Autos-Bu

http://conestogavvagon.tumblr.com/post/16221570797/timothy-osullivans-ambulance-wagon-and-portable

Riding a bicycle down a narrow chute from a tower 110 feet in the air, picking up speed on the downward part of the chute and then swooping upward off the curved end of the chute. Just before the bike left the chute, he had to propel himself from the machine and dive forward in a graceful arc to land headfirst in a water-filled tank 100 feet from the end of the chute. In their day, Schreyer and his fellow daredevils were probably household names. Schreyer, for example, had a career lasting nearly a quarter-century. He performed all over the United States, in Canada and in such European capitals as Paris and London. Here is a launch he did from on top of a car sales building, where there were many manufactures advertised on the building, Maxwell, Oldsmobile, Mercer Photographer William Hassler was there for the above event at Broadway and 59th Street on November 27, 1918. https://jimsbikeblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/ http://nyhistory.tumblr.com/post/166570323814/dont-fail-to-see-the-bi...

Du Pont used the vehicle during his supervision of the construction of the DuPont Highway through the state of Delaware. The DuPont Highway was proposed in 1908 by Thomas Coleman DuPont, a two-time U.S. senator, as a modern road that was to run from Selbyville north to Wilmington as part of a philanthropic measure. At Wilmington, it connected to the Philidelphia Pike which had been made in the 1820s This DuPont Highway was planned to improve travel and bring economic development to Kent and Sussex counties, and was to be modeled after the great boulevards of Europe with a 200-foot wide right-of-way consisting of a 40-foot wide roadway for automobiles flanked by dual trolley lines, 30-foot wide roadways for heavy vehicles, 15-foot wide unpaved roadways for horses, and sidewalks. Utilities were to be buried underground below the horse roadways. The highway was also to include agricultural experimental stations and monuments for future surveying. Trolley revenues would help pay for t...

He became known as the “Graphite Kid,” because he covered his car (and face) with graphite in an effort to reduce wind resistance. Maybe it worked, because he ended up taking the win in 1946. https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2018/02/Soap-Box-Derby/3751474.html

 Jimmy Gronen was dozing in front of the TV 40 years ago when he heard the words that shook his young world. Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, appeared and said, ‘Well, ladies and gentlemen, there is one boy in America unhappier than Richard Nixon this evening, and it’s little Jimmy Gronen,’  Bob Lange Jr., won the 1972 event, and for 1973, Lange’s cousin Jimmy Gronen drove a car that was visually identical to Lange’s. Gronen won the 1973 event, but was stripped of the title two days later. Officials had already replaced Gronen’s wheels and tires after they were seen to be chemically treated to reduce rolling resistance. Suspicious derby officials carted Gronen’s vehicle to what was then the Goodyear Airdock for X-rays, then held a news conference at which they sliced the car apart for dramatic effect. But X-ray examination showed that Gronen’s car also had an electromagnet in the nose, which was attracted to the steel paddle used to start the race; it allowed Grone...

The 1893 fair organizers and Congress’s goal was to stir men’s blood, to surpass the marvels of the Exposition Universelle produced by France and held in Paris in 1889, which had been so majestic and exotic that no one thought it could ever be equaled. America’s pride as an international power demanded a response, something to eclipse the French exposition and its Eiffel Tower. Alexandre Eiffel, a French engineer, was hired to create the grandest spectacle of all. The World’s Columbian Exposition was the answer, and four cities—New York, Washington, D.C., St. Louis and Chicago—submitted bids. After several rounds of intense lobbying, Congress awarded the charter to Chicago. Burnham, the director of works for the 1893 world’s fair, spent more than $22 million (almost $600 million in today’s dollars) to make it happen. Attendance on the fair’s best day, Chicago Day, was 761,942 people, which beat out the best day, by almost half, at the Paris exposition. the main axle was made by Bethle...

Discharged from the Navy in the summer of 1945, 29-year-old Sam and Anna Mary tried to rent a utility trailer to move their possessions from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore. It couldn't be done. They had to take only what they could fit in the family car, a 1937 Ford See the promo photo below for an accurate idea of what fit in a trailer instead The Shoens reasoned that many other families had a need similar to theirs: the short-term availability of a trailer that could be rented "here" and left "there." No one, at that time, seemed ready or willing to serve that need. That winter, to cut expenses "to the bone," Sam and Anna Mary moved in with her folks on the family ranch. They were broke, but believed they had a business. Based on his appearance of success, Sam obtained credit from a local lumber yard and was able to obtain war-surplus steel from a Navy yard. There were some major start-up hurdles, including the trailers themselves. They purchased trail...