The Metz Company was a pioneer brass era automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 maker in Waltham, Massachusetts

Waltham, Massachusetts

Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...

.

Claiming to be "winner of the Glidden Tour

Glidden Tour

The Glidden Tours were promotional events held during the automotive Brass Era by the American Automobile Association . The AAA, a proponent for safer roads, acceptance of the automobile and automotive-friendly legislation, started the tour to promote public acceptance and bring awareness of their...

", the 1914 Model 22 was a two-seat roadster

Roadster

A roadster is a two-seat open car with emphasis on sporty handling and without a fixed roof or side weather protection. Strictly speaking a roadster with wind-up windows is a convertible but as true roadsters are no longer made the distinction is now irrelevant...

 or torpedo

Torpedo (car)

The torpedo body style was a type of automobile body used from the early twentieth century until the mid-1930s, and which fell quickly into disuse by the Second World War....

. It had a 22½ hp (17 kW) four-cylinder water-cooled engine with Bosch

Robert Bosch GmbH

Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...

 magneto

Magneto

A magneto is a type of electrical generator.Magneto may also refer to:* Magneto , permanent magnetic alternating current rotary generator* ignition magneto, magnetos on internal combustion engines...

, full-elliptic springs front and rear. It ran on artillery wheel

Artillery wheel

The artillery wheel was developed for use on gun carriages when it was found that the lateral forces involved in horse artillery manoeuvres caused normally-constructed cart wheels to collapse. Rather than having its spokes mortised into a wooden nave , it has them fitted together then bolted into...

s with Goodrich

Goodrich Corporation

The Goodrich Corporation , formerly the B.F. Goodrich Company, is an American aerospace manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1870 as Goodrich, Tew & Co. by Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich. The company name was changed to the "B.F...

 clincher tires, and featured a Prest-O-Lite-type acetylene

Acetylene

Acetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution.As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because...

 generator for the headlights. It was billed as "gearless" and priced at $475; by contrast, the Success

Success Automobile Manufacturing Company

Success was a brass era United States automobile, built at 532 De Ballviere Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906.It was a high wheeler buggy priced at an exceedingly low US$250...

 was an uncommonly low US$250, the Black

Black Motor Company

The Black was a brass era United States automobile, built at 124 East Ohio Street, Chicago, Illinois, in 1906.It was a high wheeler buggy priced at a surprisingly low US$375-$450, when Gale's Model A was US$500, the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout went for US$650, and the Ford "Doctor's Car" was...

 started at $375, the Brush Runabout

Brush Motor Car Company

This article is about a USA auto-maker. For the British rail-locomotive company, see Brush TractionBrush Motor Company, or the "Brush Runabout Company," based in Detroit, Michigan, was founded by Alanson Partridge Brush , who designed a light car with a wooden chassis This article is about a USA...

 was US$485 Western

Western Tool Works (automobile company)

Western Tool Works was a pioneering brass era automobile manufacturer in Galesburg, Illinois.Western in 1905 produced the Gale Model A, an open roadster, for sale at US$500, which was less than high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout, at US$650, the Ford "Doctor's Car" at US$850, or the Holsman high...

's Gale Model A was US$500, and even the high-volume Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...

 Runabout

Oldsmobile Curved Dash

The gasoline powered Curved Dash Oldsmobile is credited as being the first mass-produced automobile, meaning that it was built on an assembly line using interchangeable parts. It was introduced by the Oldsmobile company in 1901 and produced through 1907...

 was US$650.

Although Metz was not the first to offer a kit car (Dyke and Sears

Lincoln Motor Car Works

Lincoln Motor Car Works was an automobile company in Chicago, Illinois. It produced cars for Sears Roebuck from 1908 until 1912. Nine models were offered, priced between US$325 and $475, with the Model L advertised at $495 complete. They were sold by mail, out of the Sears catalog...

predated Metz with do-it-your-self high-wheelers), Metz did offer the first known kit automobile on the installment plan, known as the Metz Plan. The buyer would buy 14 groups or packages of parts for $27.00 which would be put together with the plans and tools supplied, or a factory-assembled automobile could be bought for $600.00. This plan was in effect until 1911 when it became impractical to compete with a dealer-supplied model "T" Ford.

Source

• Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925. New York: Bonanza Books, 1950.

External Links

• The Metz Company at the Waltham Museum