CATALOG OF THE AUTOMOBILE COLLECTION 37 



CADILLAC GASOLINE AUTOMOBILE, 1903 



U. S. N. M. No. 308217 ; original ; gift of Cadillac Motor Car Co. in 1923 ; photo- 

 graph No. 8483-B; plate 16, a. 



This model-A Cadillac represents the type of car constructed during 

 the first year of manufacturing by the Cadillac Automobile Co., of 

 Detroit, Mich. It sold for $850 when new. 



The 1-cylinder gasoline engine, built by Leland and Faulconer, is 

 water-cooled. The bore and stroke of the engine are each 5 inches, 

 giving a total piston displacement of 98.2 cubic inches. It is mounted 

 horizontally in the frame, with the cylinder toward the rear of the 

 car. The flywheel is under the left front seat of the body, and the 

 hand crank can be attached to the crankshaft at the flywheel. The 

 engine is cranked in a counterclockwise direction from the left side. 

 It is not original with the car, however, but is from a Cadillac of about 

 1906, as indicated by the oiler and by the method of cranking. Origi- 

 nally the engine was cranked from either side of the car by means of a 

 secondary shaft connected to the crankshaft by sprockets and chain. 

 This shaft is still in place beneath the body but is no longer connected 

 to the crankshaft, which is not fitted with a sprocket. 



Ignition of the engine was by spark plug and high-tension coil. 

 Spark advance and retard were performed by means of a short lever 

 in a slot to the right of the driver. The coil is contained in a com- 

 partment in the left front of the body. The dry cells are located in 

 a box suspended beneath the left end of the front floorboard. Engine 

 speed was controlled by a lever, working on a segment beneath the 

 steering wheel, which controlled the amount of opening of the mechan- 

 ically operated inlet valve. The exhaust valve leads into a short pipe, 

 which, in turn, leads into a sheet-metal muffler beneath the right rear 

 of the body. 



A centrifugal pump circulated the water through the jackets of 

 the cylinder and through the water tank and the radiator. The latter 

 is composed of a long, seamless, copper tube five-eighths of an inch in 

 outside diameter over which are slipped hundreds of copper radiating 

 disks spaced three-eighths of an inch apart. The tube is bent and 

 shaped so that it forms a unit six tubes in height by two tubes in depth, 

 the tubes all lying horizontally. The water tank is contained in a 

 compartment in the right front of the body, and the system is filled 

 through a pipe beneath the left front seat. 



The planetary transmission, with steel pinions and bronze gears, 

 provides two speeds forward and one reverse. Low speed is engaged 

 by depressing a pedal, high speed by moving forward a long lever at 

 the right of the driver, and reverse by moving the lever rearward. 

 Neutral is the central position of the lever. 



