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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
FIGURE 1.—DURYEA AUTOMOBILE in the Museum of History and
Technology, from an 1897 photograph. The gear-sprockets
were already 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. B[ePrgk 3e]bile
THE 1893 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 work on this type of
vehicle about 1892. This carriage was operated on the streets of
Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1893, where its trials were noted
in the newspapers. Now preserved in the Museum of History and
Technology, it is a prized 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 was visiting the Smithsonian.
T A : Don H. Berkebile is on the staff of the Museum of
HE UTHOR
History and Technology, in the Smithsonian Institution's United
States National Museum.
O
F the numerous American automotive pioneers, perhaps among the best
known are Charles and Frank Duryea. Beginning their work of
automobile building in Springfield, Massachusetts, and after much
rebuilding, they constructed their first successful vehicle in 1892 and 1893.
No sooner was this finished than Frank, working alone, began work on a
second vehicle having a two-cylinder engine. With this automobile,
sufficient capital was attracted in 1895 to form the Duryea Motor Wagon
Company in which both brothers were among the stockholders and directors.
A short time after the formation of the company this second automobile was
entered by the company in the Chicago Times-Herald automobile race on
Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1895, where Frank Duryea won a victory
over the other five contestants—two electric automobiles and three Benz
machines imported from Germany.
In the year following this victory Frank, as engineer in charge of design and
construction, completed the plans begun earlier for a more powerful
automobile. During 1896 the company turned out thirteen identical
automobiles, the first example of mass production in American autom[oPtgi v4]e
history.[1] Even while these cars were under construction Frank was planning
a lighter vehicle, one of which was completed in October of 1896. This
machine was driven to another victory by Frank Duryea on November 14,
1896, when he competed once again with European-built cars in the Liberty-
Day Run from London to Brighton. The decision to race and demonstrate
their autos abroad was the result of the company's desire to interest foreign
capital, yet Frank later felt they might better have used their time and money
by concentrating on building cars and selling them to the local market.
Subsequently, in the fall of 1898, Frank arranged for the sale of his and
Charles' interest in the company, and thereafter the brothers pursued separate
careers.
F 2.—W D in Springfield, Mass.,
IGURE ORKMEN IN THE URYEA FACTORY
working on some of the thirteen 1896 motor wagons. (Smithsonian photo
44062.)
Frank, in 1901, entered into a contract with the J. Stevens Arms and Tool
Company, of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, which built automobiles under
his supervision. This association led in 1904 to the formation of the Stevens-
Duryea Company, of which Irving Page was president and Frank Duryea
was vice president and chief engineer. This company produced during its 10-
year existence a number of popular and well-known models, among them a
light six known as the Model U, in 1907; a larger 4-cylinder called the
Model X, in 1908; and a larger six, the Model Y, in 1909. In 1914 when
Stevens withdrew from the company, Frank obtained control. The following
year he sold the plants and machinery, liquidated the company, and, due to ill
health, retired.
Charles, in the meantime, located in Reading, Pennsylvania, where he [Pbgu 5il]t
autos under the name of the Duryea Power Company.[2] Here, and later in
Philadelphia under the name of the Duryea Motor Corporation and other
corporate names, he continued for a number of years to build automobiles,
vacuum cleaners and other mechanical devices. Until the time of his death in
1938, he practiced as a consulting engineer.
F 3.—A of C. E. Duryea to the U.S. Patent Office,
IGURE DMITTANCE CARD
1887.
(Gift of Rhea Duryea Johnson.)
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
F 4.—C E. D , about 1894,
and importers. While in IGURE HARLES URYEA
as drawn by George Giguere from a photograph.
Washington, Charles
(Smithsonian photo 48335-A.)
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. Moving there in 1890, he obtained for his brother
a position as toolmaker with the Ames Company. Thus, Frank Duryea, as he
was later known, also became located in Chicopee, a northern suburb of
Springfield.
During the summer, 1891, Charles found the bicycle business left him some
spare time, and the gasoline-powered carriages he had read of earlier [cPagm 6]e
constantly 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 that the
exhaust stroke carried the piston all the way to the head of the engine, while
the compression stroke only moved the piston far enough to sufficiently
compress the mixture. The unusual linkage necessary to create these
unequal strokes in the Atkinson engine made it seem impractical for a
carriage engine, where compactness was desired.
F 5.—A of Duryea bicycle company,
IGURE DVERTISEMENT
Scientific American, September 9, 1893.
Going to Hartford, Connecticut, possibly on business relating to his bicycle
work, Charles visited the Hartford Machine Screw Company where the
Daimler-type engine was being produced,[6] but after examining it he felt it
was too heavy and clumsy for his purpose. Also in Hartford he talked over
the problem of a satisfactory engine with C. E. Hawley, an employee of the
Pope Manufacturing Company, makers of the Columbia bicycle. Hawley,
searching for a way to construct an engine that would perform in a manner
similar to the Atkinson, yet would have the lightness and compactness
necessary for a carriage engine, suggested an idea that Charles believed had
