Schoeneck Company

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The Owen-Schoeneck Company in Chicago ( Illinois ) and its successor Schoeneck Company in Harvey (Illinois) was a short-lived American automakers in Harvey (Illinois). The vehicles were sold under the brand name OS resp. Geneva sold.

Owen-Schoeneck Company (1914-1915)

The Owen-Schoeneck Company was founded in 1914 by John L. Owen and George Schoeneck to conduct auto trade and manufacture. Your OS named car was an assembled car , i.e. H. its essential components were bought in. The chief engineer was Schoeneck, who had driven a few races in 1910 and worked for Renault in France and Palmer-Singer in Long Island City ( New York ), among others . The four-cylinder engine of the conventionally built, just as Touring available OS providedHerschell-Spillman . At a time when a Ford Model T touring cost US $ 550 (1914), the OS carried a US $ 2350 price tag; it was therefore to be classified as an entry-level model in the upper class. However, it was precisely this claim that stood in the way of the image of the assembled cars , which were actually of very different manufacturing quality; the best like the Cole or the Biddle or a little later the Roamer or Revere kept up. Still, no assembled car in this class got beyond an outsider role.

Owen-Schoenbeck did not have an agent network and sold his cars "directly from the factory" to end users. Plans to build a factory came to nothing and in late 1915 Owen left the company.

Schoeneck Company (1916-1917)

In the following year Forrest U. Alvin bought himself a partner; he had previously headed the New Era Engineering Company , which had manufactured an unsuccessful small car of the same name. The company used the fresh capital to finance new production capacities in Harvey .

Schoeneck had meanwhile developed a new six-cylinder model - or better: put it together, because this car was also an assembled car . The engine came from Herschell-Spillman, the gearbox and clutch from Brown-Lipe and the axles from Timken . It no longer appeared as an OS , but under the new Geneva brand . It is doubtful whether that was helpful, there were several car brands with the same name. The US $ 2350 price tag for the OS was held for the more exclusive Geneva as well.

The Geneva was not up to the competition ; a comparable Buick D-55 only cost US $ 1445, the excellent Hudson Super Six only US $ 1375.

There were no ties to any of the other US manufacturers of Geneva-branded automobiles : Geneva Automobile & Manufacturing Company , Geneva Auto Specialty & Repair Company, and Geneva Wagon Company .

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Editor), 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)
  • 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)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X . (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kimes (1985), p. 554
  2. ↑ Kimes (1985), pp. 116-117
  3. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 1242
  4. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 1050
  5. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 999
  6. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 608
  7. ^ Kimes (1985), p. 160
  8. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 695