The Sandusky Automobile Company was an automobile manufacturer in Sandusky

Sandusky, Ohio

Sandusky is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Erie County. It is located in northern Ohio and is situated on the shores of Lake Erie, almost exactly half-way between Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east....

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, United States, from 1902 to 1904. It was located at 1114 Camp Street.

Legacy

The Sandusky Automobile Company was founded by James J. Hinde who "had been a successful paper manufacturer who entered the automobile business with the belief that a small, reasonably priced car could capture a mass market." This concept influenced Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

. The Lucas County/Maumee Valley Historical Society concluded that "the Sandusky Automobile Company may be far more significant because of the passing interest of Henry Ford than for the number of cars they built and sold. At the time Ford was not yet a manufacturing magnate. He was a successful engineer turned inventor, who had given up his profession to enter the automotive field." Although the company did not succeed, James J. Hinde made "conceptual contributions" to "the production strategy of Henry Ford."

Models

The company made an open runabout car, seating two people. The 1903 model had a "piano-box body, and a rounded bonnet front on top of the dash", with a 5-horsepower single-cylinder engine water-cooled by natural gravity circulation. Power was transmitted to the rear axle by two chains. Weight of the car was 600 lb (272.2 kg). This car was exhibited at the New York Automobile Show at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

 in 1903.

The 1904 model had a one cylinder, 7 hp, water-cooled engine, a planetary transmission and a sliding gear suspension. It had a 65" wheelbase. One version, called the Sandusky, was advertised at $650, in a review of 88 current models in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly.

Sandusky also made a somewhat more expensive car, the Courier

Courier (automobile)

The Courier was a brass era manufactured by Sandusky Automobile Company in Sandusky, Ohio in 1904 and 1905.The 1904 Courier was a runabout model. It could seat 2 passengers and sold for US$650, making it one of the lowest-priced cars on the market at the time. The flat-mounted single-cylinder...

, with similar specifications, but a steering wheel instead of a steering lever. The 1904 model was advertised at $800, and at $700. The 1905 Courier F was a two-seater roadster that weighed 1100 pounds (499 kg), had a 70-inch wheelbase, wooden body, and steel frame. The engine was one-cylinder and 7 horsepower, with a transmission that had two forward speeds and reverse.

See also

• List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers
• Brass Era car
  Brass Era car
  The automotive Brass Era is the first period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such things as lights and radiators. It extends from the first commercial automobiles marketed in the 1890s until about World War I...