 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 21 condensers only on certain cars. Inaccuracies in Pulfer’s and Koma’s motometer accounts con - tinued with a “storied” relation - ship between the generally accepted inventor of the first viable motometer temperature gauge, Harrison Hurlbert Boyce and the eventual founder of the Motometer Company, George Henry Townsend II. Victor Koma, Figure 4: “Boyce Moto-Meter 500-Mile Race Winner (1913) and “The Radiator Heat Indicator Again Wins Great Indianapolis Race (1914)” ads. in his account states “[I]n 1912, George H. Townsend, president of ulations but was so termed by the included them in his initial prod - the Moto Meter Co. Inc., obtained U. S. Appeals Second Circuit uct marketing and sale arrange - the ‘exclusive rights’ under Boyce Court decision rendering judge’s ment as it was not until some four patents to manufacture radiator opinion, in the case of Boyce v. years later (August 30th, 1916) and dashboard motor temperature Stewart-Warner Speedometer that he applied for patent for his indicators.” Corp (U.S., 220 F. 118 C. C. A. 2). “Temperature Indicating System Mr. Koma inadequately assert - Had there been an actual “exclu - and Apparatus for Internal ed that the Boyce Moto-Meter sive” contractual arrangement Combustion Engines” (Patent “was a type of thermometer incor - Boyce would have transferred his number 1,206,783, issued porated into the radiator cap, or patent rights to and in the name of the radiator itself;” however, the George Townsend or his Boyce Moto-Meter more correctly Motometer Company which never attached to a radiator cap by a occurred. threaded bolt and locking nut George Townsend and Harrison assembly which was then fastened Boyce’s actual agreement was onto an automobile radiator tank more like a licensing type arrange - filler tube. ment especially once the financial George H. Townsend and particulars are examined and Harrison Boyce’s agreement for taken into consideration. Without George to market, manufacture, going into greater specificity this sell and distribute Boyce’s temper - “licensing–type” arrangement ature indicating device through a explains why in the myriad of company of George’s choice did patent infringement lawsuits in fact take place before George involving the Boyce Moto-Meter founded the “Motometer they were legally required to be Company, Inc.” (September 12th brought by Harrison Boyce, the versus October 22nd, 1912, patent holder, and not Townsend respectively). or his Motometer Company. The agreement as stated was Also, in 1912, Boyce had not Figure 5: “Enters Accessory Field– Motometer Company Organized in New not a strictly legally speaking yet invented “dashboard motor York to Produce Novel Heat Indicating Device,” The Accessory and Garage Journal, “exclusive” under U. S. Patent reg - temperature indicators,” let alone Volume 2, Number 8, Dec. 1912, page 7.

Page 20 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 21 ute Boyce’s temperature indicat - ing device in exchange for a mod - est sum ($5,000) and royalties. Townsend had limited formal business operational experience though he had worked for the DuroCar automobile company and had co-founded the Yale Automobile Club with classmate, future professional Mercer Factory racecar driver and speed boat champion Caleb Bragg. Townsend decided to establish his own com - pany to perform the agreed upon services. Townsend was the one who Figure 6: “Made by Taylor Instrument Companies” (1914) Standard Type Boyce Moto- gave Boyce’s temperature indicat - Meter, front and rear views. ing apparatus its commercial November 28, 1916) which tions. Besides already being trademarked name, the “Boyce formed the basis for the “Distance involved with the auto industry Moto-Meter.” He later designed Type” Boyce Moto-Meter that in Harrison lived along the course the laurel wreath glass crystal 1924 became the in-dashboard route of the Vanderbilt Cup races bezel/retaining ring and screw set engine temperature indicating at Jericho corner on Long Island, seen on many Boyce Moto- instrument product. New York. His home gave him a Meters, along with an early ver - In an April 2016 discussion that prime viewing vantage point to sion of the “Aristocrat” radiator the author had with Boyce’s observe the races where he no cap (1928), the “Boyce Moto- grandson, he informed me that he doubt observed the vast majority Meter Lite and Ornament Holder” had a very early (pre-1920s) Moto- of the racecars experience engine (1926) as well as other patented Meter Co. corporate meeting min - damaging overheating conditions devices. utes document wherein Boyce and destructive failures. It is It was put forth in the Boyce v. vehemently argued against com - believed that at one of these races Stewart-Warner Speedometer mercially introducing either the he met amateur hillclimb racer Corp. of Chicago, Illinois patent steering column or in-dashboard and future business partner infringement lawsuit that Boyce type Boyce Moto-Meters. It was an George Henry Townsend II. might have taken note of a radia - argument that he won or had over - George Henry Townsend II was tor-mounted water level indicator whelming sway. a fairly recent Yale University type device developed in 1907 by Harrison Hurlbert Boyce was a graduate (Class of 1908), who Chicago’s Harry Vissering college-educated engineer and by held a keen interest in automobile (“Indicator for Radiators,” Patent 1912 was already well respected racing at the time—Fall of 1912— Number 904,163 issued Nov- within the automobile industry for when he and Harrison Boyce ember 17, 1908). his invention of the skid-less forged the agreement for him (and Vissering’s indicator was little leather tire and the demountable a company of his choice) to man - more than a cylinder with a wheel among several other inven - ufacture, market, sell and distrib - sight/viewing window enabling

Page 22 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 23 bubbling hot coolant from the radiator to be observed prior to evaporation or re-entry back into the thermosyphon type engines of the period. Vissering’s gauge was more akin to a water level gauge of the type used in conjunction with steam boilers. Stewart-Warner was never able to prove that Boyce had prior knowledge of this device or that it was in any way similar to his indi - cator. Vissering’s device did not show calibrated temperature, nor did it possess a predictive quality to forewarn of impending coolant overheating as with the Boyce Moto-Meter. Vissering’s indicator device was not commercially suc - cessful and no examples are known to exist at this time. Initially only one model or type as the Motometer Company referred to the devices was pro - duced for racing and/or commer - cial passenger automobile use. It was called the “Standard” and was three and one-quarter inches in upper frame diameter with a scaled down thermometer and an exposed thermometer bulb at the Figure 7: A 1917 Boyce Moto-Meter Automobile Manufacturer Sales Chart. end of the radiator attachment bolt. ings (also called casings) from the Meter. The early Boyce Moto- Standard Type Boyce Moto- Doehler Die Casting Company of Meters had the phrase “Made By Meters were initially assembled by Newark, New Jersey, and Toledo, Taylor Instrument Companies the Rochester, New York, ther - Ohio, while Corning Glass Works Rochester, N.Y.,” stamped into the mometer manufacturing company supplied the glass crystals that metal retaining bezel ring. Taylor Instruments because covered and protected the ther - In October 1913, the George Townsend’s Motometer mometer. Motometer Company commer - Company was very capital defi - Once Taylor received all of the cially released a smaller version of cient, and possessed no factory or vendor components its precision the “Standard” to be known as the labor force. labor staff would assemble or “Junior.” The “Junior” Type, how - Taylor received the frame hous - “make” the final Boyce Moto- ever, was not designed or manu -

Page 22 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 23 In any event, by late 1914 on the back of its great race event win, the Motometer Company was able to secure a contract with the Mercer Automobile Company of Trenton, New Jersey, to supply them with Boyce Moto-Meters for their 1915 new model vehicles. Mercer already had a particular familiarity with the company and its groundbreaking product through its factory sponsored race - car driver and George Townsend close friend, Caleb Bragg. Bragg started in the pole position at the 1913 Indianapolis 500 race using a Boyce Moto-Meter on his Mercer racecar. Not to be outdone, other manu - facturers added BOYCE MOTO- METERS to their vehicles, includ - ing Haynes, racing competitor

Figure 8: Motometer Co. Wilbur Avenue Factory. Stutz Motor Company, followed closely by Packard Motor (for their factured with glass crystals or the maintenance check versus guess - trucks) and Simplex for their pas - additional retaining bezel rings. ing or pitting too early. senger autos. Seeing their com - These early Junior Type Boyce The Boyce Moto-Meter proved petitors gaining an advantage Moto-Meters were not notated helpful and successful in the 1913 eleven other car companies quick - with the phrase “Made By Taylor and ‘14 Indy 500, the Elgin ly signed up for 1916 with a total Instrument...” Both indicators National series, French Grand of 50 manufacturers by the end of used scaled-down thermometers Prix, Vanderbilt Cup races and the following year (See Figure 7: of approximately 4.625 inches or most top tier racing events that fol - 1917 Boyce Moto-Meter 3.75 inches, respectively that lowed well into the 1930s. Automobile Manufacturer Sales were still able to reliably register The Motometer Company’s Chart). temperatures from 32 degrees contractual relationship with Sales jumped to one million Fahrenheit to a steady 212. Taylor Instruments was relatively units versus the “measly” tens of As previously shown, top auto - short-lived, lasting from 1912 to thousands in the years before and mobile racecar drivers early-on 1916, due to Taylor not affording far less in their initial sales year adopted the Boyce Moto-Meter the fledgling Motometer Company (1914). This boom in Boyce Moto- realizing the strategic and tactical delayed payment terms and Meter sales, almost exclusively of advantage of actually knowing instead insisting on immediate the Standard Type, enabled the exactly when to pit for coolant payment from the cash strapped Motometer Company’s financial replenishment or to perform a company. situation to finally begin to

Page 24 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 25 Figure 9: The author’s Moto-Meter collection in a decorative display case.

become profitable. charge of Operations) and would Vice President (of Sales) and In 1916, with substantial finan - ultimately be the only person General Manager left the compa - cial investment assistance from other than Townsend to hold a ny to start a fire apparatus and de- George Townsend’s Yale major stock position in the com - carbonizing gasoline additive University roommate Paul Lansing pany. product business, the Boyce Veeder, the Motometer Company After this period Boyce Moto- Veeder Corp. with Paul Veeder. was able discontinue their busi - Meter sales were off and running Essentially from the beginning ness relationship with Taylor at full speed. In 1918 sales of the Boyce Moto-Meter’s market Instruments, acquire a factory reached 3,000,000 units and by introduction the company faced located at 15 Wilbur Avenue, two years later were up to four numerous challenges not the least Long Island City, New York, hire million “in use.” of which were misunderstandings an initial labor force of 49 On August 13, 1918, the now by the public of the product’s pur - employees and acquire some nec - spelled “Moto-Meter” Company pose, intent and capability and essary equipment to begin making trademarked the Boyce Moto- patent infringement from would- their own gauges onsite (Doehler Meter that date was stamped onto be competitors. Die-Casting continued to supply their indicators along the upper At the Boyce Moto-Meter’s Moto-Meter frames). right bezel area. (This date is all- inaugural introduction at the 1912 Veeder, Yale’s 1908 College too commonly misinterpreted as a New York Auto Show, it was All-American football player, had specific unit’s manufacturing alleged that a high ranking com - already assisted Townsend in ini - date.) pany representative of the Stewart- tially organizing the company, By early 1919, Harrison Boyce, Warner Speedometer Corporation and became its Corporate who had served as the (of Chicago) connived his way Secretary and Vice President (in Motometer/Moto-Meter Company into acquiring a Moto-Meter for

Page 24 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 25 tion these competitors among numerous others were forced to change the design of their radia - tor-mounted engine temperature- indicating devices. Forced to abandon use of the radiator tank coolant filler tube vapor space area principle or sim - ilar use of a thermometer for their temperature monitoring gauges, competitors scurried to adopt alternative temperature sensing and driver alerting methods while still wanting a piece of this prof - itable new market.

Figure 10: 1922 Mercer Series 5 Sporting with a Moto-Meter installed. Some of these alternative gauges relied upon variations of the sole purpose of reverse engi - infringement the Heat-Ometer the temperature-responsive bi- neering it to benefit his company. Company of Newark, New Jersey metallic, Bourdon Spring or a Within a month or so of the Boyce (1916), Times Square Auto Supply rotating arrow (or colored) tem - Moto-Meter’s commercial intro - Co. of New York City (1916), perature-indicating panel sema - duction the Stewart-Warner Corp. Metalware Co. of Chicago, Illinois phore. Others relied on float- released its own very similar (1916), F. B. Stearns Co of based mechanisms, steam-operat - “Radiator Thermometer” that Cleveland, Ohio (1920), Morris ed plunger-type semaphores, visi - would later be determined by the Coventry of England (1925), ble steam ports or a whistling sig - U. S. Court of Appeals to have vio - Semaphoric Indicator Co. of nal. Still others utilized a thermo- lated Harrison Boyce’s fundamen - Chicago. Illinois (1925), Pyrene reactive temperature-indicating tal patent operating principles. Manufacturing Co. of Newark, color changing fluid such as the Immediately upon taking notice New Jersey (1925), Superior Brass “Heat-Ometer.” of a competing product on his Co. aka SUBRASCO of Patterson, In 1922 Stewart-Warner Corp. newly created “motor heat indica - New Jersey (1925), Wilmot introduced the use of electronics tor” market, Boyce did file for a Breeden LTD. of England (1926), with its “Warn-O-Meter” that patent infringement injunction Biddle Co., Standard Supply Co. tapped power from sparkplugs to against Stewart-Warner. Ulti- of New Jersey, Gide Lite illuminate a temperature-based mately, Boyce won this lawsuit Manufacturing Co. of Chicago, color-coded light panels within and by December of 1914 the Illinois, and Sunbeam Company of the gauge followed by the “Radiator Thermometer” was Wisconsin, though there may “Automobile Radiator Cap” by barred from sales as designed. have been others. Otto Bihlmire marketed as the Throughout the many years of Harrison Boyce and the Moto- “GideLite.” the Boyce Moto-Meter’s existence Meter Company, irrespective of Ultimately the Boyce Moto- Boyce, et al., (the Moto-Meter and name spelling, successfully sued Meter would sell, or have “in use” subsequently named “Moto all of these companies for patent some ten million units by July of Meter” Company) would sue for infringement. With limited excep - 1926 in Australia, Canada, and

Page 26 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 27 North America, with the company having factory locations in Canada, England, France, Australia, Germany and the United States, in particular. Independent inventors and owners of casting companies hur - ried to make auto temperature indicators in a further attempt to gain a toehold in the rapidly- expanding market and to do so without violating Boyce’s patent - ed indicator principle and patent. All sorts of temperature indicat - ing methods were deployed—float mechanism-based water levels; Figure 11: A close-up of a 1923 Dusenberg 8 with Motometer & accessory wings. visible steam emitting; steam pres - sure semaphore rising or audible factured in the 1920s and pur - market onto itself. signal emitting; arrow or colored chased by individual auto owners And, while becoming evermore panel articulating; and light panel as a style statement in addition to ornamental, decorative, aestheti - illuminating devices. None of their motometer. This spawned a cally artistic and appealing the them were sufficiently successful on their own to dislodge the Boyce Moto-Meter’s market domi - nance. Motometers adorned automo - bile hoods, particularly in America, long before traditional hood ornaments. Hood orna - ments, or automotive mascots as they are also known, only became prominent in the 1930s as engine temperature gauges became more frequently installed on steering columns or within dashboard instrumentation panels, and water pump and engine design technol - ogy improved. Accessory items such as flam - boyant Art Deco-style wings, light-equipped caps, decorative radiator caps and figurine mascot “toppers” began to be mass manu - Figure 12: 1922 Oldsmobile with Boyce Moto-Meter.

Page 26 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 27 Company’s demise, a former employee, Herman Schlaich, who set up the Moto Meter Company of Germany, would claim to have founded the original Long Island City Company and even invented the Boyce Moto-Meter! Primarily in the 1950s Boyce Moto-Meters found resurgent pop - ularity as hood ornaments on hot rodded custom cars. Old car enthusiasts put their old “tempera - ture gauges” aside in garage tool - boxes or on shelves. These actions would spur on and form the basis of artifact supply for today’s col - lectors. The Boyce Moto-Meter would go on to become a readily identi - Figure 13: A marque-specific Moto-Meter, as installed on a 1923 Flint Sport Touring. fied and accepted icon of the Photo by Don Keefe. “Roaring ‘20s,” automobile owner motometer retained its purpose as many as the Boyce Moto-Meter. status symbol. It can be seen on and function of indicating engine In 1926, the Moto Meter vehicles in period movies, films, temperature versus being a soli - Company acquired the National television programs and commer - tary piece of brand sculpture like Gauge and Equipment Company cials to this day. I invite you to its hood ornament/automotive of Toledo, Ohio, and changed its carefully watch The Great Gatsby mascot brethren. name to the Moto Meter Gauge (1974 and 2013 films), The Betsy The Boyce Moto-Meter easily and Equipment Co. (or Moto (1978), Cars (2006), The Munsters dominated the automobile motor Meter G & E Co. as on its prod - and more recently Cinderella Man heat/radiator temperature indica - ucts, including sparkplugs, horns (2005) and Men Who Built tor market as an accessory or sup - and ignition components). In 1934 America (2012) for example, plied piece of auto instrumenta - that company was acquired by the among a great many more that use tion. AutoLite Company of Toledo, Boyce Moto-Meters as period- The product had grown from a Ohio and completely dissolved. indicating props on similar period misunderstood novelty to the pre - Between 1914 and 1932—the vehicles—most of which are dominant engine temperature heyday of radiator-mounted unfortunately, modern reproduc - gauge of its time for race cars, pas - motometer invention and manu - tions instead of authentic origi - senger cars, commercial vehicles facturing—more than 200 indica - nals. (trucks and farm/agricultural vehi - tor patents would be granted. According to Printer’s Ink trade cles), airplanes and motorboats. Virtually none of these would journal (August 10, 1922, Volume No competing indicators are achieve even a modicum of com - CXX, Number 6, page 10) “no known to have individually or in mercial success. other automobile accessory has combination sold anywhere near Years after the Moto Meter ever approached the enormous

Page 28 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 29 popularity of the Boyce Moto- Meter.” Disclosure/Disclaimer Although Moto-Meters are no longer mounted the radiators of The author founded, owns and operates the MotometerCentral.com today’s modern vehicles, the basic website. It was initiated to educate and entertain motometer automo - technology, purpose and general bilia enthusiasts and collectors as well as to assist in correcting the temperature sensing principle(s) factual historical records of these early automotive industry devices. are still in use after more than one Mr. Clax is recognized as one of the top motometer collectors in the hundred years, serving a vital world with a collection made available for exhibition at leading auto - function. The role of the Boyce motive museums libraries and higher learning institutions. His collec - Moto-Meter extends well beyond tion contains a number of the oldest and most historically significant its initial novelty and subsequent examples in existence. It is one of the most extensive and varied col - accessory status to that of an indis - lections of its type, fully authenticated with a 97% or higher rate of pensible, normal and regularly original functionality and few duplicates. installed instrument component of He is an active and contributing member of the Society of the auto dashboard. Automotive Historians, the Antique Automobile Club of America, the Automobilia enthusiasts around Historic Vehicle Association and Motometer Collectors Association. the world are tuning in to collect - He has published articles, written papers and presented at industry ing motometers of all types as conferences and seminars. relics of long gone antique auto - Images presented without bibliographic reference or noted credits mobiles, manufacturers and an are solely the copyrighted property of Francis G. Clax, F & D Co. or era. With more collectors emerg - ing each year it is tremendously MotometerCentral and are used herein by permission. important that an accurate record of the intruments’ origin and histo - Moto-Meters) that still circulate temperature sensors and battery ry be established in place of mis - unbeknownst to their current electric power generation units. information, myth and lore while owners on secondary markets as Even turbo compressor units used the opportunity exists. These authentic originals to this day. As on Formula 1 racecars and “Check enthusiasts and others, such as an artifact and subject-specific Engine” light signals have their museums and historical societies, preservationist this author has no origin in the early 20th Century’s are hungry for real facts and the such motivation. Boyce Moto-Meter. And now is truth about these early automotive Almost all of us have over - the time to correct the history and industry relics; hence this article looked the importance and histor - origin of these “most necessary” and other efforts by its author, a ical significance of engine temper - instruments. fervent motometer automobilia ature gauges, except on very cold Much more information on collector. winter days or when our engine motometers can be found on the Automobile enthusiast Harry has already overheated. author’s website at www.motome - Pulfer may have been influenced The history of vehicle tempera - tercentral.com. by his entrepreneurial pursuit of ture indicators of all types can be selling reproduction automobilia traced back to Harrison H. Boyce The answer to the opening image and motometer components and his groundbreaking invention. question is: The reproductions are (including Messko Radiator Its influence can be seen on on the left side and the authentic, Thermometer-based faux Boyce today’s battery, braking and tire originals are on the right.

Page 28 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 29 The Trailer Revolution: The Origins of Recreational Vehicles in American Culture

Figure 1: A 1936 Airstream Clipper being towed behind a 1936 Lincoln Zephyr V-12 sedan. Photo courtesy of Airstream, Inc.

By David Burel Auburn University Photography and ads from the author’s private collection unless otherwise noted

sign stating “No More Vacancy” signs, but he “decided O’Brien discovered that rather House Cats” immediately the congestion must be extreme. than dealing with a lack of room Acaught Howard Vincent Things were certainly crowded for domestic felines the sign was O’Brien’s eye on his trip to the when there wasn’t even room for directed at early recreational vehi - beaches of Corpus Christi, Texas. another kitten!” 1 Upon closer cles: “house cars.” This was the He was used to seeing “No More inspection of the worn lettering, first time O’Brien, a Chicago area

Page 30 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 31 news reporter, had developed any of hope that symbolized a new of the recreational vehicle indus - interest in the topic of recreational technological future featuring try and travel trailer users from vehicles. Shortly after, at the expanded vacationing opportuni - 1930 until America’s entry into prompting of a newspaper editor ties as well as the promise of new World War II. This was a vital and and O’Brien’s wife and daughter, mobile lifestyles. Some forward- formative period, a time when the he would begin a journey of four looking individuals even began to recreational vehicle became a cul - thousand miles in a travel trailer. 2 make fantastical forecasts that the tural institution and the definition Like O’Brien, many others would majority of Americans would one of a recreational vehicle solidified. attempt to piece together their day be living in mobile trailer The onset of the Great understanding of the new trailer housing in flexible mobile cities. Depression had begun to push the technology in their travels. Although this did not come to majority of Americans away from During the 1930s, the American pass, the enthusiasm associated autocamping, as people camping public and especially those inter - with travel trailers created lasting in cars became associated with ested in travel witnessed the links between the travel trailer’s homelessness and desperation. In launch of an industry that focused mobility and a socially construct - addition, the creation of the early on producing a new type of auto - ed belief that this mobility equated motel industry, which provided motive technology, the manufac - to increased freedom, democracy, convenient accommodation tured travel trailer. Prior to this and individuality. In these ways, options for those traveling by car, development, those interested in the introduction of manufactured also helped to kill off mainstream recreational vehicles had to pro - trailer technology during this peri - autocamping. However, these duce their own or purchase an od represents a revolution in developments did not stop recre - expensive custom setup. The trav - American tourism, travel, and cul - ational automobile enthusiasts el trailer—mobile accommoda - ture. from wanting to travel with their tions towed behind a passenger Today, recreational vehicle own mobile accommodations. vehicle—became the dominant manufacturing is a multi-billion Autocamping enthusiast groups, form of recreational vehicle dur - dollar industry. From the beaches such as the “Tin Can Tourists of ing the 1930s. From the beginning and the mountains to the college the World,” began to search for a of the decade to the onset of tailgate and NASCAR infield, the way to satisfy their desire to travel America’s involvement in World recreational vehicle is ubiquitous without sacrificing modern crea - War II, this new product and the in American life. It is a far-reach - ture comforts and convenience. popular demand for it cemented ing cultural symbol, which many These enthusiasts demanded a the recreational vehicle as a last - Americans spend sizeable sums of better way to autocamp, which in ing cultural institution. The 1930s’ money to experience. Some turn created a new technology, trailer revolution explicitly reflect - choose to live in recreational vehi - the recreational vehicle. These ed America’s enthusiasm for new cles in retirement, while others desires would not be satisfied by technologies that promise novel use them to go on vacation or to the previous decade’s autocamp - experiences and lifestyles. sporting events. The recreational ing setup, which used makeshift Americans’ expanded desire for vehicle’s important role in tents and general purpose camp - domestic vacations and limited American culture was no acci - ing gear to provide mobile accom - Depression-era budgets fit well dent; enthusiasts and the industry modations. This in turn created with the trailer industry’s promises built the cultural institution from the market conditions necessary of good times at cut-rate prices. the ground up. for some entrepreneurs to become The trailer itself became an object This paper examines the history interested in mass-producing a

Page 30 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 31 recreational vehicle that would motel’s growth in America includ - vehicle, a travel trailer, or an suit the enthusiasts’ desires. Like ing its architecture, business mod - almost entirely static form of hous - automobile manufactures several els, and patronization. Read ing, the house trailer or mobile decades earlier, these recreational together, these books provide a home. This confusion dates back vehicle entrepreneurs were thorough history of roadside to the era in question, as the histo - numerous and many would not accommodations, but very little ries of travel trailers and mobile stay in the business for long. 3 on the technology of mobile homes run parallel to each other By 1936, the recreational vehi - accommodations. This paper until the 1950s. 11 The best schol - cle industry was beginning to seeks to address this gap. arly work on the latter is Wheel leave its mark. The industry had More broadly, this paper con - Estate (1991), written by a profes - publications interested in covering tributes to a growing body of sor of public administration, Allan its products, and numerous books scholarship on automobile enthu - Wallis. 12 Wallis argues that the were published about users’ expe - siasts. Among the first of these is history of mobile homes unfolded riences. The excitement of recre - Robert Post’s High Performance through an iterative process as ational automobility that the Tin (1994), an extensive study of the invention by manufacturers, Can Tourists had first enjoyed a sport of drag racing that would developers and users that was decade earlier was reaching wider likely satisfy both the academic negotiated with often hostile gov - sections of American society. scholar and the drag racing enthu - ernments, regulators, and zoning Historical scholarship on recre - siast. 7 The Business of Speed authorities. 13 Ultimately, this pro- ational vehicles has been lacking. (2008) by David Lucsko takes aim cess has made mobile homes less One of the only works on at the pursuit of automotive per - attractive and limited their com - American automotive travel tech - formance outside of the narrow petiveness against other housing nology is Warren Belasco’s lens of drag racing and within the forms. Wallis’ study provides a Americans on the Road (1979), everyday enthusiasts’ driveway. 8 valuable context to the develop - which sheds valuable light on the Lucsko’s book shows that enthusi - ment of the recreational vehicle. 14 rise of the travel trailer. 4 His book asts involved in a specific genre of Although they have improved in presents an evolutionary story of automotive technology have sig - construction over the years, roadside accommodations from nificant histories that warrant mobile homes have been made early autocamping to roadside scholarly attention. 9 This paper increasingly immobile; today, businesses over the course of thir - asserts that recreational vehicle they are largely permanently ty-five years. 5 Although his story enthusiasts are similar, and have installed manufactured housing. 15 intersects with the history of auto - an important history of their own. The recreational vehicle should camping, Belasco’s focus on road - be seen as distinct from the side accommodations causes him Terminology mobile home trailer or manufac - to miss significant developments This paper attempts, as much as tured housing of later decades. In in mobile accommodations tech - possible, to focus on the history of the 1930s, there were some con - nology, such as the travel trailer. recreational vehicles, but it is siderable overlap as the industry The same is true of John Jackle, important to note the ambiguity and the government had not yet Keith Sculle, and Jefferson Rogers, associated with trailer technology created precise categorizations. who expanded on Belasco’s work in the 1930s. The word “trailer,” To explain the difference one on early motels in The Motel in in American usage, has a variety must focus on the question of America (1996). 6 The trio presents of possible meanings. 10 Today, a mobility. A trailer without mobili - an authoritative history of the trailer could be a recreational ty, with wheels removed or foun -

Page 32 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 33 dations built under it, represented nothing other than cheap static housing. The recreational vehicle users were involved in a specific type of action, “recreational auto - mobility.” Recreational automo - bility might best be defined as the use and enjoyment of automobiles as a major form of recreation and/or leisure travel. The term then builds on the emotional, pleasurable, and recreational aspects of automobile tourism and travel. This term is useful because Figure 2: House cars were often home-built on automotive chassis and had varying levels of workmanship and finish quality. 17 Photo courtesy of www.floridamemory.com. it shifts the emphasis of the word “automobility” away from its tra - ing).” 16 A better, more specific cars to suit their individual travel ditional basis in the common con - description might read “any readi - desires. The first type of vehicle to ception of the automobile as a pri - ly mobile vehicle or vehicle meet the definition of a recreation - marily utilitarian technology. attachment which is both road- al vehicle was the house car, The history of the recreational worthy and constructed to provide which was popular during the vehicle enthusiast begins with the shelter in support of camping-style 1920s. These house cars repre - autocamping of the 1920s. Just as activities.” This definition allows sented the first step in the evolu - important is autocamping’s for a little more clarity and specif - tion of autocamping as the recre - demise during the Great ically includes both the motorized ational autocampers looked to Depression, which in turn pushed house car, or motorhome, and the improve their camping experi - these autocamping enthusiasts to travel trailer, which is towed by an ence. As Tin Can Tourist Leroy go further. With the end of main - automobile or other road vehicle. Mills stated during the 1920s, “A stream autocamping and the rise The term “recreational vehicle” few housecars, crude compart - of roadside accommodations, was not universal in the 1930s; in ments built upon the chassis of a recreational automobility took a fact, as the travel trailer came to car or truck, began to appear separate path of development. But dominate the mobile accommo - among the tents.” 18 They required even in the 1920s, enthusiasts dations scene, many would far less time to set up for camping themselves began to create mobile describe the activity as “trailer - and usually contained at least accommodations (often in the ing,” and themselves as “trai - sleeping and storage areas. These form of house cars) that could lerites.” Our story begins, howev - vehicles were typically homebuilt compete in comfort and conven - er, with the humble “house car” of projects and were built to varying ience with the new roadside the 1920s. standards and sizes, with “each of accommodations. Their efforts The recreational vehicle these reflect[ing] the owner’s were realized in the first recre - emerged during the first two ideas of craftsmanship in con - ational vehicles. According to decades of the twentieth century. struction.” 19 Figure 2 shows a typ - Mirriam-Webster, a recreational Its “invention” was a gradual ical house car of the late 1920s. A vehicle is “a vehicle designed for process undertaken by many dif - wooden frame was attached to the recreational use (as in camp - ferent users modifying their own original chassis to construct the

Page 32 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 33 Figure 3: A view of a Tin Can Tourist convention in the 1930s. 21 Photo courtesy of www.floridamemory.com.

house car. Pictures of the Tin Can ful to propel the vehicle and a could not use the vehicle for its Tourists using house cars show design with adequate stability for previous utilitarian transportation that no two were exactly alike, long distance travel. Another dis - role. The opportunity cost for a and that each had its own distinc - tinctive feature of the house car house car conversion meant that tive flair. Mills described these was that it represented a perma - while one gained recreational variations in quality and finish: nent modification to a vehicle. uses for the vehicle, one also sac - Unlike the car-and-tent setup rificed the opportunity to use the Some were neatly construct - common among early autocam - car for simple utilitarian transport. ed and painted, while one pers, the house car redefined the Both the lack of any concerted old-timer [swore] that he saw use of the vehicle as recreational. effort to mass-produce the house one of those individual hog- The house car was an advanced car and its high opportunity cost pens mounted upon a chassis and eye-catching piece of recre - combined to push recreational and used as a traveling ational automobile technology, vehicle enthusiasts to embrace home. Gradually, these but practical issues would limit its another format, the travel trailer. house cars became better success over the long term. Ultimately, the house car was built and more convenient One reason for this was that not the mainstream recreational and were quite popular with house cars never reached any - vehicle format for the future, and the campers. 20 thing approaching mass-produc - it largely remained unfamiliar to tion. Instead, they remained cus - the general public until well after tom-built products, which meant World War II when it was reimag - There was also no one make or that they continued to be relative - ined by manufacturers on a larger model of vehicle used by early ly uncommon outside autocamp - scale as the motorhome built on a recreational vehicle enthusiasts ing enthusiast circles. Because the larger truck, van or bus chassis. like the Tin Can Tourists. house car conversion was perma - Therefore, travel trailers offered Generally, the only requirement nent, the opportunity cost was most of the advantages of house was an engine sufficiently power - higher to the individual as they cars without generally requiring

Page 34 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 35 permanent conversion to a single- Tin Can Tourist Leroy Mills also the tents.” 25 purpose recreational vehicle. This mentioned these early tent-like By the mid-1930s, photographs was because the utilitarian vehicle trailers, describing one he called of the Tin Can Tourists suggest could simply tow the travel trailer. the “Covered Wagon” with a that the group had almost com - One could now secure their trailer rather ponderous drop down floor, pletely shifted to the travel trailer in camp and separate their vehicle canvas panels, stove, and built-in as the recreational vehicle of to run errands into town or take storage cupboards. 23 He des- choice. In 1935, the Tin Can short day trips with the car alone. cribed another inconvenient early Tourists were described as having Additionally, when the trip was set-up which required that “poles “978 trailers, 36 house cars and over those who returned home [be] placed under each corner to 2,300 people in one camp” at could store their vehicle in a prevent the sides from falling off their meeting in Sarasota, garage or parking place indefinite - when opened and [it] took all Florida. 26 This Tin Can Tourist ly until the next recreational out - neighbors around to operate its meeting was made up of 96 per - ing. Together the car and travel mechanism.” 24 These early trailer cent travel trailer outfits, repre - trailer were a recreational vehicle tents were the forerunner of the senting near uniformity among the and, when separated, the car was travel trailer, but they appeared to group. This demonstrated that the every bit the utilitarian vehicle it lack in simplicity and conven - travel trailer, not the house car, had been before. This practical ience. It required the application was the primary choice of recre - advantage gave travel trailers the of large-scale manufacturing of ational vehicle among the Tin Can competitive advantage in the early simple and well-designed trailers Tourists by the mid-1930s. market for recreational vehicles, as well as the public’s realization particularly in the era of limited of the natural advantages of the The Launch of the Trailer Industry financial resources like 1930s trailer format to make the travel The travel trailer manufacturing America. trailer a viable product in the business became its own distinct The travel-trailer era of recre - 1930s. industry by the late 1930s. The ational vehicles began during the Looking at the largest recre - industry grew increasingly visible 1930s and reached mainstream ational vehicle group of the time, when specialist publishers began status before the end of the the Tin Can Tourists, the travel to discuss their manufactured trav - decade. There were relatively few trailer clearly began to catch on as el trailers in both books and mag - travel trailers constructed in the the predominant form of mobile azines. The first magazine about 1920s and there is little record of accommodations as tents and travel trailers was Trailer Travel , their presence in early autocamps. house cars diminished in popular - the first issue of which was pub - For example, the visual record ity. One trailer magazine com - lished in 1936. This magazine of the Tin Can Tourists does not mented on the direct connection later changed names to appear to show any travel trailers between travel trailers and their Automobile and Travel Trailer prior to an image from 1931. Early popularity with the Tin Can Magazine and eventually became travel trailers were rudimentary, Tourists. It suggested that their part of the Woodall Publishing especially those built before the adoption had been a boon to the Company, which still exists. 27 In 1930s and those built by hand. organization. “Each year the early 1936, it was marketed as the According to Wally Byam, the membership of, and interest in, “only national magazine in the early travel trailer manufacturer the organization have grown, and trailer field for all Trailerites... and founder of Airstream, “the first especially is this true since trailers owners [present and future], oper - trailers were tents on wheels.” 22 have forged to the front to replace ators, dealers and manufactures of

Page 34 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 35 pleasure and business trailers.” 28 numerous. They are in fact, landowners who control the In 1937, Trailer Travel comparatively rare. And can - use of the land along the Magazine was joined by a com - dor compels me to say that lanes of tourist travel. 30 petitor, Trailer Topics . These new the best that I have seen are publications reflected Americans’ not very good. In most cases Just now they are not ready to growing interest in travel trailers. they are makeshifts, hastily throw open wide the doors of Both magazines focus generally improvised to meet new hospitality and let you park on the promotion of travel trailers, demand, badly drained, awk - your caravan in their front news of the trailer industry, the wardly arranged and with yards or obstruct city traffic experience of living in trailers, and sanitary equipment which at by pulling up to the curb of technical and legal information best may be called question - their streets. 31 about travel trailers, as well as able. 29 providing firsthand accounts of Getting cities to admit camping activities one could do while trav - O’Brien’s harsh assessment motor tourism had been a problem eling by trailer. reflects a skeptical view of travel since the autocamping days. It is In addition to these magazines, trailers, which he maintains therefore not surprising that these numerous books were also pub - throughout his book, but it also issues would continue to plague lished on the travel trailer in the likely represents a fair assessment autocamping’s spiritual successor. mid-late 1930s. The content of of a real lack of sophisticated sup - Darling concurs with O’Brien on these books focused primarily on port facilities. Others noted this the overall availability of camping what one could do and where one deficiency as well. Jay Norwood spaces, stating that “Well could go with a travel trailer as Darling, in his book The Cruise of equipped trailer camps, with well as practical advice on what the Bouncing Betsy (1937), sewer, water and electric connec - to expect when on the road. These recounted numerous difficulties in tions are almost nonexistent; ordi - publications would help to make finding adequate places to park nary tourist camps with cottages to traveling by trailer a more com - his car and trailer for the night. let are definitely hostile and the prehensible choice for Americans Lack of suitable trailer parking modern trailer with its manifold by telling them both where to go forced Darling to park at automo - conveniences is a good deal in the and how to go about getting there. tive garages and even rent a motor same situation as the man who There were two chief practical court room simply to find a safe was all dressed up and no place to concerns related to traveling by place for overnight parking. He go.” 32 The issue of where to park trailer for those who considered believed that the future of travel your trailer overnight was certainly this type of vacation. One related trailers depended on the status of a problem that could limit the trav - to the difficulty of driving a car the trailer camps: el trailer’s growth over the long with a trailer in tow behind it. The term if nothing was done to rectify other concern was finding parking Whether or not the trailer the situation. suitable and safe for overnight becomes a general practice The quickest solution was the stopovers as the newspaperman- of the average American fam - publication of trailer park loca - turned-trailer-traveler Howard ily will depend, from now tions in both Trailer Travel Vincent O’Brien commented: on, not so much on the prac - Magazine and Trailer Topics ticability of the trailer itself as Magazine. These listings helped Well-equipped camps are upon the receptive attitude of subscribers find places to stay with available, but they are not the towns, inhabitants and their trailers as they moved about

Page 36 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 37 the country. The ongoing problem while towing a trailer was another a wide street. Backing of trailer parking was discussed in issue that troubled many who requires practice, but can be depth in a 1940 piece in were thinking about buying a trav - done surprisingly well. 37 Automobile and Trailer Travel el trailer. Almost every trailer book titled “Let’s Talk Trailer Parks—It’s author recounted their story of He continues by explaining that Time” by Mabel Reed their first trip with a trailer by the car drives well at high speeds, LeBourveau. 33 She believed that remarking on the fear of towing a consumes only slightly more gas, in some areas, such as Florida, trailer on the road. But over time, and is very easy to connect and Texas, California, Maine, and they all got used to the experi - disconnect from the trailer. Most Michigan, trailer camps were ence. Jay Norwood Darling notes of the literature describing driving beginning to rise to acceptable that he found very little difference with a trailer follows this arc from standards with clean and safe sites between driving a car with a trail - fear to mastery. The authors usual - featuring full utilities. However, er or a car without one, “except ly note that the trailer does not she also noted that many areas about 15 percent increase in gas cause extremely high fuel con - completely lacked this kind of consumption.” 35 He did, howev - sumption, suggesting that trailer trailer camp. LeBourveau’s selec - er, criticize some state roads with travel could well be relatively tion of states suggests that better small imperfections in the road inexpensive. appointed camps were most likely surface that caused shaking, Indeed, besides alleviating con - to be found in states with high lev - which was then significantly cerns over the availability of trail - els of tourist activity such as amplified by the trailer. 36 er camps and the difficulty of driv - California or Florida. The success Howard Vincent O’Brien notes ing a car and trailer, it was widely of trailering depended on these a similar initial fear that was fol - held that traveling by trailer was locals opening up suitable trailer lowed by a nearly identical real - extremely economical. O’Brien camps where trailer travelers ization that the trailer was not too stated, “Meanwhile, the trailer has could enjoy both modern camps difficult to drive. At the end of his a long list of advantages to offset and the full protections of the law. book, he has a question and its disadvantages. First and fore - The trailer magazines also provid - answer session with an almost cer - most is its economy. It makes pos - ed extensive listings for trailer tainly fictional policeman: sible wintering in the south for less camps in each issue. Similarly, than the cost of staying at home in books like Freedman March’s Q.—Is it difficult to drive the the north.” 38 When O’Brien start - Trailers (1937) published exten - trailer? ed his journey, the trailer dealer sive lists of all the available trailer A.—No. The women folk did told him that there were options camps by state and even included most of our driving, even in even to rent a trailer, but in effect, a chart of the facilities offered at the heart of city traffic. everyone who came back ended each national park and national Q.—How fast can you go? up buying it outright. 39 monument site. 34 Although they A.—Faster than you ought to. In Trailers Ahoy! (1937) Charles did not completely solve the prob - We reached sixty-five miles Edgar Nash noted, “The lure of the lem of overnight parking, location an hour and could have gone trailer has made itself felt among listings and in depth analysis in faster. Our last day’s run was all classes of people. The home the trailer press went a long way four hundred and fifty miles. mechanic is just as proud of his to make traveling by trailer easier Q.—How about turning and $300 rolling bungalow as the mil - for newcomers. backing? lionaire is of his $15,000 mobile The difficulty of driving a car A.—Turning can be made in mansion.” 40 Authors writing about

Page 36 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 37 travel trailers often noted that the it is obvious that the industry Ford’s assembly line. Units moved price of admission for taking part experienced considerable growth down the line, end-to-end, on in these new trailer vacations was to warrant counting in 1937. their own wheels.” 44 Despite this practically only the cost of the Wally Byam suggested that “more success, Covered Wagon would trailer. They also stressed that the than 250,000 trailers were in use be a victim of a shift in consumer cost of a trailer was within the by 1936.” 42 With the trailer indus - preferences and an economic reach of most people. Nearly all of try producing over 10,000 units a downturn. The company’s trailers the manufacturers’ magazine ads year of goods valued at were six-and-a-half feet wide, but of the later 1930s have prices from $9,712,195 and $7,890,898 for by the late 1930s, its competitors around three hundred dollars for 1937 and 1939 respectively, the had began to produce eight-foot- base models to well over one government had to pay attention wide models that were increasing - thousand for “deluxe”models. to this new industry. ly popular. Covered Wagon This price range made travel trail - Very much like the early auto - would be caught trying to update ers accessible to more people, mobile, the 1930s saw a wide their line to eight foot wide pro - while allowing the manufacturers range of manufacturers entering duction at exactly the same time to build higher-end models. In the new market. Many of these the economy turned downward many ways, the selection of differ - manufacturers would not survive again in 1938. 45 Covered Wagon ent sizes and models continues on for many years, but some would advertisements would disappear today with modern recreational survive and play vital roles in the from both Trailer Travel and vehicle manufactures having a post-World War II era. One exam - Trailer Topics by the early 1940s. similar diversity in sizes and ple of an early trailer entrepreneur Unlike Covered Wagon’s spec - prices. who was initially successful, but tacular boom and bust, Wally Census statistics illustrate the then later failed is the story of Byam and his company, success of the industry. The Arthur Sherman and his company, Airstream, would start small in the numerous manufactured travel Covered Wagon. Sherman was an 1930s and blossom into an iconic trailer sales began to gain govern - early entrant into the field of trav - manufacturer in the post-World ment attention by the late 1930s. el trailers, starting production in War II period. Byam believed that In 1937, trailer manufacturing 1929. By the trailer boom of 1936, travel trailers should specifically began to be labeled as a category his production line was capable of be for vacations and not an alter - of manufactured goods by the producing thirty-five units daily. 43 native to standardized housing. United States government, The scope of his business can be “The travel trailer is a compact demonstrating recognition of the seen in the numerous ads he pur - apartment designed to be towed new trailer market’s size. In 1937, chased in both Trailer Travel and by an automobile,” he once said. trailer production stood at 18,130 Trailer Topics during the mid to “Its basic purpose is to provide the units followed by a decline in late 1930s. According to Allan comforts of home to the vacation - 1939 to 11,782. 41 The decline Wallis the Covered Wagon trailers ing tourist, freeing him from connects to the economic ups and had a modern design, solid, dependence upon transportation downs during the 1930s, in partic - home-like compartmentalized schedules, hotels and restau - ular the recession that occurred in spaces, and a side-mounted door rants.” 46 He also believed that 1937 and 1938. It is also unclear for easy access. He states, “More trailers should be high in quality. exactly how trailer production impressive than the design of the His extensive use of aluminum in numbers had looked prior to the Covered Wagon was the method his trailers resulted in trailers that 1937 Census of Manufactures , but of production, patterned after weighed less than his competitors’

Page 38 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 39 steel models. This reduced weight College in Massachusetts. Babson life was to be completely altered meant lower fuel consumption for was a businessman, and his inter - by this new device of perambulat - the tow vehicle and easier han - est in new technologies dated ing penthouses, it was up to us to dling on and off the road for those back to his days at the acquire some advance informa - using Airstream trailers. His aero - Massachusetts Institute of tion about it.” 51 Charles Edgar dynamic, streamlined travel trail - Technology. He felt his education Nash’s book Trailers Ahoy! direct - ers self-consciously followed there was lacking in that it “was ly addresses Babson’s prediction: trends in aviation. 47 His company given to what had already been “Nearly a year ago Roger W. was not a heavy advertiser in this accomplished, rather than to Babson, of Wellesley, period, but he did purchase some anticipating future possibilities.” 48 Massachusetts, the great econo - space in Trailer Travel . He wrote an article that was pub - mist, rocked the public to its foun - The case of Wally Byam proves lished in the January-February dations when he predicted that how the 1930s represented a 1936 issue of Trailer Travel titled within 20 years, more than half formative period which generated “We’ll Soon Be Living on the population of the United States both the market for mass-pro - Wheels.” 49 In this piece, Babson would be living in trailers.” 52 He duced travel trailers and motivat - did not mince words: “I am going continues by providing additional ed entrepreneurs looking to build to make an astonishing prediction: evidence that Babson was not an industry over the long term. Within twenty years, more than alone in his enthusiasm for a half the population of the United mobile American society. Nash Trailer Futurism States will be living in automobile continues, “William Bushnell In modern America, new tech - trailers!” 50 He saw the trailer as Stout, former president of the nologies have often bred excite - bringing fundamental change to American Society of Automotive ment and extravagant promises of the mobility and freedom in Engineers, and world-famous for a brighter future. Trailers were no American society. Babson’s article his accomplishments in the field exception, with many advocates is both boosterish and utopian, of airplane design, was recently speaking of how they would stressing all the purported advan - engaged in a discussion of ‘mobile reshape society in the future. tages of trailer living for everyday cities.’” 53 However, these boosters claims’ Americans, including being able Evidently, enthusiasm for the should not be dismissed entirely to move for employment, cheaper travel trailer was present within as flights of fancy, for their ideas living costs, and no or low taxa - traditional automotive circles at contributed to the success of the tion. The pitch that trailer travel the time. In some ways, the prece - travel trailer industry. They also and trailer living are cheap and dent of the automobile’s transfor - provided the conceptual vocabu - affordable is one of the most last - mative nature (as was becoming lary of ideas for how trailers ing arguments of early boosters readily apparent by the 1930s) would be marketed and used by like Babson. seemed to be spilling over toward future generations. Some authors Babson’s influence can be seen trailer enthusiasm. As Nash even correctly foreshadowed the in later publications about mobile recalled, “[Stout] opened up his post-World War II split between travel trailering. Jay Norwood broadside by stating that not many the travel trailer and the mobile Darling, in The Cruise of the were aware of it, but that a large home Bouncing Betty (1937), writes that part of the population of the One of the most remarkable he undertook his journey based on United States is constantly mov - predictions is the forecast of Roger “a somewhat fantastical idea that ing. [Stout] backed up Babson’s W. Babson, the founder of Babson if the whole pattern of American prediction with a ten-year modifi -

Page 38 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 39 cation, by stating that within 30 When a man moves with his freedom of movement.” 58 The years, half of the population family into a home he has the travel trailer therefore offered a would be living in homes on feeling that he is anchored; particularly powerful vehicle for wheels.” 54 Nash added his own that he is in the grasp of his mobility by retaining one’s indi - take stating that “Mobile homes employer, to begin with. He vidual autonomy, freedom from are undoubtedly going to result, in further feels he is in the oppression, and American demo - a few years, in mobile cities, living clutches of politicians. He is cratic ideals. Babson reflected communities which will pick their marked by the tax assessor many ideas that became a distinct locations according to the best and collector, and must sub - draw for purchasers of trailers advantages obtainable.” 55 The mit to any levies made beginning in the 1930s. combination of the automobile’s against him. He cannot be Charles Edgar Nash conceived mobility with the trailer made certain that the landscape of the trailer experience in a simi - mobile living possible. As soon as surrounding his residence lar way. Nash’s accounting of the a trailer is permanently immobi - will remain the same from advantages of the trailer is one of lized its ability to fulfill the dream one day to another, and he the clearest in spelling out the ide - of a mobile city is significantly has no control over the erec - ological creed of the travel trailer. diminished. tion of unsightly neighboring “Each trailer spells home and the Explicit in predictions about the structures. He must put up comforts of home. Each provides creation of a mobile society living with objectionable neigh - coziness and de luxe accommo - in trailers was a promise of greater bors, should they move close dations on the road.” 59 He empha - freedom. Trailer boosters and to him and cannot alter con - sized the idea that travel trailers enthusiasts often trumpeted indi - ditions detrimental to his provide mobility while not being vidual autonomy and independ - children in this respect. 57 separated from the comforts of ence as central tenet of the advan - home, suggesting that one could tages of the travel trailer. Roger W. Babson reinterpreted static liv - travel without ever having to leave Babson’s 1936 article presented a ing in terms of restraint, loss of home. He recounted the ubiqui - manifesto of these idealized control, and the potential for tous theme of thrifty living, stating images of trailers: “In the first being subjected to anti-democrat - that “Each permits living at a min - place, as I see it, this movement ic forces. Lack of mobility equated imum of expense and with a min - on the part of our families is a nat - quite directly to his loss of free - imum of effort.” 60 He finally ural expression, a revolt, of our dom, autonomy and individual - ended on the idea of freedom and people against what they appar - ism, a feeling heightened by the inherent American desires to trav - ently feel to be a condition of insecurity of the Great el: “Each stands for freedom and oppression.” 56 The trailer there - Depression. He concluded that adventure, new sights, new scenes fore was a tool to fulfill an inher - there was a possible solution to and a new outlook on life. Each ent desire to break from restric - these problems, and one way to means living, instead of existing. tions and mobility defeated “a regain the mobility lost in modern Each is the ideal outlet for an condition of oppression.” He goes society: “Those of our people who American’s love of travel.” 61 Nash on to break down critically the have turned to rolling homes have devoted a large section of his conceptual consequences of static been influenced by a characteris - book to retracing the development living: tic feeling of Americans—resent - of the travel trailer all the way ment against oppressive taxation back to the American Frontier and Here are salient features of it: and a desire for independence and even the Native America cart con -

Page 40 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 41 traption called a “travois.” 62 A conception of a mobile socie - ty, like Babson’s, might have best been illustrated in a 1936 cartoon, “In Nomad’s Land.” In the picture, the major municipal and business structures of the town were trail - ers. The most interesting aspect of the picture is how it shows the serious practical flaws of a mobile city. One car and trailer arriving has an occupant inquiring “Hey, where’s the beauty parlor?” Although seemingly innocuous, the question points to the com - plete confusion that a mobile city would have caused. If important businesses all were housed in trailers and constantly on the move, they would be extremely difficult to locate. If on the other hand these businesses did not move, then building them in trail - ers would simply be superfluous. Perhaps more troubling is the sign that reads “Trailerville: No Taxes, No Voting, No Politics.” The seemly pseudo-anarchistic vision of the mobile city was directly in Figure 4: A 1936 cartoon, “In Nomad’s Land” humorously depicts the confusion that could conflict with long standing institu - have accompanied a completely mobile community. It was originally published in the Chicago Tribune and was penned by John D. McCutcheon, known at the time as the tions of American politics. How "Dean of American Cartoonists." 63 could such a town function in an American system, where resi - image away from the activity of ception of a city and the physical dence equals representation? the business and municipal trail - mobility of a trailer society remain What kind of sense of community ers, there appears a series of four difficult if not impossible to recon - could be built around such tran - shabby looking trailers standing cile. sience? One man sitting nearby idle without any automobile. In response to the use of trailers brought home the point when he These static trailers foreshadowed as permanent cheap housing, commented, “well, sometimes I the negative conception of a “trail - purists within the travel trailer fac - kindo [sic] wish I could vote.” “In er park” present in modern socie - tion felt that manufactured mobile Nomad’s Land” also ironically ty. “In Nomad’s Land” represented homes should not be considered suggested the developing idea of a a mobile city taken to its reductio part of the recreational-vehicle trailer slum. In the rear of the ad absurdum. The modern con - community because these housing

Page 40 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 41 units were virtually immobile and design was lost in the squalor mobile life. As even the newly- thus did not conform to the defini - of their filthy surround - minted trailer traveler and openly tion of a recreational vehicle. ings.” 65 skeptical Howard Vincent O’Brien Airstream founder Wally Byam, admitted, “The trailer is here to the most out-spoken opponent of It took some time before the two stay and it will make many manufactured mobile homes as would be truly distinct products changes in our way of life.” 66 He recreational vehicles, felt they from the viewpoint of laws and believed that its most influential detracted from travel trailers: public image. Like Byam, the Tin feature was extending the vaca - Can Tourists also associated them - tion opportunity of people living “Jerry” builders found that a selves with the travel trailer and in cities. He stated, “No longer trailer which did not have to did not look to incorporate the will the city dweller be content be subjected to the rigors of mobile home into their group’s with short week-end trips in a the open road could be built focus. Although the Tin Can crowded countryside. People of very cheaply, actually and Tourists’ lifestyle likely did fall small means will find it possible to truthfully “cracker boxes” somewhere in between the casual take inexpensive vacations far with wheels under them. trailer vacationers and the perma - from home.” 67 O’Brien correctly Most of them were too big nent mobile home dweller, Tin predicted that this new form of and too flimsy to tow very far Can Tourists wished to live in their vacation travel has a great deal of behind a car. And it would trailers on a semi-permanent to potential in American society. take a mighty big car to tow permanent basis, but never want - Rather than reshaping cities, them. They were actually ed to live in rundown trailer parks travel trailers reshaped vacation submarginal housing built or in totally immobilized trailers. and travel. This new form of auto - without the restrictions of the Their yearly meetings in both mobile travel based on using the building codes. They were a Florida and the North (often recreational vehicle as mobile disgrace to the industry.” 64 Michigan) kept them constantly accommodations created a clear touring and moving in proper trav - alternative to roadside motor Wally Byam’s description of early el trailers. A recreational vehicle courts and motels. Although trail - mobile home “trailers” demon - therefore was intended to be con - er technology failed to create new strated this growing divide stantly travelling. Motion was the mobile cities, the travel trailer pro - between mobile homes and true key to its appeal. foundly changed American travel trailers. Byam continued: The reason that the recreational tourism and travel in the 1930s. It vehicle became such an important was the recreational vehicle that “And new eyesores began to part of American society was that would captivate enthusiast groups pop up on the outskirts of it temporarily allowed someone to like the Tin Can Tourists to make American towns and cities, escape to this mobile lifestyle, their traveling activities an “trailer camps” not meant for without truly upending one’s life. increasingly larger part of their trailer travelers and vacation - One could have a traditional job, lives. The 1930s launched the ists, but for permanent occu - community life, and political rep - travel trailer as the first practical pancy. And many of them resentation by living in a fixed manufactured recreational vehicle were so disreputable and location for most of the year, but that would have mass-market junk that trailers began to get then have the flexibility to go on appeal. Although the Second a black eye. The high esteem trips in a travel trailer that would World War would limit both the that they had gained by their let them take part in the fantasy of industry and the enthusiasts as

Page 42 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 43 resources went to the wartime 3. Nevertheless, some of produce on one size scale or economy, the recreational vehi - those who got their start in the the other. This was one of many cle would increase in popularity 1930s, including Wally Byam of factors that finally separated the after the war in a new era of Airstream, enjoyed more lasting industries, which had already prosperity. success. been diverging. The period between 1930 and 4. Warren Belasco, 12. Allan Wallis, Wheel America’s entry into World War Americans on the Road: From Estate (Oxford: Oxford II proved revolutionary for the Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945 University Press, 1991). future of American tourism and (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 13. Ibid., vii. travel. Enthusiasts like the Tin 1979). 14. It is worth noting that the Can Tourists finally saw a tech - 5. Ibid., 3. term “mobile home” itself is a nological solution to their travel - 6. John Jackle, Keith Sculle, misnomer in that mobile homes ling desires become readily and Jefferson Rogers, The Motel even in the 1930s were hardly available through mass-produc - In America (Baltimore: The mobile and barely roadworthy. tion, which made taking part in Johns Hopkins University Press, 15. Wallis, Wheel Estate , vii- the activities of recreational 1996). viii. Wallis notes that “manufac - automobility increasingly 7. The book was originally tured housing” is the official obtainable and practical. published in 1994. It was name for the industry today. He Despite some difficult eco - revised slightly and republished also notes that he prefers the nomic times, a group of entre - in 2001. Robert Post, High term mobile home “because it preneurs entered into new man - Performance: The Culture and conveys better than any other ufacturing businesses and Technology of Drag Racing the basic hybrid character of the directly participated in the cre - 1950-2000 , Rev. ed. (Baltimore: innovation and the essential ation of the first mass market for The Johns Hopkins University basis for the conflicts it has recreation vehicles. Finally, the Press, 2001). engendered.” ideological components of 8. David Lucsko, The 16. Merriam-Webster, “Re- recreational vehicle’s appeal Business of Speed: The Hot Rod creational Vehicle,” Merriam- would come together in the Industry in America, 1915-1990 Webster Dictionary. www.mer - trailer literature, which would (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins riam-webster.com/dictionary/ enshrine freedom, thrift, and University Press, 2008). automobility, (accessed accessible leisure as the central 9. Ibid., 5. February 11, 2011) tenets of the recreational vehicle 10. Interestingly, British ter - 17. “House car from Minn- creed. By the end of these piv - minology on this topic is far eapolis at Tin Can Tourists con - otal years, the foundation for the more precise, with use of the vention – Arcadia,” FL recreational vehicle as a cultural term “caravan” to describe Memory,www.floridamemory. institution was now assured. recreational vehicles and the com/PhotographicCollection/ term “caravanning” to describe (accessed October 25th, 2011). Endnotes: the activity itself. 18. Leroy Mills, History of 1. Howard Vincent O’Brien, 11. Eventually in the 1950s, Our T.C.T. , Tin Can Tourists Folding Bedouins Or Adrift in a overall width of manufactured Scrapbook 2 Box 2, Tin Can Trailer (Chicago: Willett, Clark housing trailers became too Tourists of the World & Company, 1936), 1. wide for roads. At this point Collection(hereafter TCT), 2. Ibid., 1-5, 131. manufacturers had to decide to Florida Library and Archives

Page 42 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 43 (hereafter FL Library), Tallahassee, 33. Mabel Reed LeBourveau, and Abroad , 15-26 and Wally FL. This history appears to have “Let’s Talk Trailer Parks—It’s Byam, “New Stream-lined been a booklet originally, but Time,” Automobile and Trailer Coaches Use Modern Principles: appears as separate pages pasted Travel Magazine January, 1940, Recent Scientific Engineering in in the scrapbook. 11, 14. Transportation Fields Finds Ex- 19. Mills, History of Our T.C.T. 34. Freedman March, Trailers pression in Automobile Travel- 20. Ibid. (New York: Coward-McCann Inc., Coaches” Trailer Travel (January, 21. “Tin Can Tourists conven - 1937). He credits Trailer Travel 1936): 20-21. tion - Arcadia, Florida,” FL Magazine as the source for most 48. “Biography of Roger W. Memory, of his listings that were printed at Babson,” Babson College www.floridamemory.com/Photogr the back of his book. Website, www.babson.edu/about- aphicCollection/ (accessed 35. Darling, The Cruise of the babson/at-a- glance/babsons-his - October 25th, 2011). Bouncing Betty, 24-27. tory/Pages/biography-of-roger- 22. Wally Byam, Fifth Avenue 36. Ibid., 40. babson.aspx (accessed on Wheels (Cambridge Press: Los 37. O’Brien, Folding Bedouins , 10/29/2013). Angeles, 1953), 1. 132. 49. Roger W. Babson, “We’ll 23. Mills, History of Our T.C.T. 38. O’Brien, Folding Bedouins , Soon Be Living on Wheels: 24. Mills, History of Our T.C.T. 104. Millions—Half the Population of 25. “The True Story of the 39. Ibid., 4-5. the U.S.—Within 20 Years Will T.C.T.: The Number of Migratory 40. Charles Edgar Nash, Trail- Be Trailerites, According to Roger Members of the Tin Can Tourists ers Ahoy! (Lancaster, PA: Intell- W. Babson,” Trailer Travel , of the World Estimated at igencer Printing Co., 1937), 7. January-February 1936, 10-13, 300,000—Their Aims and 41. Census of Manufactures 26. Activities,” Trailer Travel, January- 1939. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. 50. Ibid., 10. February, 1936, 14-15. Dept. of Commerce, 1939). No 51. Darling, The Cruise of the 26. Ibid. census data available for 1938. Bouncing Betty , 9. 27. “Woodall’s History and Manufacturing census data is only 52. Nash, Trailers Ahoy! , 62. Timeline,” Woodall’s Website available for this period at irregu - 53. Ibid. www.woodalls.com/articlede - lar intervals. 54. Ibid., 63. tails.aspx?ArticleID=2442187 42. Wally Byam, Trailer Travel 55. Ibid., 65. (accessed 11/30/2011). Here and Abroad: The New Way 56. Babson, “We’ll Soon Be 28. Trailer Travel, January- to Adventurous Living (New York: Living on Wheels,” 10. February 1936. Brackets are origi - David McKay Company, 1960), 57. Ibid., 10-11. nal text. 20. 58. Babson, “We’ll Soon Be 29. O’Brien, Folding Bedouins , 43. Wallis, Wheel Estate , 50. Living on Wheels,” 11. 104. 44. Ibid., 51. 59. Nash, Trailers Ahoy! , 7-8. 30. Jay Norwood Darling, The 45. Wallis, Wheel Estate , 51- 60. Ibid. 7-8. Cruise of the Bouncing Betty: A 52. 61. Ibid. Trailer Travelogue (New York: 46. Wally Byam, Travel Trailer 62. Ibid., 15-58. Fredrick A Stokes Company, Here and Abroad (New York: 63. Chicago Tribune, “In 1937), 15-16. David McKay Company, 1960), Nomad’s Land,” Trailer Travel , 31. Ibid., 15-16. 15. October 1936, 29. 32. Ibid. 47. Byam, Travel Trailer Here 64. Byam, Fifth Avenue on

Page 44 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 45 Wheel , 2-3. Trailer . Chicago: Willett, Clark Motel , 1910-1945. Cambridge: 65. Ibid. & Company, 1936. The MIT Press, 1979. 66. O’Brien, Folding Sims, Blackburn. The Trailer Jackle, John, Keith Sculle, Bedouins , 105. Home: With Practical Advice and Jefferson Rogers, The Motel 67. Ibid. on Trailer Life and Travel. New In America. Baltimore: The York: Longmans, Green and Johns Hopkins University Press, Bibliography Co., 1937. 1996. Byam, Wally. Fifth Avenue Lucsko, David. The Business on Wheels . Cambridge Press: Primary Sources Archival: of Speed: The Hot Rod Industry Los Angeles, 1953. “House car from Minneapolis in America, 1915-1990 . Byam, Wally. Travel Trailer at Tin Can Tourists conven - Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Here and Abroad. New York: tion—Arcadia,” FL Memory, University Press, 2008. David McKay Company, 1960. www.floridamemory Merriam-Webster, Census of Manufactures .com/PhotographicCollection/ “Recreational Vehicle,” 1939. Washington, D.C.: U.S. (accessed October 25th, 2011). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Dept. of Commerce, 1939. Leroy Mills, History of Our www.merriam- Darling, Jay Norwood. The T.C.T. , Tin Can Tourists webster.com/dictionary/automo - Cruise of the Bouncing Betty: A Scrapbook 2 Box 2, Tin Can bility (accessed February 11, Trailer Travelogue. New York: Tourists of the World 2011). Fredrick A Stokes Company, Collection(hereafter TCT), Post, Robert. High 1937. Florida Library and Performance: The Culture and Kimball, Winfield and Living- Archives(hereafter FL Library), Technology of Drag Racing ston Larned. The Trailer for Tallahassee, FL. This history 1950-2000 , Rev. ed. Baltimore: Pleasure and Business. New appears to have been a booklet The Johns Hopkins University York: McGraw-Hill Book originally, but appears as sepa - Press, 2001. Company, 1937. rate pages pasted in the scrap - Wallis, Allan. Wheel Estate. Kimball, Winfield and book. Oxford: Oxford University Maurice Decker. Touring with “Tin Can Tourists convention Press, 1991. Tent and Trailer . New York: - Arcadia, Florida,” FL Memory, White, Robert. Home on the McGraw-Hill Book Company, www.floridamemory.com/Photo Road: The Motor Home in 1937. graphicCollection/ (accessed America . Washington D.C.: MacDowell, Syl. We Live in October 25th, 2011). Smithsonian Institution Press, a Trailer . New York: Julian 2000. Messner, Inc.,1938. Secondary Sources: “Woodall’s History and March, Freedman. Trailers . “Biography of Roger W. Timeline,” Woodall’s Website New York: Coward-McCann Babson.” Babson College web www.woodalls. com/articlede - Inc., 1937. site, www.babson.edu/about - tails.aspx?ArticleID=2442187 Nash, Charles Edgar. Trailer babson/at-a-glance/babsons-his - (accessed 11/30/2011). Ahoy! . Lancaster, PA: tory/Pages/biogrophy-of-roger- Intelligencer Printing Company, babson.aspx accessed 1937. 10/29/2013. O’Brien, Howard Vincent. Belasco, Warren. Americans Folding Bedouins or, Adrift in a on the Road: From Autocamp to

Page 44 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 45 continued from inside front cover Cincinnati, Ohio-based business man at the time. He reporedly paid $3,450 for this particular vehicle, some $1,000 more than the advertised list price. “The Rauch & Lang was the Tesla of its day, both in terms of performance and price,” Mr. Williams said. “That was a lot of money back then.” The car is captivating on a variety of levels, espe - cially to modern eyes. First, the car has no steering wheel; a tiller is instead used and it is mounted to the left of the driver. Additionally, there is a seat opposite of the driver’s seat that accommodates two passengers facing backward and ahead of the driver, providing a visual barrier. The four-seater used 14 six-volt batteries, with nine positioned in the front and five in the rear. They pow -

Page 46 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 47 ered an electric motor of Rauch & Lang’s own design. A full charge typically took about 24 hours and provided a range of about 50 miles. In addition to the unusual seating layout, the materials used were also curious by today’s standards. In addition to the various uses of wood in the body, the fenders were actually constructed of patent leather. It is one of the many fasci - nating details that are lost in the faded photos and artists’ advertising renderings. Seeing a vehicle like this in person is a history lesson that cannot be beaten. As presented, the electric four- seater is now in stock restored con - dition. Sometime in the 1940s, the fenders were modified to accom - modate larger tires; presumably because original-dimension tires were not available. The fenders were returned to their original con - figuration and new patent leather was used. Further, the original broadcloth upholstery was replaced with leather, which was optional in 1912. The original tufted pattern was replicated. I think that the best part of this car’s story is the family that has taken care of it for more than a cen - tury. In addition to Mr. Williams, we met his son and grandson, both of whom are as enthusiastic about this piece of their history as their ancestors. That makes six genera - tions of one family devoted to this very special car. Mr. Williams and his family live automotive history and are stewards to a very special vehicle and a technological legacy.

-D ON KEEFE

Page 46 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 47 Automotive History Review

Spring 2018 Issue Number 58

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