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Gottfried Schloemer

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Gottfried Schlöemer
1892 Schloemer sketch.jpg
1892 sketch
Born(1842-08-25)August 25, 1842[1]
near Cologne
DiedNovember 24, 1921(1921-11-24) (aged 79)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Occupationcooper
Spouse(s)Mary Elisabeth Schmid
Children3 boys, 3 girls

Gottfried Schlöemer or Godfrey Schlöemer (1842–1921) was a coopersmith, mechanical engineer, and inventor who lived in the south part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US. His ancestors were from Germany and Prussia, as was his wife.

Schlöemer's claim to fame rests on the motorized carriage that he built in 1889, which has hailed as the first workable gasoline-engine car ever made in the United States, which was at least four years ahead of Charles Duryea and his brother Frank, who are often identified with this accomplishment. He is also credited with associated innovations like the first car muffler and a transmission. The automobile vehicle he invented in 1889 still exists and is at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Early life[]

Birthplace of the first American gasoline car
Frank Toepfer's machine shop in Wisconsin, birthplace of the first gasoline car.[2]

Schloemer's family line was from Germany. His family originates from Cologne in the Rhineland. In 1776 his ancestors moved to the village of Vernich not far from Cologne and Bonn. From 1832 his parents lived in Ollheim, next to Weilerswist and near Bonn, then part of Prussia, where Schloemer was born on August 25, 1842.[1] The family immigrated to New York City in May 1845.,[1] then traveled to Milwaukee in June 1846 and bought some farmland on Beloit Road. Schloemer was raised on this farm and when he became eighteen years old he moved out of state and took up jobs in the copper mines of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a few years.[1]

Midlife[]

Schloemer moved back to Milwaukee in 1864 or 1865 and lived at 545 Fourth Avenue.[1] He then worked for the Toepfer brothers out of a red brick building as a cooper making barrels in their machine shop at 460 National Ave in Milwaukee.[3][4] He became engaged to a Milwaukee neighborhood girl in 1866 who originated from Weilerswist, near Ollheim. His wife Mary Elisabeth Schmid was three years his senior, and they were married on May 30, 1867. Their children were John (born June 19, 1868), Catharine (born January 4, 1871), Andrew (born November 30, 1872), Anne (born January 3, 1875), Wolfgang (born June 9, 1876), Christina (born December 28, 1879), and Hubert (born October 16, 1882).[1]

Schloemer motor wagon at Milwaukee Public Museum
Schloemer motor wagon in museum

Schloemer automobile[]

Schloemer was working at his job of making barrels at Toepfer's blacksmith shop located on National Boulevard in Milwaukee when he was approached by a dentist with the idea of making self-propelled horseless carriages to promote an ointment. His first attempt constructed with Frank Toepfer was a self-propelled horseless carriage that required its driver and passenger to pull a bar handle lever back and forth to make power to operate a crankshaft to propel the vehicle forward, much like that of a railway handcar. Schloemer and Toepfer then built a second vehicle for the dentist that worked from the energy made by a person rocking back and forth on a seat mechanism that transferred the energy produced through a crankshaft and propelled the wheels of the carriage.[2]

The self-powered vehicles were successful and Schloemer then asked Toepfer to work with him in constructing a horseless carriage that would have a gasoline engine to power it.[5] Schloemer went about having a single-cylinder gasoline engine made according to his specifications[6][7] by the Sintz Gas Engine Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan.[8][9] The custom 3.5-by-3.5-inch (8.9 cm × 8.9 cm) one-horse power engine[10] was placed under the seat of their horseless carriage.[9][11] The Sintz company made versions of these gas engines later that were used by Charles Brady King and other inventor-mechanics for their first experimental horseless carriages.[12]

Schloemer then made the first practical working gasoline automobile with his configuration of parts and assemblies in 1889.[13][14][15] He first constructed a uniquely designed buggy with the help of Frank Toepfer, a machinist and half owner of the Toepfer machine shop in Milwaukee.[7] In this buggy, he installed the gasoline engine from Sintz Gas Engine Company of Grand Rapids. He then contrived for his motorized carriage a triggering system to ignite the gasoline because there were no spark plugs available at the time. He came up with a homemade sparking mechanism consisting of two points of hardened steel striking one another causing a spark to ignite the gasoline fumes in the engine cylinder to produce the energy needed by the internal combustion explosion.[16] The fragile points had to be replaced after only a few miles of driving.[17] Schloemer drove his motorized carriage buggy on the avenues of Milwaukee in 1890 at speeds up to 12 miles an hour.[4][6][11] The automobile was run at 18 miles an hour later with naphtha as fuel.[18]

Schloemer's 'motor wagon', as he called his machine now known as the automobile, was made entirely by him.[7][9] The self-propelled Motor Wagon had a chain and sprocket system that provided the engine's power to the wheels of the horseless carriage.[11] The four wheels were made of wood and had solid rubber tires.[19] There were improvements made to the vehicle over time in the 'stick' steering, and brakes were added.[2][7] Schloemer put together the first car muffler and innovated the idea of a combination differential and driving pinion drive train.[6][9]

In 1890 Schloemer innovated a carburetor of his design and patented it in 1892, which became known as the Gottfried Schloemer carburetor. He used the wicks of a kerosene lamp to put in the center of a carburetor device to get the gasoline from the gas tank to flow into the cylinder of the motor to be fired and burned for energy. Schloemer tells in a testimony that when he drove his horseless motor carriage down the roads of downtown Milwaukee for the first time he recalled he went down West Water Street and stopped at Spiegel's Drug Store to purchase some personal items for himself. Upon coming back out of the drug store after his purchases he discovered a large crowd around his vehicle that had gathered and, he found it necessary to ask patrolmen to clear a passageway, so he could leave. Once he started the gasoline engine, the loud commotion scared the people that had clustered around, and they immediately dispersed.[4]

Schloemer believed that his motorized horseless carriage could be made for the public as a mode of transportation, and decided to market his car. He tried to get venture capitalists to financially participate in his invention in the late 1880s but he had no luck at first. Finally, he enticed two well-to-do Milwaukee men to bankroll his self-propelled motor carriage in 1889.[7] They made plans in 1892 to manufacture the vehicle in quantities large enough to have a factory constructed for it, however, the national financial panic of 1893 put a stop to the project and the backers dropped out of the venture.[7][12]

There is a debate even to this day as to who should get the credit for making the first practical workable gasoline-powered automobile.[20] Karl Benz is a claimant to the world's first self-propelled velocipede with his three-wheeled motorwagon in Germany in 1885. Some claim the makers of the first gas-fueled vehicle in America were Henry Nadig and Charles H. Black. Popular credit usually goes to the Duryea brothers for the first commercially manufactured gasoline-powered horseless carriage in the United States with the introduction of the Ladies Phaeton motor wagon model in 1893.[21] Henry Ford is credited with the idea of the assembly line in the modern-day manufacture of the automobile.[22]

  • Schloemer and his automobile
    in 1895 floral parade

  • Schloemer with the first gasoline car,
    circa 1900

  • Schloemer automobile,
    circa 1918

  • Fay L Cusick, the owner in 1920 of the Schloemer automobile

Later life[]

Schloemer had a farm with several buildings on Beloit Road in Greenfield, Wisconsin. When he lost his financial investors for a factory to mass-produce his automobile he became discouraged and stopped working on it.[23] He stored the horseless carriage vehicle in one of his buildings there on the farm for many years, since he didn't have the finances to produce the car in quantity. He traded his motorized buggy carriage on February 25, 1920, to Fay L. Cusick, a car dealer of West Allis, for a Maxwell automobile.[24][25][26] Cusick later sold it to friends of the Milwaukee Public Museum in 1930 for $4,000 (equivalent to $61,219 in 2019) who donated it to the museum.[27][28][29] It is still there to this day and touted as "the first practical gasoline-powered auto in the nation."[30] Frederic Haskin of the Arizona Republic reports that this vehicle is the oldest American automobile in existence.[31] The Milwaukee vehicle built by Schloemer has been publicized as the oldest gasoline-driven automobile in the world.[25][32]

Abbe Gavois of Renneville (Somme) France, whose hometown was in Paris in 1921, owned the oldest gasoline-driven car in Europe at the time. He sent Cusick a letter congratulating him on owning the world's oldest gasoline-driven car.[9] Gavois sent Cusick a photograph of his European automobile. On the dash of his car was inscribed the date 1891, leaving the Schloemer automobile the first gasoline-powered automobile existing since it was built in 1889.[9] Gavois in a letter to Cusick gave credit to the Milwaukee vehicle as being the first gasoline automobile in the world that had been built.[33]

Two-sided tractor plow patent
Two-sided tractor plow patent

Meanwhile, back at the farm[]

Schloemer was not satisfied with the current method of plowing the farm fields so went about conceiving, with his son Andrew, a self-powered tractor to improve the situation. The new Schloemer tractor they patented was made with two plows, one on each end of the tractor. The back plow was lowered into the ground when going across the field to plow the dirt over. When the tractor reached the end of the field the plow was raised by a lever. Then the tractor was lined up into the next row without turning it around. The other plow on the opposite end of the tractor was lowered by a lever and the plowing commenced going back across the field. This procedure continued for plowing the complete field without once turning the tractor around. The Schloemer non-turning gasoline tractor was made in 1896 and has been claimed as the first gasoline tractor ever made, although John Froelich of Iowa's 1892 machine is also credited with this achievement.[34] The production of Schloemer's tractor was held up because of financial problems.[4]

Schloemer obituary showing honors and claim recognition by institutions
Schloemer obituary showing honors and claim recognition by institutions[35][36]

Titles[]

  • Schloemer is called the founder of the world's automobile industry.[4]
  • Schloemer is recognized as the designer of the first automobile muffler.[4]
  • Schloemer is labeled the father of the modern gasoline-powered automobile.[37][38]
  • Schloemer is recognized as the inventor of the modern day gasoline farm tractor.[4][39]
  • Schloemer is recognized as the person that led the first automobile parade in Milwaukee.[4]
  • Schloemer is recognized as the designer of the first combination differential and driving pinion.[4]
  • Schloemer is recognized as designer of first automobile in the world to run on gasoline.[40][12][41][27]
  • Schloemer is recognized as the first person to drive a gas-propelled vehicle in a floral parade.[4]
  • Schloemer's "Motor Wagon" was recognized by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce,
    Smithsonian Institution, and Ford Motor Company as first gas propelled automobile in the world.[6][42]

Death[]

Schloemer tombstone
Schloemer tombstone

At the time of Schlöemer's death, certain reports claimed him as the producer of the first gasoline-powered car in the world,[40][43][44] even though that claim at times is given to the German carmaker Karl Benz.[21] The people of the 1920s in Milwaukee could recall the noise that Schlöemer's automobile created when it was driven along the streets and avenues at 15 miles an hour in 1890.[45]

Schloemer died November 24, 1921, and is buried at St. Matthias Cemetery in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.[6]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Gottfried Schloemer biography". The Milwaukee Journal. August 2, 1892. p. 8.
  2. ^ a b c "Schloemer Automobile". Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  3. ^ "Gottfried Schloemer in the beginning". The Milwaukee Sentinel. October 13, 1988. p. 1.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Gottfried Schloemer did it". The Milwaukee Journal. April 13, 1952. p. 2.
  5. ^ "South side once had big park". The Milwaukee Journal. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. May 31, 1976. p. 22, column 1.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Funeral for Inventor of Gas Auto Monday". The Milwaukee Journal. November 27, 1921. p. 2. The designer of the first gasoline-driven automobile in the world...
  7. ^ a b c d e f Austin 1969, p. 390.
  8. ^ May 1975, p. 21.
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Oldest Automobile in the World Made in Milwaukee". Milwaukee. 1 (5): 12. 1922. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  10. ^ "State News". The Oshkosh Northwestern. May 10, 1897. p. 110. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c "Unpopular Contraptions". Green Bay Press-Gazette. July 18, 1934. p. 110.
  12. ^ a b c "Milwaukee Built First Motor Car But Shooed The Industry To Detroit". The Milwaukee Journal. November 22, 1936. p. 8.
  13. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana (1954), Americana Corp. Volume 19, p. 142 Other Milwaukee inventors include Gottfried Schloemer and Frank Toepfer who built a gasoline automobile in 1889, claimed to have been the first one in the United States.
    • Industrial Commission (1958), pp. 121–122 Not only was the first practical gasoline-propelled automobile built in Wisconsin in 1889 by Gottfried Schloemer...
    • Clymer (1950), p. 153 It was inevitable that the first practical gasoline-powered car in the nation was built in Milwaukee in 1889 by Gottfried Schloemer...
    • May (1975), p. 21 Theirs was a crude vehicle that did, however work, after a fashion, and survives today in the Milwaukee Public Museum. Schloemer and Toepfer failed in their efforts to manufacture the Milwaukee car, one of several predecessors of the Duryea.
    • McClure (1922), p. 25 + But do you know who built the first automobile? The honor is now claimed for Gottfried Schloemer, who drove a strange, tiny "horseless buggy" of his own design and construction through the streets of Milwaukee, Wis., in 1889.
    • Geisst (2006), p. 27 Claimants during the early 1890s included Henry Nadig in Allentown, Pennsylvania (1891), John William Lambert in Ohio City, Ohio (1891), Gottfried Schloemer and Frank Toepfer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1892), Charles H. Black in Indianapolis, Indiana (1893), and Elwood P. Haynes in Kokomo, Indiana (1894).
    • Encyclopædia Britannica (1983), p. 517 The US Patent Office issued patents in September 1889 and April 1893 for three- wheeled gasoline-engine carriages, and Gottfried Schloemer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1890 built a successful car that still exists...
  14. ^ The Pentwater News, April 4, 1930, p. 2 ; "First Automobile in America". News.google.com (April 4, 1930). Retrieved on June 21, 2011.
  15. ^ "Badger stste has healthy range of heavy, light manufacturing". The Daily Tribune. September 22, 1966. p. 6. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  16. ^ Anderson 1952, p. 42.
  17. ^ "History of Automobile and Early Transmissions". Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  18. ^ "First Automobile built in America". The Southern Democrat. March 27, 1930. p. 6.
  19. ^ "Backfire". Leader-Telegram. April 23, 1922. p. 8.
  20. ^ Rubenstein (1992), p. 26
  21. ^ a b Everyday Mysteries: Who invented the automobile?, Library of Congress website, 23 August 2010. Accessed 22 June 2011
  22. ^ Davies (2003), p. 234
  23. ^ "Milwaukee's bid for Fame". The Milwaukee Sentinel. April 21, 1925. p. 1. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  24. ^ "Antique Auto still runs". Santa Cruz Evening News. Santa Cruz, California. March 22, 1930. p. 11.
  25. ^ a b "Descendants of Peter Cusick" (PDF). Oregon Pioneers. 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  26. ^ "Schloemer automobile". Wisconsin Society of Automotive Historians. 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  27. ^ a b The Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct 12, 1923 p. 2 "World's Oldest Auto Built by a Milwaukeean". News.google.com (October 12, 1923). Retrieved on June 21, 2011.
  28. ^ The Milwaukee Journal, Jan 29, 1928, P. VI; "World's First Car at Museum". News.google.com (January 29, 1928). Retrieved on June 21, 2011.
  29. ^ Lewis (1977), p. 48
  30. ^ History of Automobiles and Early Transmissions Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Webcache.googleusercontent.com (June 13, 2011). Retrieved on 2011-06-21.
  31. ^ Arizona Republic The Ancestral Fliv, Dec 27, 1920, p. 13
  32. ^ "Which was the first Automobile?". The Highway Magazine. XIV (8): 1. 1923.
  33. ^ "Citizens, Clubs buy First Auto". The Milwaukee Journal. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. October 12, 1923. p. 21. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  34. ^ "Iowa Innovators". IPTV. July 25, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  35. ^ "Designer of the first auto dies". Duluth News Tribune. Duluth, Minnesota. February 12, 1922. p. 2.
  36. ^ "Builder of the world's first tractor is dead". The St. Louis Star and Times. St. Louis, Missouri. February 12, 1922. p. 30 – via Newspapers.com open access.
  37. ^ The Milwaukee Sentinel, April 21, 1925, p. 6 "Milwaukee's Bid for Fame". News.google.com (April 21, 1925). Retrieved on June 21, 2011.
  38. ^ Milwaukee's Bid of Fame. Wisconsinhistory.org. Retrieved on June 21, 2011.
  39. ^ The Milwaukee Journal, Nov 27, 1921 Funeral for inventor of gas auto – Monday
  40. ^ a b The Duluth News Tribune, February 12, 1922, Volume: 23; Issue: 274; Page: 2; Location: Duluth, Minnesota, article: "Designer of First Auto Dies / Schloemer Claim Recognized", The designer of the first gasoline-driven automobile in the world, the inventor of the only combination driving pinion and differential ever made and the builder of the builder of the world's first tractor, is dead. Gottfried Schloemer, 80, who is credited with these achievements, died at his farm on Beloit Road last week, says a Milwaukee report. In 1889 Schloemer drew plans of the first gasoline engine. In 1890 this machine was traveling about the streets of Milwaukee. Schloemer's claim was recognized by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce and the Smithsonian Institute [sic].
  41. ^ Milwaukee Telegram, August 6, 1922, "How motor car grew from toy to world industry". Wisconsinhistory.org. Retrieved on June 21, 2011.
  42. ^ The Milwaukee Journal, Dec 21, 1933 World's First Auto is Show Exhibit
  43. ^ The Sheboygan Press-Telegram, Dec. 2, 1921, p. 1 The first gas-driven car in the world, it is claimed, was designed by a man named Godfrey Schloemer, who just died at his home near Milwaukee. And it is only 31 years ago that this first automobile was completed and given its first test.
  44. ^ "West Allis Star" obituary of Gottfrieb Schloemer: He was the designer of the first gasoline engine-driven automobile ever made.
  45. ^ "Look Back Twenty-five Years and Laugh". The Miami News. March 7, 1926. p. 22. Retrieved April 6, 2021.

Sources[]

Extra reading[]

  • Clymer, Floyd (1950), Treasury of American automobiles, 1877–1925, McGraw-Hill
  • Encyclopædia Britannica (1983), "Automobile: the United States", in The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 2, ISBN 0-85229-400-X
  • Geisst, Charles R. (2006), Encyclopedia of American business history, Volume 2, Infobase Publishing, ISBN 0-8160-4350-7
  • Industrial Commission (1958), The Wisconsin blue book, Authors: Wisconsin. Legislature. Senate. Chief Clerk, Wisconsin. Legislature. Assembly. Chief Clerk, Wisconsin. Office of the Secretary of State, Wisconsin. Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Industrial Commission of Wisconsin, Wisconsin. State Printing Board, Wisconsin. Legislature. Legislative Reference Library, Wisconsin. Legislature. Legislative Reference Bureau
  • Lewis, Albert L. (1977), Automobiles of the world, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-671-22485-9
  • May, George S. (1975), A most unusual machine: Michigan origins American automobile industry, Eerdmans.
  • McClure, Phillips (1922), Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 100 (McClure, Phillips and Co.)
  • Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MAC) (Jan 1922), Milwaukee (magazine), Volume 1, No. 5,
  • Rubenstein, James M. (1992), The changing US auto industry: a geographical analysis, Psychology Press, ISBN 0-415-05544-X

External links[]

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