Sears Motor Car Works

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Sears Motor Car Works

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founding 1909
resolution 1912
Seat Chicago , Illinois , USA
Branch Automobiles

The Sears Motor Car Works were a subsidiary of the US mail order company Sears Roebuck Company for the production of the Sears Highwheeler, which had previously been manufactured abroad . This technically undemanding automobile is considered to be the first to be sold by mail order.

Motor buggy and high wheeler

According to the language used at the time, the term motor buggy was used for light motor vehicles with an engine mounted in the middle under the vehicle. This applies to both the runabout and the highwheeler . In the literature, the Sears motor vehicle is unanimously assigned to the highwheelers.

Highwheelers are carriage-like motor vehicles built for the mostly poor roads and trails that prevailed outside American cities in the early 20th century. It is named after the huge wooden spoked wheels, which were used to prevent the vehicle from sinking in over the wheel hubs or from touching the floor of the vehicle. Most highwheelers had a gasoline engine and were suitable for the transport of people and goods, but there were also pure cars or trucks.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. and the highwheeler

Sears, Roebuck & Co. letterhead (1907).
Sears, Roebuck & Co. Mailing Center. Aerial photo around 1910.

The Sears, Roebuck and Company was a trading company and pioneering operation of the mail order business and since 2004, together with the retail chain Kmart , a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation .

By Richard Warren Sears , 1886 in Minneapolis ( Minnesota founded), the company in 1893 moved to Chicago ( Illinois ), where it remained from then on. It was a fixture on the market for decades; In rural US households, the Sears & Roebuck catalog is said to have been the second most important book after the Bible at times.

The company had complete motor vehicles in its mail order catalog twice in its history: the Sears Motor Buggy from 1908 to 1912 and the Allstate Four and Six from 1952 to 1953 . These vehicles were made-up versions of the compact car (according to the US standard at the time) Henry J with many components and equipment details from the Sears catalog by the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation for the mail order company .

For the automotive historian Beverly Rae Kimes , 1908 was possibly the most important year in the history of motorization in the USA, because Ford introduced the Model T and Sears, Roebuck & Co. was the first to sell an automobile by mail order.

Model history

Sears Model L (1910–1911) with fenders, running boards, hood and pneumatic tires.

The Sears Motor Buggy was designed by Alvaro S. Krotz . Krotz was deemed an inventor and designer of patents on electrical engineering, production of tires and engine and previously in Springfield (Ohio) , the Krotz - electric car was produced.

Richard Sears attached great importance to a simple and robust construction as well as a low sales price. Although with its underfloor motor, a steering lever instead of a steering wheel, friction gears and rubber-tyred carriage wheels, a high-wheeler appeared to be the right solution. There was a market for these sturdy, easy-to-use and sturdy vehicles, and Chicago was a stronghold for their manufacture with over 100 manufacturers.

Production of the Sears Motor Buggy started in 1908 at the Hercules Buggy Company in Evansville, Indiana . Its founder, William Harvey McCurdy (1853-1930), was a close friend of Richard Sears. The vehicle was first offered in the autumn of 1908 in catalog no. 118 of Sears, Roebuck & Co. and listed there as item numbers 21R333 and 21R444. From 1910, the Sears Motor Car Works described below were responsible for production. It ended in 1912 after an internal cost control showed that the prices asked did not even cover the production costs. The vehicle was then deleted from the program, production was discontinued and Sears Motor Car Works was dissolved. A large part of the machinery and equipment was taken over by the supplier Lincoln Motor Car Works in Chicago (no reference to the current Lincoln brand ), who continued production of the vehicle under the Lincoln brand name for a year before it had to give up.

A little later the listed Sears -Catalog than 5,000 spare parts and accessories for the Ford Model T on.

Krotz had already offered Sears a new and more modern design as a successor to the highwheeler in 1907 . This vehicle was a gasoline-electric hybrid car , which the mail-order company thought was too expensive, too complex and therefore too risky. Soon after, Krotz and partners founded the Krotz-Defiance Auto Buggy Company in Defiance, Ohio , which produced this car until 1911. Sears stuck to the high wheel concept and established the Sears Motor Car Works in Chicago in 1909 . It was based at the intersection of Harrison Street and Loomis Street .

Both Hercules and Sears expanded rapidly at the time; it can be assumed that the relocation of production is to be seen against this background. The agreement seems to have been good, because in 1912 Sears McCurdy helped finance the production of stationary engines for the house brand Economy , which had previously been carried out at the Sears subsidiary Holm Machine & Manufacturing Company in Sparta (Michigan) .

At the end of 1909, the production of the slightly modified and slightly more powerful motorized buggy started in the new factory. The bodies for the vehicle continued to be supplied by Hercules in Evansville.

Sears usually delivered the ordered vehicles by rail in transport crates. The customer only needed to mount the enclosed wheels, fenders and other accessories and fill up the fluids - a gallon (approx. 3.8 liters) of gasoline was included - before he could drive off. However, he then had to take care of maintenance and upkeep himself.

commercial vehicles

A cargo box was fitted to all Sears vehicles ex works, which is why the brand is also listed in commercial vehicle catalogs. With the Model N Farm Wagon offered from 1910 . and Model S Truckk , there were also pure commercial vehicle versions on a longer chassis that they shared with the Model P Surrey .

production

Approximately 3,500 vehicles were produced between 1908 and 1912, of which approximately 600 were built in Evansville.

Appreciation

The historian Beverly Rae Kimes called the Sears Motor Buggy a "wonderful" offer for the customers and attested the vehicle a good workmanship.

The manufacturers received some exuberant reviews from their customers. So wrote a Mr. Harry Dobbins from Sharpsburg, Ohio : It hits a horse by far because it won't eat if I don't work with it. When it is stationary, it doesn't knock out and, best of all, it's not afraid of automobiles.

Sears today

A Sears Motor Buggy with pneumatic tires on a demonstration drive at the AACA Fall Meet in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 2009.

It is estimated that around 200 Sears highwheelers have been preserved in museum and private ownership, some of them in running order. At least two were dated before the verifiable production time. The high proportion of vehicles preserved is surprising in that these vehicles are too young to participate in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run .

Automobiles offered by mail order

Allstate Deluxe (1952).

Sears, Roebuck & Co. sent the highwheelers in transport crats. Like other larger items , items ordered from the William Galloway Co. had to be picked up at the company's headquarters. To this end, the company maintained the Galloway Agricultural Club , a nationally known guest house whose facilities were available to customers free of charge.

Remarks

NACC rating 1916–1917.
  1. ↑ According to Linz, Schrader produced as early as 1906, but no further data or details are available. The Krotz prototype is documented for 1907.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1996; ISBN 978-0-87341-428-9 .
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Ed. SAE ( Society of Automotive Engineers ) Permissions, Warrendale PA, 2005; ISBN 0-7680-1431-X .
  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The great automobile encyclopedia. 100 years of history. 2500 brands from 65 countries. BLV Buchverlag Munich, Vienna and Zurich, 1992; ISBN 3-4051-2974-5 .
  • GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. Dutton Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 1973; ISBN 0-525-08351-0 .
  • GN Georgano (Ed.), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI, 1979; ISBN 0-87341-024-6 .
  • Thomas E. Bonsall: More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. Stanford University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-8047-3586-7 .
  • Robert D. Dluhy: American Automobiles of the Brass Era: Essential Specifications of 4,000+ Gasoline Powered Passenger Cars, 1906-1915, with a Statistical and Historical Overview. McFarland & Co Inc. publishers, Jefferson NC, 2013; ISBN 0-78647-136-0 .
  • Albert Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1996; ISBN 0-87341-368-7 .
  • John A. Gunnell (Ed.): Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks, 1896-1986. MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI, 2nd edition, 1993; ISBN 0-87341-238-9 .
  • Robert Gabrick: American Delivery Truck: An Illustrated History. Enthusiast Books, 2014; ISBN 978-158388311-2 .
  • National Automobile Chamber of Commerce (Ed.): Handbook of Automobiles 1915–1916. Dover Publications, 1970.

Web links

Commons : Sears Motor Car Works  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ United States Securities and Exchange Commission: Form 10-K; Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15 (d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 For the Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2015; Sears Holding Corporation. (PDF)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1996, p. 1335 (Sears).
  3. ^ A b Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. 2005, p. 218.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Coachbuilt .: Hercules Body Co.
  5. ↑ a b Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. 1996, p. 347 (Sears).
  6. ^ Sears Motor Buggy Homepage: Technical Information 1908/1909.
  7. ^ A b Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. 2005, p. 331.
  8. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1996, p. 866 (Lincoln).
  9. ^ Mroz: Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. 1996, p. 348 (Sears).
  10. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1996, p. 831 (Krotz).
  11. ^ McCray: Alvaro S. Krotz and the Sears Motor Buggy.
  12. ↑ Trombinoscar: SEARS MODEL N Ranch Wagon 1911 in Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles .
  13. ↑ Vossler, GEM 4/2005: Galloway - Gas Engines Defined Iowa Manufacturer's Career.