Kearns Motor Buggy

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Kearns Motor Buggy Company
Kearns Motor Truck Company
Kearns-Dughie Motor Company
legal form Company
founding 1909
resolution 1928
Seat Danville , Pennsylvania , USA
Branch Motor vehicle manufacturer

Kearns Model F (1911)
Kearns Senior (1913)

The Kearns Motor Buggy Company was an American automobile manufacturer in Beavertown, Pennsylvania . Passenger cars were built there from 1909 to 1916 and commercial vehicles from 1909 to 1920. From 1920 to 1928 it existed as the Kearns-Dughie Motor Company based in Danville (Pennsylvania) , where chassis for fire engines and complete trucks were manufactured.

Maxwell Kearns took over the Eureka Motor Buggy Company in 1909 and reorganized it as the Kearns Motor Buggy Company . The company name was changed to Kearns Motor Truck Company in 1911 . At the same time as production was relocated to Danville in 1920, the company was renamed Kearns-Dughie Motor Company . The production of trucks and fire engines ended in 1928.

Highwheeler

The Eureka Motor Buggy Company had produced a less successful highwheeler in 1907–1909, each with a two- or three-cylinder engine, which, unusual in this category, was housed in the front under a hood and not under the seat. First of all, the smaller of the two, Eureka Model D 12/14 PS , continued to be built with practically no adjustments and in the same premises. Until the beginning of 1910 the vehicles of the Kearns Motor Buggy Company were still sold as Eureka , after which the brand name was changed to Kearns . The Eureka Model D became the Kearns Storm Queen Doctor's Special ; unchanged the remained two-cylinder - two-stroke engine of the brand Speed-well with air cooling , the drive with friction and drive chain (s) and narrow but very large wooden spoke wheels with hard rubber tires. The price increased from US $ 650 to US $ 700.

In 1910 a number of models with two or three cylinder engines appeared, which Speedwell continued to buy . Depending on the source, the latter produced 15 to 20 hp according to the calculation method used at the time. From 1912 the customer had the choice between air or water cooling .

Kearns Motor Truck Company

In the same year, Kearns turned to the construction of commercial vehicles and conventional passenger cars with four-cylinder, four- stroke engines . It seems that the last ones were built on the truck chassis. In 1913, an advanced wage system was introduced that allowed workers to participate in the company. In the same year, the company stopped building highwheelers and now almost exclusively produced commercial vehicles. A market was recognized for cyclecars and built in 1914/1915 with the Kearns Lulu a seriously constructed model. With a displacement of 1557 cm³ , however, the vehicle did not meet the criteria for cycle cars. It was a roadster available or Speedster and resembled a scaled-down version of the Model T Ford . Originally it was supposed to appear as Kearns Kar and Kearns Electric; both were abandoned early.

In 1916 the trio came out, a small car on which three different bodies - a roadster with 2 seats, a touring car with 4 seats or a delivery van - could be attached with just four screws, according to customer requirements .

Cyclecars, however, only survived in the United States for a short time between about 1912 and 1916; most manufacturers gave up before 1916. Kearns Lulu and Trio were among the better offerings of their kind; atypically they even offered four-cylinder engines. Nevertheless, they could not prevail against the triumphant advance of the Ford Model T : Lulu cost US $ 450 in both versions, Ford lowered the prices for its two-seater Model T Runabout from US $ 525 in the 1913 model year to US $ 500 in the following Year and 1915 to US $ 440.00. The five-seat Touring was only marginally more expensive. When Ford lowered the list price for the Runabout to US $ 390 in 1916 and then to US $ 345, Kearns and the trio were on the market. However, depending on the body, this cost US $ 600–650, - or 750, - and was therefore no longer a competitor.

model Construction period cylinder power wheelbase Superstructures
Storm Queen Doctor's Special 1909 2 row 12 bhp (8.8 kW) 2032 mm Runabout 2 seats
Models D, F, K and N 1910 2 row 14 bhp (10.3 kW) Roadster 2/3 seats, Surrey, Runabout
Models G and L 1910 3 row 20 bhp (14.7 kW) Roadster 2/3 seats
Models F, K and R 1911 3 row 20 bhp (14.7 kW) 2540-2794 mm Roadster 2 seats, Tourabout 4 seats, Surrey 4 seats
Models H and J 1912 4 row 32 bhp (23.5 kW) 2921 mm Runabout 2 seats, Tourabout 4 seats
Senior 1913 3 row 26.4 bhp (19.4 kW) 2540 mm Surrey 2 seats
Lulu 1914-1915 4 row 12 bhp (8.8 kW) 2438 mm Roadster 2 seats, Speedster 2 seats
trio 1916 4 row 12 bhp (8.8 kW) 2286 mm Roadster 2 seats, touring car 4 seats, van 2 seats

Car production figures

The medium-sized company only had a small automobile production, in its prime (1915), 215 cars were built.

year production
1909 109
1910 117
1911 121
1912 137
1913 152
1914 183
1915 215
1916 117

commercial vehicles

The first truck for a brewery was built in 1909. It had the air-cooled Speedwell three-cylinder engine, a friction gear, a drive with one chain per rear wheel and a steering wheel instead of the "cowtail" steering lever. From 1911 onwards, production ran parallel to the passenger cars and, since at least 1912, customers could choose between air and water cooling. At the same time, the company was reorganized under the name Kearns Motor Truck Company . This division gained in importance. In 1914 a 1.5 ton truck appeared, the chassis of which was quite inexpensive at US $ 900. A larger truck with a chassis costing US $ 1175 had a four-cylinder, 20 hp, three-speed gearbox and Hotchkiss drive . It appears that some of these chassis were bodied as passenger cars. From 1918 there was a light half-ton truck with Lycoming and heavier trucks from 1½ tons with Herschell-Spillman engines.

When sales of cycle cars collapsed in the USA in 1916, the company switched to manufacturing commercial vehicles and gave up building cars.

Kearns-Dughie Motor Company

At the same time as production was relocated to Danville in 1920, it was reorganized as the Kearns-Dughie Motor Company .

In 1925 there was a collaboration with the Foamite-Childs Corporation , a then well-known manufacturer of fire extinguishing equipment and fire departments. The production of trucks and fire engines ended in 1929 after Foamite-Childs had been taken over by American LaFrance the previous year and their fire engine production was shut down.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Ed.), Henry Austin Clark, Jr. Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1985, ISBN 0-87341-045-9 . (English)
  • 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 . (English)
  • George Nick Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. 2nd Edition. Dutton Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 . (English)
  • GN Georgano (Ed.), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI 1979, ISBN 0-87341-024-6 . (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Publisher SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions. Warrendale PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X . (English)
  • Walter MP McCall: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Fire Engine Manufacturers. Iconografix, Hudson WI 2009, ISBN 978-1-58388-252-8 . (English)
  • Fred Crismon: Fire Engines. (= Crestline series ). MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI 1997, ISBN 0-7603-0381-9 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Kearns  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Kimes / Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. (1996), p. 803.
  2. ↑ a b c d Georgiano / Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. (1979), p. 354.
  3. ^ Kimes / Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. (1996), pp. 797-798.
  4. ↑ a b c trombinoscar.com: Kearns Lulu Cyclecar (1913).
  5. ↑ a b Kimes / Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. (1996), p. 579.
  6. ↑ a b Kimes / Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. (1996), p. 580.
  7. ^ Kimes / Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. (1996), p. 581.
  8. ↑ coachbuilt.com: OJ Childs, Foamite-Childs, Kearns-Dughie.