Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company

Lambert Gas and Gasoline Company

circa 1910
Type	Engine Manufacturing
Industry	Gasoline engines
Founded	1893
Founder	John William Lambert
Defunct	1917
Headquarters	Anderson, Indiana , United States
Area served	United States
Products	Commercial engines Automobile engines agricultural tractors
Divisions	1801-1809 Columbus Ave

The Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company was a company in Anderson, Indiana, started by John William Lambert in 1894 as part of the conglomerate of the Buckeye Manufacturing Company in Union City, Ohio. The company made agricultural implement equipment, steel wheel tractors, and stationary gasoline engines for commercial users.

In 1902 it added a line of automobile engines for a new car Lambert designed and had manufactured in Union City. In 1904 it had larger facilities constructed in Anderson to expand their production of automobile engines, tractor engines, fire engines, and commercial gasoline engines. In 1905 the company purchased more land for further expansion and moved in Buckeye Manufacturing Company from Union City. In 1906 the facilities added the manufacturer of the Lambert brand automobile to their products. In 1909, with the success of the Lambert brand automobile the facilities expanded again and automobile manufacture became the main product.

History[]

1895 gas stationary engine

Lambert engine irrigation pump, circa 1899

Three Lambert Brothers in 1884 established an enterprise that manufactured carriage hardware and supplies in Union City, Ohio. Six years later the name of this firm became the Buckeye Manufacturing Company. In 1894 the Lambert gasoline engine was invented and added to their line of products they manufactured.^[1]

The brothers incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000 (equivalent to $2,991,154 in 2020) with John Lambert, president; George Lambert, vice-president; and C.A. Lambert, Secretary and Treasurer. The Lamberts then moved part of the carriage works 50 miles away to Anderson, Indiana. They ventured into the new business of making gasoline engines. This was what became later the Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company.^[2]

The new enterprise of engine production of the Buckeye Manufacturing Company moved into an existing building in the Evalyn addition in Anderson on Sycamore Street, between Third and Sixth Streets. The brick construction covered 6 acres (24,000 m²) of floor space and the Lamberts equipped it with modern machinery of the day.^[3] The company the Lamberts ran made agricultural implement equipment, steel wheel tractors, and stationary gasoline engines for commercial use. It employed about 300 people in 1894. John Lambert had invented and patented three completely new gasoline engines by 1895.^[1][2]

In 1902, while continuing making gasoline engines in Anderson, the Lamberts decided to make a four-wheel version of John Lambert's 1891 three-wheel gasoline buggy, considered the first American gasoline automobile. They decided to mass produce this automobile in Union City from metal body parts and gasoline engines manufactured in Anderson. They created the Union Automobile Company as a subsidiary of the Buckeye Manufacturing Company and called the automobile the Union.^[3]

In 1904, a new larger factory building was decided to be constructed because of John Lambert's gasoline engine achievements. The division that made engines moved from Sycamore Street to a new building at Ohio Avenue and Columbus Avenue in Anderson.^[4]. The new building of cinder block construction was of an L-shaped and sixty feet wide. The lengthy side of the L shape, some 500 feet in length, ran parallel to railroad tracks which made available to the factory easy access to transportation.^[5]

This side was a machine shop for manufacturing gasoline engines. The shortest side of the L shaped building fronted on Columbus Avenue and had offices and showrooms. On the back part of the long area of the main building structure of the company it had a separate foundry for making engine parts. After opening the new factory the company produced five to six gasoline engines per day and added fire engines to their line.^[6]

In 1905, the Lambert brothers bought a parcel of land on the southern part of the Columbus Avenue facilities. This purchase then made it possible to build the main factory facilities larger. The Lamberts then moved the Buckeye Manufacturing Company in where the engine works division was located. The part on the front of Columbus Avenue was made about sixty feet longer to give it a total length of just over 200 feet. At a ninety degree angle to the wing of the company had constructed another long structure which was about 470 feet long by 50 feet wide. The Columbus Avenue facility now had a U-shape with the separate foundry building structure at the open space end of the U pattern.^[7]

The base part of the U part of the Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company that fronted on Columbus Avenue was an area for offices and showrooms. The northern wing was the part where the engines were made. The Buckeye Manufacturing Company used the south part of the wing to manufacture Lambert brand automobiles after 1906. By 1909 the Lamberts needed more space so constructed more buildings in what had previously been the open space courtyard of the U shaped facilities.^[8]

A description of Lambert gasoline stationary engines was described in the 1911 Gas, Gasoline and Oil-engines book written by mechanical engineer Gardner Dexter Hiscox. He said the engines built were all of the horizontal four-cycle type and came in fifteen sizes from 1 H.P. to 40 H.P. He described the valves as the poppet type that were operated by a secondary shaft and worm reducing-gear. He said the exhaust valve was opened by a lever across and under the end of the cylinder, the lever having a roller riding against a cam on the secondary shaft. The exhaust chamber had water circulation through a jacket and the cylinder head was also jacketed and connected, so that there was no leak into the cylinder from the water circulation.^[9]

There was a "Leaflet" available by the Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company on their gasoline engines giving directions to the person that operated them. It was a guide to their gasoline engines giving special instructions for how the internal action of the engine was performing by just the sound of how it was operating.^[10] A partial patent search reveals the following patents associated with John Lambert that were assigned to the Buckeye Manufacturing Company and produced by the Lambert Gas and Gasoline Company.^[2]

Gas Engine governor valve, patent No. 656, 408

Speed-regulator for gas-engines, No. 661,181

Both the patent drawings have been obtained from United States Government Patent and Trademark Office via Google Patents.

See also[]

• Union automobile
• Lambert automobile
• John William Lambert
• Buckeye gasoline buggy
• Union Automobile Company
• Lambert Automobile Company
• Buckeye Manufacturing Company
• Lambert friction gearing disk drive transmission

Footnotes[]

Sources[]

• Forkner, John L. (1897). Historical Sketches of Madison County, Indiana. The Lewis Publishing Company.

• Hiscox, Gardner Dexter (1911). Gas, Gasoline and Oil-engines. Vol. Eighteen. The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company. p. 295.</ref>

• Lucendo, Jorge (2019). Cars of Legend. Jorge Lucendo Publications.

External links[]

• Historic American Engineering record / Lambert Gas and Gasoline Company