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Official Site: autocartruck.com
Wikipedia: Autocar Company Page Sections History Images Documents Classified Ads |
History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Autocar Company page on 17 June 2016, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Autocar Company is an American, Hagerstown, Indiana-based specialist manufacturer of severe-duty, Cab Over Engine vocational trucks. Started in 1897 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a manufacturer of Brass Era automobiles, and trucks from 1899. The last cars were produced in 1911 and the company continued as an innovative maker of severe-duty trucks. In 1953 Autocar was taken over by the White Motor Company which made Autocar their top-of-the-line brand. White was taken over in turn by Volvo Trucks in 1980 with Autocar continuing as a division. In 2001, it was sold to GVW Group, LLC, which revived Autocar as an independent company. Autocar now builds three models of custom-engineered, heavy duty trucks and has regained leading positions in several vocational segments.
The company was called the Pittsburgh Motor Vehicle Company when started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1897 but was renamed the Autocar Company in 1899 when it moved to Ardmore, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia. One of the company's early cars was the Pittsburgher. By 1907, the company had decided to concentrate on commercial vehicles, and the Autocar brand is still in use for commercial trucks. Autocar is the oldest surviving motor vehicle brand in the Western Hemisphere.
Based on the minutes of company board of directors meetings during 1903-1907 it is known that in 1903 the Board of Directors included the president, Louis S. Clarke, the secretary, John S. Clarke, as well as, James K. Clarke. Both Louis Semple Clarke and his brother John S. Clarke were members of the fabled South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club of Johnstown Flood fame.
Founder
Autocar founder Louis Semple Clarke (1867–1957) was a successful mechanical engineer. Among Clarke's innovations were the spark plug for gasoline engines, a perfected drive shaft system for automobiles, and the first design of a useful oil circulation system. Clarke's insistence of placing the driver on the left hand side of the vehicle led to that standardization throughout most of the automotive industry worldwide, and consequently we drive on the right side of the road. The patented porcelain-insulated spark plug process was sold to Champion and remains the industry standard.
Clarke was also a talented photographer. His family were members of the elite South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, whose earthen dam at Lake Conemaugh burst on May 31, 1889, causing the Johnstown Flood.
Clarke sold his interest in Autocar in 1929 and retired from business. He died in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 6, 1957, and is buried in Allegheny Cemetery, in Pittsburgh.
Products
Autocar experimented with a series of vehicles from 1897, with a tricycle, "Autocar No. 1" now in the collection of the Smithsonian. In 1899 Autocar built the first motor truck ever produced for sale in North America. The first production Autocar automobile was a 1900 single cylinder chain drive runabout. About 27 were made. In 1901 Autocar built the first car in North America to use shaft drive. This vehicle is also now in the Smithsonian collection.
The 1904 Autocar was equipped with a tonneau, it could seat 4 passengers and sold for US$1700. The horizontal-mounted flat-2, situated at the front of the car, produced 11 hp (8.2 kW). This was a somewhat unusual engine design for the time, with most companies producing inline designs. A 3-speed transmission was fitted. The steel and wood-framed car weighed 1675 lb (760 kg). The early cars had tiller steering.
In 1905 the company was selling the Type XII car for $2,250 and another it called the Type X for $1,000. It discontinued the Type XI and sold the last of them in 1905. The cars now had wheel steering with left hand drive.
The Type X was a runabout. During the 1905-1906 model year the company produced 1000 Type X cars. The manufacture of 500 Type XV runabouts was authorized for 1907 in place of 500 touring cars (Type XIV) in addition to the 1000 runabouts already planned. At special meeting on June 19, 1906 held at 711 Arcade Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the board authorized the hiring of a general manager by the name of Harry A. Gillis at a salary of $10,000 per year. Production of 300 Type XVI cars and 500 Type XVII were authorized during a Board Meeting on November 21, 1906.
Commercial vehicles were made the focus from 1907 and soon outnumbered cars.
As of 1911, Autocar was making only trucks. The first model, the Type XVII had a 97-inch wheelbase, a one and a half ton capacity, and a 2-cylinder gasoline engine under the seat. Later engines had 4 and 6 cylinders, and wheelbases became longer. Inline engines became the company's focus.
In 1929, Autocar sold 3300 units, though the number fell to 1000 in 1932 and continued to decline during the Great Depression. Larger trucks with "Blue Streak" gasoline engines and Diesel engines, mainly from Cummins, came later.
During World War II, Autocar supplied 50,000 units to the military; during its entire prewar history, the company had only built 70,000 units. Autocar ranked 85th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. Civilian production resumed in 1944 and sales increased greatly after the war. Autocar soon had 100 dealers.
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Two-Ton Truck XXI-F Hand Book of Automobiles, 1919 Edition View Autocar Two-Ton Truck XXI-F page of Hand Book of Automobiles, 1919 Edition - 461KB |
| Date | Document Name & Details | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| 10 July 1900 | Motor-Vehicle. United States Patent US 653,501 Louis S. Clarke, William Morgan, and James G. Heaslet for The Autocar Company |  PDF - 1.0MB - 10 pages |
| 25 September 1900 | Driving Apparatus for Motor-Vehicles. United States Patent US 658,620 Louis S. Clarke and James G. Heaslet for The Autocar Company | PDF - 794KB - 8 pages |
| 11 December 1900 | Sparking Igniter for Explosive-Engines. United States Patent US 663,729 Louis S. Clarke and James G. Heaslet for The Autocar Company | PDF - 447KB - 4 pages |
| 28 July 1903 | Muffler. United States Patent US 734,684 James G. Heaslet for The Autocar Company | PDF - 519KB - 6 pages |
| Post Date | Description | Price | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 May 2020 | 2006 Autocar Company Heil Refuse Truck  | GSA Auction | Grand Canyon, Arizona  |
