Circle The Wagons!
March 5, 1875 - Reward Offered for Invention of a Motorized Wagon
Though the automobile industry did not emerge until the turn of the twentieth century, legislators and inventors alike had dreamed of a self-propelled motorized alternative to the horse-drawn carriages and wagons of the day, and without the constraints of rails.
On this day in 1875, the state of Wisconsin announced a $10,000 reward to any inventor who could produce a motorized wagon.
During the next twenty years several inventors created a variety of "vehicles" which were propelled by many different engine types, both internal and external combustion types, and generally incorporated a tricycle or three-wheeled design. Notable among this period of early attempts were the Duryea Brothers and Elwood Haynes of the US, and German inventors Benz, Daimler, and Diesel. However, none of these early forms of the "automobile" were capable of replacing a full-sized wagon, at best they were novelties that transported two or three people short distances around town.
In 1895, sixteen years after originally filling his first patent for his improvements to the mammoth-sized Brayton internal combustion engine and its use in a 4 wheeled car, George Selden won recognition and the reward for the first "motorized wagon". Selden's 1879 patent application included a "smaller and lighter" version of Brayton's two-stroke kerosene stationary engine - Selden's engine was a single cylinder engine that only weighed 400 lbs.!
Selden's patent would monopolize the attachment of an internal combustion engine to a carriage or wagon for the next two decades, during which he would reap huge royalties from American automobile manufacturers. However it would be Henry Ford who was ultimately successful in replacing draft animals with automobiles by revolutionizing manufacturing and the assembly line, and by breaking Selden's patent hold on the industry.
Quote for ToDay:
"Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward." - Patricia Sampson
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