Cantono Electric Tractor Company

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Cantono Electric Tractor Company
legal form Corporation
founding 1904
resolution 1907
Seat Marion , Hudson County , New Jersey , USA
Branch Automobile manufacturer

The Cantono Electric Tractor Company was an American manufacturer of electric automobiles . The company exclusively produced Avant-Trains based on an Italian patent . The brand name was Cantono Electric .

Eugenio Cantono

Eugenio Cantono , a captain in the Italian army, had received a patent for a dynamo towards the end of the 19th century . Based on this, he founded his first company in Rome in 1900 , Eugenio Cantono SA , later reorganized as Cantono Avantreni SA It produced passenger cars and commercial vehicles as Avant-Trains according to its own system. After bankruptcy around 1904 and further reorganizations as SA Ligure-Romana Vetture and Fabbrica Rotabili Avantreni Motori SA , it started producing in Genoa in 1906 under the brand names Cantono and Cantono-FRAM . After 1914 there is no evidence of any more production.

Cantono Electric Tractor Company

The company was founded in Marion (New Jersey) in 1904 and acquired the license to replicate vehicles from the Italian manufacturer and licensor from Cantono in Rome . It used it to produce pre-tensioning devices, so-called fore carriages , as well as complete passenger cars. Unlike the Italian company and other than its own name suggests, the Cantono Electric Tractor Co. decided not to manufacture commercial vehicles.

The idea, although used by several manufacturers, turned out to be a technical dead end. After the life of the converted carriages had expired, Avant-Trains were usually replaced by ever better and cheaper light commercial vehicles. Occasionally a fore carriage was adapted from one vehicle to another, but it did not generate permanent demand. In the USA, with its growing auto industry, it was no longer enough to keep the company alive in 1907, especially since the system cost as much as a mid-range car at that time at US $ 1750 . In terms of price, complete vehicles can be counted towards the luxury segment ; a Winton 20 HP cost from US $ 2500 in 1904, a Packard Model L from US $ 3000 and at Pierce-Arrow prices started at US $ 2500 for the two-cylinder. The most popular car in the US at the time, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash , was available from US $ 650. On the other hand, luxury, closed electrics such as the Columbia models Hansom, Brougham or Coupé were already available for US $ 3500 . In Italy, Cantono and Cantono-FRAM were manufactured until 1913, but for the most part as commercial vehicles. There was a branch in France that manufactured electric trucks until 1914. The petrol engine version available in Italy was not offered in the USA.

technology

The fore carriage is a vehicle component that is mounted on horse-drawn vehicles instead of the front axle and drawbar, turning them into motor vehicles. Avant trains were available with combustion , steam or electric motors . The Cantono system is based on the latter. It consists of the axle itself, the turntable steering with steering column and steering wheel , the battery set attached to the axle and the front wheels, each driven by a DC motor. The electric motors each drive one of the front wheels via gear wheels and also act as front wheel brakes. The steering column is vertical on the vehicle. The carriages made in the USA are literally “horse-less carriages”. Most were posh Brougham built and as such markets. As far as is known, they correspond to the first version of the Italian models; the second of these with a hood on the front under which the batteries were housed are not known from the USA.

The Italian company offered band brakes on the rear axle of some commercial vehicles . It appears that the Cantono Electric Tractor Company has generally used these brakes on their complete vehicles. The Cantono brands are among the earliest suppliers of four-wheel brakes, which only became generally accepted in the 1920s.

vehicles

The vehicles of the Cantono Electric Tractor Company may be considered pleasure cars , as the early passenger cars were called in the USA.

construction time Design List price Remarks
1904-1907 Electric  Fore-Carriage US $ 1750.- Control unit as an installation kit
1904-1905 Electric Brougham US $ 3500.-
1906 Electric Victoria US $ 2900.-
1906-1907 Electric Extension-front Brougham US $ 3100.- (1906)
US $ 3500.- (1907)

Other Avant-Trains from the USA (selection)

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 .
  • George Nick Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present ; Dutton Press, New York, 2nd edition (hardcover) 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 .
  • GN Georgano (Ed.), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. Motor Books International, Osceola WI 1979, ISBN 0-87341-024-6 .
  • Albert Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1996; ISBN 0-87341-368-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1996, pp. 252-253.
  2. ↑ Grace's Guide: Engineering 1899; Jan-Jun: Index: Patent_Record; Electrical Apparatus.
  3. ^ Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January 1904): The Automobile of 1904.
  4. ^ Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January 1904): The Automobile of 1904. , p. 10.
  5. ^ Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January 1904): The Automobile of 1904. , p. 24.
  6. ↑ Georgano, Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. 1979, pp. 121-122.
  7. ^ Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. P. 172.
  8. ^ Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles . 1996, p. 6.
  9. ^ Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles . 1996, p. 14.
  10. ^ Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles . 1996, pp. 63-64.