1912: Dozens of Automobile Makers in America

In the year 1912, seven companies produced half the cars in America, and the Ford Company produced about 22 percent of all the nation's cars.


Almost anyone who owned a shop and knew how to weld could construct an automobile from a simple frame and an electric or gasoline motor. To the minds of Americans in 1912, making a go-cart and making an automobile were practically the same thing. You just had to draw up some plans, buy the parts, roll up your sleeves, and build one.

Dozens of back-alley automobile enthusiasts were competing with the big money boys from New York and Detroit to start their own companies and produce cars -- a surprisingly large number with electric motors.  Most of the companies lasted only a few years, and their inventive brand names are now only dim memories.

Above: A proud owner shows off his 1912 Maxwell Automobile.

Here a list of 1912 automobile makers, taken from Wikipedia:

Abbot-Detroit
Alpena
American
American Locomotive Company (ALCO)
American Tri-Car
American Under-Slung
Ames
Amplex
Ann-Arbor
Apperson
Ar Benz
Argo Electric
Atlas Knight
Auburn
Austin
Autocar
Autoette
Babcock Electric
Bailey Electric
Baker Electric
Beaver
Bergdoll
Berkshire
Borland Electric
Briggs Detroiter
Broc Electric
Brush
Buffalo Electric
Burg
Cameron
Car-Nation
Century Electric
Chadwick
Church-Field
Colby
Cole
Columbia Electric
Columbus Electric
Continental
Corbin
Correja
Courier
Crane
Crane & Breed
Crawford
Crow-Elkhart
Cunningham
Cutting
Davis
Day
Dayton Electric
DeTamble
Detroit Electric
Detroiter
Dorris
Duryea
E-M-F
Empire
Enger
Everitt
Falcar
Firestone-Columbus
Flanders Electric
FRP
FS
Garford
Gaylord
GJG
Glide
Great Eagle
Great Southern
Great Western
Grinnell
Grout
Halladay
Havers
Haynes
Henry
Herreshoff
Hupp-Yeats
Huselton
Imperial
Interstate
Johnson
Kauffman
Kearns
Keeton
Kimball Electric
King
Kissel
Kline Kar
Knox
K-R-I-T
Lambert
Lenox
Lexington
Lincoln
Lion
Little
Locomobile
Lozier
Luverne
Marathon
Marion
Marmon
Mason
Matheson
McFarlan
McIntyre
Mercer
Metz
Midland
Miller
Mitchell
Moline
Moon
Morse
Moyer
National
New Parry
Norwalk
Nyberg
Ohio
Ohio Electric
Overland
Packard
Paige
Paige-Detroit
Palmer-Singer
Paterson
Pathfinder
Peerless
Penn
Petrel
Pierce-Arrow
Pilot
Pope-Hartford
Pratt
Premier
Pullman
Rambler
Rauch & Lang
Rayfield
Regal
Republic
Richmond
Roader
Rogers
Schacht
Sears
Selden
SGV
Simplex
Spaulding
Speedwell
Standard
Standard Electric
Stanley
Staver
Stearns-Knight
Stevens-Duryea
Stoddard-Dayton
Studebaker
Stutz
Sultan
Thomas
Velie
Virginian
Wagenhals
Warren-Detroit
Waverly-Electric
Westcott
White
Winton
Woods Electric
Zimmerman
Zoe


Below: Teddy Roosevelt motors to the Progessive Party's National Convention

Suffragettes

On May 6, 1912, suffragettes and their supporters marched on the City of New York. You go girl!

Built for Speed: The 1912 Model

John Jacob Astor IV in an automobile

This blog is dedicated to John Jacob Astor IV, who died on the RMS Titanic 15 April 1912.

In addition to being one of the wealthiest men in New York City, Mr. Astor was the author of a science fiction novel,  A Journey in Other Worlds (1894), in which he tells the story of an adventurous space flight to Jupiter.  One must note that Orville and Wilbur Wright did not invent the airplane until 1903.