The Selden Motor Wagon



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These two photos (above and immediatly below) appear to have been taken moments
apart; note the slightly different positions of the gawkers, and the absence
of the other automobile behind on the right.  The third and fourth photos
(which follow) must also be from the same set-up.  The young boy
with his arms folded seems to have known where to stand
for the best inclusion in those two shots . . .

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The image of Selden's Motor Wagon has been put on
plates, ashtrays, pitchers, and other items.
  To see some examples, click HERE.
Also on that page is a reproduction of the full
Selden Patent, including photos of the model
which was sent to the US Patent Office.



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Selden is in very good company on this advertising blotter
issued by Lyle's Quality Pharmacy in Kaimuki, which is
a residential section of Honolulu near Diamond Head.

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The Selden Patent

 In 1877, a lawyer named George Baldwin Selden (1846-1923) of Rochester, NY designed a "road engine" that would be powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine. A patent (number 549,160) for the engine was applied for in 1879. Due to legal technicalities, the actual issuing of this patent was delayed until 1895. History claims Selden kept that patent pending until more internal combustion engines were on the road. During this delay, a number of automobiles companies were already using the engine design.

The Selden patent specifically covered the use of an internal-combustion engine for the sole purpose of propelling a vehicle. The patent eventually wound up in the hands of the Electric Vehicle Company of Hartford, Connecticut. In 1900 this electric car company had started producing gasoline-powered cars with Selden's engine patent. They agreed to pay Selden $10,000 for the rights of the patent and a royalty for every car based on his design.

To protect this patent, the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM) was formed. Several major manufacturers joined this group including Cadillac, Winton, Packard, Locomobile, Knox, and Peerless.

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Henry Ford initially applied for membership, but ALAM rejected his application. The Electric Vehicle Company attempted to control all gasoline car manufacturers and did so for a few years while the case went through court. Due to the delay in issuing the patent, the original rights did not expire until 1912.

Several leading automobile companies took licenses under the patent, but others, led by Henry Ford, refused to do so. If you own a car made in the early 1900s, you may find a small brass plaque somewhere near the engine that reads "Manufactured Under Selden Patent."

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You will not find this plaque on any Fords. The case against Ford and other auto manufacturers dragged through court from 1903 to 1911. Few people had heard of Henry Ford, but the exposure the nine-year trial gave him helped sell his Model T. A final decision ruled that Selden's patent was not being infringed upon because it was valid only for an automobile driven by a Brayton-type engine of the specific type described in the patent.

Selden had yet to build a car aside from his 1877 prototype model. While going through the courts, he did manage to produce two vehicles. The first car was put together by Selden in Rochester, NY. A second car was assembled in Hartford by the Electric Vehicle Company. These two cars currently exist. The Rochester vehicle (all photos except the two immediately below) can be seen at the Henry Ford Museum and the Hartford car is on display at the Connecticut State Library (front and side views below).

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The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was officially formed in 1906 after taking over the Buffalo Gasoline Motor Company.

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"Made By The Father Of Them All" was the company's advertising slogan. The first Selden vehicle was seen on the road in June of 1907. This four-cylinder car sold for between $2,000 and $2,500.

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In 1911, Selden received the news that his patent was declared unenforceable. His factory also had a major fire that summer. In the fall of 1911 the company was reorganized with Frederick Law, who had designed the Columbia gas car for the Electric Vehicle Company, on board as the new Selden designer.

Selden cars had a small following and the company did well producing 850 cars in 1908; 1,216 in 1909; 1,417 in 1910; 1,628 in 1911; 1,211 in 1912; 873 in 1813 and 229 in 1914. The last Seldens were built in 1914. Seldens came in Touring, Runabout, Roadster and Limousine models. All cars were powered by a four-cylinder 30 to 40 horsepower engine.

Following this, the company produced trucks with considerable success until 1930, when it was sold to the Bethlehem Truck Company.


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The Selden Case

By J. HAROLD BYERS

The Selden case was one of those events that give rise to legends. So widespread was the interest in this case and so incomprehensible to the lay mind were some of the facts involved, that garbled accounts were circulated, some having but slight foundation in truth. Moreover, because the history of the Selden patent epitomized practices, which came to be regarded as abuses, and because the Selden patent by reason of the prominent position and immense financial resources of the industry to which it related, constituted a magnified cross section of the patent system, the case provided a target for reform. Thus it has come about that the Selden case has been quoted and misquoted, panned and damned, and used to illustrate almost everything that is, was, or could possibly be the matter with the patent system.

The most "notorious" tactic for which Selden has received unremitting criticism, was the sixteen year sojourn of the application in the Patent Office.(1,2) While "the world caught up to and passed"(3) him Selden, by a series of adroit delays, kept his application pending in the Office. Concerning the fact there is no question. But when it is related that during this period Selden kept his invention secret we get into mythology. Selden aggressively disclosed his invention to others while his application was pending in the Office. Also it has been said that Selden taught the art nothing. The fact is that the. art ignored what he had to teach, preferring to learn from the European inventors, for it was not until the German and French automobile manufacturers by ardu- ous research, finally proved the merits of the gasoline automobile, that the American manufacturers began to seriously consider the gasoline car as a competitor of the favored steam and electric vehicles. Finally there is the story that has enjoyed wide circulation to the effect that the Selden patent was held invalid. The fact is that the claims were held valid but not infringed.

In the latter part of the 1870's, George B. Selden, of Rochester, N.Y., patent attorney and inventor, after study and experiment, came to the conclusion that the in- ternal combustion engine was the solution to the problem of mechanical road transportation. With this in mind he designed and built the first internal combustion engine actually operative for the purpose. This engine was capable of driving a vehicle over the road at 14 miles per hour. In 1879 he filed his application for patent on an internal combustion engine powered road vehicle. This was nearly five years prior to Benz, Daimler, and the other well known European automobile pioneers, and substantially twenty years before the beginning of the American gasoline automobile industry. All of the attempts prior to Selden had been crude efforts to drive vehicles with stationary engines, and all were failures. Selden achieved success by introducing radical changes in a known form of engine which greatly increased the power output per unit weight, thus adapting the motor to the operation of a self-propelled vehicle.

A number of events conspired to direct Selden's attention to the problem of horseless transportation. It would be impossible to recite them all in limited space, but the following incident may be briefly recounted. With its near-disastrous consequences, it is not recommended as a desirable way to stimulate one's inventiveness, but it undoubtedly helped focus young Selden's mind on the shortcomings of that noble but sometimes uncooperative animal, the horse.

During the Civil War, Selden joined the Sixth United States Cavalry. It appears that he entered the service by choice being a lover of fine horses, but soon discovered that no lover of fine horses should be in the Union Cavalry. He was given a horse to ride that was vindictive and dangerous. He asked for a new mount but was told that none was to be had, there being a shortage of good horseflesh.

Whenever Selden approached his steed she would lash out at him, and failing to dig a hoof in his ribs, would lapse into sullenness interspersed with desultory bitings and runnings away. What with this animal, Selden had little time to worry about Rebel bullets. Finally horse and rider were involved in a serious accident. While carrying Selden the creature ran head-long into a tree and was killed. Selden saw what was coming and just before the crash, bailed out. His quick action saved him.(4)

After the war Selden studied horseless locomotion. At that time there was no such thing as a horseless carriage. There had appeared on the roads of England certain passenger carrying highway locomotives which were ponderous affairs, driven by steam and serviced by a crew of engineers. These horse frighteners had reached the zenith of their popularity around 1824 finally being legislated out of existence. They were the descendants of Cugnot's steam carriage, built in France in 1769 for military purposes, and of Trevethick's steam carriage built in England in 1802.

It was Selden's idea to construct a light weight self-propelled vehicle with a large cruising radius, which could be operated by one man, not a skilled engineer. He began his experiments with'a view to using steam power but soon came to the conclusion that the massive engines of that day were ill adapted to the purpose. He turned his attention to the internal combustion engine. At that time an internal combusion engine which had been invented by an American, Brayton,(5) was receiving wide and favorable attention. Selden studied this machine.

Again he came reluctantly to the conclusion that the engine was not suitable, since it was, like the steam engine of the day, bulky and heavy with small power output. He saw, however, a possibility of increasing its efficiency.

It is noteworthy that the Brayton engine was a forerunner of the Diesel engine.(6) The Brayton was not a spark-fired explosion engine such as is commonly used on automobiles today, but was a constant-pressure type engine in which the fuel was injected and consumed slowly during the power stroke.

It does not appear that Selden knew of the trials in which Brayton and others had attempted to drive an omnibus with this engine.

"The Brayton engine was alone used upon an omnibus in 1878. The weight of the testimony is that the omnibus was run by the engine a very short distance, but the experiment cannot be regarded as having been either mechanically or commercially successful. This use will not be considered as in the antecedent art. " (7)

Writing to George Fritz, the carpenter who built a body for such an omnibus, James Fawcett, who with his father, George Fawcett, struggled to make the vehicle run, had this to say:

"I am very sorry to say that the car did not run, the engine not being able to move it. You ask me to explain what I mean by failure. I mean that Mr. B's plan to run the car with that 'hobby' of his, 'fluid circulation,' was a total failure, notwithstanding his contradiction; we, at his advice abandoned it and applied chains, but the engine would not move the car with them, would not even slip the wheels on wet ground, but would come to a standstill, so we concluded to give it up. I would like you to get me some information in regard to the experiment he made in Prov. some years ago, how much the engine did, how he succeeded in keeping it cool, and what grade he went up, and, in fact, everything connected with it, if it would not be too much trouble for you. I, goose that I was, put every faith in what the B's and their friends said and did not even enquire from outside parties. I remain, Your friend Jim."

Selden set about modifying the Brayton engine, incorporating radical and important changes some of which are common in the automobile today.

"When he was ready to file his application, he had completed and experimentally operated one cylinder of a three-cylinder engine of the general type Brayton had patented in 1872 and 1874. He intentionally built a plurality of cylinders, to obviate or minimize the necessity for a flywheel. He produced an inclosed crank case (which immediately reduced weight to an enormous extent) and used a small piston with a short stroke (which made possible the speed that would compensate for the loss of piston head area). This engine, with allowance for ad- juncts weighed less than 200 pounds per brake horsepower, as compared with over 800 pounds in the lightest form of Brayton's, and is capable of over 500 revolutions per minute, as against less than 250 by any type of gas engine known, built, or suggested in 1879. These I find to be the facts regarding the engine built by Selden before application filed."(8)

This work Selden pursued with "unremitting ardor..... interrupted by pecuniary embarrassments." When at last the new engine-the first automotive internal combustion engine practically suitable for the purpose- was finished, and ran successfully, Selden turned to his mechanic and said: "We have struck a new power."

In America Selden was alone in this work. But in Europe the spirit of invention was stirring other minds. Imaginative Frenchmen had drawn pictures of vehicles theoretically driven by means of internal combustion engines. There was however, no reliable evidence that they ran, and there was strong reason for believing that if their inventors ever actually tried them, they had proved wholly inoperative.

There was however, an internal combustion engine invented by a German, Dr. Otto. This engine, known as the "Otto Silent" operated on a different principle from the Brayton. The Otto was an explosion-type, constant volume engine, essentially identical with the type that is used on modern cars. But it was a stationary engine not designed or then intended to drive a car and compared with Selden's engine, a feeble behemoth. It weighed a thousand pounds per horsepower.

Selden filed in 1879. The automobile that he disclosed had a clutch, foot-brake, muffler, front-wheel drive, and power shaft arranged to run faster than the propelling wheel. The engine was a six cylinder unit, three power cylinders and three compression, and was provided with a compressed air tank. The air was admitted to the power cylinders admixed with liquid hydrocarbon fuel, which burned according to the Brayton principle. The following are excerpts from the specification: "The object of my invention is the production of a safe, simple, and cheap road-locomotive light in weight, easy to control, and possessed of sufficient power to overcome any ordinary inclination. The difficulties heretofore encountered in the application of steam to common roads are the great weight of the boiler, engine, water, and water-tanks, the complicated apparatus necessary to adapt the machine to the roughness of the roads which it must traverse, the necessity of the attendance of a skilled engineer to prevent accidents, and the unsightly appearance of the locomotives built on this plan. I have succeeded in overcoming these difficulties by the construction of a road-locomotive propelled by a liquid-hydrocarbon engine of the compression type, of a design which permits it to be operated in connection with the running- gear, so that the full carrying capacity of the body of the vehicle can be utilized for the transport of persons or goods, and which, by dispensing with skilled attendance and with steam-boilers, water, water-tanks, coal, and coal-bunkers, very largely reduces the weight of the machine in proportion to the power produced and enables me, while employing the most condensed type of fuel, to produce a power road-wagon which differs but little in appearance from and is not materially heavier than the carriages in common use, is capable of being managed by persons of ordi- nary skill at a minimum of trouble and expense, and which possesses sufficient power to overcome any usual inclination."

This was a remarkable vision of the vehicle that was destined to revolutionize transportation. The objects which Selden outlined in 1879 have scarcely changed to the present day.

Selden specified that "Any form of liquid-hydrocarbon engine of the compression type may be employed in my improved road locomotive." One of his claims which later became involved in litigation was as follows, "The combination with a road-locomotive, provided with suitable running gear including a propelling wheel and steering mechanism, of a liquid-hydrocarbon gas engine of the compres- sion type, comprising one or more power cylinders, a suitable liquid-fuel receptacle, a power shaft connected with and arranged to run faster than the propelling wheel, an intermediate clutch or disconnecting device and a suitable carriage body adapted to the conveyance of persons or goods, substantially as described."(9)

In order to develop the invention and produce the automobile commercially it was necessary to obtain capital. This Selden endeavored to do. He approached a prominent and wealthy manufacturer and tried to interest him into putting $5000 into the manufacture of a full sized model. The manufacturer told Selden he was crazy. Selden retorted in similar vein and the upshot was that relations were broken. In the 80's Selden interested six different parties. One of these men died suddenly;- another went into bankruptcy; another became ill; and still another met with an accident. The remainder changed their minds. It seemed impossible to go on. Then there arose a widespread belief that the electric storage battery would solve the problem of horseless transportation.(10) But Selden remained convinced that he was on the right track. He was sure that some day the art would come around to his idea, and when they did, he had no intention of having his patent expire without receiving any material reward. Accordingly he decided to defer issue.

Selden prosecuted his own application before the Patent Office. The examiner could not find much in the way of art. He uncovered a British patent (Pinkus, British 8,207 of 1839) for a tramcar supposedly driven by a non-compression engine which consumed street gas. For his trouble the examiner later was criticized by Judge Hough of the District Court as follows, "Pinkus was speaking of tramcars, and the use of such a publication against Selden by the Patent Office was, to say the least, not very intelligent."

As a matter of fact the examiner dropped the reference when Selden pointed out that an enormous saving in bulk and weight was achieved by using a liquid hydrocarbon fuel instead of street gas, and eventually decided to allow the case. But Selden had other plans. He amended in such a way as to keep the application pending, always using for his response the full statutory period, which then was two years.

Meanwhile what Selden had anticipated was beginning to happen. Not here however, but in Europe engineers bent intensive efforts to solve the problem, and some years after Selden had filed his application they turned to the internal combustion engine. Benz and Daimler experimented in Germany with the Otto engine. French manufacturers, aroused to the possibilities of mechanical road transportation invested huge sums in research. Public interest was captured by the automobile races in which gasoline automobiles were matched against steam vehicles. Levassor served the latter a crushing defeat. Ford and Duryea had built some cars in America. Finally when in 1895 the industry was beginning to stir, Selden's embalmed application came to life. The report of the Commissioner of Patents contained the following statement, "Selden, in 1895, received a patent, November fifth, number 549,160, which may be considered the pioneer invention in the application of the compression gas engine to road or horseless carriage use."(12)

November 4, 1899 Selden closed a contract with the Columbia and Electric Vehicle Company which had a factory in Hartford, Connecticut. Herman F. Cuntz, engineer and patent attorney was the first to recognize the fundamental importance of Selden's claims. George H. Day, of the company, was the first manufacturer to become interested. March 5, 1903, the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers was formed, with ten members, including the Electric Vehicle Company and the Winton Company. Day was appointed general manager. The licensed companies agreed to pay a royalty of 1114% of the retail list price on all cars sold. This later was cut to 1% and finally to 4/5 of 1%.

The Association published annual handbooks containing illustrations of various makes of cars produced by manufacturers who were members of the Association. The following statement is taken from the handbook for 1908, "In the early seventies, George B. Selden experimented with road locomotion, finally building an internal combustion engine until his success resulted in the application for a patent on May 8, 1879. This was about five years before Benz and Daimler operated their petrol vehicles in Germany. Selden's patent No. 549,160 was granted by the United States Patent Office. November 5, 1895, and in it were granted the exclusive rights for a period of 17 years, to manufacture, sell and use his invention. The patent covers broadly all gasoline automobiles which are accepted as commercially practical... The leading manufacturers and importers, after a thorough investigation, resulting in their conviction of its validity, have protected themselves, their dealers and the users of their product by securing a license under the patent. These licensees then organized the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers to protect their rights and that of their dealers and users under this patent and under the four hundred other patents in the control of its members as against those who used patented automobile improvements without regard to the rights of others. There is no combination among the manufacturers and importers and every one of them conducts his business entirely independent of the others, and among them all a free competition is main- tained. The only bond between the companies represented herein is their recognition of this patent and the conviction that such recognition is a guarantee that the purchasers of their machines are guaranteed protection from the liability of suits resulting from the unlicensed use of the rights of the pioneer."(13)

By virtue of the Selden patent the A. L. A. M. rose to affluence. As the production of cars multiplied royalties began to pour in at a rate that was nothing short of embarrassing. At its height the A. L. A. M. numbered 87% of the manufacturers among its paying members, who were building over 90% of the American gasoline automobiles. In 1910 licensees included Buick, Cadillac, Franklin, Hudson, Hupmobile, Mack Truck, Oldsmobile, Packard, Studebaker, and scores of other manufacturers. Some of the royalties were paid back as dividends to the licensees. All told approximately $2,000,000 were collected of which Selden received something like one tenth. Outside the Association was a smaller group of manufacturers known as the Independents and the autonomist Henry Ford.

October 21, 1903, suit was filed against Ford and C. A. Duerr and Company, Ford agents, at the instance of the A. L. A. M. Later, John Wanamaker, Panhard and Levassor and others were joined as defendants.

The District Court, S. D. New York, sustained the patent (14) holding claims 1, 2 and 5 valid and infringed. Judge Hough took the position that Selden had made a pioneer invention and that the claims covered a broad range of equivalents.

The following are excerpts from the decision, "What was the state of the art when Selden filed his application in 1879? Or to use a phrase frequently occurring in the testimony and exhibits, what was known of the 'horseless carriage' industry in 1879, either at home or abroad? The answer is plain. There was no such industry; the art existed only in talk and hope. No self-propelled vehicle with a considerable radius of action over highways, capable of man- agement by a single driver, not a skilled engineer, had ever been built. There is no competent and persuasive evidence that any experiment had ever moved one hundred feet . . . Steam had dominated the world of mechanic art."

The defense contended that Savalle (Fr. 77,644 of 1867) was anticipatory. This patent stated that motors operating either by the explosion of gas or by air forced over a metallic surface, heated by coal ... apply perfectly when it concerns the traction of omnibuses or other large vehicles of this kind; but when it is necessary to apply this kind of locomotion to light carriages, only carrying one to six persons, or to drive a velocipede, these means become impracticabie by the large space they require."

Judge Hough considered even the operation of omnibuses to exist solely in Savalle's imagination. "Savalle was much mistaken in asserting that any of the assorted motors mentioned by him had successfully driven an omnibus or any similar conveyance."

The court was even less impressed by Rosenwald (Fr. 116,871 of 1877) for a brougham having an Otto engine. Of this the court said: "A paper patent" and "inoperative" since "the most improved type of Otto engine then known weighed over half a ton per horsepower." A Hilton and Johnson patent (Br. 10 of 1878) and a Roberts patent (Br. 711 of 1877) were discarded, the court saying of the latter, ". . . provisional only . . . the patentees not able to complete their own invention."

The court commented briefly on the workmanlike manner in which the inventor had prepared his claims, "Mr. Selden is a member of the bar, especially devoted to patent causes. He seems to have been his own solicitor during most of his contests with examiners over this application, and the clearly and simply worded claims in suit are good professional work. He has avoided the trap into which Morse fell. Selden does not pretend to have invented any new machine ... in the same sense that Whitney invented the cotton gin or Howe the sewing machine. He does not . . . specify any one mechanical device for which in some branch of art a prototype cannot be found."

However the court found that Selden had organized the parts into a whole..

"After thirty years no gasoline motor car has been produced that does not have an organization of parts identical with or equivalent to that made by him."

The court held that in such an organization there resided a high order of invention and that the patent was so fundamental and far reaching as to cover "every modern car driven by any form of petroleum vapor and as yet commercially successful."

The decision instantly redounded to the benefit of the A. L. A. M. Membership climbed. Ford put up a bond and appealed.

The case came for hearing before the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The decision was essentially as follows:(15)

In the specification and claims, Selden had set forth that any type of liquid-hydrocarbon compression engine might be used. As broadly as stated the combination was not patentable. In support of this position the Court cited a number of references including both track vehicles and road vehicles as follows:

Mackenzie, British patent 780 of 1865.

Savalle, French patent 77,644 of 1867.

Kirkwood, British patent 4410 of 1874.

Rosenwald, French patent 116,871 of 1877.

Le Monde Illustre, June 16, 1860.

The Brayton vehicles.

"The Mackenzie English patent of 1865, which the patent itself states was in the prior art, was for the use of steam or 'compressed air or other motive power instead of steam' for driving an omnibus or carriage. The structure of this patent included the use of a geared down chain and clutch."

The Savalle patent stated, "I have tried to apply to road locomotion several motors operated by air expanded by the heat produced, either by the explosion of gas or by air forced over a metallic surface, heated by coal or other combustible, or also by petroleum. These divers forms of motors apply perfectly when it concerns the traction of omnibuses or other large vehicles of this kind; but when it is necessary to apply this kind of locomotion to light carriages, only carrying one to six persons, or to drive a velocipede, these means become impracticable by the large space which they require."

Judge Noyes said that the Savalle patent, ". . . described how the Lenoir engine could be applied to road vehicles. This patent referred to the difficulties of applying such engines to light carriages."

A Lenoir engine of 1.85 horsepower (Selden's was 2 horsepower) would have weighed 6000 pounds. The Savalle patent disclosed a cranked axle revolving at the same speed as the engine.

The Kirkwood British patent,"... was for an engine 'worked by the explosive force of a mixture of gas and atmospheric air,' and which, among other uses, might 'be incorporated in the structure of an ordinary tramway car or other vehicle.'" The Kirkwood vehicle was suggested for track, not road work.

Of Rosenwald, the lower court had said, "In 1877 Rosenwald... made a picture of a brougham having an Otto free piston engine perched in an apparently insecure position between passenger and driver. His is a paper patent only, and is in my opinion clearly shown to be inoperative for reasons of which one only may be mentioned: The most im- proved type of Otto engine then known weighed over half a ton per horsepower. He did not use the most improved type, and did not propose any improvement or modification which would .have prevented his brougham from going to pieces at the first jar of his motor. This patent is the suggestion nearest to Selden, and is mentioned for comparison hereafter."

Concerning the Rosenwald patent the appellate court said, "(It) was for a carriage propelled by a non-compression gas engine. This vehicle had reducing gears and a clutch or 'disentangler.' The engine described was of the free piston type and was poorly adapted for use in a road locomotive." The Rosenwald vehicle had an engine which at 2.9 horsepower would have weighed over 2 tons. It burnt street gas.

Le Monde Illustre was a French magazine. Judge Hough said of this reference, "(It) proves nothing that relates to the form of engine to be considered in this litigation, while the absence of all later mention proves the car a sporadic failure." Judge Noyes said of this publication, "The first suggestion of their [gas engine's] use to propel road carriages was in 1860 in connection with the Lenoir engine. The Lenoir patent embraced the use of liquid hydrocarbon in the form of a vapor, and the engine was successful for stationary purposes. It was a non-compression engine. An illustration published in Paris in 1860 showed a vehicle propelled by this engine, and it was described in various publications. If such a motor vehicle were operated it undoubtedly ran slowly, and the engine had great weight in proportion to power. But no reason is advanced why the Lenoir engine was not capable of propelling a vehicle."

As previously stated a Lenoir engine of that day would have weighed 6000 pounds to 1.85 horsepower. There was no suggestion in the publication that the engine was modified in any way, except that the 1000 pound flywheel, without which the engine would not run, was omitted from the drawing. There was no reduction gear and the engine shaft and vehicle wheels were disclosed as operating at the same speed. There was no testimony that the vehicle was ever built.

With respect to the Brayton experiments the Court of Appeals said, "It also appears about 1874 Brayton used one of his engines to propel a street car upon a trial track near the city of Providence. The car was propelled back and forth over the half- mile track and up a slight grade. Some passengers were carried. There were reversing and disconnecting devices. The engine was large and heavy in proportion to the power which it fur- nished, and-an accident taking place-it was not long used. More power in proportion to weight was necessary for com- mercial street railway purposes, and the plan of installing these engines was given up-financial considerations entering into this determination. But although the experiments did not develop a commercial success, they were successful from a mechanical standpoint. The engine ran the car considerable distances and carried passengers. This use was not an abandoned experiment, but an abandoned attempt to induce the railway companies to equip the cars with the Brayton engine. The perfected structure was capable of practical use, although there was much room for improvement. It was not embryotic or inchoate. The combination of the engine, the drive and the carriage was used in public, and therefore it required the use of the initiative, and not of the inventive, faculties to claim, without modification, the same combination. The use of the engine in one vehicle pointed directly to its use in another vehicle."

With respect to the use of the Brayton engine on an omnibus, the appellate court said, as has been previously stated, that this would not be considered as in the antecedent art.

The conclusion of Judge Hough of the lower court to the effect that not a ýingle one of the references sug- gested how an internal combustion engine could be made an element in a road vehicle was not denied. The appellate court said, "Much had been attempted and little accomplished. Indeed it was not until about ten years later, at the time of the Paris exposition of 1889, that the real automobile art may be said to have begun." Not a single reference disclosed an internal combustion engine which had been modified for locomotion. They simply suggested using known stationary engines, which were insofar as the testimony showed, inoperative. Selden was the first to build an engine especially adapted, by reason of power developed per unit weight, to locomotion.  But these stationary engines, at least one of them, was shown, to the court's satisfaction, to be capable of moving a vehicle over a track. Since this use pointed directly to the use on road vehicles, it did not require invention to "claim the same combination."

On the other hand, the court found that to make the improvements in the Brayton engine necessary to adapt it to road locomotion involved more than mere mechanical skill, in view of the superior efficiency of the engine for the purpose. "But we have been able to find that Selden reorganized the Brayton engine only by making close comparisons with that particular construction. We have nearly broken established rules by looking at the drawings by themselves to ascertain the changes made in that engine. There is little enough to be found about the improvements to it and nothing at all about the alterations of other engines. The patent does not pretend or attempt to lay down any rule for reorganizing compression engines to fit them for vehicular purposes. It does not say that other kinds of engines than the Brayton type require changes. It does not say that the changes made in the Brayton engine could be made in other engines, or that if made they would fit them for use in motor vehicles. No one could learn from the patent whether the Otto engine could be constructed with an enclosed crank chamber or whether the substitution of the gearing ratio shown in the drawings would increase or diminish its speed. With the patent before a person skilled in the art, experiments, certainly, and invention, not improbably, would have been necessary to determine the steps required to reorganize the Otto engine. But any contention that a motor vehicle constructed by the patentee according to the teachings of the patent operated so successfully as to demonstrate that Selden had solved a great problem and is entitled to the status of a pioneer inventor is, we think, without foundation."

In conclusion, the court found, that if the claims be narrowly construed to cover only Selden's specific contribution to the art they could be held valid. So construed they were limited to the combination of a Brayton engine with a road vehicle; and since defendants used the Otto engine, the claims were not infringed.

Commenting on the decision "The Automobile" for January 12, 1911 said, "Coming at a dramatic moment, while the great automobile show conducted under the auspices of the A. L. A. M. was unfolding in all its glory at the Garden, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals announced its decision of the famous Selden patent case Monday evening, adversely to the interests of the A. L. A. M. Judge Noyes wrote the opinion of the court and held that while the Selden patent covering an early type of automobile was valid it did not cover the basic features of the Ford car and others joined with the Ford company as defendants to the action" The court orders the cause sent back to the trial court to be dismissed with costs upon the complainants.

"The decision came like a clap of thunder and was entirely unexpected by the exhibitors at the big show. The whole atmosphere seemed to take on an electric quality after the announcement and it was not until the next morning that some of the members were acquainted with the facts. "(16)

Ford declined to comment on the decision other than to state that the facts were before the public.

Selden was asked for a statement for the press. He said, "I went into this enterprise hoping to make a little money out of it. I have succeeded much better than I expected and as my patent has but a year or two to run, the decision has no severe significance. The case will probably go to the Supreme Court."(17)

The case, however, did not go to the Supreme Court and shortly then after the A. L. A. M. was dissolved.

The A. L. A. M. had served its purpose. In addition to its licensing activities, the Association carried on research and standardization work under its mechanical branch. Approximately one year before the adverse decision the mechanical branch had been discontinued and all records, apparatus, and engineering library turned over to the Society of Automotive Engineers.(18)

The Selden case was closed, but the controversies that it aroused have endured to the present day. There have been greater inventions, more fundamental decisions, and more startling delays. But the Selden case still holds a unique position in the annals of the patent system.


  1. The Outlook, July 6, 1912.
  2. The Economics of Our Patent System, by Vaughan, 1925.
  3. Electric Vehicle Co. et al v. C. A. Duerr and Co. et al, 172 Fed. 923.
  4. The Rochester Alumni-Alumnae Review, February-March, 1940. Article by George B. Selden (son of the inventor).
  5. Patent No. 125,166, April 2, 1872.
  6. "The first idea akin to the Diesel principle was demonstrated by George Brayton of Philadelphia, who patented his engine in 1872." Modern Diesel Engine Practice, by Adams, 1931.
  7. Columbia Motor Car Co. et al v. C. A. Duerr and Co. et al, 184 Fed. 893.
  8. Electric Vehicle Co. v. Duerr et al, 172 Fed. 923.
  9. Patent No. 549,160, November 5, 1895.
  10. The Romance of the Automobile, by Doolittle, 1916.
  11. The following is a resume of the prosecution:
  12. Application filed May 8, 1879
    Rejection May 31, 1879
    Amendment May 26, 1881
    Rejection June 17, 1881
    Amendment May 15, 1883
    Rejection May 26, 1883
    Amendment May 18, 1885
    Office letter June 15, 1885
    Amendment June 15, 1887
    Rejection June 21, 1887
    Amendment June 10, 1889
    Office letter June 14, 1889
    Substitute specification June 5, 1891
    Office letter July I, 1891
    New oath June 28, 1893
    Rejection July 29, 1893
    Amendment April I, 1895
    Office letter April 29, 1895
    Amendment May 1, 1895
    Notice of allowance May 28, 1895
    Final fee paid Oct. 12, 1895
    Patent issued Nov. 5, 1895
    Analysis of these dates shows that the total time spent by the Patent Office in the 16 years and 6 months of pendency was only about 7 months. This includes 9 office actions and also the time spent in issuing the patent after the final fee was paid. The average time for an office action was 20 days; 4 days was the shortest and 31 days the longest time for the office to act on the case. The time spent by the applicant was 15 years and 11 months to make 8 replies to office actions and to pay the final fee. This was of course, by making dilatory amendments and by taking full advantage of the two years period for amendment allowed by law. Later the law was changed to allow only one year for amending. If the one year period had been in force with respect to the Selden case, the total time for the prosecution would have been nine years, assuming the same character and number of amendments and substituting one year whenever two years was taken to reply. The one year period was reduced to six months in 1927. Had this time limit been in force the time of prosecution of the Selden patent would have been but 5 years.
     
  13. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1895, XXVII.
  14. Handbook, Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, 1908.
  15. Electric Vehicle Co. v. Duerr et al, 172 Fed. 923.
  16. Columbia Motor Car Co. v. Duerr et al, 184 Fed. 893.
  17. The Automobile, January 12, 1911.
  18. The Rochester Democrat, January 10, 1911.
  19. Selden's Contribution to the Automobile, by Henry R. Selden, 1940.


Journal of the Patent Office Society : The Selden Case: October, 1940, Vol. XXII, No. 10 , P. 719; Published with permission of the Patent & Trademark Office Society

 






Monday, September 27, 2010

[Original text only; illustrations (photos and documents) added for this website presentation.]



'I Invented the Automobile’: The Bitter War over the Selden Patent



Visitors to Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, N.Y., often remark on a simple tombstone bearing the name George Baldwin Selden. Below Selden's name is his claim to fame: "Inventor of the gasoline automobile."

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"Selden? Never heard of him," is the usual comment of cemetery visitors. A hundred years ago nearly everybody knew Selden's name--especially anyone about to purchase one of the new-fangled automobiles. Selden's 1895 patent on an "improved road locomotive" was tying the infant automobile industry into knots. This is the story of George Baldwin Selden: soldier, patent lawyer, inventor. And forgotten man of the automobile.

One of 12 children, he was born in 1846 at Clarkson, 16 miles west of Rochester, in a house that still stands. His abolitionist father, Henry Rogers Selden, participated in the formation of the Republican Party in 1856 and was elected lieutenant governor of New York in 1857. According to a family account, Henry Selden turned down the chance for nomination for the vice-presidency on the Republican ticket with Abraham Lincoln in 1864.

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Henry Selden's most celebrated case was his defense of woman's suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony. With the passage of the 14th Amendment holding that citizenship rights cannot be abridged and the 15th Amendment guaranteeing that race was no bar to voting rights, she believed that women had the right to vote. In the 1872 national election, she and 50 women registered to vote. Anthony and 14 other women voters were allowed to vote in the 8th Ward.

Susan B. Anthony and the election inspectors were arrested and held in $500 bail, which she refused to pay. Henry R. Rogers posted her bail, saying that "he could not see a lady he respected put in jail."

Young George Selden attended the University of Rochester briefly before serving with the Sixth New York Cavalry and the Hospital Corps during the Civil War. Fate sometimes plays strange tricks. Had his father accepted the vice-presidential nomination, he might have returned from the war as the son of the man who would succeed the assassinated Lincoln.

Instead, he emerged obscurely to enter Yale as a sophomore in 1865. He soon abandoned a classical course to enroll in Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, where he spent two happy years.

seldenYoung George Selden was a tinkerer and had a native mechanical ability, but his father had other plans for him. His science studies were cut short abruptly in 1869, however, when his father insisted that he return to Rochester to "read law." He became a member of the New York bar in November of 1871.  [Photo from 1871 at left]  Patent law seemed like the ideal legal specialty in which to combine a natural inventiveness with his enforced profession, so he entered that field. By 1878, he had established his own practice.

Selden soon became fascinated with the subject of road locomotion and read everything he could find on the subject. Heavy steam-powered vehicles had proliferated in England and America a half century before but had been stifled by legislation and the swift growth of railroads. As Selden saw it, the main problem was to find a new and light engine to propel a wheeled vehicle over roads.

Philadelphia and the Brayton Engine
In 1876, the nation celebrated its hundredth birthday with the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Selden attended to show a machine he had invented for making barrel hoops. This gave him a chance to see and study several recently perfected engines.

The exposition's 2,275-foot-long Machinery Hall held 13 acres of mechanical devices. Star of the show was the 70-foot-tall double Corliss engine. This 1,500-horsepower monster engine operated five miles of rotating shafts that powered other machinery in the vast hall. It required only a single attendant, who sat calmly on the platform reading newspapers.

In contrast with the clumsy, clattering giant engines powered by steam and illuminating gas, the 1,160-pound, two-cycle Brayton engine on display, although large, offered the best possibility of powering a road vehicle. Selden began toying with engine designs.

The Brayton engine contained a diaphragm through which flame entered the water-cooled cylinder, creating poor combustion. Selden's engine was identical to Brayton's except that it omitted the diaphragm. Combustion was just as poor.

In December of 1877 he brought his own engine specifications to Frank Clement's machine shop in Rochester. The design, called for three cylinders, each opposed by a compression air pump. A casting was made, but only one of the cylinders was bored out. In May of 1878, the 370-pound two-horsepower engine was tested, but operated feebly.

By any yardstick, Selden's contributions to engine design at this point were considerable. He had enclosed the Brayton open crankcase and made it integral with the block. This enabled him to eliminate the heavy bed plate and the cumbersome reciprocating parts and walking beam, thus reducing the size and weight of Brayton's engine. Selden knew at last that he had found an engine that could be mounted in a vehicle the size of a buggy.

The elated Rochester lawyer filed his patent application on May 8, 1879. In it, he described in general terms an "improved road engine" powered by a "liquid hydrocarbon engine type." It combined his version of the Brayton engine with other basic elements of the gasoline-powered automobile, as it was to evolve.

These elements, of course were all known at the time. It was their combination that was new and therefore patentable.

At the time Selden filed his patent application, the two-cycle Selden engine was thought to be the gasoline power plant of the future. In Germany, Nikolaus Otto had used an electric spark to ignite a mixture of coal dust, gasoline and air to explode inside a cylinder and push a piston to drive a wheel.

The drawing that accompanied Selden's 1879 patent application bore two signatures as witnesses. One was that of W.M. Rebasz, Jr., Selden's patent draftsman. The other was that of George Eastman, a name that would later become known worldwide. In 1879, Eastman was still only an unknown clerk in an office in the same building as Selden. He had the germ of an idea for bringing photography within the reach of everyone.

selden

Upon arriving in the Patent Office in Washington, Selden's application began a long and tedious stay. It was to be the subject of amendment and correspondence for the next 16 years, five months and 28 days before issuing forth in patent form.

Selden was widely criticized for taking advantage of the statutory limit that then governed the pace of patent applications. Delaying patent applications was a common tactic--and it was entirely legal.

Patent Office Backlog
During the 19th century, American patent law had become a veritable jungle of abuses. The Patent Act of 1836 had set no time limit for replies by applicants to Patent Office actions. In 1870 a two-year period was fixed for completing or perfecting applications. But the two-year period was renewable indefinitely.

Once Selden had submitted his patent application, he took advantage of every legal tactic to delay the issuance of a patent. By the end of 1894, the Patent Office found itself with the staggering total of 50,507 waiting applications. Of 12,000 pending for two years or more, five, including Selden's, had been under consideration for 15 years.

The exasperated Commissioner of Patents ruled in April of 1895 that applicants must show cause why cases of long standing were not more rapidly prosecuted--or face rejection by patent examiners. This ruling had the effect of reducing the number of outstanding cases by 6,859 in 1895. One of these was Selden's.

Since no one else in 1879 saw an automobile industry on the horizon at that early date, if Selden foresaw the eventual growth of an automobile industry and purposely delayed the issuance of his patent until a social demand arose for the automobile, perhaps his foresight should be recognized. By the primacy of his patent application, he was the first American to conceive of the gasoline automobile.

Procrastination a Tactic
Selden has been castigated by various historians of technology as "a consummate master of systematic and intentional delay" and "that prince of procrastinators." The charges are true. Patent Office replies to Selden took a month or less. Practically all of Selden's responses are dated a shade under the statutory limit of 24 months or 730 days. Even such a routine detail as furnishing a new oath took Selden 726 days.

Out of fairness to the Rochester inventor, his explanation for the delays was that he was trying unsuccessfully to line up capital for the manufacture and sale of automobiles of his design. There is evidence that he tried to do so.

Nevertheless, between 1879 and 1895, his 19 original claims were canceled and replaced by revisions that kept up with changes in technology. In all, Selden made about a hundred separate changes. In the more than 16 years his application was pending, it was actively handled by the Patent Office for a total of about seven months. To make replies to Patent Office actions and to pay the final fee, Selden took 15 years and 11 months.

With a nonrenewable life of 17 years, Selden's patent finally issued on November 5, 1895. [Note: The full patent, including the drawings and photos of the model, is reproduced on the following webpage beneath the photos of the plates and other items with the image of the Motor Wagon.] Coincidentally, this was the same month that a new magazine appeared, a herald of things to come: The Horseless Age.

A Patent at Last
Selden's patent emerged but attracted little attention and languished. Car maker Alexander Winton of Cleveland paid Selden $25 for a 90-day option to build Winton cars under the patent, but the option was never taken up.

Fate intervened in the improbable form of a blizzard on the second Monday in February of 1899. Lawyer and financier William Collins Whitney [photo below] glumly watched from a window of his Fifth Avenue mansion as the snow came down interminably. Towering drifts brought traffic almost to a standstill. Only the newly introduced electric hansom cabs were able to move through the snowbound streets.

whitney

Severe as it was--and the cold that preceded it set records that still stand--the blizzard of 1899 was not destined to live on in people's memories like the great blizzard of 1888. Nevertheless, the 1899 storm was to have a protracted and far-reaching effect on the automobile industry then just being born. Indirectly, it touched off what has been called "one of the strangest litigations in the annals of the American patent system."

Whitney, leader of a powerful combine of traction and utility promoters, was impressed by the way the electric cabs got through drifting snow when other transportation was halted. The snows of the blizzard of 1899 had barely melted before Whitney and his associate, Thomas Fortune Ryan, bought control of the company that operated the cabs, Isaac L. Rice's Electric Vehicle Company.

Whitney's plans were on an imperial scale. Under his aegis, the EVC announced it would place 12,000 electric taxicabs on the streets of the country's major cities. The next step was to find an automobile builder capable of accepting an order of that size.

evc

The Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, was the sole candidate. Colonel A.A. Pope, its founder, had made the Columbia bicycle a household word. He was also the first to build automobiles in quantity.

In April of 1899, Whitney traveled to Hartford to discuss his plans with Pope and George H. Day, Pope's assistant. Day and Whitney soon discovered that they had something in common: an aversion to gasoline-powered cars and supreme confidence in the future of electrics.

Before long the subject of an order for vehicles was put aside, and Whitney was dazzling Pope and Day with talk of a merger of his EVC and the automobile-building portion of the Pope Company. To capitalize on the widely recognized and respected Columbia name, a new organization called the Columbia Automobile Company was formed to fill the Whitney order.

Whitney and his associates had been the first to conceive of the holding company as a tool for financial manipulation. Using this device, they gained control of utilities and public transportation systems across the country.

Under Whitney's plan revealed in Hartford, the EVC would become the holding company for subsidiaries operating fleets of electric cabs in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and cities in 16 other states, including Georgia and California.

A Troubling Patent
With a caution born of his years of experience in capturing corporations, Whitney, a self-made millionaire and former Secretary of the Navy under President Grover Cleveland, inquired whether there were any basic controlling patents that might be infringed upon by his plan and thus obstruct it.

Hermann F. Cuntz, a young patent specialist on Pope's staff, obligingly produced a three-page list of patents covering steam, electric and gasoline cars. Cuntz had been pestering the Pope management about one patent on his list for three years, insisting that Pope's experimental gasoline vehicles infringed on it. Management had turned a deaf ear to the eager Cuntz.

Not William Collins Whitney, who was anxious to hear more about the annoying Selden patent. Inventor Hiram Percy Maxim, also on Pope's staff, maintained that the engine shown in the Selden patent drawing was "utterly impractical and a joke."

Cuntz insisted that the wording of the patent determined what it covered. According to him, Selden's patent covered a combination of the basic elements of gasoline automobiles--"the body, running and steering gear, clutch, power shaft and liquid fuel tank, with an internal combustion engine of the compression type using liquid hydrocarbon fuel."

This described just about every gasoline car then being built in a hundred backyards and in dozens of small automobile assembly plants springing up across America. To Maxim, the prospect that all this effort could be stopped--if Cuntz was right--was "too awful to be believable."

The careful reader may wonder at this point what difference a basic patent covering gasoline automobiles could have made to the Whitney scheme for manufacturing electric cabs. The answer is, none. Whitney's bitter experience of a few years before with a patent for paper products had made him more prudent in investigating patents. Who, he asked, was this Selden? And could Rochester indeed have been the birthplace of the automobile?

Rochester was a sedate and comfortable city on the banks of the Genesee River. After the Erie Canal attracted many flour mills, it became known as "The Flour City." As railroads superseded the canal and flour milling moved westward, the city was left with an empty name. Rochester encouraged the growth of a nursery industry and soon was reborn as "The Flower City."

And, like necessity itself, Rochester became the mother of many inventions and home to many inventors, including George Baldwin Selden.

Whitney Acquires a Patent
When William Collins Whitney learned that five other Wall Street speculators were planning to pay a quarter of a million dollars for the rights to the Selden patent, he made up his mind.

We will never know with what feelings Selden greeted the Whitney group's first overtures. We do know that he favored the assignment of his patent to manufacturers rather than to speculators. On November 4, 1899, with his patent's useful life already reduced to 13 years, Selden gave an exclusive license to Pope and Whitney's company for a royalty of $15 per vehicle and a guaranteed minimum payment of $5,000 a year.

Despite Whitney's preference for electricity as a motive power, the EVC management soon came to the reluctant realization that electric cars were not capturing the public's favor.

Searching for new sources of income, the Whitney forces remembered the Selden patent. Perhaps royalty payments by the burgeoning gasoline segment of the industry could bolster their tottering financial structure. When rumors got out that this was under consideration, a shiver ran through the ranks of builders of gasoline-powered cars. Even a financially wounded EVC would make a formidable adversary in litigation. The industry monthly Horseless Age called the EVC "the Lead Cab Trust" (because of Whitney's control of the Electric Storage Battery Company, makers of the lead-acid storage batteries used in EVC cabs) and advised car builders to disregard threats from such combines.

"Grotesque" was how the magazine characterized the Whitney group of promoters. "If they have any saving sense of honor," the editor wrote, "they will retire and leave the field to the mechanics and manufacturers to whom it rightfully belongs."  [To read a few of the derisive articles published in the magazine, click here.]

These suggestions went unheeded. Instead, the Whitney lawyers moved to the attack. In June of 1900, leading makers of gasoline vehicles received identical letters from the law firm of Betts, Sheffield & Betts.

"Our clients inform us that you are manufacturing and advertising for sale vehicles that embody the scope of the Selden patent," the notice said. "We notify you of this infringement and request that you desist from the same and make suitable compensation to the owner of the patent."

selden

Lawsuits Begin
A month later, court actions were begun. The targets were the Buffalo Gasolene [sic] Motor Company, selected as a parts maker, and the Winton Motor Carriage Company of Cleveland, then the largest builder of gasoline automobiles.

selden

The Selden forces also filed suits against two firms chosen for their financial inability to contest such a suit. One of these--the Ranlet Automobile Company of St. Johnsbury, Vermont--was nothing more than two youths building an automobile in their backyard.

Another suit was brought against Smith & Mabley, a New York company importing Renaults, Panhards, Fiats and Mercedes cars from Europe. With parts makers, automobile builders large and small, and importers of motor cars as defendants, the Whitney group had plugged all legal loopholes.

At the news of the suits, most of the automobile trade press echoed the irritation and anger of the five defendants and the apprehension of those who had no yet been sued. From the beginning, popular sentiment looked with disfavor on the Whitney group, which represented in the eyes of the public the specter of financial and industrial monopoly. Thus, Selden found himself on the side identified with predatory, monopolistic and irresponsible business practices almost from the beginning.

selden

In the fall of 1902, with a treasury depleted by mounting legal costs, the Winton Company learned with dismay that seven manufacturers had applied for Selden licenses. The Winton resistance collapsed immediately, and the company began secret negotiations with the EVC for settlement of the suit. George H. Day, president of the firm, demanded a 5 percent royalty on the sale of each car. Alexander Winton thought this was too steep.

In the meantime, two Detroit manufacturers, Henry B. Joy of Packard and Frederic L. Smith of the Olds Motor Works, decided that the best course would be united action. They provided the backbone for the formation of an association of ten major automobile manufacturers, and offered the Selden group a royalty of one-half of 1 percent, threatening to revitalize the Winton defense if their offer was not accepted.

Negotiations between a now-conciliatory George H. Day and the manufacturers' group began, reaching a climax at an informal meeting with Whitney and his lawyers in March of 1903. On their drive up to Whitney's palatial mansion at Fifth Avenue and 68th Street, the manufacturers' committee of five had appointed Elihu H. Cutler of the Knox Automobile Company of Springfield, Mass., as their spokesman.

At each attempt by Whitney or his lawyers to get the group to discuss negotiating terms, the laconic Cutler simply, again and again, repeated what the manufacturers were prepared to offer, while other committee members sat in stony silence. Reading in a New England twang from his notes scribbled on a frayed envelope, Cutler would drone: "We will pay one and a quarter percent royalty. This association shall determine who shall and shall not be sued or licensed under the patent. These are our terms."

The urbane and polished Whitney soon realized that he had met his match in the canny Yankee, and capitulated. The organization that would be called the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM) was about to be born.

selden

As the holder of the Selden patent, the EVC was to collect the royalties: 0.5 percent would go to the EVC and 0.5 percent to the ALAM; the remaining 0.25 percent would go to George B. Selden. For reasons that were never explained, in an agreement dated only three months before, Selden had consented to share half of his royalties with the enterprising George H. Day.

One condition of the ALAM agreement was that the Winton Company settle its suit out of court with the acceptance of a Selden license. The other manufacturers were expected to knuckle under and quickly follow suit by applying for licenses.

Winton's sales got a shot in the arm when H. Nelson Jackson, a wealthy Vermont physician, and his mechanic arrived in New York after a grueling 63-day drive from San Francisco that was the subject of a recent PBS television program. Their two-cylinder, 20-horsepower open two-seater Winton car is now in the Smithsonian.

Enter Henry Ford
The ALAM had not reckoned with a highly independent maverick in Detroit named Henry Ford. Apparently, Ford with a record of two unsuccessful attempts to establish himself in the automobile industry, approached the ALAM about a license. In the summer of 1903, his Ford Motor Company was about to begin production of inexpensive autos.

The ALAM told Ford to "go out and manufacture some motor cars and gain a reputation" before asking for membership in the association. Frederick L. Smith, then president of the ALAM, had characterized the Ford factory as a mere "assemblage plant." But so was the rest of the industry in varying degrees.

Self-interest seems to have dictated Smith's resistance to Ford's admission to the ALAM. As secretary-treasurer of the Olds company, a firm that made a car to sell for $650, Smith obviously had more than a passing interest in the success of a car that would sell at a competitive price. The Ford Model A runabout carried a list price of $750.

Ford, with capital running low, made another approach to the ALAM. At the meeting, Smith attempted to justify his position and delivered an ultimatum. The ALAM was prepared to grant him a license under the Selden patent if he would agree to sell his car for $1,000 and to limit production to 10,000 cars a year.

This was too much for James Couzens, Ford Motor Company secretary and later a respected U.S. senator from Michigan. He roared, "Selden can take his patent and go to hell with it." All eyes turned toward Henry Ford. The combative Ford, sitting in a chair tilted against the wall, underscored the sentiment. "Couzens has answered you," he said.

"You men are foolish," Smith responded. "The Selden crowd can put you out of business." Couzens laughed. Ford stood up and pointed a finger at Smith. "Let them try it, he challenged."

ALAM advertisements began carrying warnings that motorists whose cars did not carry the association's license tag--a small brass plate on the dashboard or an inside door panel--faced legal action for infringement. Ford, the bellwether of unlicensed manufacturers, purchased full-page advertisements, often on the opposite page.

Ford recognized the tremendous publicity value an infringement suit by the ALAM would bring and announced that he would give "the Trust" a thousand dollars if they would advertise his business by bringing suit against him.

As the autumn of 1903 approached, the fledgling industry watched with apprehension as the two sides squared off for battle. ALAM membership had risen in six months from ten to 27 firms, with combined resources of $70 million. Although there were more than a hundred unlicensed manufacturers outside the association, their total assets amounted to only $27 million.

Admittedly, it would be a battle of titans, but the independent manufacturers would clearly be going into the fray as underdogs. The two most prominent firms among the independents were the Ford Motor Company and the maker of the Rambler car, Thomas B. Jeffery & Company, which announced its intention to remain independent of the ALAM and of other independents as well. Incensed by Ford's advertising, the ALAM decided to sue.

selden

After submitting his application, Selden took advantage of every legal tactic to delay the issuance of a patent. Selden managed to keep his patent application pending for more than 16 years. By then the nascent automobile industry had been born.

Selden sold rights in his patent to William C. Whitney's Electric Vehicle Company. On October 22, 1903, the EVC and George B. Selden, as complainants, filed suit charging patent infringement in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York against C.A. Duerr & Company and the Ford Motor Company. Duerr had the Ford dealership in New York City.

To achieve the greatest effect, the suit was brought at the very beginning of the new model year. In this way, the recently formed Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers hoped to scare off potential buyers of the automobiles of unlicensed car builders. "Don't buy a lawsuit with your car," warned ALAM ads in newspapers. Ford countered by offering to bond every buyer of a Ford car against suits for damages.

Judging by the history of patent litigation, the automobile industry could expect a lawsuit of long duration, especially since Ford was determined not to settle out of court.

On the heels of the suit against Ford, four other suits were filed in succession--against the O.J. Gude Company, as a purchaser of a Ford car; against the French firm of Panhard et Levassor, as a foreign manufacturer marketing its cars here; against the John Wanamaker department store, which had succeeded Duerr as the Ford dealership in New York; and against Henry and Albert C. Neubauer, a Dutch company with offices in Paris. It imported Panhard and Renault cars for sale in the United States.

Although only 265 Neubauer cars had been imported in 1902, with this suit the Whitney forces showed that they intended to plug all legal loopholes.

selden

selden

selden

selden     selden

selden

To make adjudication easier, the five suits were joined as two test cases: one made up of the three Ford suits and the other the two Panhard suits. Before 1913, the proceedings in patent suits were not held in open court. Witnesses were questioned before an examiner of the court or a notary public in law offices, hotels or other locations. There was no effective way of excluding extraneous matter. Such a flawed system almost guaranteed a protracted and expensive contest in the courts. Also, such a system practically guaranteed there would be few fireworks or vivid scenes for the press to report.

Adding to the volume of testimony, the complainants refused to enter duplicated testimony for the Panhard suits into the Ford record and insisted that separate depositions be taken. The result was that the complete Selden case record is of prodigious proportions, comprising more than 14,000 pages and containing more than five million words. The massive record is today an invaluable source for information about the early history of the automobile.

selden

Attorneys Galore
Assembled for both sides was an imposing array of the best patent law talent available. For the complainants, the major part of the case was handled by Samuel R. Betts and William A. Redding, aided by a battery of other attorneys.

The Ford suits were defended by a tireless 60-year-old Detroit patent attorney, Ralzemond A. Parker, and the Panhard suits were represented by the firm of Coudert Brothers. Parker, a Midwesterner with an unkempt white beard, Whitmanesque wide-brimmed hat and rumpled clothes, made a striking contrast to the other layers who were the cream of effete Wall Street law firms.

Excitement was high when George B. Selden appeared as a witness. A patent lawyer of repute, he clashed frequently with Parker, charging the air with tension. Selden wore a gold stickpin in the knot of his necktie--a reproduction of the vehicle depicted in his patent drawing, with hubcaps and lights made of small diamonds and a body of sapphires.

Despite the ill-concealed hostility between Parker and Selden, upon completing his testimony, Selden sent a duplicate stickpin "with my compliments" to his Detroit counterpart.

The star witness for the ALAM complainants was Dugald Clerk, a Scottish expert brought here for two months at a reported retainer of $20,000 and a generous allowance for expenses. Clerk was the highly respected author of the standard texts on engines, The Gas Engine (1886) and The Gas and Oil Engine (1896).

It turned out that Clerk's expertise was largely limited to stationary engines. Although Clerk had testified in many British patent actions, his cross-examination at the hands of attorney Parker revealed he was by no means an authority on American patent law.

After completing testimony that added some 300,000 words to the already massive trial record, Clerk ruefully admitted, "If Mr. Parker is right as to American patent law, I fear I have broken down the case of my side."

alam

selden     alam

Motor Vehicles as Trial Exhibits
A highlight of the trial was the rivalry between the motorcars constructed as exhibits in the case. The Selden buggy appeared in two versions--described by the inventor as "Chinese copies" of his patent. One was built in Rochester and the other, looking strangely dissimilar, was built in Hartford. Frederic R. Coudert, the Panhard attorney, scorned the heavy, trucklike Hartford-built Selden vehicle as "much Hartford and little Selden."

The Rochester-built vehicle, constructed under the supervision of the inventor's two sons, incorporated his original 1877 one-cylinder engine, but with the two unfinished cylinders bored out and fitted with pistons. Large metal numbers were added to the sides of the vehicle. These showed the date when the inventor had first conceived his invention, 1877--two years before he had filed his first patent application. The date 1877 applied to a vehicle constructed in the winter of 1905 infuriated the defendants.

Because George H. Day was certain a working example of the Selden patent was needed, he ordered a vehicle to be built in secret in Hartford. More powerful than the one built in Rochester Unfortunately, the Hartford vehicle required the assistance of an air compressor to get it started.

Convinced that a public test of the Selden vehicles would show the flaws of these vehicles, defense attorneys pressured the ALAM to drive them publicly through the streets of the city. After initially agreeing, the Selden forces reneged, insisting that New York's traffic regulations prohibited such demonstrations. Accordingly, the two ALAM exhibits were moved across the Hudson River to a racetrack near Guttenberg, New Jersey.

Of the two vehicles, the Hartford model gave a better performance. This was understandable, for it incorporated a number of features not shown on Selden's original patent drawing, including speed-changing gears, a water-jacketed engine and pneumatic tires.

selden

Hugo C. Gibson, a British mechanical engineer, had been retained by the ALAM to operate its vehicles entered as exhibits. Mr. Gibson fenced with attorney Parker, sometimes claiming to be an expert and at other times, an "ordinary human being." When Parker demanded direct and specific responses, exchanges like the following took place:

A. I have no knowledge in my present capacity of pure flame ignition.
Q. What do you mean by "in my present capacity"?
A. I mean that as an ordinary individual without special knowledge I have no knowledge of pure flame ignition.
Q. Have you any knowledge of "pure flame ignition" as used in this case as an expert?
A. I cannot say what I know as an expert.
Q. As a fact, do you know what flame ignition is as applied to that engine?
A. As an ordinary individual I do not, nor could I possibly.
Q. Do you know as an expert?
A. I cannot tell what I know as an expert.
Q. You mean you can't or your won't?
A. I mean I can't, just as I say.
Q. Why can't you?
A. I don't know.

In September of 1907, ALAM attorneys overcame their reluctance to operate the Selden buggy on the streets of New York. It was demonstrated publicly, being driven on 49th Street between 6th and 9th Avenue. Piloted by Hugo Gibson, it "groaned, missed, choked, overheated and stalled. Gibson was assisted by a mechanic known as "Cranky Louis." According to the magazine Horseless Age, he acquired that nickname because of "his frequent performances in that line."

selden

The caption of the photo above was slightly edited for clarity, but
the names and date are as they were said to be with the original.
The images above and below are by Nathan Lazarnick, and, like
like ones near the top of this page, are also dated 1906.
Despite the discrepencies in the dates, the assumption is that
this long article has been carefully researched and checked,
and these magazine articles attest to the correct date.

Next, another pair of shots from the same demonstration,
along with comments from one of the men sitting in the vehicle
which clarify the situation and show inaccuracies of the published report.
A hundred years later, we are perhaps more used to the "spin"
which is employed by all sides both before and after the fact.

selden



During these tests the Selden buggy was equipped with electric ignition. The car's average speed was only seven miles and hour. Its longest run was a distance of only 3,450 feet.

Henry Ford's answer to the Selden exhibits had an interesting genesis. When Dugald Clerk testified that a vehicle powered by a non-compression engine, such as French inventor Etienne Lenoir had patented in 1860, would not move at all, Ford's attorneys pricked up their ears, especially since Lenoir's car had been successfully operated in Paris.

A Ford-Lenoir car, with a primitive carburetor and engine built with the aid of old Selden patent drawings, was constructed and introduced by the defense to challenge the expertise of Dugald Clerk, the ALAM's witness.

As the suits closed their fourth year, the sight of these outmoded vehicles on the streets of New York gave the trial an added fillip and revived public interest in the case. Unfortunately, there never was a simultaneous demonstration of the capabilities of the opposing cars.

Trouble ahead for the ALAM
In 1907, George B. Selden lent his name to the Selden Motor Vehicle Company of Rochester, which became a dues-paying member of the ALAM. It would manufacture motor cars until 1914.

The year 1907 was a bad one for the ALAM. On November 21, its driving force and general manager, 56-year-old George H. Day, died in Daytona Beach, Florida. The following month, the EVC, heavily mortgaged for the past five years, went into receivership with liabilities of $3.5 million. The dynamic William C. Whitney was long out of the picture, having succumbed to appendicitis in 1904 at the age of 63.

selden     day

columbia

The EVC's financial problems touched off a wave of member resistance to payment of royalties to ALAM, an association in trouble. Many firms threatened to leave the association unless the royalty rate was reduced. The 1.25 percent rate was cut to 1 percent in June of 1908, with an added discount of one-fifth for payment within 15 days of the quarterly due-date. This made the effective royalty rate only eight-tenths of 1 percent. In spite of this reduction, some ALAM members, notably W.C. Durant, then laying the foundation for his General Motors empire, halted their royalty payments entirely. The association countered with suits to force them to pay.

selden         alam

Students of the Selden patent suit have sometimes raised the question of how Ford could sustain the cost of defending against the suits when the Winton Company had found the burden crushing. One answer lies in the swift growth and phenomenal success of the Ford Motor Company. Another explanation is that Ford found it cheaper to fight the ALAM than to pay royalties.

Before 1908, the year the ALAM royalty rate was reduced, Ford would have paid an average royalty of $12.50 on each car sold--but the company was spending only about $6.80 per car to defend the suit. Thus, Ford was spending little more than half the demanded royalty to defend against the ALAM suits. In effect, the ALAM was underwriting the cost of Ford's defense against its litigation. By the autumn of 1908 the ALAM cases had passed their fifth birthday. Most of the testimony had been taken, but the formidable task of preparing briefs still lay ahead. By the middle of 1909, it was estimated that $2 million had been paid to the Selden interests. Reporting on the progress of the trial, a trade magazine wrote, "The accumulated evidence and exhibits in the case would fill two standard freight cars."

Until new procedures were introduced in 1913, one of the paradoxes of patent litigation was that testimony was taken and the case was prepared long before a judge was appointed. Choice of a judge was also a matter of chance, often determined only by the time when the case came up on the court calendar.

Parker, the Ford attorney, feared the designation of Judge Charles M. Hough, whom he described as "not a patent judge." As it turned out, Hough was the judge assigned to the Selden case.

On May 28, 1909, attorneys for both sides gathered in a courtroom in the mansard-roofed granite Post Office building south of New York's City Hall for the final six-day hearing. When an attorney for the claimants began his argument before Judge Hough by describing the Selden patent, the judge interrupted. "Someone will have to explain to me what the liquid hydrocarbon gas engine is." Clearly Hough was no patent judge.

The strategy of the complainants was simple. They emphasized that Selden's was "the basic, fundamental pioneer patent" and that the difference between engine types was unimportant.

Defense attorney Parker's sprawling argument lost much of its impact by too much attention to the history and development of the prior art, burying his defense in a mass of distracting detail. It had two basic themes. First, that Selden substituted one motive power for another in a well-known combination without producing a new result and as such the new combination was not patentable. Second, that the scope of the patent should be restricted to the particular engine described by Selden, namely the Brayton engine.

An Opinion and an Appeal
Hough listened to the oral arguments and took the huge record away with him to study at his summer home in Rhode Island. Both sides retired to await his verdict. On September 15, 1909, nearly six years after the first suit had been entered, the judge filed his opinion. In it, Judge Hough found himself in complete agreement with the complainants' arguments. He affirmed the scope of Selden's patent and accorded him formal recognition as the inventor of the automobile. 

columbia

To read the judge's ruling in its entirety, plus many articles from the resulting activity during 1910, click here.

At this, the unlicensed manufacturers' ranks fell apart; the judicial defeat quickly became a rout. Some manufacturers hurriedly approached the ALAM for licenses. W.C. Durant made peace with the association by paying a reported million dollars in back royalties.

To read about the A.L.A.M. Show of January 1910, click HERE


selden


Yet a stubborn Henry Ford refused to give in. He bombarded Ford dealers and newspaper editors with telegrams reading, "We will fight to a finish." In lieu of an injunction that would have prevented Ford from manufacturing automobiles, Judge Hough set Ford's bond at $350,000 to cover damages and profits while an appeal was readied. Ford's only hope was that perhaps the judges of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit would see the issues differently.

The case moved swiftly to a new conclusion. Fortunately, the tedious taking of testimony had already been accomplished. New briefs were filed, and a four-day hearing was announced for November 22, 1910. Justices were to be Emile H. Lacombe, Henry G. Ward and Walter C. Noyes.

The latter judge, who was to take an active role in the appeal, had heard several important patent cases. The venerable Parker, who had elected to stay in the background in the appeal in favor of younger attorneys, heard this news with satisfaction. This time the defense would finally have what it wanted--at least one "patent judge."

Panhard's attorney, Frederic R. Coudert, had stumbled upon Dugald Clerk's treatise entitled The Gas, Petrol and Oil Engine, published the year before by the reputable New York publishing house of John Wiley. The two-volume work was an updating, revision and consolidation of Clerk's previous books on engines. During his oral argument, Coudert scored a telling blow for the defendants. He asked ALAM attorneys Betts and Redding whether their case was based largely on Clerk's testimony. Their answer was "yes."

At this, Coudert produced a copy of the newly revised edition of Dugald Clerk's treatise on gas engines and asked whether they relied on Clerk as a paid witness or Clerk as an author of the standard treatise on gas engines.

Perceiving where the Panhard attorney was heading, Betts objected that the book was not in evidence. Judge Noyes broke in. "Never mind, Mr. Betts, let Mr. Coudert continue," he suggested. "I think we can judge well enough if what he has to say is applicable or not."

It was a moment a Hollywood director would love. Coudert held up a copy of the book in plain view. Referring to the engine in Selden's patent, he said, "Let us see what Mr. Clerk has to say about it. Not Clerk with a retainer in his pocket, but Clerk, the author." He paused for dramatic effect. "This man who for six years was their retained expert has not a word in his book, not a single syllable, about Selden."

In fact, Clerk's book named others as the true pioneers of the modern automobile. He credited Daimler with the development of the small, high-speed, four-cycle engine, ignoring Selden completely.

"In no work upon gas engines or upon automobiles is the name of Selden mentioned, Coudert pointed out.”If Selden made the invention which he requests the court to find, it seems incredible that not a single scientific writer has ever alluded to it. It is hardly possible that the whole scientific world, including Clerk, is wrong, when it ascribes the perfection of the automobile engine to Daimler and the development of the automobile to Daimler, Benz, and Panhard and Levassor."

Reading aloud from Clerk's appraisal of the Brayton engine that Selden claimed to have modified, the 39-year-old lawyer quoted Clerk: "No one, however, has yet succeeded in carrying Brayton's engine further than he [Brayton] did." In effect, Clerk was contradicting his earlier trial testimony in his latest book, which admitted that Selden had made no improvement to the Brayton engine."

He asked pointedly, "Will the Court prefer the theories of Clerk, the retained witness, to those of Clerk, the distinguished scientist, composing the 'classic' on gas engines? If no one succeeded in carrying the Brayton type of engine further than Brayton himself, wherein did Selden make any improvement?"

Coudert denounced the Selden patent as a gross abuse of the American patent system. "The Selden legend,” he concluded, "has some important elements of viability--money, publicity, talent. It only lacks a foundation in fact, without which most legend must ultimately fall when the fire of historic criticism is directed at them."

Resolution at Last
After only six weeks of studying the record, the appeals judges took a different view from that of Judge Hough. On January 9, 1911, more than seven years after the first suit had been filed, Judge W.C. Noyes read the unanimous opinion of the Court. It represented an acceptance of the defendants' basic arguments. The judges ruled that Selden's patent was legally valid, but restricted to the particular structure detailed by the inventor, a combination of elements not used by any automobile manufacturer. The problem was that it simply did not cover the modern automobile.

Judge Noyes pointed out the substantial differences between Selden's engine and the Otto engine that proved crucial to his decision. Selden's was a two-cycle external compression non-explosive engine had no distinctive external vaporizing device and operated with constant flame ignition. The Otto four-cycle engine mixed fuel and air in the carburetor and used timed electric ignition to explode the resulting mixture in its cylinders.

"He made the wrong choice," the court opined about Selden's designation of the Brayton engine. "The defendants," the judges added, "neither legally nor morally owe him anything." Had Selden adopted the Otto four-cycle engine for his combination, his patent would indeed have covered existing automobiles, which almost exclusively used modifications of the Otto engine. The vindication of Ford and Panhard was complete. Even the court costs had to be borne by the complainants.

selden

Reversal of the decrees of the lower court landed like a bombshell on the licensed auto manufacturers gathered in Madison Square Garden for their annual automobile show. The ALAM talked bravely of an appeal to the Supreme Court, but eventually abandoned the idea. Instead, they invited Henry Ford, the man who had led the fight against them, to the ALAM banquet, where he was greeted with a loud burst of applause and excited cheers. The newspapers described it as "a love feast."

selden

George B. Selden accepted the opinion of the court. "I have succeeded much better than I expected," he told a reporter, "and as my patent has but a year or two to run, the decision has no severe significance."

This was certainly a pragmatic view, for the patent then had exactly one year and ten months of useful life. Privately, though, Selden was disappointed, according to those who knew him. He returned to the comparative obscurity from which he had emerged for a brief turn in the limelight.

alam

selden

It is difficult today, even after the passage of almost a century, to separate truth from legend or propaganda. Nevertheless, some conclusions are possible. Had Ford abandoned the automobile industry in 1903 after the ALAM denied him a license, the motor car would have remained a luxury article for a long period. The advent of the mass-produced, low-priced car would have been delayed.

The sequential production methods of Ford, which influenced other automobile plants and other industries, would have developed at a slower rate. The increased use of the motor car would have been postponed for years.

In the way of reform, the Selden controversy resulted in the adoption in 1913 of a new set of rules of procedure in suits in equity. Long depositions are restricted; testimony is taken in open court, and delays and delaying tactics are no longer possible.

One legend is that the growth of the Ford Motor Company was hindered by uncertainty about the outcome. There is no evidence that plant expansion was affected. It has also been alleged incorrectly that the Selden patent shackled investment, production and innovation in the industry.

selden

The Selden suit had a tremendous effect on the fortunes of Ford. By 1923, half of the ten million cars in the United States were Fords. "Probably nothing so well advertised the Ford car and the Ford Motor Company as did this suit," Henry Ford said in his 1923 autobiography My Life and Work, written with Samuel Crowther.

He might have added that the suit did much to enhance his personal reputation, too. Ford saw to it that the public pictured him as the underdog in the contest, and the public in turn gave him its sympathy. His copywriters portrayed him as a knight on a white charger, single-handedly taking on that evil dragon, "the Trust."

selden     selden

Despite the vehemence expressed by both sides in their advertising, Ford and Selden retained each other's respect. About Ford, Selden said during the trial, "Personally, I am on good terms with Mr. Ford, and I rather admire the business skill with which he has managed his enterprise." For his part, Ford had no personal animosity toward Selden, "He was a decent old fellow," Ford later remarked to a biographer. "But when others began to make automobiles, he got into the hands of those who wanted to exploit the industry by claiming tribute from every motorcar manufacturer."

Selden clung to the conviction that he was the original creator of the gasoline automobile. Calling himself "the father of the automobile," he spent his declining years in a futile and single-minded attempt to develop a rotary engine.

George Baldwin Selden died in Rochester on January 17, 1922, at the age of 75. On his deathbed he was heard to say, "Morally the victory is mine." His cherished dream that future generations would honor him for his invention died with him. His name survived briefly in the name of the Selden Motor Truck Company of Rochester, in which he had a large financial interest. But it, too, would disappear when the company failed during the Depression that followed Wall Street's massive debacle in 1929.





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GEORGE B. SELDEN, AUTO PIONEER, DIES AT 77

Inventor of First Gasoline-Propelled Vehicle in 1878
Reaped Years of Litigation

ROCHESTER. N. Y., Jan. 17.—George Baldwin Selden, inventor of the first gasoline-propelled vehicle and a pioneer in the present automotive Industry, died at his home here today. He was President of the Selden Motor Company of this city. He was 77 years old.

While George Baldwin Selden filed in 1879 the first patent for a gasoline motor- propelled vehicle, he reaped only long years of litigation, which, it was said. cost him nearly all the money his Invention brought him in. He obtained his patent In November, 1896. In the intervening years other gasoline-propelled cars had been built here and In Germany. Setting up a claim to the basic patent, Selden began suit in 1900 against Ford and Winton. The lower court found in his favor, but while the Appellate Court upheld his patent, it reversed judgment on the ground that Winton and Ford were making. a motor of another type.

 The litigation was renewed by the Electric Vehicle Company of New Jersey, to whom Selden sold the manufacturing rights. The sued manufacturers, with the exception of Ford, surrendered and formed the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, and agreed to pay 1 ¼ per cent. of the price of their cars as royalty. This was later reduced to four-fifths of 1 per cent.

Ford continued the fight alone. In 1911 Judge Noyes, in a decision, affirmed Selden’s patent but held that the Ford engine was of the Otto type. As other manufacturers were using the same type, the association was disbanded and the royalties ceased.

Mr. Selden was graduated from ‘Yale In 1869 and studied law under his father. After experimenting in the making of engines for light vehicles driven by steam, by ammonia gas, bisuiphite of carbon and other liquid fuels, he turned his attention to petroleum as fuel. He had, in 1875, built an engine that was driven by a mixture of “laughing gas” and kerosene. it proved a failure.

By 1876 he reached the conclusion that the internal combustion engine of the compression type using liquids fuel was the solution of his difficulties. Notwithstanding the gibes of others, he persevered.

New York Times; January 18, 1922    




selden




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