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The
car was a typical one-cylinder, chain-driven vehicle and not too
distinguished looking. But in 1900 Ransom E. Olds added a feature
that made his car unforgettable. It was a curved dashboard.
Although the general appearance was still that of a powered buggy,
the smoothly rounded dash created an air of elegance that was
complemented by the sweeping line of the steering tiller.
However, the now famed
curved-dash Oldsmobile is important for more than style. The car
was the first low-priced, mass-produced automobile in the world.
The production techniques were quite primitive compared to the
systems that Henry Ford developed, but Olds did conceive his car
as an assembly-line project.
Once he had made his designs
they were contracted to other manufacturers who made the
components. The final assembly was performed in his small plant in
Detroit. Olds had excellent suppliers. The Dodge brothers built
his engines, and Henry M. Leland made the transmissions. It was
from Leland that Olds learned the basic idea of parts
standardization and this resulted in the rapid and accurate
assembly of cars that could be sold reasonably. This was the
system that Henry Ford developed so brilliantly into his efficient
assembly lines.
The little curved-dash
Oldsmobiles sold in the thousands each year and became the most
popular small car in America, to be supplanted only years later by
Ford's Model T. By 1904 Olds sold his business and organized a new
automobile company. He gave it his own initials, Reo, and it
became a firm that flourished. Today Reo trucks OLDSMOBILE carry a
great percentage of America's goods.
Although Olds was now out of
the company that bore his name, it continued to grow. In 1908
General Motors Corporation was formed and began its active life by
acquiring the Buick Manufacturing Com pany and the Olds Motor
Company. William C. Durant was the freewheeling promoter who
started the giant corporation. During the first decade of the
twentieth century he was out to buy almost every company that made
a good car. At one time Henry Ford almost sold out to Durant, the
only hitch being a difference of opinion over the value of the
Ford assets. The point to be made is that Durant actually foresaw
the coming boom in automobiles while Ford and other inventors were
more interested in an immediate return.
General Motors continued to
grow by annexing Cadillac and Oakland, the forerunner of the
Pontiac. Many subsidiary companies gradually became part of the
combine, Delco, Hyatt, Fisher Body, and others. They supplied the
parts and subassemblies which had to be contracted for in the
early days of the Oldsmobile, but the basic system was still the
same. Standardized components arrived at the assembly points and
were incorporated into the cars at the proper moments.
The Oldsmobile, although no
longer connected with its inventor, continued to shed glory on his
name. The little runabouts dashed merrily over the slowly
expanding road system of America, and on the drafting tables plans
for larger, more luxurious Oldsmobiles took shape. The 1910 model
was a huge affair which sported 42-inch tires. They raised the
body so high that a two-step running board was required for the
passengers. Guy wires held the windshield in place and the massive
machine made an impressive sight with its polished brass fittings.
It was also an impressive performer and participated in one of the
typical stunts of the period. In those days daredevils were racing
everything with their cars. A fairly common contest was a
car-versus-plane race. In 1910 one of the big Oldsmobiles raced a
train, the Twentieth Century Limited, from Albany to New York. The
car won! Since that time the 1910 models have been known as
Oldsmobile Limiteds.
Throughout the years the
General Motors Corporation seemed to use the Oldsmobile as a test
car for new ideas, and new gadgetry. Many innovations first
appeared on the Oldsmobile and then were transferred to the other
GM cars. In 1927 chrome plating was used for the first time on all
the exterior bright work. People were tired of polishing brass and
nickel and it was Oldsmobile that relieved"them of that task. By
the 1950's, perhaps in recollection of that innovation, the
Oldsmobiles became the most gaudily chrome-stripped cars of any on
the American scene. Happily that time seems past. In the line of
serious developments it was on the Oldsmobile of 1939 that General
Motors introduced the 'Hydra-Matic drive, and the postwar years
found it equipped with the Autronic Eye, air conditioning, four
barrel carburetors, and a host of personal comforts.
The modern Oldsmobile is a
far cry from the small and elegant curved-dash classic. It no
longer caters to the low-priced market and now seems to be a
smaller Cadillac - big, fast, and heavily built. What remains is
one great distinction. The Oldsmobile is the oldest car in America
that is still being produced today and predates the formation of
the Ford Motor Company by six years. It is a tribute to the
pioneering spirit of Ransom E. Olds that a car bearing his name
still survives.
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