George White Buggy Company

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The George White Buggy Company was an American manufacturer of carriages and wagons and an automobile only offered in 1909 .

George O. White

The coach builder George Oscar White had set up his own business in Greenville, Pennsylvania in the 1880s and was brought to Moline, Illinois in 1886 , where he became the managing director and board member of JH Wilson Moline Buggy Company , a manufacturer of wagons and carriages for passenger transport ( Buggies , Phaetons and Surreys ). With the bankers and entrepreneurs Philemon Libby Mitchell († 1895) and Frank Mixter (1853-1934) as investors, White went into business in 1891 and founded the Rock Island Buggy Company . Mitchell and Mixter already owned the State Bank of Rock Island , the Rock Island Stove Company, and the Rock Island Glass Works, and had interests in the Republic Oil Refining Company and the Rock Island Children's Carriage Works . They also were among the organizers of the public Pferdebahn Moline and Rock Iceland Horse Railway (later Davenport and Rock Iceland Street Railway System ).

George White Buggy Company

In 1896 White left this company and founded the George White Buggy Company in Rock Island, Illinois . The company expanded rapidly and grew to become one of the industry leaders in the Midwest with around 3000 horse buggies built in 1899 . The successful businessman bought the house at 23rd Street 603 in Rock Island in 1903 and remodeled it in a colonial style. The building is preserved.

Highwheeler

In 1909 the company set up a department for the construction of automobiles. The George White was a highwheeler with iron-tyred carriage wheels 36 inches (91.5 cm) in diameter at the front and 38 inches (96.5 cm) at the rear. Most of the highwheelers were crude, usually carriage-like vehicles. The automobiles with their eponymous, huge wooden spoke wheels experienced their heyday between around 1907 and 1912. They were intended for the unpaved roads outside of built-up areas.

The George White was constructed more elaborately than a typical highwheeler ; Modern were the use of a steel chassis instead of reinforced wood, as well as the position of the engine in the front under a hood instead of under the driver's seat, and magneto ignition . For the power transmission by means of a two-speed planetary gear , the usual drive chain was not used (some highwheelers had two), but a cardan shaft , which was also guided in a tube. The class standard two-cylinder engine was a four-stroke - Boxer with air cooling of unknown origin. The engine developed 14 hp .

Apart from the wheels, the vehicle came close to conventional designs from that time. It was a right-hand drive with an external gearshift and brake. It is known that four body versions were offered, of which a two-seater and a Surrey are occupied.

Interestingly, the target was a more urban clientele that they hoped to find in Chicago. The company seems to have quickly lost interest in this vehicle; Although an expansion of production had been announced in July 1909, it was no longer offered by 1910.

Occasionally the car is also listed as White , which can lead to confusion with the automobiles and utility vehicles of the same name from the White Motor Company .

White's permanent top

A little later, however, George White pursued another idea in the automotive sector: The White's Permanent Top . Available for the Roadster and Touring versions of the Ford Model T , it replaces their factory-supplied fabric top. It was firmly mounted; the construction, lined with mohair , consisted of the roof itself as well as removable glass doors and side windows. In winter, the weather protection almost corresponded to that of a sedan , in summer the side windows could be removed and the original doors inserted.

The White roof was constructed quite elaborately and offered a textile roof cover. In contrast to the standard door, White's door also had handles on the inside. The door frames were covered with mohair. That had its price: the roof cost US $ 50 for a 1913-1916 Roadster, US $ 65 for a 1913-1914 Touring and US $ 67.50 for a 1915-1916 Roadster. The list price for a new Ford at the end of 1916 was only US $ 345 (Roadster) or US $ 360 for the three-door touring.

The company later also produced car batteries.

See also

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (eds.) And Henry Austin Clark, jr .: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 2nd edition, Krause Publications, Iola WI 54990, USA (1985), ISBN 0-87341-111-0 . (English)
  • 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 . (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ rockisland.civicplus.com: Philemon Libby Mitchell
  2. ↑ a b c d american-automobiles.com: George White Buggy Co.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Kimes (1985), p. 608.
  4. ↑ George Oscar White
  5. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
  6. ↑ a b c Kimes (1985), illus. P. 608.
  7. ↑ a b c american-automobiles.com: White Automobile & George White Buggy Co.
  8. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 556.