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| February 04, 1941 Seventy-Six Years Old |
On this day, 76-year-old Ransom Eli Olds received his last automobile patent for an internal combustion engine design. An innovator throughout his career, Olds built the first American steam-powered vehicle in 1887 when he was only 18. In 1897, Olds received a patent for his "motor carriage," a gasoline-powered vehicle that he built the year before. He is also credited with having developed the first automobile production line. In an effort to meet the production demands for the Olds Runabout, Olds contracted with the likes of the Dodge brothers for the parts to his cars, which he then assembled in his own factory space. Olds' assembly line was able to produce a higher volume of automobiles in a shorter period of time than was possible using the traditional method of building each vehicle individually. Olds Motor Works sold 425 Runabouts in its first year of business, 2,500 the next year, 5,000 in 1904, and the rest is automobile history.
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| February 04, 1922 Lincoln In Ford's Theater |
The Ford Motor accompany acquired the Lincoln Motor Company for $8 million on this day. Henry Ford's son, Edsel, was subsequently named president of Lincoln. The move signaled Henry Ford's first acknowledgement of diversification as a desirable marketing strategy. Throughout the 1920s, Ford Motors suffered from its unwillingness to match the diverse range of automobiles offered by General Motors. Ford regained some of its market share in 1927 when it released the new Model A, a car whose styling leaned heavily on the traditional sleek look of the Lincoln automobile.
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| February 04, 1913 Tire Of Technology |
On this day, Louis Henry Perlman of New York received a patent for the first demountable tire-carrying rim. Until Perlman's invention, changing a tire meant changing the wheel. Today, demountable tire-carrying rims are fashionable accessories that express their driver's individuality.
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