The W. H. Kiblinger Company and the W. H. McIntyre Company produced

Brass Era The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such things as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 1915 ...

automobiles 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 ...

Auburn, Indiana Auburn is a city in DeKalb County, Indiana, United States. The population was 13,820 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1836 by Wesley Park (1811–1868), the city is the county seat of DeKalb County. Auburn is also known as Home of the Classics. H ...

from 1907 to 1915.

History

Kiblinger

The W. H. Kiblinger Company formed in 1887, manufactured buggies. After W. H. Kiblinger's death in 1894, William H. McIntyre co-purchased the company and began experimenting with

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 as early as 1897. In 1907 Kiblinger began selling

high-wheeler A high wheeler is a car which uses large diameter wheels that are similar to those used by horse-drawn vehicles. These cars were produced until about 1915, predominantly in the United States. Design High wheelers were derived from horse-drawn ...

s with

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder ...

steering and two-cylinder air-cooled engines as the Kiblinger''.'' Prices started at $250 (), which the company claimed was the "lowest price successful automobile on the road' The company grew to occupy a total of five buildings around Auburn, Indiana and employed 400 men. After producing a few hundred Kiblingers, the company building the ''Success'' high-wheeler sued Kiblinger for patent infringement. William H. McIntyre resolved the lawsuit by buying out the Kiblinger partners and forming the W. H. McIntyre Company in December, 1908. File:1907 Kiblinger Model H Advertisement.jpg, alt=, 1907 Kiblinger Model H Advertisement

McIntyre

W. H. McIntyre Company manufactured both buggies and high-wheelers. A line of two and

four-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 categorize ...

high-wheelers on a non-patent infringing design, were offered. The McIntyre high-wheeler line of runabouts, tourers and

trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

increased until ten different models were available. By 1911, McIntyre introduced a line of standard vehicles by taking over the 4-cylinder 40-hp America produced by the Motor Car Company (New York City), which was marketed as the McIntyre Special. The six-cylinder 40-hp McIntyre Limited was added for 1913, but McIntyre was viewed as a high-wheeler manufacturer and these cars did not sell well. File:1908 McIntyre advertisement in the Cycle & Automobile Journal.jpg, alt=, 1908 full-line ''McIntyre'' advertisement File:1910 McIntyre 20 Hp Ad Motor Age Magazine.jpg, alt=, 1910 ''McIntyre'' 20-hp advertisement File:1911 McIntyre advertisement in The Cycle and Auto Trade Journal.jpg, alt=, 1911 ''McIntyre Special'' advertisement

IMP Cyclecar

In 1913 McIntyre introduced the IMP

Cyclecar A cyclecar was a microcar, type of small, lightweight and inexpensive Automobile, car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle ...

with a 15 horsepower

V-twin engine A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longit ...

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. McIntyre IMP's sold for $375, () and the sales literature stated that they cost "just a 'penny a mile' to run!" Although IMP's sold well, over fifty companies had been formed during the "cyclecar craze" and by 1914 sales were ending. In 1914 McIntyre made a model 4-25

light car The term light car is used in Great Britain since the early part of the 20th century for an automobile less than 1.5 litres engine capacity. In modern car classification this term would be roughly equivalent to a subcompact car. There are numero ...

based on the IMP but production of all McIntyres soon ended. File:1913 IMP Cyclecar from Automobile Topics Magazine.jpg, alt=, 1913 IMP Cyclecar Advertisement File:1914 Imp Cyclecar article from the Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal.jpg, alt=, 1914 IMP Cyclecar in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

File:1915 McIntyre Model 25 advertisement excerpt from The Cycle & Auto Trade Journal.jpg, alt=, 1915 ''McIntyre'' Model 25 advertisement

Tudhope-McIntyre

James B. Tudhope of the Tudhope Carriage Companyin Orillia, Ontario formed the Tudhope-McIntyre Company to build high-wheelers in 1908. Automobile parts were supplied from the W.H. McIntyre Company and the bodies were made by Tudehope's carriage company.Tudhope-McIntyres were priced at $550 CAD and production reached 514 vehicles before a fire in August 1909 destroyed the carriage factory. Rebuilding from the fire, Tudhope decided to discontinue high-wheeler production and instead acquired a license to build the ''Everitt 30''. File:Canadian Automotive Museum IMG 0294 (20066613154).jpg, alt=, 1908 ''Tudhope-McIntyre'' at the

Canadian Automotive Museum The Canadian Automotive Museum is an automobile museum located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum features many Canadian-made cars as the automobile industry, specifically the Canadian division of the General Motors, known as General Motors ...

File:165. Tudhope Fire at Orillia, Ontario, Aug. 1909 (26457034791).jpg, alt=, 1909 Tudehope factory fire, Orillia, Ontario

Model Overview, 1907–1915

Fate

With slowing sales, by January 1915 the W. H. McIntyre Company was in receivership. The DeKalb Manufacturing Company purchased the assets and assembled some cars for another two years.

References

{{Reflist Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Cyclecars Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Indiana 1900s cars 1910s cars Brass Era vehicles Highwheeler Cars introduced in 1907 Cars introduced in 1913 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1908 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1915