M a y 2 0 1 8 The Brass Lamp The Genesis of the Electric Starter by Chuck Rhoads On the afternoon of Christmas liam Foltz, Day 1910, a lady was driving a engineers Cadillac through Belle Isle employed Park in Detroit, when her car sud- by the Ca- denly stalled. A passing motorist dillac Co., recognized the lady as a close out for a friend of his wife. He stopped drive with and gallantly offered to crank the their wives. Cadillac for her. They hastily The man was Byron T. Carter, cranked the designer and builder of the auto- stalled Ca- mobile known as the Cartercar, dillac and which enjoyed a short period of rushed popularity. Carter to the hospi- Carter neglected to retard the tal. Compli- spark lever on the Cadillac, and, cations as he turned the crank, the arose from motor backfired. The heavy the injuries, crank spun backward and struck pneumonia Carter, breaking his arm and jaw developed, and badly mangling his face. and Carter died a cou- Charles Kettering and his electric starter A third car, another Cadillac, ap- ple of peared on the scene, quickly weeks later. pulling to a stop, and two men jumped out and ran to help. When Henry Leland, the venera- "The crank on the Cadillac car," he They were Ernest Sweet and Wil- ble and compassionate head of proclaimed, " is not going to kill Cadillac Co., a close friend of any more people if we can Carter and the greatest preci- sion machinist of his time, heard Continued on Page 4 >>>> INSIDE THIS ISSUE what had happened, he was appalled. • President’s Column • Graham—A Good Sport ''I'm sorry I ever built an • Nash 1929 “400” automobile," he said sadly. • A Surprising eBay Find "I won't have Cadillacs • LaSalle Engine Rebuild hurting people that way." • From the Lamp Archives A couple of days after attend- • Activity Calendar ing the Carter funeral, Leland called together Ernest Sweet and his other top engineers. The President’s Joseph F Yochim (314) 602-9498 President Column… By Joseph F Yochim Mark Goldfeder (314) 878-2786 1st Vice President/Programs Greetings everyone! and Bowles Avenue in Fenton at Al Mercer 8:00 am. Everyone knows an ar- (636) 928-8672 General Membership my travels on its stomach. So, we 2nd Vice President/Membership Meeting will eat breakfast at Cracker Bar- Jackie Allen For the month of May we’ll be rel. Immediately after breakfast, (314) 741-4158 celebrating our strawberry so- we will begin our journey. The Treasurer cial. This year the theme is salvage yard that we will be trav- Sandy Neal bringing someone. Bring a eling to is a privately-owned (314-368-1345) Recording Secretary friend, bring your spouse, bring yard no longer open to the pub- the neighbor, or just plain lic. It has quite a few older vehi- Russel Neal cles. The owner has some 30s (314) 368-2001 someone with you. Also re- Corresponding Secretary member to bring a dish or des- cars as well as cars from the 40s, sert. The starting time is 6:30 50s, 60s, and some 70s. Come Directors prepared, as the Boy Scout mot- Andy Dorris (2020) so don’t be late. Ron Nelson (2020) to states, since the terrain in this Vacant (2018) Hot Summer Nights Car salvage yard is very hilly with David Stephens (2018) lots of loose gravel. Snakes and Kevin Williams (2019) Cruise! Sharon Mercer (2019) poison ivy are optional. This Back by popular demand! event is open to all who feel up Ron Nelson Bring out your classic car or to the journey. 9826 Affton View Ct. St. Louis, MO 63123 your everyday driver on Friday, (314) 638-7131 June 15, 2018. We will begin Father’s Day Show Brass Lamp Editor the meeting promptly at 6:30 PM. Immediately after our gen- Well, ladies and gentlemen, that Kevin Williams takes us into the month of June. (314) 481-9111 eral meeting we will line up in Webmaster our vehicles for an evening The HCCM will be hosting the cruise for some ice cream. We annual Father’s Day cars with Neal McIntyre will take a vote at the May class show on Sunday, June 17, (314) 494-0346 2018, at the Museum of Trans- Special Events Coordinator meeting as to the location the general membership wishes to portation in St. Louis County, Gerald Perschbacher Missouri. Preregistration is rec- Special Liaison go for ice cream. ommended but not required. Michael and Susan Ebert Old Junkyard Trip See your application in this Easter Show Chairs month’s newsletter. Elliott Cytron Well, unfortunately, we had to Car Show and Swap Meet Chair cancel our trip to the old junk- That’s more than enough infor- yard down near Union, Mis- mation for this month. Hope to souri. The plan was to go down see you all at the strawberry so- on Monday, April 23. Unfortu- cial coming up on May 18, 2018. nately, it rained all day on Sun- Remember the early starting www.hccmo.com day. So, we had to cancel. But time is 6:30 PM. Bring a friend (314) 991-HONK good news! We are reschedul- and a dish or dessert. ing the road trip to the junk- Sincerely Celebrating 74 Years In St. Louis! yard. Mark your calendar you scavengers, for Tuesday, June Joseph F. Yochim 12, 2018. We will meet at the Cracker Barrel at Highway 44 2 Graham Was a Good Sport The photo that accompanied Michael’s article did not clearly Among Car Companies identify the location of the ball- by Gerald Perschbacher, LL.D., all rights reserved game, so the writer asked his national club to share ideas and I knew about the recording. It By the way, the recording I refer- clues, hoping it had not been was a 78-rpm shellac pressing enced was called THE GRAHAM- converted into a parking lot by from the 1920s. Just the thing PAIGE MARCH and was aimed at now. But even if it had, perhaps for a record-and-old-car collec- stirring the actions of company memories of it linger in the tor. But I did not fully compre- workers, especially sales staff. minds of club members. hend its place in history until reading volume 46, number 1, The article proves the company The cover of the issue I refer- of The Supercharger, Graham used various means to foster the enced showed a Graham dealer- Owners Club, (Dale Robbins, feeling of teamwork among its ship building. Quite impres- edtor); body of employees. “When the sive! It reminded me of Packard www.grahamownersclub.com. expertise of the brothers brought dealerships and how the St. them to the Motor City, they Louis Packard region in the The single-page article seemed simple enough. A player was running to first base in a base- ball game, his vintage team shirt sponsored a sanctioned gun club, 1950s issued a sports magazine emblazoned with GRAHAM bowling teams and additional for Packard owners and pro- PAIGE. Yes, that car company baseball teams.” Even company spects. Each issue included spe- was into baseball. Said writer picnics were held at a resort area cial ads and information on new Michael Keller, a notable author nearly 30 miles from the Dear- Packards. Using the sports on the subject of Graham-Paige, born factory, Michael noted. theme probably opened the “When the Graham brothers door for more folks to discover first entered the business realm The idea of ball teams was to in- new car features and how the as a team, they understood that still “a spirit of chivalry” among Packard company was reposi- one of their most important as- workers, so to say. Thus, Graham tioning for what became a sets at Graham Glass was their -Paige Motors Corporation mighty, last gasp in its auto loyal and skilled work force. “created the Graham-Paige Le- achievements. Contrary to the common wis- gion…of ambitious, enthusiastic, dom of the day, the Grahams and dedicated salesmen” who Listen to the march at treated their laborers with re- met regularly to talk business and https://www.youtube.com/ spect and a good bit of pater- socialize as their sales skills ad- watch?v=dmNzlNRCb3g nalism.” vanced. 3 <<< from Page One Earl C. Howard, the assistant On a momentous day, Febru- sales manager of Cadillac, who ary 27, 1911, less than two possibly prevent it. I want you had previously worked for months after Byron Carter's men to drop everything you are National Cash Register in Day- death, Henry Leland, with Ket- doing. You are going to ton, Ohio, overheard the dis- tering and all the Cadillac en- put your heads together and cussion about the needed mo- gineers watching, pressed a produce a safe, foolproof mech- tor and injected himself into switch. The heavy Cadillac mo- anism for starting Cadillac mo- the conversation. tor turned over and started in tors." far less time than hand crank- Said Howard, "When the NCR ing would have required. A Numerous efforts had been made decided to replace the hand reliable self-starter was an ac- to develop self-starters, but none crank on its cash registers, it complished fact. was satisfactory. They relied on needed a tiny electric motor to acetylene, compressed air, or do the job. Nothing on the But the exultant Leland, Ket- springs for power; they often mal- market was satisfactory, and a tering, Sweet and other engi- functioned or failed to operate minute motor that worked per- neers were not through by and demanded frequent repairs fectly was designed by one of any means.