Selden Motor Vehicle Company

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Selden car model 25

The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was an American automobile manufacturer. The company was founded in Rochester , New York in 1906 . The company produced passenger cars from 1907 to 1914 and trucks from 1913 to 1932 .

history

The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was founded by patent attorney and inventor George Baldwin Selden , the first holder of a US patent for the manufacture of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles . He was the holder of the Selden patent , a patent for the use of an internal combustion engine to drive four-wheeled vehicles, and was considered one of the inventors of automobiles in the United States during the controversial early days of automobile production.

To protect these patents, the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM) was founded, which included several important vehicle manufacturers such as Cadillac, Winton, Packard, Locomobile, Knox and Peerless, but not including Ford . The Electric Vehicle Company of William Collins Whitney , the Selden 1899, the patent was sold, tried (until just prior to patent expiration in 1912 with success) all manufacturers of petrol cars to control.

The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was officially founded in 1906 after the acquisition of the Buffalo Petrol Motor Company . The advertising slogan: "Father of all patents" was very helpful for the young company. The first Selden vehicles were delivered in June 1907. The cars had four-cylinder in- line engines and cost around $ 2,500. The value of a well-preserved Selden car is around $ 25,000 today.

production

In 1908 Selden cars could be completed in a number of only 850 cars. In 1909 production rose to 1,216, in 1910 it was 1,417, and in 1911 Selden was able to increase production to 1,628 vehicles. In 1911 Selden received the news that his patent could not be enforced. After a fire at the factory in the summer of that year, the company was restructured in the fall by its new developer, Frederick Law, who built the Columbia gas car for the Electric Motor Company . 1912 were 1211, in 1913 873 cars could be built. In the last year of production, 1914, 229 cars were built.

Selden had produced his car types as touring, runabout, roadster and sedans with 30 or 40 hp four-cylinder engines. In 1913, Selden founded the Selden Truck Sales Corporation for trucks, which also took part in the production of the Liberty truck . The company produced until 1930 when it was taken over by the Bethlehem Truck Company .

Model overview

Below is a list of the individual models.

year model cylinder Power ( hp ) Wheelbase (cm) construction
1907-1908 Model 28 4th 30th 277 Touring car, runabout, limousine
1909 Model 29 4th 30th 290 5-seat touring car, 6-seat sedan, 3-seat and 4-seat roadster, 4-seat and 5-seat toy tonneau
1910 Model 35 4th 40 296 5-seater touring car, torpedo tonneau, 3-seater and 4-seater roadster
1910 Model 35-L 4th 28 290 6-seater sedan
1910 Model 35-S 4th 40 311 7-seater touring car
1911 Model 40-R 4th 40 318 Roadster 3-seater
1911 Model 40-S 4th 40 310 5-seater touring car
1911 Model 40-T 4th 40 295 5-seater touring car
1911 Model 44 4th 40 315 Torpedo 4-seater
1911 Model 45 4th 40 318 Torpedo 5-seater
1911 Model 46 4th 40 318 Torpedo 6-seater
1912 Model 47 4th 40 318 5-seater and 7-seater touring car, 4-seater torpedo, 2-seater roadster, 7-seater sedan
1913 Model 48 4th 40 318 5-seater and 7-seater touring car, 4-seater torpedo, 2-seater roadster, 7-seater sedan
1914 Model 48 4th 40 318 5-seater and 7-seater touring car, 4-seater torpedo, 2-seater roadster, 7-seater sedan

Production numbers

According to a source, a total of 7,424 passenger cars were built .

year Production number
1908 850
1909 1216
1910 1417
1911 1628
1912 1211
1913 873
1914 229
total 7424

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1337-1338 (English).

Web links

Commons : Selden Motor Vehicle Company  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1337-1338 (English).