The Duryea Automobile

The period from 1876 to 1886 marks the beginning of the present motor vehicle industry. In Germany, Daimler developed the small high speed motor which is admittedly the predecessor of present day practice. Benz, his countryman, confined himself more to the application of engines resembling stationary engines, and while very successful, so far as quantity of vehicles made and service rendered is considered, did not influence the industry as did Daimler whose inventions were taken up in France about 1892 or '93. In America, occasionally experimenting since 1886, the Duryea Bros. began continuous work on gasolene vehicles in 1891, which work unlike many experiments, has been carried forth continually since.

In September, 1893, J. Frank Duryea made the first outdoor test run of one of America's earliest gasoline cars on the streets of Chicopee, Massachusetts. Frank (On the Left) and brother Charles (On The Right) started building the car together. By the time it hit the streets, though, Charles had moved to Peoria to build bicycles.

Frank built another version of his horseless carriage and drove it to victory in the Chicago Times-Herald contest of 1895, America's first automobile race held on Thanksgiving Day. Charles was in the race too - riding further back in the pack in an import...a Benz.The Race, more of a endurance test, was a 54 mile trek along Lake Michigan. Out of 89 initial entries, only two cars lasted the distance, Frank in the winning Duryea, and a German Benze.

It was Charles, in 1895, who organized The Duryea Motor Wagon Company - America's first company for the manufacture of gasoline cars. Thirteen vehicles were produced by the firm in 1896.