Benjamin Briscoe Benjamin Briscoe ( May 1867 – 26 June 1945 ) was born in Detroit , Michigan , and was an automobile pioneer and industrialist . Briscoe entered business for himself at age of 18 with capital of $ 472 , organizing the firm of Benjamin Briscoe & Co . to manufacture sheet - metal stampings . This later became part of the American Can Company . He then invented a machine for the production of corrugated pipe for the Briscoe and Detroit Galvanizing Works , later the Briscoe Manufacturing Company . Biography . In 1901 , the automobile industry was in its infancy when Briscoe helped finance David Buick ' s first car . In return for the finance , Briscoe gained a 97 % interest in the Buick Motor Company . He was later president of the Maxwell - Briscoe Motor Company that manufactured the Maxwell automobile . This was probably his greatest success in the industry . By 1909 they were the third - biggest American make , with 9 , 400 sales . The company was backed by J . P . Morgan & Co . and Richard Irvin & Co . , but in the panic of 1907 , Briscoe had the first of many bad experience with bankers and was forced to do his own financing . Mr . Briscoe conceived the idea of consolidating the four largest automobile manufacturers — Ford Motor Company , Buick , REO , and Maxwell - Briscoe — into one company . His negotiations with William C . Durant , Henry Ford , and Ransom E . Olds failed , so he proceeded to organize his own corporation along the broad lines he envisaged resulting in the United States Motor Company . U . S . Motors continued production of the Maxwell and was soon also producing the Stoddard - Dayton car , the Brush Runabout ( in which his brother Frank Briscoe was a principal ) , Alden - Sampson trucks , and others . The firm continued to operate the old Maxwell - Briscoe plants and bought up such concerns as the Columbia Motor Car Co . , owner of many patents , including the Selden patent . Briscoe had an option on the Cadillac car at one time , but never exercised it , and it eventually went to Mr . Durant , who had organized the General Motors Corporation . In 1910 bankers invested $ 6 , 000 , 000 in U . S . Motors , but the financing proved inadequate and the firm went into receivership in 1912 . Briscoe was forced out and Walter Flanders took over and reorganized the assets as Maxwell Motor Co . ( Incorporated ) , which itself was later reorganized as the Chrysler Corporation . A few months after leaving U . S . Motors , he and his brother formed Briscoe Frères at Billancourt , France , home of the Renault , to design and build a car on the continent according to American methods . The result was the Ajax . A year later the brothers brought out the Briscoe car in America manufactured at Jackson , Michigan , but which they promoted as the first French - designed American car . When World War I broke out , Benjamin Briscoe turned his manufacturing facilities over to war production and he never returned to the automobile business . His partners continued to manufacture Briscoe models until 1923 . During WWI , he joined the United States Navy with the rank of lieutenant commander . He saw service in both Italy and France and received the Navy Cross and was a member of the French Legion of Honor . After the war , Briscoe and a group of others developed a new process for refining crude oil . He then went to Montreal , Canada , as an executive in an oil company later taken over by the Texas Company ( Texaco ) . Later he was involved in gold mining and ore milling in Colorado . About 1940 he retired to a plantation in Marion County , Florida , where he experimented in growing tung tree s . Benjamin Briscoe died at age 78 in his home near Dunnellon , Florida .