Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-04-01
DEVELOPMENT OF STEVENS
DURYEA CARS SINCE 1891.

While no one man can be accorded
the entire credit for bringing the au-
tomobile into existence as a means of
transportation there are but few in
ventors who can be said to deserve the
name of pioneers in the industry. 1t
is the untiring efforts OF this handful
of men and the blending of their diff
ferent ideas into a harmonious and
composite whole that has brought the
automobile to its present state of per-
lection. Credit for the inception Of the
internal combustion motor is divided
between Otto n Brayton, two invent
ors who brought out their gas engines
between 1864 and 1872. When it comes
to a successful combination Of a car
riage and a motor, however, conceived
as a practical and commercial vehicle
to be sold in quantities, j.. Frank Dur
yea, of Springfield, Mass, OF the
Stevens-Duryea Automobile Company,
OF Chicopee Falls. stands today as one
of a very few pioneers.
Over twenty years ago Mr.. Duryea,
a mechanical genius of the most pro-
gressive type. iabored over the nucleus
of what is now considered one of the
finest motor cars made. He had p
small obscure workshop and but little
TO encourage him. He worked on "a
single-cylinder hydro-carbon engine,
which he hoped to put into a carr age,
and, If successful, to establish q fac
tory for the production OF horseless
vehicles.
All this happened in 1891, and since
then the story of the Duryea wagon
is one of rapid and substantial develop
mAnI-nf thu Vonay r,aafnf tra
ton medium Of the age.
In 1892 the Duryea wager was a two
passenger. one-cylinder, ch~ain-driven,
friction-transmission car. Then for
two years there was experimenting un-
I'll 1874, when the al was brought out
with a two-cylinder motor, individual
transmission and single chain drive
an ormou advance N progress. In
1885 the car was entered in the Times
Herald race, Chicago, H., and won it.
pelng pitted against the early steam
and electric models.
A year later the car won the Cosmo-
pohtan race in New York and the
Liberty Day run from London to
Brighton, England. Their exhibit al
Mechanics building, Boston. gave them
the stamp of public approval and re-
suited in ten actual orders being re-
eeived. In 1898 the lightweight car was
adopted, and also a transmission hay
Ing three forward speeds.
improvements continued consistently
and IN 1900 MIR. Duryea built what he
considers the best car then in exist
ence either in this country or abroad.
Just about this time 1. Fl. Page, head
of the j. Stevens Arms and Tool Com
pany, of Chicopee Falls, Mass, saw tn
wagon, and was favorably impressed.
He decided to have one, but was told
he would have to wait for the car to
be made. He was so greatly impressed
with the evident demand and COM
mercial future of the wagon that he
offered to make provisions at the big
Stevens gun plant for the manufacture
of the cars. thus hoping to secure an
~aerlier delivery Of his car. This off I
led to a combination OF interests thai
could not fail to give the -Duryea car
the necessary impetus to success. The
automobile plant was established In tn:
Stevens factory. The manufacture and
sale of the Stevens-Duryea now began
in earnest.
From the development OF the early
models to the larger ones of eight OF
nine years ago the manufacturers thor
oughly and willingly explained every
detail of construction.
The advent Of the s~ix-cylinder motor
car, sold In quantities in 1905, marked
another epoch in the uniformly success
full history of the Stevens-Duryea Com
pany. The advance thought in TIN
early history has been continually ant
magnificently developed In the 191
models the Stevens uryea Compan,
are offering the accumulated experience
of almost a generation of successful
motor car designing and building.