Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing

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Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company stock on March 31, 1910

The Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania ) is a former American manufacturer of electrical components, generators and electric vehicles . The company also developed a luxury car that may have been manufactured first in the United States and then in France.

Hub Electric

George Westinghouse began to be involved in the manufacture of automobiles around the turn of the century. With the acquisition of 1,901 troubled Hub Motor Company of Charles Berg and HL Irwin from Chicago ( Illinois ), he came into the possession of patents to drive the cars of this small manufacturer. The Hub Electric presented in 1899 had electric motors in each wheel hub, a system similar to that of the Lohner-Porsche "Semper Vivus". The patents on which the Hub Electric is based, however, were based on the findings of Fred J. Newman and the engineer and designer Joseph Ledwinka (1869–1949), later one of the designers of the Ruxton .

Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company was responsible for these electric vehicles . The production of the Hub Electric with two or four seats seems to have stopped quite soon. It is possible, but not proven, that Westinghouse assembled a few other Hub Electric passenger cars under its own name . Mainly, however, an order for 40 buses with wheel hub drives was carried out. Their bodies were built by the American Carriage Company in Cincinnati ( Ohio ). These buses for an unknown client may be the very first commercial vehicles with all-wheel drive. The production of such vehicles ended in 1903.

Westinghouse 40 hp

This was followed by the design of a conventional passenger car with a combustion engine. This vehicle was available as a "rolling chassis" (drivable but without a body), as a touring and as a chauffeur limousine . The wheelbase was a respectable 3099 mm (122 inches) for the time, the output of the four-cylinder 40 hp according to the ALAM ( Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers ) calculation method at the time . Possibly this top priced car was manufactured in small numbers in Pittsburgh from 1905 to 1907. From 1907 it was created by the Société Anonyme Westinghouse in Le Havre (France).

In France the model name was 30/40 CV ; the vehicles imported into the USA did not have a model name. The practice is noteworthy in that French automobiles were considered leaders in the United States at the time; here, however, an American design with an American name appeared, but it was manufactured in Europe.

One of these imported vehicles has been preserved and is part of the well-known Nethercutt collection in Sylmar (California) .

Luxury cars built in the USA around 1907 (selection)

The prices for a Westinghouse in the USA were astronomical: US $ 7,500 for the chassis and US $ 10,000 for the sedan, making it one of the most expensive automobiles offered in the USA. The automobiles listed below belonged to the same price segment. They only sold in very small numbers; so built simplex in five years only a total of 250 units of its model 50th

Manufacturer model Power
hp		 Wheelbase
mm / in		 body List price
Chadwick 12 40/45 2743/108 Touring US 5000
Columbia Mark XLIX 40/45 2845/112 Touring US 4500
Columbia Mark XLIX 40/45 2845/112 limousine US 5500
Columbia Mark XLIX 40/45 3035 / 119.5 limousine US 5500
Locomobile H 35 3048/120 Touring (7 pl.) US 4500
Lozier F. 40 2971/117 Touring (7 pl.) US 5700
Lozier F. 40 2971/117 Limousine (7 pl.) US 6000
Lozier F. 60 3048/120 Touring (7 pl.) US 7000
Lozier F. 60 3048/120 Limousine (7 pl.) US 8000
Pierce-Arrow Great Arrow 40/45 3150/124 Touring (7 pl.) US 5000
Pierce Arrow Great Arrow 40/45 3150/124 Limousine (7 pl.) US 6250
Pierce Arrow Great Arrow Six 65 3150/124 Limousine (7 pl.) US 6500
Stearns 30/60 HP 30/60 3048/120 Touring (5/7 pl.) US 4500
Stearns 30/60 HP 30/60 3048/120 Limousine (5/7 seats) US 4769
Pierce Arrow Great Arrow 40/45 3150/124 Limousine (7 pl.) US 6250
Pierce Arrow Great Arrow Six 65 3150/124 Limousine (7 pl.) US 6500
simplex 50 50 3150/124 Toy tonneau US 5500

A typical luxury car of its time, the Packard Model Thirty , cost US $ 4,200 as a touring with 30 hp and US $ 5600 as a sedan. In 1907 Westinghouse Electric ran into financial difficulties and was subject to bankruptcy administration. It seems that this marked the end of imports of the 40 hp. After 1910 the track of the company is lost.

Remarks

  1. ↑ according to the calculation method at that time, probably according to the ALAM standard ( Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers ); if two values ​​are given, the first refers to the tax PS applicable at the time.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (eds.) And Henry Austin Clark, jr .: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942 , 2nd edition, Krause Publications, Iola WI 54990, USA (1985), ISBN 0-87341-111-0 ( English)
  • George Nick Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present ; Dutton Press, New York, 2nd edition (hardcover) 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 (English)
  • David A. Kirsch: The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History ; Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ and London, 2000. ISBN 0-8135-2809-7 (paperback) (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kimes (1985), p. 689.
  2. ↑ a b c d Kimes (1985), p. 1484.
  3. ↑ a b theoldmotor.com: Westinghouse gasoline car
  4. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 255.
  5. ↑ Kimes (1985), pp. 342-346.
  6. ↑ Kimes (1985), pp. 852-857.
  7. ↑ Kimes (1985), pp. 865-868.
  8. ↑ Kimes (1985), pp. 1137-1148.
  9. ↑ Kimes (1985), pp. 1341-1346.
  10. ↑ Kimes (1985), pp. 1304-1306.
  11. ↑ Kimes (1985), p. 1068.