The Franklin Automobile Company was a marketer of

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

s in the United States between 1902 and 1934 in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, and Rochester. At the 2020 census, the city' ...

. Herbert H. Franklin, the founder, began his career in the metal die casting business before establishing his automobile enterprise. Controlled by Herbert H. Franklin it had very few other significant shareholders. Franklin bought its vehicles from the H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company which was only moderately profitable and frequently missed dividends on common stock.Sinclair Powell. ''The Franklin Automobile Company'', Society of Automotive Engineers Inc., Warrendale PA, 1999 The two major characteristics of their automobiles were their air-cooled engines and in the early years their lightness and responsiveness when compared with other luxury cars. The Franklin companies suffered financial collapse in April 1934. Aside from his consequent retirement CEO Herbert Franklin's lifestyle was unaffected.

Franklin innovations

All Franklin cars were

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

, which the company considered simpler and more reliable than water cooling, and the company considered light weight to be critical in making a well-performing car given the limited power of the engines then available. Most Franklins were wood-framed, though the very first used an angle iron frame (1902) and, beginning in 1928, the heavier cars adopted a conventional pressed-steel frame. Lightweight aluminum was used in quantity, to the extent that Franklin was reckoned to be the largest user of aluminum in the world in the early years of the company.

Production

Offerings for 1904 included a touring car model with a detachable rear '' tonneau'' and which seated 4 passengers. The transverse-mounted, vertical straight-four engine, producing 10 hp (7.5 kW), was mounted at the front of the car. A 2-speed planetary transmission was fitted. The car weighed 1100 lb (499 kg). List price was US$1300. By contrast, the

Ford Model F The Ford Model F is an automobile produced by Ford. It was a development of the Model A and Model C, but was larger, more modern, and more luxurious. Production started in 1905 and ended in 1906 after about 1,000 were made. It was built at the ...

in 1905 was priced at $2,000, the FAL was US$1750,Clymer, p.104. a Cole 30 or Colt Runabout was US$1500, the

Ford Model S The Ford Model N is an automobile produced by Ford Motor Company; it was introduced in 1906 as a successor to the Models A and C as the company's inexpensive, entry-level line. It was built at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant. The Model N dive ...

$700, the high-volume

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it pro ...

Runabout US$650,Clymer, p.32. Western's Gale Model A US$500, the

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

could be as low as $375, and the

Success Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person migh ...

hit the amazingly low US$250. Franklin cars were technological leaders, first with six cylinders (by 1905) and automatic spark advance, in 1907. Demonstrating reliability, L.L. Whitman drove a Franklin from New York City to San Francisco in 1906 in 15 days 2 hours 15 minutes, a new record.Clymer, Floyd. ''Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925'' (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.158. Franklin were undisputed leaders in air-cooled cars at a time when virtually every other manufacturer had adopted water cooling as cheaper and easier to manufacture. Before the invention of antifreeze, the air-cooled car had a huge advantage in cold weather, and Franklins were popular among people such as doctors, who needed an all-weather machine. The limitation of air-cooling was the size of the cylinder bore and the available area for the valves, which limited the power output of the earlier Franklins. By 1921, a change in cooling—moving the fan from sucking hot air to blowing cool air—led the way to the gradual increase in power. Franklins were often rather odd-looking cars, although some were distinctly handsome with

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

-style hoods. Starting in 1925, at the demand of dealers, Franklins were redesigned to look like conventional cars sporting a massive nickel-plated "dummy radiator" which served as an air intake and was called a "hoodfront". This design by J. Frank DeCausse enabled the Franklin to employ classic styling. The same year, Franklin introduced the boat-tail to car design.

Improved engine design

In 1930 Franklin introduced a new type of engine which ultimately produced , with one of the highest power-to-weight ratios of the time. In 1932, in response to competition amongst luxury car makers, Franklin brought out a twelve-cylinder engine. Air cooled with 398 cubic inches (6.5 L), it developed 150 hp (110 kW). It was designed to be installed in a lightweight chassis, but the car became a behemoth when Franklin engineers were overruled by management sent in from banks to recover bad loans. Although attractive, the Twelve did not have the ride and handling characteristics of its forebears. This was the wrong vehicle to be building after the crash of 1929 and the subsequent

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The cars sold poorly and failed to recover the company's investment. The company declared bankruptcy in 1934. Car production did not survive, but the name and assets were sold. Production of air-cooled engines for commercial and aircraft use was continued by Aircooled Motors of Syracuse. This company was bought after World War II by Preston Tucker. The flat-six engines were fitted with water-cooling jackets and used in the short lived Tucker automobile. The company was sold again after Tucker was disbanded. Franklin engines powered numerous light planes (owing to their light weight) as well as most early American-built helicopters. Aircooled Motors, the last company to manufacture air-cooled engines under the Franklin name, declared bankruptcy in 1975. Its designs were sold to the Polish government. Engines based on these designs remain in production.

In retrospect

In his book for the Society of Automotive Engineers Inc, ''The Franklin Automobile Company'', Sinclair Powell gave the following reasons for the end of Franklin: :While the cars were ranked among the industry's top products and in some years more than half the sales were to previous Franklin owners on top of major economic forces there were difficulties from within the firm itself. # Profit per vehicle was enough to pay a proper dividend in only one year, 1925 # Franklin held on to its "craft shop" approach whereas Packard and Cadillac moved on without any loss of quality # Franklin went on making many components when they might have been bought in at a much lower cost # Walker Body Company was chosen to supply aluminium bodies of high quality when (heavier) steel bodies were available at relatively low cost # Franklin dealers might be in insignificant locations and in any case did not occupy the imposing establishments of Packard and Cadillac dealers Debt taken on to greatly expand production in 1929 produced extra cars saleable only for very large discounts. This discounting seriously weakened both Franklin and its dealerships even before the onset of the

. Similar discounting to move unsold stock was repeated in 1930 and again in 1931 and Franklin's position became hopeless. It struggled on until adjudged bankrupt in April 1934.

Production models

* Franklin Sedan

References

* ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (January 1904)

External links

The H. H. Franklin Club
*And read Walter E. Gosden - J. Frank De Causse. The man of mystery and his motorcars - Automobile Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2
1916 advertisementThe Franklin Auto Museum in Tucson, Arizona
{{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin (Automobile) Brass Era vehicles Vintage vehicles 1900s cars 1910s cars 1920s cars 1930s cars Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in New York (state) Companies based in Syracuse, New York Defunct companies based in New York (state)