The Speedwell Motor Car Company
Dayton, Ohio
The Speedwell Motor Car Company was founded in 1907 by Pierce D. Schenck in Dayton, Ohio. With a start up budget of $50,000, Pierce brought on board Gilbert J. Loomis of Massachusetts, to help with engineering. In the beginning the firm offered two different types of engines (Rutenber 4 and 6) available on two different types of frames (116 and 132 inches). However, a panic in the stock market in late 1907 caused the company to focus on one wheelbase, 120 inches, and one engine, a four cylinder. The four cylinder was of the company’s own design and manufacture.
Production numbers in 1909 were 100 cars. While not a substantial number, this was an increase from 25 produced in 1907. Showing that he had a market for his cars, Schenck began expanding the factory until he had 9 buildings, but not enough production to fill them. He would go on to lease out some of the factory to the Wright Brothers, while they waited on their own buildings to be completed.
The Speedwell’s base price was $2,500. The advertising department came up with a typical early 20th century slogan to go along with the price: “It would be folly to pay more. It would be unwise to pay less.” The Speedwell was a well engineered and constructed car for the time. One detail they thought of was called a “stuffing box”, it was for both ends of the drive shaft, not a bird. The boxes were designed to catch leaking grease and oil. Styling wise, they were the first company to build cars with hidden door hinges and the first to put the horn under the hood.
Sales were brisk, but in mid 1912, Schenck left the company to pursue an interest in iron manufacturing and Gilbert Loomis left Dayton for other ventures, too. The board of Speedwell contained a number of investors that had become enamored with Cyrus E. Mead’s new rotary valve engine and he was brought into the company as chief engineer
What followed was a disaster. The company was ideologically split between rotary valve supporters and the other half remaining loyal to the poppet valve. This did lead to the manufacturer being the first to produce cars with both types of valves. Shortly after the release of the first design Mead was killed in a car accident and the company lost the inventor of the new technology, forcing those less familiar with it to attempt further refinement. When a massive flood hit Dayton the standard cars couldn’t be produced in large numbers and the distribution network for the cars vanished.
The Speedwell Motor Car company was declared bankrupt in 1915. The buildings were used by the Recording and Computing Machines Company for a while and the tooling was sold off to the Puritan Machine Company, owned by A.O. Dunk. Dunk was a sort of early automotive speculator, that would read the trade magazines and swoop in and buy up auto manufactures when their obituaries were published. The Speedwell Motor Car company was his 61st such purchase.
By: Chris Breeden
