Paragon (automobile)

Last updated
Detroit Automobile Manufacturing Company
Founded1905;117 years ago (1905)
Defunct1907;115 years ago (1907)
FateSold
Successor Marvel Motor Car Company
Headquarters Detroit, Michigan,
Key people
J. P. La Vigne

The Paragon and La Petite were automobiles produced by the Detroit Automobile Manufacturing Company in Detroit, Michigan from 1905 to 1907. [1]

Contents

History

J. P. La Vigne built his first automobile in 1898, and with his daughter Olive continued with experimental cars and other inventions until 1905 when the Detroit Automobile Manufacturing Company was set-up. The factory at 284–290 Rivard Street in Detroit first produced the La Petite which was displayed at the Detroit Automobile Show. J. P. La Vigne was unhappy with his engine manufacturer and left the company. [1]

Detroit Automobile Manufacturing change the name of the car to Paragon and produced it through 1906. The La Petite and Paragon were a small two-seat runabout weighing only 650 pounds. They were equipped with a 0.7 liter, single-cylinder 5-hp engine and sold for $375, equivalent to $11,310in 2021. The only difference between the two was La Petite had a 65-inch wheelbase and the Paragon was 68-inches. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Locomobile Company of America was a pioneering American automobile manufacturer founded in 1899, and known for its dedication to precision before the assembly-line era. It was one of the earliest car manufacturers in the advent of the automobile age. For the first two years after its founding, the company was located in Watertown, Massachusetts. Production was transferred to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1900, where it remained until the company's demise in 1929. The company manufactured affordable, small steam cars until 1903, when production switched entirely to internal combustion-powered luxury automobiles. Locomobile was taken over in 1922 by Durant Motors and eventually went out of business in 1929. All cars ever produced by the original company were always sold under the brand name Locomobile.

The Aerocar is an American automobile that was built from 1906 until 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. Backed by Henry Ford's former partner, coal merchant Alexander Malcomson, the short-lived company offered an air-cooled four-cylinder luxury car which sold for $2,800.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclecar</span> Early microcar

A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car. A key characteristic was that it could only accommodate two passengers sitting tandem style or passenger behind the driver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ateliers de Construction Mecanique l'Aster</span>

L'Aster, Aster, Ateliers de Construction Mecanique l'Aster, was a French manufacturer of automobiles and the leading supplier of engines to other manufacturers from the late 1890s until circa 1910/12. Although primarily known as an engine mass manufacturer the company also produced chassis for coach-works and a complete range of components.

Northern Manufacturing Company was a manufacturer of Brass Era automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, automobiles designed by Charles Brady King. Early advertising included catchy phrases such as "Utility is the Basis for Beauty" and "Built for Business" and the famous "Silent Northern".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pungs-Finch</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Pungs-Finch was an American automobile manufactured in Detroit, Michigan from 1904 to 1910. They were powerful touring cars built by a factory which primarily made marine gas engines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cartercar</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Cartercar was an American automobile manufactured in 1905 in Jackson, Michigan, in 1906 in Detroit, and from 1907 to 1915 in Pontiac, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union (automobile)</span> Motor vehicle

The Union automobile was a vehicle manufactured by the Union Automobile Company from 1902 until 1905. It was designed by John William Lambert, who had developed the three-wheel Buckeye gasoline buggy in 1891. Over the next decade, Lambert substantially refined the vehicle, with modifications including an additional wheel, a more powerful engine, and a new transmission system. The Union Automobile Company was formed as a subsidiary of Lambert's Buckeye Manufacturing Company solely to manufacture the Union, which took its name from Union City, Indiana, the city where it was built and which endorsed its production. In total, the company built over three hundred Union automobiles, before development shifted to the Lambert automobile, the Union's successor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambert (automobile)</span> American vehicle manufactured in the 1900s and 1910s

The Lambert automobile and Lambert truck were vehicles built from 1905 through 1916 by the Lambert Automobile Company in Anderson, Indiana, United States. The Lambert automobile was an outgrowth from the Union automobile made by the Union Automobile Company, a previous vehicle that was being manufactured by John William Lambert. The factory manufactured about 3,000 automobiles and trucks per year by 1915 and had several models ranging in price from $1,200 to $3,000 at the time. The vehicles came with a gearless friction drive transmission. The demise of the manufacture of automobiles and trucks came about because of World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambert Automobile Company</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Lambert Automobile Company developed as a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2) automobile factory in Anderson, Indiana. It manufactured the Lambert automobile, truck, fire engine and farm tractor as a part of the governing Buckeye Manufacturing Company. Lambert manufactured vehicles from 1905 to 1915. In 1910 the company had over a thousand employees, and from 1910 to 1915 the production had reached about three thousand vehicles per year. It went out of business in 1917 because of World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glide (automobile)</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Glide automobile was an American automobile manufactured by the Bartholomew Company in Peoria Heights, Illinois beginning in 1902. Founded by John B. Bartholomew, the company continued to produce automobiles until 1920, when the company began manufacturing trucks for the Avery Company, of which Bartholomew was also president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buckeye Manufacturing Company</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Buckeye Manufacturing Company was a company founded in 1884 by John William Lambert and his family members originally to manufacture horse drawn buggy parts in Union City, Ohio. The enterprise started with $2,000 and six men and some helper boys. The company got involved in making tools and one early horseless carriage automobile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buckeye gasoline buggy</span> Americas first practical gasoline automobile

The Buckeye gasoline buggy, also known as the Lambert gasoline buggy, was an 1891 gasoline automobile, the first made in the United States. It was also the first automobile made available for sale in the United States. It was initially a three wheel horseless carriage, propelled by an internal combustion gasoline engine; it was later developed into a four-wheel automobile with a gearless transmission, and mass-produced during the first part of the twentieth century. The platform was later expanded into a line of trucks and fire engines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Automobile Company</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Union Automobile Company was an automobile factory to manufacture the Union automobile through the Buckeye Manufacturing Company. It began manufacturing automobiles in 1902 and produced them through 1905. The company was located in Union City, Indiana. The inventor of Union automobile gasoline engine and friction drive gearless transmission was John W. Lambert. In the early part of 1905 the company moved to Anderson, Indiana. It had produced 325 automobiles before going out of business in the later part of 1905. It was replaced with a redesigned model that became the Lambert automobile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambert friction gearing disk drive transmission</span> Variable ratio automotive transmission system

The Lambert friction transmission was a mechanism devised and patented by John W. Lambert in 1904. It was a mechanical transmission that consisted of a friction wheel pressed against the back of the automobile motor flywheel main disk by a pedal controlled by the driver's foot. It was a type of clutch. When the pedal pressure was released the friction wheel could be moved across the power flywheel disk to provide a different ratio to give a driving speed as high or as low as desired; it even went into reverse to help decelerate while going forward or for driving backwards. The transmission was used in all of the vehicles manufactured by Lambert.

The Pierce Engine Company of Racine, Wisconsin, was the manufacturer of the brass era Pierce-Racine automobile. The company was founded in 1892 and produced automobiles from 1904 to 1910.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FN Four</span> Type of motorcycle

The FN Four was the world's first production inline-4 motorcycle, manufactured in Liége by Fabrique Nationale from 1905 until 1923. It was also, at 40 miles per hour (64 km/h), the world's fastest production motorcycle from 1911 until 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reliance (automobile)</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Brass era Reliance automobile was manufactured by the Reliance Automobile Manufacturing Company in Detroit, Michigan from 1904 to 1907.

Two Sharp automobiles were manufactured during the Brass Era of automobiles. The earliest was the Sharp Arrow built by the Sharp Arrow Automobile Company in Trenton New Jersey from 1908 to 1910. The second was the SEM or Sharp cyclecar built by the Sharp Engineering & Manufacturing Company in Detroit, Michigan in 1914.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kimes, Beverly Rae; Clark Jr., Henry Austin (1996). Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 (3rd ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN   978-0-87341-428-9.