Before you read further, can you name some of the automobiles that were named after our Presidents? Yeah, I couldn't name even one either. That's because all but one or two were only manufactured decades ago and didn't take hold the way Ford and GM cars did.
For instance, did you know there was a car named Washington? My brother Reed gave me a wonderful book about automobile history, "Treasury of Early American Automobiles" by Floyd Clymer. One page is my inspiration for writing this month -- the page is called "Your Auto I.Q." Anyway, what about the cars named after our presidents.
The ones you probably never ever heard of are: Washington, Monroe, Grant, Jackson, Johnson, Harding and Roosevelt. But the eighth car you do know: Lincoln.
As I tried to find photos of some of these vintage cars, I came across this one at the Toyota Auto Museum of Roosevelt's car, a Packard 12. This is not the car named after Roosevelt that I referred to above but it was so beautiful I wanted to share it with you.
Cars Named After Presidents
Gasoline Automobiles: Selden Patent of 1909
Auto makers had to pay a royalty to the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (the parent company of the Selden Patent).
was the first auto maker to challenge Selden's Patent
.The way Ford challenged Selden's (photo left) rights to the patent was to guarantee to protect any auto maker who ignored the patent and just made gasoline-powered vehicles without paying royalties.
Even though a court decided to uphold Selden's Patent rights in 1909, Ford took it to the Court of Appeals and got the decision overturned.
Saturday Evening Post car ad in 1900
in 1900. The advertiser, W.E. Roach Company (Philadelphia PA) wrote a ditty to run in the space and called it, "Automobiles That Give Satisfaction."I did some online research to find out what kind of car W. E. Roach Company was advertising and haven't found out yet. If someone reading this knows the answer, leave a comment and let us know the answer.
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