Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company
legal form Company
founding 1908
resolution 1912
Reason for dissolution Acquisition by Studebaker Corporation
Seat Detroit , Michigan , USA
management Walter E. Flanders
Number of employees 5700
Branch Automobiles
Status: 1910

emblem
EMF from 1912 (front)
EMF from 1912 (side view)
EMF Model 30 Roadster (1912)
Advert from the Netherlands, 1912
emblem
Flanders from 1910
A Flanders Model 20 in preparation for the 1911 Glidden Tour from New York to Jacksonville, Florida. The vehicle also took part in the test and passed it without any errors.

The Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company was an early American automobile manufacturer from Detroit , producing from 1908 to 1912. The company's name is derived from the initials of its three founders ago: Barney E veritt , a wheelwright from Detroit, William M etzger , formerly of Cadillac active and Walter F landers , operations manager at Henry Ford .

Origins

Everitt

Byron F. "Barney" Everitt was born in Ridgetown, Ontario in 1872 and learned to build wagons in Chatham. In the early 1890s he worked for the Wagnerei Hugh Johnson in Detroit. In 1899 he opened his own business and did orders from Ransom Olds and Henry Ford. Around 1904 he assembled his first automobile, the Wayne . From 1909 to 1912 he manufactured automobiles under his own name.

Butcher

William E. Metzger was born in Peru, Illinois in 1868. He was one of the earliest auto dealers, buyers, and resellers, and opened what is believed to be Detroit's first dealership in the late 1890s. He was a key figure in the "Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers" and organized the first car races in Grosse Pointe . In 1902 he allied with the Northern Manufacturing Company and also worked with Cadillac , getting them orders at the New York Automobile Show in January 1903.

Flanders

Walter E. Flanders was born in Rutland, Vermont, in 1871. He was a mechanic, trained in sewing machine repair and maintenance with the Singer Corporation, and then worked at the Thomas S. Walburn Machine Factory in Cleveland, Ohio in the late 1890s . This company received an order for 1,000 crankshafts from Henry Ford and managed to impress the client. In the early 1900s, Flanders worked again with Walburn, this time for Ford at the Ford Piquette plant on the corner of Puiquette Street and Beaubien Street in Detroit. Flanders became operations manager at this plant, where he also worked with two future Vice Presidents of Ford, Peter E. Martin and Charles E. Sorensen . These two gentlemen succeeded Flanders in his post when he suddenly resigned on April 21, 1908. Flanders' specialty was the installation of efficient manufacturing processes and methods in the plant where engineers developed the T-Modell in late 1907 , production of which began in 1908 and which presumably led to the invention of the modern assembly line when demand increased enormously in 1910.

Company history

The company was founded on June 2, 1908. Starting in 1908, it produced its own models and agreed with the Studebaker Corporation to sell it through their network of carriage dealers. The brand name was EMF , even in the spelling EMF , EMF and E * M * F . Production took place in the former Wayne and Northern plants, among others. The delivery of factory superstructures was the first major order for the young bodybuilder Fisher Body Co.

In 1909 Everitt and Metzger left the company. Flanders now managed it alone. He also introduced the Flanders brand . In the first two years of its existence, EMF had sold vehicles worth US $ 21 million and generated US $ 3 million in profits. In Detroit, EMF was the second largest employer with 5700 employees, behind General Motors with 10,000 and ahead of Packard with 4640 and Ford with 2595.

In the second half of 1909, relations with the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company deteriorated. The company had a new president in John M. Studebaker's son-in-law Frederick Samuel Fish (1852–1936). Fish had previously driven automotive projects such as the Studebaker Electric and the cooperation with Tincher and Garford in the company. He now saw a chance to take control of EMF. The method of choice was a hostile takeover : Fish ordered Studebaker to stop accepting vehicle deliveries and assumed that this would force Flanders into sales negotiations in which Studebaker could dictate the terms. Flanders initially fought back successfully. On December 9, 1909, he announced the termination of the contract with Studebaker due to non-performance. As a result, the Studebaker agencies lost their EMF franchise . At the same time, Flanders began to recruit car dealers. He offered regional representations to the four largest of the former resellers. The new EMF sales network was up and running within two weeks, without any interruption in production or financial bottlenecks. Fish countered with a lawsuit against EMF; but he lost this procedure because Studebaker had breached a contract. In a next step, Fish approached the former owners of the Wayne Automobile Company and the Northern Motor Car Compny . These had been compensated for the sale of their companies with EMF shares, for which Studebaker has now submitted a purchase offer. Bank JP Morgan conducted the negotiations for Studebaker . The purchase was completed on March 10, 1910. Studebaker was now not only the majority owner of EMF, but also the sole owner, because Flanders had also sold its shares. This made him, like Everitt and Metzger before, a rich man and made other automotive projects possible: Flanders Manufacturing Company (1912–1913), Flanders Motor Company (1913) and Flanders Electric Company (1914–1915). Flanders received a three-year contract as EMF managing director from the new owners. In total, the deal cost Studebaker US $ 5 million.

On February 14, 1911, the Studebaker Corporation was created from the merger of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing with the Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company with a capital of US $ 15.4 million .7 million increased. The aim was to bring Studebaker's numerous activities and holdings under one roof. Fish became president of the new company, Flanders remained in charge of the automobile division until 1912. In the same year the brand names EMF and Flanders were dropped and all automobiles were now sold as Studebaker.

vehicles

Brand name EMF

The only model was the EMF Thirty . It had a four-cylinder engine with 30 hp . The first vehicles had problems with overheated engines. Competitors and scoffers soon said that EMF stood for "Every Morning Fix-it", "Every Mechanical Fault" or "Every Miss Fire" (any kind of misfire). Quarrels between the owners led to further problems.

Despite the problems, EMF had its own growing market. In 1909, EMF was fourth among US automakers (with 7,960 vehicles produced), only defeating Ford , Buick and Maxwell . Cadillac took fifth place. In 1910 the company built 15,020 automobiles and again took fourth place behind Ford, Buick and Overland . In 1911 it was already the second place with 26,827 automobiles produced.

From 1908 to 1909 the chassis had a wheelbase of 269 ​​cm . In 1910 the wheelbase was lengthened to 274 cm and in 1912 to 284 cm. Various bodies such as touring cars , tourabouts , roadsters and coupes were available.

year model cylinder Power ( hp ) Wheelbase (cm) construction
1908-1909 Model 30 4th 30th 269 Touring car 5-seat, Tourabout 4-seat, Demi-Tonneau 4-seat, Roadster 3-seat
1910 Model 30 4th 30th 274 5-seater touring car
1911 Model 30 4th 30th 274 5-seater touring car, 2-seater coupé, roadster
1912 Model 30 4th 30th 284 Fore-Door touring car 5-seat, Demi-Tonneau 4-seat, Roadster 2-seat, Coupé

Brand name Flanders

The only model was the Flanders Twenty . It had a four-cylinder engine with 20 hp. 92.075 mm bore and 95.25 mm stroke resulted in a displacement of 2537 cm³ . The wheelbase was initially 254 cm and from 1912 259 cm. The vehicles were available as runabouts , touring cars, roadsters, suburban and coupes.

year model cylinder Power ( hp ) Wheelbase (cm) construction
1910 Model 20 4th 20th 254 Runabout 2-seater, touring car 4-seater
1911 Model 20 4th 20th 254 Runabout 2-seater, Roadster 3-seater, Suburban 4-seater, Coupé 3-seater
1912 Model 20 4th 20th 259 Touring car 4-seater, Suburban 4-seater, Runabout 2-seater, Roadster 3-seater, Coupé 3-seater

The EMF factory

Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company plant. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether the earlier Wayne or De Luxe systems are shown.

Shortly after the takeover of EMF, the Studebaker Corporation merged its actual automobile production at the main plant in South Bend (Indiana) . She still used the EMF systems for the production of the Erskine and Rockne automobiles until early 1933; the last Rockne were also made in South Bend.

On June 20, 2005, the former EMF plant on Piquette Street caught fire and burned to the ground in a few hours.

Trivia

The three original owners, Everitt, Metzger and Flanders, founded the Rickenbacker Motor Company together with Eddie Rickenbacker in 1922 , which existed until 1927.

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. 532-533 and pp. 567-568 (English).
  • George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 1: A-F . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 495-496 (English).
  • Thomas E. Bonsall: More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. Stanford University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-8047-3586-7 .
  • James H. Moloney: Studebaker Cars. Motorbooks International, Osceola WI, Crestline Series , 1994; ISBN 0-87938-884-6 .
  • Ron Kowalke (Ed.): Standard Catalog of Independents: The Struggle to Survive Among Giants. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1999, ISBN 0-87341-569-8

Web links

Commons : Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 , chapter EMF; EMF.
  2. ↑ 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. 532-533 (English).
  3. ↑ George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 1: A-F . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 495-496 (English).
  4. ^ Bonsall: More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. 2000, p. 68.
  5. ↑ George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 1: A-F . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 552-553 (English).
  6. ^ Bonsall: More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. 2000, p. 77.
  7. ↑ a b Bonsall: More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. 2000, pp. 74-77.
  8. ^ Bonsall: More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. 2000, p. 85.
  9. ↑ 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. 567-568 (English).