WEBVTT - The Crazy Origins of General Motors 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.800 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.000 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.840 and I love all things tech, and I occasionally like 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.919 to look at the history of car companies. Car cars 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.360 tech after all. And you know, the stories behind car 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.440 companies are often fascinating, and typically they're really complicated. They 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:37.360 frequently involved strategic partnerships and acquisitions and mergers and other 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.920 big moves that can make it a little tricky to 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.800 trace a history in any kind of linear way. So 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.680 we're gonna try to do that today, because nothing worth 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.640 doing is ever easy or something. So we're going to 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:54.880 explore the history and the impact of General Motors, which 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.880 you could argue is one of the big origin stories 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.080 for how the automotive industry got so complicated in the 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.600 first place. And like a lot of my episodes, this 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:09.040 story will actually begin before there was any General Motors 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.880 to speak of, and it will go on after GM 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:16.120 ceases to be because spoiler alert, that happened the General 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.200 Motors today is not the same as the one that 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.800 was founded more than a century ago. Now, to talk 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.640 about the history of general motors. We actually need to 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.640 talk a little bit about the history of the automobile itself, 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.640 and more to the point, the history of automobile companies. Now, 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.119 I'm not going to do an exhaustive history here, because 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.760 that would require talking about all sorts of stuff that 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:43.320 doesn't actually apply to general motors, like air propelled land 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:48.440 vehicles that used wind power, or compressed air engine vehicles, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.680 or steam powered tricycles and wagons and all that kind 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.880 of thing. We're instead going to skip ahead to the 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:59.520 era of the internal combustion engine, the gasoline powered engine. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.640 But if you if you folks want me to do 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.920 an episode talking about the various early attempts to build 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.400 a horseless carriage and the different methods that people tried, 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.320 let me know, and we'll all take a very historical 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.359 and extremely bumpy road trip together. Now, the first automobiles 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.560 powered by internal combustion engines originated in the mid nineteenth 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.280 century around the eighteen sixties, but it really wasn't until 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.480 the eighteen eighties that engineers stuck around with experimenting with 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.440 these things long enough to make automobiles that were more 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:36.720 than just a curiosity. Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler independently 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.360 did this, but ultimately their work would converge later on 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.919 with the formation of the company Daimler a G also 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.079 known as Mercedes Benz, but that would happen in the 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.800 nineteen twenties, and Carlin Gottlieb never actually met one another. 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.360 But the early days of the automobile were really uncertain, 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.680 to say the least. While people like Ben's and Daimler 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.720 were building automobiles as sort of a proof of concept 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.440 and occasionally racing them against other people who are making 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.760 similar type of vehicles, getting any sort of substantial investment 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.320 behind the effort was difficult. So people were not yet 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.560 convinced that a horseless carriage really had any legs so 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.320 to speak, or wheels, I guess anyway, they weren't sure 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.280 that these automobiles were ever going to be something that 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.720 people would actually use. Meanwhile, over in the United States, 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.360 a guy named George B. Selden applied for a patent 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:33.920 as the inventor of the automobile. He did that in 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:39.320 eighteen seventy nine. Now that pre dates Ben's and Dameler's 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:45.760 automobiles from the eighteen eighties. However, the Patent Office didn't 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:50.520 award Selden the patent until eighteen nine. Selden had never 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:54.640 actually built an automobile. He just presented the design for one, 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.920 so he gets the patent in eight and that was 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.040 after Ben's and Dameler had already built their internal combustion 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:06.520 powered automobiles. And so there's a little debate. It's putting 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:10.040 it lightly about who the inventor of the automobile really was, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.960 But honestly, I would say it's all kind of meaningless 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.000 for a couple of different reasons. One is that, like 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.599 most really big inventions, the automobile is really more of 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.720 the product of a lot of different people working on 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:28.960 different things, and ultimately those various forms of work converged, 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:33.120 so you can't really assign the invention to just one person. 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.440 For another, all these people are dead, so you know, 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.279 it's kind of a moot point. Now just watch just 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.719 because I said that, I bet my car is going 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.720 to get haunted by angry German ghosts. I'm kidding. I 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:50.159 don't believe in cars, I mean ghosts. By the early 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.440 eighteen nineties, the United States was starting to see engineers 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.719 building out cars that would form the foundation of future 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.960 companies such as the Durya motor wagon Company, which may 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.839 thirteen whole cars in eighteen nineties six. Now, the reason 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.320 I wanted to start with all this is that the 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:12.480 General Motors Company began not as an automobile company all 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.560 of itself, but rather as a holding company that bought 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:21.080 existing automobile companies. So, in other words, GM started out 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.720 as a means of consolidating multiple car companies in an 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.560 effort to combine resources and share the load across different 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:33.320 groups of mechanics, engineers, inventors, salespeople, and so on. So 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.040 let's talk about some of the companies that would form 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.480 the early foundation of General Motors before we get to 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.719 GM itself. One of the earliest companies GM would purchase 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.200 is Buick, which was founded by David Dunbar Buick. He 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.599 was born in Scotland in eighteen fifty four and his 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.040 family immigrated to America when David was just two years old. 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.320 His father, who was a carpenter, passed away when David 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.400 was still a child, and his mother remarried a native 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.440 Detroit man who owned a candy shop. As a teenager, 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.920 David worked for a manufacturing company that made plumbing fixtures 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:14.080 in Detroit, Michigan. He apprenticed with a machine shop in Detroit, 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.800 but then returned to that plumbing manufacturing company and became 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.760 a foreman there. Bewick himself became something of an inventor 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.760 and an engineer. He secured several patents for various inventions 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.880 and processes, including one that would allow you to bind 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.200 porcelain to cast iron that led to the development of 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:38.280 really large porcelain bathtubs, among other things that were incredibly 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.039 fashionable at the time. Buick and a business partner named 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:46.800 William Sherwood subsequently purchased the manufacturing company, which had fallen 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.200 into a bit of financial shambles, and they renamed it 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:54.480 the Buick and Sherwood Manufacturing Company. While the company saw 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.200 great success, Bewick himself was a little bit restless. He 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:03.880 had become fascinated by gas lean fueled engines, not just automobiles, 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.239 mind you. In fact, that wasn't really foremost in his mind. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.200 He was just interested in these gasoline powered engines that 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.280 could do all sorts of different work, including stationary engines 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:18.280 for stuff like industrial uses. By eight seven, Buick had 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:23.000 dedicated some of his company's manufacturing capabilities to producing gasoline 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:28.440 fueled engines intended to be used on farm equipment. Sherwood, meanwhile, 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.000 was becoming a little mift that Buick was not tending 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.320 to the plumbing fixtures company, and ultimately the two decided 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.480 to part ways. Buick liquidated his ownership of the company 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.760 he owned with Sherwood, and he used that substantial sum 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.280 to found a new enterprise called Buick Auto, Vim and 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.640 Power Company in nineteen o one. One of Buick's engineers 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.960 was a guy named Walter Maher who had been building 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.600 gasoline fueled engines for boats. Now, the story goes that 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:02.760 Mar wanted to build a full automobile at Buicks company, 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.120 but David resisted. He thought it was safer to build 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.239 engines and not worry about stuff like automobiles. Like build 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.800 the engines four automobiles, sure, but don't need you don't 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.840 need to build the whole automobile yourself. Mar and Buick 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.720 had some spats, with Marv, you know, quitting and returning 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:24.280 a couple of times before that quitting stuck in nineteen 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.240 o two, whereupon Mar would actually work with another person. 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.840 We're going to chat about Ransom, Eli Olds and Mars 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:36.120 replacement was a machinist named Eugene Richard. Also around this time, 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.600 Buick reorganized and renamed his company, now calling it the 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.800 Buick Manufacturing Company. Guess all that VIM must have worn 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.199 out by then, Buick did produce a couple of car prototypes. 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.160 By nineteen o three, the company wasn't a bit of 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:54.280 trouble as investors were starting to get nervous and pull 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:58.240 out of the company. But then Frank and Benjamin brisco 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:02.559 the Briscoe brothers, swooped in to help fund Buick's efforts 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.719 to produce a Buick branded automobile. The Briscos owned a 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.559 sheet metal business, and they saw this as a way 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.720 to bring different but related businesses together for mutual benefit. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.840 Benjamin Briscoe would end up buying the first official Buick 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.720 for himself, and the company went through another reorganization and 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.640 transformed into the Buick Motor Company, with the Briscoes overseeing 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.520 the financials, so they had a substantial stake in the company. 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.680 They essentially owned it, and now Buick was working for 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.680 the Briscoes. The first Buick, apart from an earlier prototype 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.880 that Buick had sold off, was an open air vehicle 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.520 and you'll hear this a few times in this episode. 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.440 It had a padded bench like seat mounted more or 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.720 less in the middle lengthwise anyway of the chassis. The 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.000 driver would steer the vehicle using a steering wheel, but 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.560 that was not always a given in early motor cars. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.040 In fact, the prototype the Buick had produced earlier, the 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.719 one that he had sold to his former engineer Mar, 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.800 you had to steer with a handle, not a wheel. 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.600 It was more like a like a rudder style steering mechanism. Now, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:16.959 that original prototype that he sold to Mar was sold 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.520 for two dollars. How about that? If you adjust that 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.920 for inflation, that would be around seven thousand bucks today. Now, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.199 I'm not sure what the actual Buicks, the first run 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.680 Buicks sold for the ones that are being produced for 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.760 actual external customers. I only know that that Mar paid 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.439 two dollars for that original prototype. Now, I do know 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.160 that the early Buicks, such as the Model B touring cars, 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.920 were modest in power. No big surprise there. The Model 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.360 B had a horsepower rating of fifteen to twenty one horsepower. Now, 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:50.480 if you're not a car person, and I'm not much 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.920 of one, you might wonder what horsepower actually means it's 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.240 a unit of measurement for engine power, and it's the 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.360 amount of power needed to move five hundred fifty pounds 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.000 one foot in one second, or the amount of power 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.800 needed to move thirty three thousand pounds one foot in 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.880 one minute. The term dates back to the days of 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.720 James Watt as he was trying to convince people to 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.080 buy steam engine machinery. He was comparing how powerful his 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.080 steam engines were two horses, which were the main source 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.880 of power generation for a lot of industries these days. 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:29.120 The typical American car generates a hundred twenty horsepower those 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.640 you might imagine. There's quite a range on this due 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.040 to different types of cars on the market, so a 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:37.720 fifteen to twenty one horsepower vehicle is much less powerful 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.080 than what you would typically drive today. Now, the Briscoe 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.000 brothers did not hold on to Buick for very long. 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.800 They sold their steak and thus their control of the company, 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:52.080 to another corporation called Flint Wagon Works in Flint, Michigan. 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.520 David Buick was now working for a totally different company 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.280 in a man named William Durant, another person that we're 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.360 going to talk about a lot a bit later, came 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.480 in and purchased controlling interest in Buick from the Flint 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.640 Wagon Works. By the end of nineteen o four, the 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:13.199 Buick Company had produced just thirty seven automobiles, but since 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.920 this was in the early days of the automobile industry 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.120 in the United States, that thirty seven automobiles meant that 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:23.080 Buick was just in second place across the nation. First 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:27.840 place was being held by Henry Ford's Motor Company. Durant 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.920 would make Bwick the centerpiece of the company he intended 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.240 to build, which I'm sure you've all figured out now 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:38.160 would eventually be General Motors. Now, before I move on, 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.080 I would like to talk about what happened to David 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.200 Dunbar Buick, and it's a bit of a sad story. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.040 So he was now working for William Durant, but he 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.440 had also had a seat on the board of directors. However, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.120 Durant began to push Buick further out from any meaningful 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.640 role in the company. Kind of makes me think of 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.000 how Steve Jobs was treated in the eighties over at Apple. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.760 And it seems as though Mr Buick was a disagreeable 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.480 sort who often found himself at odds with other disagreeable 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:11.319 sorts a lot of cantankerous people in the automotive industry. 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.800 In the early days, there were a lot of oil 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.000 and water mixtures in other words. Also, Buick's health was 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.240 taking a turn for the worse and he really wanted 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.520 to move someplace west to live in a climate that 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.839 was less humid. He left Durant's employ in nineteen o 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:28.960 nine with a huge severance check and some stocks, and 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.680 he moved to California. There he founded an oil company, 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.040 and he ran into some trouble when The New York 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.400 Times named the securities firm that represented the Buick Oil 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.640 company had been guilty of stock fraud transactions. So it 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.120 wasn't his company, but rather the securities firm that represented 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.840 his company that got in trouble, but that meant he 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.320 got wrapped up in it as well, and as a consequence, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.240 Buick's oil concern was effectively wiped out. He subsequently got 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.640 involved in real estate deals in Florida, which sounds like 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.560 the to Glen Garry Glenn Ross. Anyway, that didn't work 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.480 out either, and he did have a brief return to 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:10.839 running an automotive manufacturing company with the Lorraine Motors Corporation, 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.319 but saw little success there either. By night he was 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.440 living in poverty, and he passed away the following year, 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.640 very sad. While Buicks vehicles would serve as the entry 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.960 point for Durance foray into the automotive industry, he would 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:30.120 acquire a bunch of other companies and thus car models. 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.520 When we come back, we'll learn about some of the 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.160 other cars that joined the GM family shortly after Durant 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:48.880 had founded the company. But first, let's take a quick break. Now, 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:53.160 let us turn to another pioneer in the automobile business 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.520 whose work would become part of the young General Motors. Now, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.920 have you heard of Oldsmobile? Some of you younger listeners 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:03.960 out there may not have heard of it at all, 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:09.000 as GM stopped making vehicles branded as Oldsmobiles back in 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.040 two thousand four. For those who have heard of it, 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.560 you might be surprised to learn that the name Oldsmobile 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.720 comes from the man who founded the original Oldsmobile company 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:25.400 comes from his name, Ransom Eli Mobile. Wait, no, I'm sorry. 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:30.920 Ransom Eli Olds born in eighteen sixty four in Ohio. 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:35.160 His family made the move to Lansing, Michigan, Michigan obviously 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.400 the birthplace of the automotive industry in the United States. 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.280 They moved there when Ransom was just a kid. He 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.600 grew up interested in mechanical systems, and by the mid 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.080 eighteen eighties he was experimenting with building steam powered automobiles. 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.280 He graduated to gasoline powered cars in eighteen ninety six. 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.760 By eighteen ninety nine, he had founded the Olds Motor 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.880 Works Company, securing financial backing from a dude who was 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.400 really into wood, but that I mean Samuel L. Smith, 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.880 who owned a large lumber operations and had amassed a 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.160 significant amount of wealth. By nineteen o one, the first 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.840 Oldsmobiles were available for purchase, and by nineteen o four 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.240 the company had sold five thousand of them. There was 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.800 a terrible fire at the Oldsmobile manufacturing facility, and the 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.960 only prototype to survive the fire was a design called 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.880 the Oldsmobile curved dash Runabout. Runabout is a style of 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:39.040 early automobile, and you should search for images of this 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:43.080 vehicle and you'll have an appreciation of what a car 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.200 was back at the turn of the twentieth century. The 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.560 runabout is an open air vehicle and it looks a 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.280 little bit like a sleigh, but with wheels instead of 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.680 you know, sleds or skis, and it has a handle 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.640 for steering, sort of like the old fashioned rudder steering 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.480 mechanisms I was mentioning earlier, before everyone got fancy and 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:07.280 started using steering wheels. Now, at the time, it cost 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:10.560 six hundred fifty dollars to buy one of these babies, 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.920 which if we had just for inflation, would be right 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:17.120 around nineteen thousand dollars in today's money, so not an 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.439 unreasonable amount for a new car. Olds was known for 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.560 employing advertising and publicity in a savvy way early on 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.240 in the automotive industry, so I suppose we can thank 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:33.480 Ransom for the incredibly weird history of automobile dealership commercials. 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.760 He also used a stationary assembly line, the same kind 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.320 of thing that Ford also would end up doing. It 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.000 was a stepping stone toward mass production, and it's what 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.600 allowed Olds to build and sell so many cars within 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.880 three years. And granted, I know that five thousand cars 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.400 in three years is not a lot by today's standards, 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.000 but we now live in the era of precision mass production, 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.159 and this was before that. He also arranged to purchase 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:08.800 transmission systems from the Dodge Brothers from the folks who 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.320 built the Dodge cars. So the early days the automobile industry, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:16.520 we're both competitive and a little cozy. Also, in nineteen 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.720 o four, Ransom had a falling out with Samuel and 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.520 Olds would actually leave the company he had founded. He 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.159 went on to create another car company, originally called R. E. 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.760 Olds Motor Car Company but later just known as R. E. O, 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:35.480 which had a quick rise and then a precipitous fall 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.679 in the automotive industry. It became a leader in the 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.040 industry in nineteen o seven, but then began to decline 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.240 in nineteen o eight. After that roller coaster of a journey, 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.800 Olds began working on other things, such as a lawnmower. 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.359 So that's a shout out to a recent tech Stuff 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:56.960 podcast where we learned how lawnmowers exist because medieval Europeans 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.480 like to build castles, and he too would it involved 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.879 in real estate in Florida. He retired in nineteen twenty 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.920 five and would pass away in nineteen fifty. But Olds 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.919 had left his original company in nineteen o four, so 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.840 he wasn't part of the deal that would bring Oldsmobile 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:18.119 to General Motors. Durant would acquire Oldsmobile, not long after 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:23.080 he had already acquired Buick. And now let us consider Cadillac. 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.560 So this company also has a bit of an odd history, 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.760 and part of it goes back to Henry Ford. Ford 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:31.800 gets a lot of credit for the success of the 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.640 automotive industry in the United States in the early days, 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:39.600 and for good reason. He was the most successful of 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:44.679 all the car manufacturers at that time. But success wasn't 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.200 always a guarantee with Ford. His first company, the Detroit 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:52.280 Automobile Company, began in eighteen ninety nine to a rather 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:56.320 rocky start. He reorganized and renamed the company a couple 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.520 of years later and called the new enterprise the Henry 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.080 for Company. But Ford didn't see eyed eye with the 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.480 people who actually fronted him the money to establish his company, 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.560 and by nineteen o two Ford was out, but he 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.919 took his name with him. His third company would go 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.879 on to be the huge success. That's the actual Ford 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.720 Motor Company, the third one. But let's go back to 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.400 that second company for a second. What happened with that Well, 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:27.639 once the tiff with Ford happened, the financiers behind the 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.080 company decided they need to bring in an expert to 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:32.960 figure out what the value of all their assets were 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.880 so that they could liquidate them, sell them off, hopefully 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.639 cover their investment, or at least mitigate any losses. So 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.560 to that end, the investors called in a machinist in 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:48.000 Detroit named Henry Leland, who had his own manufacturing company 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:53.520 and who had produced engines for Oldsmobile previously. Leland came 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.200 in and took a look around and said, say, Fellower's 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.040 you really ought to stay in the business. You got 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.720 yourselves the infrastructure to build your own ours, and you've 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.080 already done enough work. That was some tinkering. We can 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.320 make something special. I am paraphrasing, of course, but the 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.120 investors agreed and Leland got to work. He called both 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.240 the car and the company Cadillac, named after the French 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:22.560 explorer and self proclaimed noble Antoine Lamme de Lamot Cadillac. 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.480 That's the guy who founded Detroit. Also, as I say, 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.959 historians believe that he was not in fact a noble 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.359 as he called himself, but rather just assumed that. Either way, 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:39.160 he is credited for founding Detroit, and Leland's original design 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.200 was a bit of a Frankenstein's Monster kind of thing, 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.200 not an appearance, but in parts so he started with 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.080 Ford's chassis design, which the company owned. Because Ford was 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.080 so disgusted by his falling out with the investors that 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.720 he didn't pursue the rights to the designs before he left. 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.399 He kept the name so they couldn't call it the 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.800 Ford come Penny or anything like that, but they owned 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.919 everything else, and Leland decided to continue the design he 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.359 had been working on for Oldsmobile for an engine. It 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.359 was a design that the company had actually turned down, 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:18.320 so it had a an Oldsmobile intended engine and a 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:22.840 Ford chassis body. Leland's own manufacturing company would produce all 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.240 the transmissions and the engine parts and other components for 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.560 the new car. Well, this actually gives us a chance 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.160 to talk about what it means to have a single 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.760 cylinder engine. We need a quick rundown on what cylinders are. So, 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.400 cylinders are the part of an engine that howls pistons, 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:42.760 and a piston can move up and down the length 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.000 of the cylinder inside the cylinder, kind of like a 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:50.560 plunger in a syringe, and there's a tight seal inside 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:53.640 the cylinder. There's typically like a piston ring that keeps 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:57.480 a nice seal against the interior wall of that cylinder. 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:00.560 Modern cars almost all used the same general roll approach 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:04.520 to create motion. It's called a four stroke combustion cycle, 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:07.879 also known as the Auto cycle. That's O. T T 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:11.199 O named after Nicklaus Auto, who came up with the 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:15.399 idea in the eighteen sixties, and the four strokes in 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:22.119 question are called intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust. So imagine 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:25.439 that you've got a vertical cylinder. Okay, we're looking at 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:29.040 a cross section of a cylinder. Now, the plunger like 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.600 piston comes up from the bottom of the cylinder. It 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:35.280 never goes all the way out. It may withdraw to 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:37.840 the point where the end of the piston is is 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:40.479 essentially at the bottom of the cylinder, but still inside it. 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:43.840 At the top of the cylinder, You've got a pair 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:47.840 of valves and a spark plug. So one valve only 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:52.439 allows a mixture of air and gas to enter the cylinder. However, 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:55.240 it prevents anything from going back out the valve. That's 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:59.160 how valves work. They allow one way direction of flow. Now, 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:02.719 the other valve is an exhaust valve. It prevents anything 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:05.919 from coming into the cylinder through the exhaust valve, but 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:09.240 it will allow exhaust to go out at the proper 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:13.159 part of the cycle, and the piston has a repeating 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:17.239 cycle of moving up and down inside that cylinder. So 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:20.880 when the piston is moving downward like it's just completed 0:24:20.960 --> 0:24:23.080 one cycle and now it's starting to move down the 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.280 cylinder away from the intake valve, that valve opens and 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:30.399 a mixture of air and a small amount of gasoline 0:24:30.440 --> 0:24:34.160 come into the cylinder through the intake valve. The exhaust 0:24:34.200 --> 0:24:37.359 valve remains shut, so the descending piston is kind of 0:24:37.440 --> 0:24:41.440 drawing in that mixture into the cylinder itself. Upon reaching 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:45.119 the bottom of its stroke, the piston reverses direction and 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:48.440 now it begins to move up the cylinder. The intake 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:51.399 valve is shut and the exhaust valve is shut two, 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:54.080