EEVC NEWSLETTER Published by the Eastern Electric Vehicle Club Peter Cleaveland, Editor Vol 25 No 2 Club Address: P.O. Box 134, Valley Forge, PA 19481-0134 FEBRUARY, 2005 email [email protected] President: Oliver Perry, 5 Old Stagecoach Turn Shamong, NJ 08088, (609) 268-0944 Copyright © 2005, Eastern Electric Vehicle Club, all rights reserved Now affiliated with EAA TURNING THE PRIUS INTO AN EV Numerous www.cal- owners of cars. the Toyota org/prius- Prius have evbutton- wished at install.pdf. one time or CalCars another that describes there was a itself as a way to use non-profit the hybrid startup car as a formed by a plug-in EV. group of There’s a California group in There is a way to operate a Prius as an EV for short distances entre- California preneurs, devoted to doing just that, and they have a engineers, environmentalists and consumers fairly simple way to do at least part of it (if to jump-start the market for plug-in hybrids, you’re handy with electronics and don’t and are working on an assortment of pro- mind voiding the warranty, that is): a button. jects, up to and including making the Prius On January 29 USA Today ran a story into a plug-in hybrid. They’re building a about a mysterious button found on the prototype PHEV and plan to harness the col- dashboard of the Prius. In U.S. cars it has no lective vision and purchasing power of indi- function, but in Europe and Japan it puts the viduals and corporate and government car into the EV mode and allows it to go a fleets. CalCars aims to engage with a major mile or so on battery power alone. Toyota car maker to produce plug-in versions of has never explained why it doesn’t work in existing sedans and SUVs. In the mean time U.S. cars. a spokesman for Toyota professes astonish- An organization called the California ment that anybody would want to plug in a Cars Initiative (CalCars) has developed a set Prius. The whole point of the Prius, he of directions to make the button work. asserts is to eliminate the need for plugging They’re available at CalCars’ Web site, in the car. If only he understood! EEVC The Roots of an Industry TRIBUTE TO PAUL HAFER The early iron furnaces of the Boyertown Part II area laid the groundwork for vehicle manu- facturing by Pennsylvania Dutch craftsmen, Introducing an author many of whom traced their roots to the Ger- When we remember Paul Hafer we remem- man Rhineland. Iron and cannons, iron for ber a man from Boyertown, PA and The Boy- cannon balls, iron for wagon axles, iron for ertown Auto Body Works. The rich history of wagon wheel rims, and even the Conestoga The Boyertown Auto Body works as well as wagons themselves were products of export the related history of vehicle making in Berks from the Boyertown region in those early County is recorded in a wonderfully pictured days of our nation’s history. book titled A Century of Vehicle Craftsman- Paul Hafer’s life work had its beginning a ship by Paul’s wife Erminie. Erminie’s book century later when Jeremiah Sweinhart was dedicated to the craftsmen who made founded a carriage factory in Boyertown in Boyertown and the surrounding area a 1872. Erminie Shaeffer Hafer points out in bustling hub of vehicle activity for more than her book that by the mid nineteenth century a century. Most of the information in our trib- Berks County had eleven iron furnaces and ute to Paul Hafer comes from her book. thirty-six bloomeries, forges and rolling mills. One of the largest iron mines was the one in Boyertown. In 1868 a shaft of 588 feet was made on the east side of what is now South Reading Avenue. A twenty-two foot thick vein of 50% magnetic content was dis- covered. Several more shafts were sunk in nearby locations and as many as 6000 tons of ore were being extracted by 1870. (The text did not stipulate the time span required to reach those 6000 tons.) Peak production years were reached in 1890. A frequent visi- tor to the mines was Thomas A. Edison who also owned iron mines nearby. The need for wagons Erminie Florence Shaeffer was born of Ore, when taken out of the ground, must Pennsylvania Dutch heritage in September be transported. Ore wagons, often pulled by 1911. Erminie grew up and graduated high six-mule teams, were constructed by the school in Boyertown and received a college same craftsmen who had produced the Con- degree from West Chester State Teachers estoga wagon, which to quote Erminie, were, College. After teaching elementary school for “all hand forged and reflected the Pennsylva- several years Erminie married Paul Hafer in nia German pride in creative arts.” Carriages 1933. Soon she was appointed to the board of and wagons of all sorts, including sleighs, directors of the Boyertown Auto Body Works proliferated in the region when Sweinhart where she has maintained active participation founded his carriage factory in 1872. Sur- to the present. She co-founded the Hafer rounded by talented wagon and carriage mak- Foundation with her husband Paul and has ers Sweinhart had the resources to build car- served many years as a trustee of the Boyer- riages and wagons at his disposal. But Swein- town Museum of Historic Vehicles. The book hart himself was also a skilled carriage and she wrote was planned as a part of a 100 year cabinet maker. So began the production of celebration of the Boyertown Auto Body some of the finest carriages in the country. Works. Erminie spent several years in Many were custom built, a doctor would get, painstaking research for her book, resulting “just what the doctor ordered,” as would a in a graphic masterpiece. local fire company. (The first hand-made doctor’s carriage and a fire carriage are on 2 display at the Boyertown Museum of Historic that changes were needed if they were to Vehicles). remain competitive. Displayed on their float in the November 11, 1918 Armistice Day Change of hands, a new direction parade was a banner which heralded; “The On January 1st, 1884 Jeremiah Sweinhart carriage days are passed; now we make truck placed an advertisement in the local paper bodies.” announcing his plan to sell his business at a low price. The vehicles for disposal were Berks County jumps on the new wave buggies, milk wagons, and elegant sleighs. Many of us were reared at a time when The business became Strunk and Fisher, most vehicles seen on public highways were named after the men who purchased it. Fisher mass produced in Detroit and places outside quickly sold out his share to a man by the Southeastern Pennsylvania. It is difficult for name of Frank Hartman. Hartman and me to appreciate how significant a role the Strunk, the Carriage Builders, quickly Boyertown area played in the history of auto- expanded the carriage company beyond its motive industry. From page 66 of A Century original size. Amid a rich farming, mining, of Vehicle Craftsmanship, “Indeed it would and industrial area, Boyertown was the ideal appear that all of Berks County had become place for their company to meet the rapidly automotively enthused, anxious to join in this expanding transportation trade. Whereas latest campaign in the Vehicle Revolution. Jeremiah Sweinhart had specialized in luxury Just as many Berks County craftsmen had type carriages, the new successors expanded hastened to take part in the flourishing wagon the business to include bakery, milk, huck- industry of the century previous, so too were ster, and ice cream wagons. their descendants quick to align themselves with those entrepreneurs of the new century More changes whose avowed aim was to make people for- In 1890 Milton Strunk retired from the get all about the horse as a mode of trans- business, leaving his partner Frank Hartman portation.” on his own. One of the early decisions Frank Many of the skilled mechanics from the made was to switch from steam power to Reading Pa region helped to lay the founda- electricity to run his carriage plant. The tions for the Fleetwood Metal Body Compa- wiring was done by J. William Shaeffer, Boy- ny, whose automobile bodies would become ertown’s first electrical contractor. Paul Hafer known on several continents and whose sig- would later marry his daughter, Erminie. The nificance cannot be underestimated in the whole plant was powered by two large elec- development of the automobile industry in tric motors, not by internal combustion Berks County. By 1917 the Fleetwood plant engines as were other industrial plants in the in neighboring Reading was acknowledged vicinity. In 1911 Hartman decided to relin- as one of the largest and best equipped in the quish his thriving business to four of his most country. It gave work to over 400 men and trusted employees. After a short period of the trade name “Fleetwood” soon represented training the new name of “The Boyertown superior quality coachwork. In 1925 Fleet- Carriage Works Ltd,”emerged. Of the four wood was merged with Fisher Body of men directing the company, only the pair by Detroit and within a year became a division the names of Gilbert and Derr remained to of General Motors Corporation. Through mainstay the reputation of good will and 1928 the Berks County plant turned out the quality craftsmanship. The duo assumed con- new Cadillac and LaSalle bodies. (Examples trol in a time when the transportation trade on display at the Boyertown Museum) was rapidly changing.