Rutenber Motor Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rutenber Motor Company (until 1902)
Western Motor Co. (1902–1912)
Rutenber Motor Company (from 1912)
legal form Company
founding 1902 or earlier
resolution 1913 or later
Seat Logansport , Indiana , USA
Number of employees 300-400 (1907)
Branch Engines , automobiles

The Rutenber Motor Company was founded as the Rutenber Manufacturing Company in Chicago , Illinois to build a four-cylinder engine based on Edwin Rutenber's plans .

description

Engine from 1914

Rutenber learned the trade of mechanic and built a single-cylinder engine around 1892. In 1898 he made the first four-cylinder engine in the United States. A single cylinder engine with 6 bhp (4.4 kW) was built into his automobile prototype by Frank Eckhart in 1900 , which formed the basis for the automobile manufacturer Auburn . Auburn used Rutenber engines until around 1923.

1902 moved Rutenber his company to Logansport , Indiana and named it in Motor Co. Western order. There the company built four- and six-cylinder engines for the developing automotive industry. Rutenber himself also briefly built a car in 1902 - ten were made - but soon gave up and concentrated on engines. In 1907 Rutenber had 300-400 employees and sold engines throughout the United States.

From 1905 Rutenber engines were installed in automobiles from Stoddard-Dayton , which were particularly known for their high performance and great speed; a Stoddard-Dayton won the Indianapolis race in 1909. In 1905, Moon presented his first car with a four-cylinder engine with 35 bhp (26 kW) in Detroit. In 1907 a Rutenber engine with 60 bhp (44 kW) drove the Meteor , which drove from Chicago to St. Louis - a distance of 644 km - in 23 hours. When Auburn expanded its program into the upper class with the Six-50 , a 6.9 liter, side-controlled Rutenber six-cylinder with a seven-way bearing crankshaft was used. Each cylinder was cast individually. A fan driven by the camshaft supported the water cooling, which supplied each cylinder head via its own line. On the left side of the engine there were two air intake ports (for three cylinders each) and the exhaust manifold . In 1913 the Moon was also equipped with a six-cylinder Rutenber engine. Rutenber engines were also used in many other cars from previously independent US automakers:

Rutenber engines were also found in early Indiana trucks, De Berry planes, Wetmore tractors, Howe fire trucks, and boats. Some of these motors were also used to drive carousels.

In 1912 Edwin Rutenber sold the shares in his company and the naming rights. The company was renamed the Rutenber Motor Company. Edwin Rutenber then dealt with the manufacture of electrical devices.

Albert C. Barley , a board member of Rutenber, bought what was left of the Streator Motor Car Company in 1913 and went into business for himself. This resulted in a business relationship and Barley sourced Rutenber engines for several brands of the new Barley Motor Car Company .

In 1973 a descendant of Edwin Rutenber donated a Rutenber motor to the Smithsonian Institution .

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 2nd Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1985, ISBN 0-87341-111-0 . (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes (ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI (1996), ISBN 978-0-87341-428-9 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)
  • Don Butler: Auburn Cord Duesenberg. Crestline Publishing, Crestline Series. 1992, ISBN 0-87938-701-7 . (English)
  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .

Web links

Commons : Rutenber Motor Company  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Butler (1992), p. 43
  2. ^ Linz, Halwart Schrader: The international automobile encyclopedia ; Crescent VI
  3. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 640
  4. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 907
  5. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 (Middletown).
  6. ↑ earlyamericanautomobiles.com: Automobile 1917
  7. ↑ Kimes (1996), p. 1470