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N0KFQ > TODAY 05.11.14 15:30l 54 Lines 2545 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 39397_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 5
Path: IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 141105/1430Z 39397@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Nov 5, 1895:
George Selden patents gas-powered car
On November 5, 1895, Rochester attorney George Selden wins U.S.
Patent No. 549,160 for an "improved road engine" powered by a
"liquid-hydrocarbon engine of the compression type." With that,
as far as the government was concerned, George Selden had
invented the car--though he had never built a single one.
Selden's design was fairly vague, and was actually based on a
two-cylinder internal-combustion engine that someone else had
invented: Selden had simply copied the one he'd seen on display
at the 1872 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. In 1899, Selden
sold his patent to a group of investors who called themselves the
Electric Vehicle Company. In turn, they immediately sued the
Winton Motor Carriage Company, the largest car manufacturer in
the United States, for infringing on the Selden patent just by
building gas-powered cars. Winton settled, and the court upheld
Selden's patent in 1903.
Soon, some automakers realized that the Selden patent didn't have
to be a threat to their business. On the contrary, it could be
quite profitable and limit competition in a highly competitive
industry. About 30 car companies, including Winton, got together
with Selden and the EVC to form the Association of Licensed
Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM). The ALAM sued anyone who built a
gas-powered car without Selden's permission--in other words,
anyone who had not paid to join the Selden cartel. It also
drummed up business for its own members by threatening to sue
anyone who bought a car from an unlicensed company. (Its ads
warned: "Don't buy a lawsuit with your new automobile!")
But Selden's group, composed mostly of Eastern carmakers that
built ritzy cars for rich buyers, made a mistake: It excluded the
Midwestern manufacturers who built lower-priced cars for ordinary
people. In particular, it excluded Henry Ford. On October 22,
1903, the ALAM sued Ford for patent infringement, but the case
took until 1909, seven months after the Model T was introduced,
to go to trial. Most Americans, delighted to have the opportunity
to buy an affordable car, were on Ford's side, but the judge was
not: The court ruled that any gas-powered vehicle unlicensed by
the ALAM violated the Selden patent and was illegal.
But on January 11, 1911, the appeals court ruled in Ford's favor:
the Selden patent, it said, only applied to replicas of the exact
engine that Selden had seen in 1872.
73, K.O. and Billie...
...."on the road again".
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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