OLDS GASOLINE AUTOMOBILE, 1897 

 Gift of the Olds Motor Works in 1915 (USNM 286567) 



Ransom E. Olds, builder of this machine (fig. 43), re- 

 called a few years ago that it was one of four constructed 

 at Lansing, Mich., in 1897, by the then newly formed firm, 

 the Olds Motor Vehicle Co., of which Olds was manager. 

 The machine was successfully operated that year at a speed 

 of about 10 miles an hour with four passengers. 



The car is equipped with a 6-horsepower, 1 -cylinder, 

 water-cooled engine (fig. 44) placed horizontally beneath 

 the body to the rear of the vehicle, with the vertical flywheel 

 in the center of the car so that the transverse crankshaft is 

 located about midway between the front and rear axles. 



Figure 43. — Ransom E. Olds built one gasoline automobile in 1895 or 1896, 

 and four more of the same design in 1 897. This 1 897 Olds is the only re- 

 maining example of these first Olds vehicles. 



