John Dodge and The Dodge Brothers

[DB69]

On October 25th 1864 John F Dodge, the older of the two Dodge Brothhe was born in Niles Michigan. With his brother Horace E, they founded the Dodge Brothers Company and made their first car on November 14,1914 in their assembly plant in Hamtramck Michigan, which was the first fully integrated car factory in the United Satates.
They made all the parts except wheels, tires, glass, and instrumentation.
The cars and later trucks (October 1917) had 12 volt electrical systems, key ignition and a starter generator that was designed to "crank" when the voltage dropped below 12 volts, to prevent the engine from stalling
also the cars had leather seats and full instrumnetation as standard equipment.
Most of the mechanics of that first car were designed by Horace who was a mechanical genius. There is a 1,000 hp quadruple expansion steam engine in the Smithsonian Institution that has 2 1/2, 5, 71/2, amd 10 inch pistons in it that was designed by Horace and built by the Dodge Brothers Company, that was in a yacht that Horace designed and had built. It was the fastest ship in the United States at the time it was built, it had 2 of those engine in it and could cruise at 41 mph which was faster than anything the US Navy had at the time
I am grateful To John and Horace Dodge for founding The Dodge Brothers Company and for making cars and trucks
I just wanted to share a little history with everyone about who is responsible for our Dodges. The original radiator badge is my avatar
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[OLD DODGE]

Well Tom,

If its story time let me pull up my recliner and listen to the Dodge History Channel. I love old stuff, so history and Dodge definitely fall into that category. When is the next installment?

[Bruce]

Please!

[DB69]

On this date (November 14 ) 95 years ago today the first Dodge Brothers car rolled off the assembly line in Hamtramck Michigan. The Brothers John and Horace had built the plant to manufacture parts for Henry Ford and are mainly responsible for the early success of the Ford Motor Company. They were also the owners of 10% of the stock of the Ford Motor Company (wonder what that would be worth toaday??) which they sold in 1919 for 25 million dollars
The "basic" reason that John and Horace had decided to manufacture their own car is that they on several occassions had made suggestions to Henry Ford on how the Model T could be improved on and be made for less money. Henry Ford would get extremely ticked off when anyone would "suggest" improvements.
The reason the Brothers built their first car with a 12 volt electrical system, leather seats, full instrumentation, a "silent starter" and a starter generator was to render the model t to be obsolete, which it did. The Dodge Brothers were all about quality and doing business honestly, many of their "contracts" were done by a handshake. Their belief was to make something quality that they wanted to own themselves
Henry Ford was unhappy because the Brothers both drove Packards before the made their own car. They didn't like Fords!
My favorite quote from John Dodge was given in an interview in the fall of 1914, When asked by a magazine reporter why the Dodge Brothers decided to manufacture their own car, John replied " think of all the Ford owners who will someday want to own an automobile"
John Dodge must have been thinking of me, My dad bought fords and I drove them until age 21 when I bought my first Dodge, and have been buying them ever since
The innovations the two Brothers made in the automotive industry before their untimely deaths (both died in 1920) were astounding.
Their last cars are in the Gilmore Auto Museum in Hickory Corner's Michigan (about 110 miles from me) John's is a 1919 sedan and Horace's is a 1919 coupe with their monograms on them and also they have a fat man's steering wheel that is basically an early tilt steering wheel
The picture Old Dodge posted is a Center Door Sedan which was not very popular and I believe was made for only 2 or 3 years and are pretty rare
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