The Paterson was a

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 features as lights and radiator (engine cooling), radiators. It is generally considered to ...

Vintage car A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930, Either a "survivor" or one that has been fixed up according to the or ...

built in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city in Genesee County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Flint River (Michigan), Flint River northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the Central Michigan, Mid Michigan region. Flin ...

from 1909 until 1923.

History

Canadian-born William A. Paterson set up the W. A. Paterson Company in Flint in 1869 to make carriages, and by 1900 he was producing some 30,000 yearly. Even though he entered the

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

field later than many of his fellow carriage makers, he was totally committed to the enterprise, and manufactured a well-built automobile. By 1910, he had completely stopped producing carriages. The earliest Patersons were typical of motorized buggies at the time, featuring a

two-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 ...

air-cooled engine 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. Air-cooled designs are far simpler than their liquid-cooled ...

planetary transmission An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) is a gear reduction assembly consisting of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear (the "planet") revolves around the center of the other (the "sun"). A carrier connects the ...

, double

chain drive Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles. It is also used in a wide variety of machines besides vehicles. ...

and solid rubber

tire A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineeri ...

s. In 1910, the Paterson matured into a more refined automobile, with four-cylinder 30 HP engines,

shaft drive A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power, torque, and rotation, usually used to connect ...

, and selective

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

Six-cylinder A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

engines were introduced in 1915, and the four was dropped the following year. For the remainder of its production run, Patersons featured

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne * Continen ...

six-cylinder engines. As with Cole in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, Patersons enjoyed a high degree of owner loyalty. There was also a widespread distribution network, with dealers in all 48 states. After William Paterson died in 1921, his son, W. C. Paterson, and associate W. R. Hubbard had trouble running the company during the postwar depression. In July 1923, the two sold the company to Dallas Winslow, who was the

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

dealer in Flint. Winslow stated he would be hiring the engineering and production manager, E. C. Kollmorgen, to alter the Paterson in order to continue production, but he must have soon changed his mind and the Paterson Company was closed. The Paterson Office Building still stands in Flint at the corner of Saginaw Street and Third Street. The Paterson Building has been owned by the Collison Family for over 25 years and has been restored inside and out.

Gallery

File:1910 Paterson.jpg, 1910 Paterson at the Tupelo Automobile Museum File:Paterson 1916.JPG, 1916 Paterson at Autoworld

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

File:1917 Paterson 6-45 Touring Car ad (cropped).jpg, 1917 Paterson 6-45 ad detail form Horseless Age File:Sloan Museum at Courtland Center December 2018 18 (1919 Paterson).jpg, 1919 Paterson at the Sloan Museum

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paterson (Automobile) Brass Era vehicles Vintage vehicles Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Michigan Defunct manufacturing companies based in Michigan 1900s cars 1910s cars 1920s cars Cars introduced in 1910 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1923 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1869

History

Gallery

See also

References