Buckeye gasoline buggy

John William Lambert built the United States' first gasoline internal combustion engine automobile, according to a five-year study by L. Scott Bailey (an automobile historian, editor, and publisher) which found substantial evidence to enter the claim on Lambert's behalf.{{cite web|url= http://www.and.lib.in.us/indianaroom/history/autohistory.shtml|title= Anderson's Automobile Age|access-date= 2008-12-19|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100325114403/http://www.and.lib.in.us/indianaroom/history/autohistory.shtml|archive-date= 2010-03-25}}{{sfn|Scharchburg|1993|page=22}} In 1891, Lambert successfully designed and built the automobile, and drove it on the streets of Ohio City, Ohio.{{cite web|url=https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/John_W._Lambert |title=John W. Lambert|publisher=Ohio History Central|access-date=30 March 2021}}{{cite journal |first=Wallace Spencer|last=Huffman|date=1967 |title=Indiana's Place in Automobile History |journal=Indiana History Bulletin|volume=44|issue=2 |pages= 12}}{{cite news |author= |title= Auto's 75th Anniversary of special interest Here |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/68643254/ |work= Anderson Daily Bulletin | page= 4 |location=Anderson, Indiana|date= January 12, 1971 |via=Newspapers.com {{open access}} }} Henry Ford and Duryea Brothers would not construct automobiles of their own until several years later.{{sfn|Bailey|1960|page=342}}

In Europe, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler produced the first gasoline automobiles in 1885–1886.{{cite web |url=https://www.daimler.com/company/at-a-glance.html |title=Daimler at a Glance |year=2016 |publisher=Daimler AG |access-date=16 July 2016}}{{cite web|url= http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventors/tp/Famous-Automobile-Makers-.htm|archive-url= https://archive.today/20130116082811/http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventors/tp/Famous-Automobile-Makers-.htm|url-status= dead|archive-date= January 16, 2013|title= Automobile History - Famous Automobile Makers|access-date= 2008-12-19}}{{cite web|url= http://www.chevroncars.com/learn/cars/history-cars|title= The History of the First Cars|access-date= 2008-12-19|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081218093525/http://www.chevroncars.com/learn/cars/history-cars|archive-date= 2008-12-18|url-status= dead}} The Duryea brothers made their first American automobile in 1893, and three years later started mass-producing cars at Duryea Motor Wagon Company; Henry Ford started mass-producing cars in 1899 at the Detroit Automobile Company.{{sfn|Batchelor|1994|page=18}}{{Citation

| last = Bryan

| first = Ford R.

| author-link = Ford R. Bryan

| title = The Birth of Ford Motor Company

| publisher = Henry Ford Heritage Association

| url = http://www.hfha.org/ford_story/birth_of_the_ford_motor_company.html

| access-date = May 23, 2008

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130415004346/http://hfha.org/HenryFord.htm%23Ford-Motor-Co

| archive-date = April 15, 2013

| url-status = dead

}}

Lambert initially worked on an internal combustion three-cylinder gasoline engine in 1890.{{sfn|Benton|1983|page=517}}{{cite news |author= Anthony Harrigan |title= American Automobile Changed Our Lives |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65339331/|work= The Brownsville Herald | page= 6 |location=Brownsville, Texas|date= December 27, 1976 |via=Newspapers.com {{open access}} }} He successfully tested it in January 1891, inside an {{convert|80|ft|m|adj=on}} farm equipment showroom he owned and managed in Ohio City, Ohio.{{sfn|Madden|2003|page=2}} He did his first outside driving in late February of that year, on the main street of the city.{{sfn| Scharchburg| 1993|page=23}} It had a four-stroke engine. It had a forward center small wheel for steering, which was operated by foot with a stirrup-type device.{{sfn|Bailey|1960|page=343}}{{sfn|Clymer|1950|page=6}}

File:Lambert gasoline stationary engine 1895.png

In 1892, Lambert decided to begin manufacturing stationary gasoline engines for farm and industrial use.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} In that year he moved to Anderson, Indiana, and incorporated the Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company. He formed the Buckeye Manufacturing Company in 1893 to make automobiles.{{sfn|Forkner|1914|page=385}} He experimented further with drive-train technology, and devised the Lambert friction gearing disk drive transmission, which became a key feature on all of his future automobiles.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023|reason=Neither ref 9 or 10 discusses a disc drive}} The three-wheel gasoline buggy design from 1891 was eventually modified and developed into the four wheel Union automobile, which was first sold in 1902.{{cite journal |last=Dolmar |first=Hugh |date=1906 |title=The Lambert, 1906 Line of Automobiles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-jBLAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22The+Lambert+1906+Line+of+Automobiles%22&pg=PA225 |journal=Automobile Trade Journal |publisher=Chilton Company |volume=10 |pages=225–228}} It was tiller-steered and about 300 cars were made which came with the friction disk drive transmission.{{sfn|Wise|2000|page=348}}

A second factory was constructed in 1905, for the manufacture of the Union car. At that time, {{Clarify|reason=Which company? The articles for Buckeye Manufacturing & Lambert Automobile are fairly clear that they were separate enterprises.|date=January 2023|text=the company}} changed its name to the Lambert Automobile Company, and the buggy was redesigned into a higher-quality vehicle suitable for mass production.{{sfn|Bailey|1960|page=345}} In addition to gasoline-powered street cars, the company made commercial trucks, fire-engine vehicles, railroad inspection vehicles, and tractors for farmers.{{sfn|Forkner|1914|page=385}}{{sfn|Lucendo|2019|page=1864}}

File:Lambert Automobile Company 1908.png

The Lambert Automobile Company belonged under the umbrella of the Buckeye Manufacturing Company conglomerate group. It produced an average of 2,000 vehicles per year between 1906 and 1910, with 500 employees (and hiring more workers each year). The company employed over a thousand workers by 1910, and production increased to an average of around 3,000 vehicles per year until 1916. In that year, only about a thousand vehicles were manufactured. In 1917, when the United States entered into World War I, the plant retooled to make equipment for the war. They then made projectiles, ammunition, wheels, and special-purpose engines.{{sfn|Lucendo|2019|page=1864}}

Lambert produced only a few vehicles after the war was over. He realized that, for automobile manufacturing to be profitable, cars had to be mass-produced in high numbers to enable economies of scale. By 1922, the Buckeye Manufacturing Company had stopped manufacturing vehicles and automobile parts altogether. In the time of their production, however, automobiles had been the company's main enterprise. The company designed its own bodyworks and vehicle motors; sometimes these parts were made to order by third parties and manufactured to Buckeye's specifications. The automobile interiors were of high-quality upholstery, and the exterior paint was applied in fifteen layers.{{sfn|Lucendo|2019|page=1864}}

• Lambert automobile
• Union Automobile Company

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|last=Bailey|first=L. Scott|url=http://caroljeanlambertbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Scott-Bailey-article.pdf|title=Historic Discovery: 1891 Lambert, New Claim for America's First Car|magazine=Antique Automobile magazine|publisher=Heuss Printing |volume=24|issue=5|year=1960 }}
• {{cite book|last=Batchelor|first=Ray|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3i7AAAAIAAJ&dq=Henry+Ford+started+mass-producing+cars+in+1899+at+the+Detroit+Automobile+Company.&pg=PA18 |title = Henry Ford, mass production, modernizing, and design|year =1994|publisher=Manchester University Press|place=Manchester, Maryland|isbn=9780719041747}}
• {{cite encyclopedia |title=John William Lambert |encyclopedia= The New Encyclopedia Britannica|volume=2 |year=1983 |publisher= Encyclopedia Britannica |editor-last= Benton|editor-first=William |location= New York City}}
• {{cite book| last = Clymer| first = Floyd|title = Treasury of early American automobiles, 1877-1925|place= New York City |year=1950|publisher=McGraw-Hill|oclc=1004934361}}
• {{cite book| last = Forkner| first = John La Rue|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDIFGlhoEeEC&dq=John+W+Lambert+was+born+in+Champaign+county+Ohio+January+29+1860+son+of+George+and+Anna+Liber+Lambert+natives+of+and+early+settlers+of+the+Buckeye+State&pg=PA385 |title = History of Madison County, Indiana|place=Chicago, Illinois|year=1914|publisher=Lewis Publishing Company}}
• {{cite book|last=Lucendo|first=Jorge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C8mlDwAAQBAJ |title = Cars of Legend| year = 2019| publisher = McFarland & Company}}
• {{cite book|last=Madden|first = W. C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3ooSQxwGwUC |title=Haynes-Apperson and America's First Practical Automobile|year=2003|place=Jefferson, North Carolina|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=0-7864-1397-2}}
• {{cite book|last=Scharchburg|first=Richard P.|title =Carriages Without Horses|year =1993|publisher=Society of Automotive Engineers|place=Chicago, Illinois|isbn=9781560913801}}
• {{cite book|last=Wise|first=David Burgess|title = The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles|year =2000|publisher= Quantum Publishing |place=Edison, New Jersey|isbn=0-7858-1106-0}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckeye Gasoline Buggy}}

Category:Veteran vehicles

Category:Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States

Category:Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Indiana

Category:Anderson, Indiana

Category:Vehicles introduced in 1891

Category:Cars introduced in 1891

Category:1890s cars

Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1891

Category:1891 establishments in Indiana

Category:Defunct companies based in Indiana