Bessemer-American Motors Corporation

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American advertisement from 1921

Bessemer-American Motors Corporation , previously American Motors Corporation , was an American automobile manufacturer. The brand name was American .

description

The American Motors Corporation from Plainfield (New Jersey) introduced 1917-1924 Vehicles ago. In 1923, after the merger with the Bessemer Motor Truck Company, the name was changed to Bessemer-American Motors Corporation . The company also sold the cars under the names American Balanced Six and American Six . It was a manufacturer, i. H. the cars were assembled from various components manufactured by others. So came z. B. the clutches from Borg & Beck , the gearboxes from Warner , the carburetors from Stromberg and the motors from Rutenber .

The company was never particularly big; the largest annual output of 1,400 automobiles was recorded in 1920. This year the old 6-cylinder Rutenber engine with 45 bhp (33 kW) was replaced by a six-cylinder from Herschell-Spillman with 58 bhp (43 kW). The American was commonly marketed as the "Smiling Car," by which the company wanted to imply that the cars could run for miles without any problems. In October 1923, the name was Amalgamated Motors Corporation , with the passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturers Northway and Winther also belonging to the group of companies. This construction did not last long, because before the snow melted in 1924, the American had to be stopped; car production at Northway and Winther had ended earlier. A total of 5800 American and a few hundred Northway and Winther were made ; the latter continued to build trucks until 1927.

For some time, the automotive engineer and racing driver Louis Chevrolet worked as chief engineer for American.

Models

model Construction period cylinder power wheelbase
Six-A 1917 6 row 22 bhp (16.2 kW) 3099 mm
Six-B 1918 6 row 23.5 bhp (17.3 kW) 3099 mm
Six-G 1919 6 row 23.5 bhp (17.3 kW) 3099 mm
Six-B 1920 6 row 45 bhp (33 kW) 3099 mm
C-60 1920-1922 6 row 58 bhp (43 kW) 3175-3226 mm
D-66 1923-1924 6 row 66 bhp (49.2 kW) 3226 mm

Production numbers

year Production number
1917 250
1918 749
1919 484
1920 1433
1921 1263
1922 791
1923 357
1924 473
total 5800

Web links

Commons : Bessemer-American Motors Corporation  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

literature

  • 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 , pp. 35-36 (English).
  • George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 1: A – F. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 49. (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Halwart Schrader, Jan P. Norbye: Lastwagen International - All brands 1900 to today , Schrader Verlag, 1992, ISBN 978-3-921796-01-6 , p. 20.