Aurora Automatic Machinery Company

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Aurora Automatic Machinery Company
legal form Company
founding 1902
resolution 1916
Seat Chicago , Illinois , USA
Branch Motorcycles , automobiles

Thor Motorcycles Logo.jpg
Single cylinder (1907)
Racing machine (1908) with Paul Derkum
Two-cylinder (1916)

Aurora Automatic Machinery Company was an American manufacturer of motorcycles and automobiles . The headquarters were initially in Aurora and later Chicago , both in Illinois .

Company history

In October 1902, took Aurora Automatic Machinery Company of Oscar Hedstrom engines for the order, Indian produce. The contract, which ended in 1907, allowed the Aurora Automatic Machinery Company to independently manufacture and market engines. As a result, Thor built-in engines were sold to various American manufacturers such as Emblem, Light, Racycle, Reading Standard and Warwick as early as 1903. The first independent Thor motorcycle appeared in 1907 . The single-cylinder engine with a displacement of 500 cm³ was built into a loop frame that was customary at the time and had an output of 3  hp . On December 30, 1907, Axel Levedahl had a trapezoidal fork patented by Aurora Automatic Machinery Company , which was then installed in the single-cylinder model. In 1908 the first motorcycle appeared with a two-cylinder V-engine and an unusual cylinder angle of 50 degrees. In 1911 , the IOE valve control was introduced on the two-cylinder (model name O ) with 61  ci displacement (≈ 1000 cm³) and 9 hp . In 1914 the displacement of the two-cylinder model (model U ) was increased to 76.25 ci (≈ 1245 cm³) and production was relocated to Chicago in order to enable production to the unrealistic target of 20,000 copies per year. Production was stopped in 1916.

Thor had its own racing department since 1906. On September 9, 1908, he entered a race for the first time with two-cylinder track racing machines, including with driver Paul Derkum. The motorcycles were developed under race director William (Bill) Ottaway, who was later responsible for the development of the Harley-Davidson track racing machine .

Automobile manufacturing

The company manufactured a number of automobiles between 1907 and 1909. The brand name was also Thor . A total of four vehicles were built.

They were similar to the models by Hotchkiss et Cie . They had a six-cylinder engine . One illustration shows an open touring car .

literature

  • Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle. Volume 1, 1896-1914. Megden Publishing Company, 2001, ISBN 0-9603676-2-4 .

Web links

Commons : Aurora Automatic Machinery Company  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Roger Hicks: The international encyclopedia motorcycles . Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart, 1st edition 2006, ISBN 978-3-613-02660-5 , p. 466.
  2. ↑ Stephen Wright dates the first motorcycle, an Indian copy, to 1903. See p. 48.
  3. ↑ U.S. Patent 913961
  4. ↑ Thor trapeze fork
  5. ^ Hugo Wilson: The Lexicon from the motorcycle. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-613-01719-9 , p. 275.
  6. ^ Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle. P. 214.
  7. ^ Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle. P. 92.
  8. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 (English).
  9. ↑ George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 3: P-Z . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 (English).