The Kessler Motor Company was a short-lived American manufacturer of

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...

s and automobiles. The brand name for engines and automobiles was Kessler; also Kess-Line for some cars.

History

Kessler-Detroit Motor Car Company Factor, Plant Number Two

In 1907 Martin C. Kessler designed an automobile engine for the Chandler Motor Car company in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. He then worked as an independent engineering consultant. In 1917, after several attempts, he founded the Kessler Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. The company supplied engines for combat aircraft to the US government. It is unclear whether it was connected to the Liberty program. Kessler was president and CEO of the company. William H. Radford was appointed chief engineer and vice president.

Automobile manufacturing

With the end of World War I the demand for military engines ended, and like many similar companies, Kessler Motors turned to building automobiles. The first model, the Kessler Super-Charge Four, was announced in January 1920 and shown the following month at the Detroit Auto Show.

Super-Charge Motor

For the Super-Charge Four the company developed the Super-Charge Motor, a technically interesting engine for which both Kessler and Radford later claimed credit. It was a two-liter

4-cylinder The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categoriz ...

inline engine with integrated

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...

. It was innovative in incorporating a compression space into the

crankcase In a piston engine, the crankcase is the housing that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block. Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, resulting in the fuel/a ...

; pressure was increased by the downward movement of the pistons.Kimes/Clark p. 101. A more than respectable performance of 70 bhp (52.2 kW) was claimed, equalling that of the basic model of the

Bugatti Type 35 The Bugatti Type 35 was the most successful of the Bugatti racing models. Its version of the Bugatti arch-shaped radiator that had evolved from the more architectural one of the Bugatti Type 13 Brescia, was to become the one that the marque is ...

. The

Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

offered . The company's advertising emphasized that the engine produced negligible carbon deposits.

Automobile models

Kessler Super-Charge Four

Apart from the engine, the Kessler Super-Charge Four was a very conventional private car. Because of the company's limited resources, it was an assembled car, consisting of purchased components fitted together. The chassis consisted of a

ladder frame A vehicle frame, also historically known as its ''chassis'', is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism. Until the 1930s, virtually every car had a ...

with front and rear beam axles. The wheelbase was . The car was only available as a touring car and was a close copy of the then new

Packard Single Six Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958. One of the "Thr ...

;Kimes/Clark, p. 804, picture.Kimes/Clark, p. 1116, picture. the Super-Charge Four offered distinctly superior performance over the Packard's Kimes/Clark, p. 1116. and a slight advantage in wheelbase over the Packard's 116 ins. / 2946 mm When first introduced, the Single Six cost $3640 as a touring car (and was soon reduced in price); the Super-Charge Four cost only $1995. Regardless, the Super-Charge Four flopped badly; by the end of 1921 only 16 vehicles had been produced. The reason is unclear, but may have been the engine.

Kess-Line Motors Company

Kessler formed a subsidiary called the Kess-Line Motors Company to produce its next car under the Kess-Line marque. Again Kessler was president and CEO and Radford chief engineer and vice president. H. H. Scott, formerly of

Fisher Body Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. A division of General Motors for many years, in 1984 it was dissolved to form other General Motors divisions. Fisher & Company (originally Allo ...

, was chief financial officer and secretary. A new production location was rented, the former facilities of Liberty Motor Car in Detroit. In that company's best year, 1921, 21,000 Liberty Sixes had been sold;Kimes/Clark, p. 864. thus the plant was far too large for Kessler unless the new car sold extremely well. The Kess-Line 8 was also extremely reminiscent of a competitor: the engine hood and radiator grille very closely resembled those of the much more expensive

Lincoln L Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

.Kimes/Clark, p. 868, picture. However, the Kess-Line, again available only as a touring car, had sportier lines than the massive Lincoln and "helmet" fenders—close to the wheel and turned out at the base, so that the profile recalled a Classical helmet. Instead of running boards, there was a nickel-plated step under each of the four doors, and the grille was also nickel-plated. The engine was an inline V8 offering ; a performance exceeded by very few production automobiles at the time, such as the compressor version of the Bugatti Type 35 or the Mercedes 24/100/140 PS. Of US cars, similar performance was offered only by, for example, the Finley Robertson Porter, which were produced in extremely limited numbers and offered 125 bhp;Kimes/Clark, p. 1238. typical performance for US luxury cars was 80–90 bhp.

Duesenberg Model A The Duesenberg Model A was the first automobile in series production to have hydraulic brakes and the first automobile in series production in the United States with a straight-eight engine. Officially known as the Duesenberg Straight Eight, th ...

, 88 bhp: Kimes/Clark, p. 497. Daniels Model D, 90 bhp: Kimes/Clark, p. 413.

Locomobile Locomobile may refer to: Transport * Locomobile Company of America, a US company that made automobiles under the brand name "Locomobile" from 1899 to 1929 * Steam-powered agricultural and haulage vehicles: ** Traction engine ** Portable engine * ...

Model 48, 95 bhp: Georgano, p. 437. The Kess-Line 8 also failed to fulfil expectations; only 12 were built, according to one source only one.Georgano, p. 403.

Later history

After the failure of the Kess-Line 8, the company did not make further attempts to market automobiles. Radford went to California to prepare for equipping Balboa cars with Kessler V8s, but the project did not advance beyond the prototype stage, and there are no further documented uses of the Kessler Super-Charge engine. When the company was dissolved is unclear; there are mentions of it until at least 1927. In the 1930s Martin Kessler over-extended himself financially developing a 10-cylinder automobile.