In 1891, John Lambert successfully tested and drove a three-wheeled, surrey topped, gasoline powered runabout of his own design. Despite the success of the car, the vehicle was a marketing failure. Priced at $550, not a single party was interested. Undaunted, Lambert turned his attention to the manufacture of stationary gasoline engines. He selected Anderson, Indiana as the site for his Buckeye Manufacturing Company. During this time he developed the friction transmission that would be a feature on all of his cars. He made an unsuccessful attempt to buy out a model call the Buckeye in 1895. Lambert's first automobile marketing success was a model called the Union which was released in 1902. In 1906, he produced the first Lambert. With this line Lambert established himself as one of the more successful automobile manufacturers of the era. In addition to cars, Lambert produced auto fire engines, trucks, gasoline engines and Steel-hoof farm tractors. The Buckeye Manufacturing Company produced the Lambert automobile through 1917, with the maximum production from 1907-1910, when the firm produced an average of 2,000 cars a year.
Nawale, Suraj Dattatray (2014). "Multispeed Right Angle Friction Gear". International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR). 2 (9): 184–191. ISSN2321-0869.
Huffman, Wallace Spencer, Indiana's Place in Automobile History in Indiana History Bulletin, vol 44, no. 2, Feb. 1967; Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Bureau
Huhti, Thomas, The Great Indiana Touring Book: 20 Spectacular Auto Tours, Big Earth Publishing, 2002, ISBN1-931599-09-2
James, Wanda, Driving from Japan, McFarland, 2005, ISBN0-7864-1734-X
Madden, W. C., Haynes-Apperson and America's First Practical Automobile: A History, McFarland, 2003, ISBN0-7864-1397-2
Scharchburg, Richard P., Carriages Without Horses: J. Frank Duryea and the Birth of the American Automobile Industry, SAE, 1993, ISBN1-56091-380-0
Biography of John W. Lambert, written by his son January 25, 1935 - obtained from the Detroit Public Library, National Automotive History Collection
The Horseless Age: The Automobile Trade Magazine, The Horseless Age Company, 1902
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