On This Day

Monday 16th February 1925

95 years ago

American inventor Frank Huntington (88), of Atkinson, Maine, died. In 1889 Huntington patented a gasoline engine propelled vehicle, four years before the Duryea brothers built and tested their first vehicle in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1893, considered by many as the first American gas powered car. It is likely Huntington was the first inventor of a gasoline engine car on the west coast of the United States. While it is not known whether Huntington’s vehicle was successfully built, his patent has certain claims that represent a self-propelled gasoline engine car: "My invention relates to certain improvements in vehicles; and it consists of an engine and suitable intermediate gearing whereby the vehicle may be propelled…This invention is designed to apply a gasoline or other vapor engine to an ordinary carriage or road vehicle, with frictional mechanism for transmitting power, changing the speed of the forward movement of the vehicle and reversing the motion of the vehicle at will. The vehicle mounted upon independent driving and steering wheels, independent gears by which each of the driving-wheels is propelled, a divided counter-shaft having a frictional drum and a differential gear, where by the wheels may be driven independently at different rates of speed, in combination with an engine, an engine-shaft provided with a corresponding friction drum, and a movable frame supporting an intermediate friction-drum between the drums upon the counter-shaft; and the engine-shaft, and a lever, whereby said intermediate drum may be turned into or out of contact with the others, substantially as described."