Auto Review American Classic 3: The Inventors

Automotive history is populated with inventors, many of whom were pioneers in their field. Some became household names, but others were forgotten, when more entrepreneurial characters came along who were able to turn someone else’s concept into a profit. Inventors often display similar character traits; stubbornness and reluctance to accept criticism, no matter how constructive, inability to develop an invention to a profitable commercial conclusion, and losing interest in the current invention because a more intriguing idea has come along. In the over 200 Auto Review books published so far there are many such 

stories, but here we look at some prolific but lesser-known American inventors who had a major impact on the automotive world. We begin our coverage with J Walter Christie, described as a ’maverick inventor’, responsible for the first American front-wheel drive cars, for fire engine tractor units and, most famously, for innovations in armoured fighting vehicles. Alexander Winton was a pioneer designer of cars and diesel engines, which were so successful that engines became the firm’s main activity and it was taken over by General Motors, to become the famous GM Cleveland diesel engine division. Harry Knox was also a pioneering inventor in the automotive field, famous for his ‘Waterless’ air-cooled cars before he turned to making trucks, and then also to armoured fighting vehicles, where his work supplanted that of Christie. Herbert Franklin was also famously an advocate of air-cooled engines. After making much-admired luxury cars, his company went on to produce Franklin air-cooled aero engines. Edward Pennington also had a long list of patents to his name, but unlike our other subjects he was a charlatan and a serial fraudster. His story may seem like a bit of light relief after the tales of worthy hard-working inventors, but his schemes and scams cost his investors dear.