Pennington (1895)
The Pennington was a motorcycle designed by the American inventor and impostor Edward Joel Pennington (1858-1911).
History and technology
Pennington filed the patent for a motor vehicle on March 21, 1893 under the name Motor Cycle Company in Cleveland . In 1894 the industrialist Thomas Kane from Racine , Wisconsin got involved as a donor. Pennington and his promises made a convincing impression, including on the press; the rest was done by champagne and cigars .
In 1895 a modified model of the press was presented. Behind the rear axle there was a cylinder on each side that directly propelled the rear wheel via push rods - comparable to the Hildebrand and Wolfmüller . The fuel was trickled into the combustion chamber without a carburetor using a pump. Dry batteries under the tank and an electrical device Pennington called a unique electrical device were supposed to cause the ignition .
The motorcycle is said to have moved under its own power, but Pennington never showed its vehicles more than a hundred yards. The “miracle motorcycle”, the functionality of which is now being questioned, was awarded in the press ever higher speeds and even flight capabilities: 57 mph and 65 feet altitude. This is how the image of the flying motorcycle came about. In July 1895, Pennington held a public demonstration on Grand Avenue, Milwaukee , in which the motorcycle "crawled" more than it drove.
After from Thomas Kane financially nothing get more, Pennington sat down in December 1895 after London from to where Harry John Lawson offer its patents. Lawson and the British Motor Company were busy buying up all of the patents relating to the future motor vehicle market - a profitable business for Pennington. He is said to have received £ 100,000 in cash for the patents and some examples of his machine.
A tandem motorcycle presented in 1896 was sold under the name Kane-Pennington . Submitted in 1896 and patented in 1899, a project called Torpedo followed , a three-wheeled open motor vehicle for a driver seated in the back and three passengers seated on bicycle saddles , but this too remained unsuccessful. In 1900 Pennington declared bankruptcy in a London court . Subsequently, the "nonsense artist" set off again in the USA in order to find donors for new, profitable constructions; all such attempts failed.
literature
- George Nick Georgano: The New Encyclopedia of Motorcars. 1885 to the Present. 2nd Edition. Dutton, New York, NY 1976, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 .
- Herbert Wagner: At The Creation, myth, reality, and the origin of the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, 1901-1909 . Wisconsin Historical Society Press, Madison, WI 2003, ISBN 0-87020-351-7 .
- Wolfgang Wiesner: American motorcycles . 2nd edition, Motorbuch, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-613-01362-2 .
- Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle, a chronological history . Volume 1: 1896-1914 . Megden Publishing Company, Huntington Beach, CA 2001, ISBN 0-9603676-2-4 .
Web links
- Photograph of Pennington's “Torpedo” , around 1897
- US patent for the "Torpedo" dated June 6, 1899
Individual evidence
- ^ Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle. P. 16.
- ↑ U.S. Patent 570440
- ^ Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle. P. 20.
- ^ Scientific American , February 9, 1895.
- ↑ U.S. Patent 574262
- ^ Wolfgang Wiesner: American motorcycles. P. 18.
- ^ George Nick Georgano: The New Encyclopedia of Motorcars. P. 542.
- ^ Herbert Wagner: At The Creation. P. 13.
- ^ Herbert Wagner: At The Creation. Pp. 13, 14.
- ^ Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle. P. 21.
- ↑ bicycles. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 301, 1896, pp. 175-182.
- ^ Stephen Wright: The American Motorcycle. P. 19.
- ^ Wolfgang Wiesner: American motorcycles. P. 18.
