Orient Electric
The Orient Electric is an American electric vehicle - prototype , in 1898 on behalf of Charles Albert Coffin (1844-1926) at the Waltham Manufacturing Company in Waltham (Massachusetts) was created. There was no series production.
description
The Waltham Manufacturing Company (WMC) was founded in 1893 and manufactured quality bicycles for the Orient brand . Co-founder, company director and technical director was Charles Herman Metz (1863-1937). He experimented with internal combustion engines and built one of the first motorcycles in the USA from 1899–1900 .
In 1898, in addition to these attempts, a private project was run by the two employees, George M. Tinker and John W. Piper, who, with Metz's consent, built a light steam car that, from 1900 onwards, was operated independently of the employer by their Waltham Automobile Company as Waltham and Waltham Steam in the sale came about.
Charles A. Coffin was a co-owner of WMC and the first president of General Electric from 1892 to 1913 . For this company, he explored various technical options for future automobiles. It was obvious that WMC would also be included, even if other projects, such as those by Elihu Thomson (1853–1937) or Hermann Lemp (1862–1954), became more popular. While the Orient Electric was a purely electrically powered vehicle, the two named also built test vehicles with steam and hybrid drives .
In the second half of 1898, George M. Tinker and John W. Piper built said electrical prototypes on the instructions of Coffin. The vehicle had a wheelbase of 1524 mm and weighed around 450 kg. The electric motor , of course, came from General Electric in Lynn, Massachusetts .
The Orient Electric was exhibited at the New York Cycle & Automobile Show January 21-28, 1899 in Madison Square Garden . Resistance to the project arose primarily from within. Tinker and Piper were already working on their own steam car, and Charles Metz and plant manager John Robbins drove the development of a petrol- powered motorized buggy . Soon after, Waltham Manufacturing started its own motorcycle and automobile production with internal combustion engines.
literature
- Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 2nd edition, Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1985, ISBN 0-87341-111-0 (English).
- Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr. (Ed.): Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 . (English).
- GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. 2nd Edition. Dutton Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 (Hardcover, English).