Auto Shop - Quadricycle


 On this day in 1896, Henry Ford test-drove the first automobile he ever designed.

He was working as chief engineer at the main plant of the Edison Illuminating Company when he started on the Quadricycle - a horseless carriage with a gas powered engine.

Ford followed the American Machinist magazine, and saw when Charles King built his own vehicle (out of wood) with a four-cylinder engine, which could travel up to five miles per hour.  Thus Ford was inspired to create something lighter and faster.

He enlisted the help of King, as well as others, and used a light metal frame with 4 bicycle wheels, along with a two-cylinder, four-horsepower engine.  The quadricycle had two driving speeds, no reverse, no brakes, rudimentary steering, and a doorbell for a horn.

Ford's chief assistant, James Bishop, bicycled ahead of the new craft to alert carriages and pedestrians on Detroit's Grand River Avenue.  Reaching 20mph, he had achieved his goal.



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