6 BULLETIN 198, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



machine would be far more practical than one propelled by steam or 

 electricity. On July 4, 1894, his first car (pi. 5, h) made a successful 

 trial trip. This vehicle is now in the National Museum. 



Another pioneer car in the National Museum is the small, rotary- 

 engined road carriage built by Stephen M. Balzer in 1894. Although 

 this gasoline-powered vehicle (pi. 4, &) is the only one now known to 

 have been constructed by Balzer, other slightly different models appear 

 in the drawings and specifications of several patents obtained by him 

 in the same period. 



In Detroit, Mich., Charles Brady King planned a motor tricycle m 

 1893, and several 4- wheeled vehicles to be powered with Sintz, 1-cylin- 

 der, 2-cycle, gasoline engines in 1893 and 1894. They were, however, 

 never built. In 1895 he started the construction of an automobile 

 powered with a 4-cylinder, 4-cycle, gasoline engine of his own design. 

 This vehicle was successfully put in operation on March 6, 1896, and 

 is said to have been the first automobile ever driven on the streets of 

 Detroit. The machine was dismantled shortly afterward. Several of 

 the valves of this engine were subsequently given by King to Henry 

 Ford and were used in the engine of Ford's first vehicle. 



Henry Ford, machinist and one-time farmer, had experimented with 

 gasoline engines for a number of years before ultimately constructing 

 in his little workshop on Bagley Avenue in Detroit a 4- wheeled, tiller- 

 steered vehicle powered with his own 2-cylinder, 4-cycle, horizontal, 

 gasoline engine. This car, with Charles B. King as a passenger, had 

 its first test run on the streets of Detroit on June 4, 1896. It is now on 

 exhibition in the Edison Institute at Dearborn, Mich. Several suc- 

 cessful racing cars were later built by Ford, and in 1903 the first 

 model-A Ford automobile, a 2-cylinder machine, was offered to the 

 public by the then newly formed Ford Motor Co. 



In Lansing, Mich., in 1886, Ransom E. Olds had constructed a 3- 

 wheeled, steam-propelled, passenger vehicle. This was subsequently 

 rebuilt into a 4-wheeled steamer, and in 1893 it was shipped to a 

 purchaser in Bombay, India. Olds's first gasoline-engined automobile 

 was not built until late in 1895 or early in 1896 and unfortunately 

 was later destroyed by fire. In 1897 four similar gasoline automobiles 

 are said to have been built, one of which is now in the National 

 Museum's collection. It is the oldest Olds vehicle surviving. (PI. 

 7, a.) 



A few other makes and types of automobiles were also in evidence 

 in this country before the close of the century, and untold numbers 

 of experimental machines were built by mechanically minded men 

 in the next few years. Many developed into successful enterprises, 

 some doing business even today. Not to be overlooked were the auto- 

 biles powered with steam engines and electric motors. Each of these 



