Charles Yale Knight
Charles Yale Knight (born 1868-1940 in Indiana) was an entrepreneur and inventor of the sleeve valve technology. His engines would be used in the early cars, British tanks, and British aircraft. The Knight engine technology for automobiles was used by John Willys and his company, Willys Company, the second largest car manufacturer after Henry Ford, as well as by Daimler, Mercedes, Peugeot and others. He was a millionaire by the time he was 44 years of age, in 1912. History Knight was originally an American printer and newspaper publisher, publishing a Midwest farm journal called ''Dairy Produce''. To cover dairy activities during 1901–02, he bought an early Knox automobile, a three-wheeler with an air-cooled, single-cylinder engine whose noisy valves annoyed him. He believed that he could design a better engine and proceeded to do so. Knight was familiar with the slide valves used on early Otto engines, having repaired the similar valve mechanism in his father's sawmill. Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Percy Martin
Percy Martin (1871-1958) was an American-born British engineer and automobile manufacturer. Born in Columbus, Ohio 19 June 1871 he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in electrical engineering, from The Ohio State University in 1892.Richard A. Storey, ‘Martin, Percy (1871–1958)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 General Electric He worked for General Electric in Milan and Berlin then in 1901 on holiday in England and through a chance meeting he was asked to take up the works manager's position at the Daimler Company in Coventry which he did in October 1901. The following July he married Alice Helen Heublein from Hartford, Connecticut, they had a son and a daughter. Daimler Soon rationalising Daimler's range of 10 different models he promptly designed then completed the entry into production of two new cars, Daimler's 22 hp and 12 hp. He established improved incentive payments and improved the management o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific Ocean, Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in Genocides in history (World War I through World War II), genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the Spanish flu, 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising French Third Republic, France, Russia, and British Empire, Britain) and the Triple A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Atlas-Knight Automobile Company
The Atlas car was built in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1907-1911 (and became the Atlas-Knight for 1912–1913). After Harry Knox left the company that had been building Knox cars in Springfield, he established the Knox Motor Truck Company in 1905 to produce Atlas commercial vehicles. His former partners at his previous firm took him to court over the name. After he was forbidden from using the Knox name, he formed the Atlas Motor Car Company in late 1907. History Harry Knox had proposed to the people producing the Sunset Automobile Company in San Francisco, California that he produce the car under license. At first they refused, but changed their mind after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The factory location was listed at 1336 Mission Street and manufactured cars by sourcing different components from various companies and selling a steam powered runabout for USD$900 ($ in dollars ). By 1904 the main office moved to 1814 Market Street and the company switched to gaso ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vanderbilt Cup
The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. History An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held on October 8 on a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The announcement that the race was to be held caused considerable controversy in New York, bringing a flood of legal actions in an attempt to stop the race. The politicians soon jumped in, holding public hearings on the issue. Vanderbilt prevailed and the inaugural race was run over a course of winding dirt roads through the Nassau County area. Vanderbilt put up a large cash prize hoping to encourage American manufacturers to get into racing, a sport already well organized in Europe that was yielding many factory improvements to motor vehicle technology. The race drew the top drivers and their vehicles from across the Atlantic Ocean, some of whom had competed in Europe's Gordon Bennett Cup. The first Long Island race featured ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kaiser Jeep
Kaiser Jeep was the result of the 1953 merger of Kaiser Motors, an independent passenger car maker based in Willow Run, Michigan, with the Toledo, Ohio-based Willys-Overland Company. Willys-Overland had been at one point before World War II the U.S.'s second-largest car-maker after Ford, but their success waned during the 1930s. Willys survived during the war by getting the primary contract to build the U.S. World War II jeeps for the American and Allied armed forces. From 1945, Willys focused almost exclusively on selling Jeep branded vehicles, both civilian / commercial, as well as government / military jeeps. For Kaiser, the Jeep brand and its models were considered the crown jewels in the merger with Willys-Overland, and in 1955, Kaiser phased out all Kaiser and Willys passenger car lines, and Kaiser (initially still under the name 'Willys Motors') became entirely focused on Jeep products in most markets. In 1963, the company consolidated all corporate holdings under ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ford Motors
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand, and luxury cars under its Lincoln luxury brand. Ford also owns Brazilian SUV manufacturer Troller, an 8% stake in Aston Martin of the United Kingdom and a 32% stake in China's Jiangling Motors. It also has joint ventures in China (Changan Ford), Taiwan (Ford Lio Ho), Thailand (AutoAlliance Thailand), and Turkey (Ford Otosan). The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family; they have minority ownership but the majority of the voting power. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines; by 1914, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Willys-Knight
Willys-Knight is an automobile that was produced between 1914 and 1933 by the Willys-Overland Company of Toledo, Ohio. John North Willys purchased the Edwards Motor Car Company of Long Island, New York, in 1913, moving the operation to Elyria, Ohio, where Willys owned the plant that had previously manufactured the Garford automobile. Production began with a four-cylinder model which was priced in the $2,500 price range. The Willys-Knight employed a Knight sleeve valve engine, generally four- and six-cylinder models. In 1915, Willys moved assembly of the Willys-Knight to Toledo, Ohio, but continued manufacturing the engines in Elyria. Willys-Knight introduced a sleeve-valve V8 in 1917, which was sold until 1919. Willys-Knight enjoyed a production run average of 50,000 cars per year after 1922. Willys also purchased Stearns-Knight of Cleveland, Ohio, which also used a sleeve valve Knight Engine, making that marque the crown jewel in his growing automotive empire. Willys-Kni ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Walter Chrysler
Walter Percy Chrysler (April 2, 1875 – August 18, 1940) was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, American automotive industry executive and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler Corporation. Early life Chrysler was born in Wamego, Kansas, the son of Anna Maria Chrysler (née Breymann) and Henry Chrysler. He grew up in Ellis, Kansas, where today his boyhood home is a museum. His father was born in Chatham, Ontario, in 1850 and immigrated to the United States after 1858. A Freemason,. Chrysler began his career as a machinist and railroad mechanic in Ellis. He took correspondence courses from International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania, earning a mechanical degree from the correspondence program. Ancestry Walter Chrysler's father, Henry (Hank) Chrysler, was a Canadian-American of German and Dutch ancestry. He was an American Civil War veteran who was a locomotive engineer for the Kansas Pacific Railway and its successor, t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Duesenberg
Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company, Inc. was an American racing and luxury automobile manufacturer founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, by brothers Fred and August Duesenberg in 1920. The company is known for popularizing the straight-eight engine and four-wheel hydraulic brakes. A Duesenberg car was the first American car to win a Grand Prix race, winning the 1921 French Grand Prix. Duesenbergs won the Indianapolis 500 in 1924, 1925, and 1927. Transportation executive Errett Lobban Cord acquired the Duesenberg corporation in 1926. The company was sold and dissolved in 1937. History Fred and August Duesenberg began designing engines in the early 1900s after Fred became involved with bicycle racing. The brothers designed a vehicle in 1905 and in 1906, formed the Mason Motor Car Company with funds from lawyer Edward R. Mason in Des Moines, Iowa. F.L. and Elmer Maytag acquired a majority stake in the company and renamed it the Maytag-Mason Automobile Company unt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stearns-Knight
F. B. Stearns and Company, later known as F.B. Stearns Company was an American manufacturer of luxury cars in Cleveland, Ohio marketed under the brand names Stearns from 1900 to 1911 then Stearns-Knight from 1911 until 1929. History Frank Ballou Stearns (1879–1955) left school at age 14 in 1893 in his freshman year at the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland Ohio. At the age of 17 Stearns drove his first car, which incidentally he also built in 1896 in Cleveland. His father, F.M. Stearns, had built a fortune in the stone-quarry industry, and decided to indulge his son Frank with a fully equipped machine shop located in the basement of his home on the prestigious Euclid Avenue. Some sources state that a barn on the property was converted to a machine shop. Stearns became the first American automobile to use the sleeve valve Knight Engine in its vehicles in 1911. The first production model evolved in 1898; it was a gasoline-fuel buggy-style automobile with a one-cy ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Panhard
Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005, and then by Renault in 2012. In 2018 Renault Trucks Defense, ACMAT and Panhard combined under a single brand, Arquus. History Panhard was originally called Panhard et Levassor, and was established as an automobile manufacturing concern by René Panhard and Émile Levassor in 1887. Early years Panhard et Levassor sold their first automobile in 1890, based on a Daimler engine license. Levassor obtained his licence from Paris lawyer Edouard Sarazin, a friend and representative of Gottlieb Daimler's interests in France. Following Sarazin's 1887 death, Daimler commissioned Sarazin's widow Louise to carry on her late husband's agency. The Panhard et Levassor license was finalised by Louise ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |