Charles Jasper Glidden

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Charles Jasper and Lucy Glidden during their circumnavigation of the world in London

Charles Jasper Glidden (born August 29, 1857 in Lowell, Massachusetts , † September 11, 1927 ) was an American telephone pioneer, financier and promoter of the automobile in the United States. Charles Glidden and his wife Lucy were the first to circumnavigate the world in an automobile in 1902, and again in 1908.

Life

Glidden was the son of Nathaniel Glidden and his wife Laura (née Clark). He came from a family who had come to America in 1664 . His professional career began at the age of 15. At 20 he was a branch manager at the Atlantic-Pacific Telegraph Company . He recognized the possibilities of the telephone early on and experimented with Alexander Graham Bell on telephone connections via telegraph lines. Glidden funded the construction of telephone lines in Manchester, New Hampshire and was the first to recognize that the female voice was better suited to the early telephone sets than the male. He used telephone operators accordingly. The telephone exchange program he initiated grew into a syndicate that covered the U.S. states of Ohio , Minnesota , Arkansas, and Texas , among others . The first long-distance telephone connection (from Lowell, Massachusetts to Boston ) was also created on his initiative.

On July 10, 1878, he married Lucy Emma Clegworth of Manchester, New Hampshire.

Charles Glidden believed that the automobile would not just remain a toy for the rich, but would evolve into a means of transport to be taken seriously. On the one hand, the reliability of the horseless car had to be proven and a reasonable road system had to be created. (At that time, longer journeys were made by train or river steamer.) In 1901 he sold his company to Bell and turned to these new destinations as a private individual. In the same year he successfully undertook a trip to the Arctic Circle accompanied by his wife.

In 1902 he circumnavigated the world, again accompanied by his wife, in a British Napier . This more than extraordinary journey took him over 46,528 miles, through 39 states and ultimately twice around the world. He traveled to countries in which one had never seen an automobile before. The prerequisite for this undertaking was meticulous preparation. He even carried special bikes with him so that he could ride on railway tracks. Always impeccably dressed, he was eager for publicity, which he used for the automotive industry. He corresponded with countless local and international newspapers. In this way he traveled to practically every continent until 1908.

Glidden Tour

In 1904 he took part in the first American Automobile Association (AAA) reliability drive from New York City to St. Louis . Because he was of the opinion that this event should be held regularly, he donated a silver cup and an amount of 2000 US dollars , which was very high for the time , which he repeated annually from then on. The AAA held this Glidden Reliability Tour regularly between 1905 and 1913. The aim was to cover a certain distance within a certain period of time and not miss a checkpoint . The winner was determined by a point system.

The first Glidden Tour was still felt to be too easy; the participants voted together on the winner. Incidentally, this was not Charles Glidden with his Napier, but Percy Pierce on an imposing Pierce Great Arrow . Then the route became longer and more demanding.

The Glidden Tour was never a drive: It led on ever new routes over several hundred miles of virtually pathless terrain in the USA and occasionally in Canada. Many wagons could not withstand this brutal treatment and there were also incidents, for example with shy horses. However, it was a matter of honor that the teams helped each other out and Glidden is said to have paid road tolls from private pockets to some local authorities or to replace their poultry for farmers. The victory in a Glidden Tour became a matter of prestige, which motivated more and more manufacturers to participate and which, if successful, was marketed accordingly. The regulations suffered from the requirement that every vehicle had to be driven by the owner. Thought to ensure that private initiative was promoted, this requirement turned into the opposite: executives of the major manufacturers simply registered with their private car.

In 1946 the Glidden Tour was revived by the Veteran Motor Car Club of America (VMCCA) and has taken place every year since then, but in a more touristy setting and with veteran vehicles . It is considered the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in the USA. And the winner is still given the silver cup donated by Charles Glidden in 1905.

Glidden continued his own travels. From 1908 he began to promote aviation. He advocated the lighter than air technology ( balloon flight ) and was of the opinion that private planes would prevail in the same way as motorcycles.

Charles Jasper Glidden died of cancer on September 11, 1927. He saw the breakthrough of the automobile as the most important means of transport.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Editor), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942. 2nd Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI (1985), ISBN 0-87341-111-0 . (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X (hardcover). (English)
  • James J. Flink: America Adopts the Automobile - 1895-1910 , MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), 1970. ISBN 0-262 06036-1 (hardcover). (English)

Web links

Commons : Charles Jasper Glidden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flink: America Adopts the Automobile - 1895-1910 (1970), pp. 41-42
personal data
SURNAME Glidden, Charles Jasper
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American telephone pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Lowell, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1927