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Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology: Paper 34 The 1893 Duryea Automobile In the Museum of History and Technology Don H. Berkebile EARLY AUTOMOTIVE EXPERIENCE 5 CONSTRUCTION BEGINS 6 DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTOMOBILE 16 224-527—67- Fid i'i i. I)i ryea automobile in the Muse- um of History and Technology, from an 1897 photograph. The gear-sprockets wen- al- ready missing when this was taken, and the chain lies loosely on the pinion. Shown at the right, the Duryea vehicle following the recent restoration (Smithsonian photo 34183). Don H. Berf^ebile THE 1 893 DURYEA AUTOMOBILE In the Museum of History and Technology During the last decade of the nineteenth century a number of American engineers and mechanics were working diligently to develop a practical self-propelled vehicle employing an internal- combustion engine as the motive force. Among these men were Charles and Frank Duryea, who began ivork on this type of vehicle about 1892. This carriage ivas operated on the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1893, where its trials ivere noted in the newspapers. Notv preserved in the Museum of History and Technology, it is a priced exhibit in the collection of early automobiles It is the purpose of this paper to present some of the facts discovered during the restoration of the vehicle, to show the problems that faced its builders, and to describe their solutions. An attempt also has been made to correlate all this information with reports of the now almost legendary day-to-day experiences of the Duryeas, as published by the brothers in various booklets, and as related by Frank Duryea during two interviews, recorded on tape in 1956 and 1957, while he teas visiting the Smithsonian. The Author: Don H. Berkebile is on the staff of the Museum of History and Technology, in the Smithsonian Insti- tution's United States National Museum OF the numerous American automotive pioneers, giving Day, November 28, 1895, where Frank Duryea perhaps among the best known are Charles and won a victory over the other five contestants—two Frank Duryea. Beginning their work of automobile electric automobiles and three Benz machines im- building in Springfield, Massachusetts, and after much ported from Germany. rebuilding, they constructed their first successful vehi- In the year following this victory Frank, as en- cle in 1892 and 1893. No sooner was this finished than gineer in charge of design and construction, com- Frank, working alone, began work on a second vehicle pleted the plans begun earlier for a more powerful having a two-cylinder engine. With this automobile, automobile. During 1896 the company turned out sufficient capital was attracted in 1895 to form the thirteen identical automobiles, the first example of 1 Duryea Motor Wagon Company in which both mass production in American automotive history. brothers were among the stockholders and directors. A short time after the formation of the company this i S. H. Oliver, Automobiles and Motorcycles in the U.S. National second automobile was entered by the company in Museum (U.S. National Museum Bulletin 213, Washington: the Chicago Times-Herald automobile race on Thanks- Smithsonian Institution, 1957), p. 24. PAPER 34: THE 1893 DURYEA AUTOMOBILE INSTITUTION — Figure 2. Workmen in the Duryea factory in Springfield, Mass., working on some of the thirteen 1896 motor wagons. (Smithsonian photo 44062.) Even while these cars were under construction Frank J. Stevens Arms and Tool Company, of Chicopee was planning a lighter vehicle, one of which was Falls, Massachusetts, which built automobiles under completed in October of 1896. This machine was his supervision. This association led in 1904 to the driven to another victory by Frank Duryea on formation of the Stevens-Duryea Company, of November 14, 1896, when he competed once again which Irving Page was president and Frank Duryea with European-built cars in the Liberty-Day Run was vice president and chief engineer. This com- from London to Brighton. The decision to race pany produced during its 10-year existence a number and demonstrate their autos abroad was the result of popular and well-known models, among them a of the company's desire to interest foreign capital, light six known as the Model U, in 1907; a larger yet Frank later felt they might better have used 4-cylinder called the Model X, in 1908; and a larger their time and money by concentrating on building six, the Model Y, in 1909. In 1914 when Stevens cars and selling them to the local market. Sub- withdrew from the company, Frank obtained sequently, in the fall of 1898, Frank arranged for control. The following year he sold the plants and the sale of his and Charles' interest in the company, machinery, liquidated the company, and, due to and thereafter the brothers pursued separate careers. ill health, retired. Frank, in 1901, entered into a contract with the Charles, in the meantime, located in Reading, BULLETIN 240: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY — — / */:: Figure 3. Admittance card of C. E. Duryea to the U.S. Patent Office, 1887. (Gift of Rhea Duryea Johnson.) Pennsylvania, where he built autos under the name Moving there in 1890, he obtained for his brother of the Duryea Power Company.- Here, and later a position as toolmaker with the Ames Company. in Philadelphia under the name of the Duryea Thus, Frank Duryea, as he was later known, also Motor Corporation and other corporate names, became located in Chicopee, a northern suburb of he continued for a number of years to build auto- Springfield. mobiles, vacuum cleaners and other mechanical During the summer, 1891, Charles found the bicycle devices. Until the time of his death in 1938, he business left him some spare time, and the gasoline- practiced as a consulting engineer. Early Automotive Experience Born in 1861 near Canton, Illinois, Charles E. Duryea had learned the trade of a mechanic following his graduation from high school, and subsequently turned his interests to bicycle repair. He and his brother James Frank, eight years younger, eventually left Illinois and moved to Washington D.C., where they were employed in the bicycle shop of H. S. Owen, one of that city's leading bicycle dealers and importers. While in Washington, Charles became a regular reader of the Patent Office Gazette, 3 an act which undoubtedly influenced his later work with automobiles. A short time later, probably in 1889, Charles contracted with a firm in Rockaway, New Jersey, to construct bicycles for him, but their failure to make delivery as promised caused him to go to Chicopee. Massachusetts, where he contracted with the Ames Manufacturing Company to do his work. 2 G. R. Doyle, The World's Automobiles (London: Temple Figure 4. Charles E. Duryea, about 1894, Press Limited, 1959), p. 67. 3 Recorded interview with Frank Duryea in the U.S. National as drawn by George Giguere from a photo- Museum, November 9, 1956. graph. (Smithsonian photo 48335-A.) PAPER 34: THE 1893 DURYEA AUTOMOBILE — SYLPH CYCLES SSS- Figure 5. Advertisement of Duryea bicycle company, Scientific American, September g, 1893. powered carriages he had read of earlier came con- stantly into his mind in these periods of idleness. 4 He and Frank studied several books on gasoline engines, among them one by an English writer (title and author now unknown); 5 this described the Otto 4-stroke cycle as now used. Some engineers, however, were concerned because this engine, on the completion of the exhaust stroke, had not entirely evacuated all of the products of combustion. The Atkinson engine, patented in 1887, was one of the attempts to solve this as well as several other problems, thus creating a more efficient cycle. This engine was designed so Figure 6. — J. Frank Duryea. about 1894, as drawn by George Giguere from a photo- that the exhaust stroke carried the piston all the way graph. (Smithsonian photo to the head of the engine, while the compression 48335.) stroke only moved the piston far enough to sufficiently compress the mixture. The unusual linkage necessary Duryeas later called a "free piston," was eventually to create these unequal strokes in the Atkinson engine to be incorporated in their first engine." made it seem impractical for a carriage engine, where compactness was desired. Construction Begins Going to Hartford, Connecticut, possibly on business relating to his bicycle work, Charles visited Back in Chicopee again, Charles began planning the Hartford Machine Screw Company where the his first horseless carriage. Frank later stated that Daimler-type engine was being produced, 6 but after they leaned heavily on the Benz patents in their work; 8 examining it he felt it was too heavy and clumsy for but while the later engine and transmission show evi- his purpose. Also in Hartford he talked over the dence of this, only the Benz manner of placing the problem of a satisfactory engine with C. E. Hawley, engine and the flywheel seem to have been employed an employee of the Pope Manufacturing Company, in the original Duryea plan. Charles reversed the en- makers of the Columbia bicycle. Hawley, searching gine so that the flywheel was to the front, rather than for a way to construct an engine that would perform to the rear as in the Benz patent, but made use of Benz' in a manner similar to the Atkinson, yet would have vertical crankshaft so that the flywheel rotated the lightness and compactness necessary for a carriage in a horizontal plane. Previously most engines had engine, suggested an idea that Charles believed had used vertical flywheels; Benz, believing that this prac- some merit. This idea, involving the use of what the tice would cause difficulty in steering a propelled * Charles Duryea's statement to Springfield Daily Republican, 7 History notes dictated by Charles E.

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