Industry | Automotive |
---|---|
Predecessor | Riker Electric Motor Company |
Founded | 1898 |
Founder | Andrew L. Riker |
Defunct | 1901 |
Fate | Absorbed by Electric Vehicle Company |
Successor | Riker Motor Vehicle Company |
Headquarters | Elizabeth, New Jersey, |
Products | Electric vehicles |
Production output | unknown (1898-1901) |
The Riker was a veteran and brass era electric car founded in 1898 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Designed by Andrew L. Riker, they were built in small numbers until the company was absorbed by the Electric Vehicle Company in 1901. [1] [2]
Andrew Riker built his first vehicle in 1887. It was an English Coventry tricycle with electric power. He founded the Riker Electric Motor Company in Brooklyn in 1888. In 1894 he built his first four-wheel car by putting a pair of Remington bicycles together with electric power added. That year he also began building an electric racer which competed against gasoline cars at the 1896 Narragansett Park race in Rhode Island. [1]
Scientific American reported the Riker Electric Motor Company, of Brooklyn, N. Y., as the winner of the horseless carriage race, the prize being $900. The fastest mile was made by the Riker, "the time being 2:13." This was the first automobile race done around a track in the United States. [3]
Riker made his first sale in 1897. From that time a variety of electric vehicles bore the Riker name including runabouts, Victorias, surreys, hansom cabs and heavy trucks. In December 1900 he merged his company with the Electric Vehicle Company and only trucks were built under the Riker name afterwards. [4]
In 1901 as Riker Motor Vehicle Company, he designed an 8-hp 2-cylinder gasoline car, and a 16-hp 4-cylinder car which he offered to the Electric Vehicle Company, but they declined it. He partnered with the Overman Company to produce the gasoline cars in Chicopee Falls. Overman merged with Locomobile Company of America and in 1903 these became the first gasoline automobiles offered by Locomobile. [4]
Andrew Riker became a vice-president for Locomobile and was the first president of the Society of Automotive Engineers. [1]
The Winton Motor Carriage Company was a pioneer United States automobile manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. Winton was one of the first American companies to sell a motor car. In 1912, Winton became one of the first American manufacturers of diesel engines.
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 produced by the original company were always sold under the brand name Locomobile.
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Andrew Lawrence Riker (1868–1930) was an early automobile designer known for helping the U.S. car industry to transition from electric to gas-powered car manufacturing. He began experimenting with electric vehicles in 1884. He formed the Riker Electric Motor Company in 1888 to make electric motors, and a year later formed the Riker Motor Vehicle Company in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The company was absorbed by the Electric Vehicle Company in 1901.
Continental Motors Company was an American manufacturer of internal combustion engines. The company produced engines as a supplier to many independent manufacturers of automobiles, tractors, trucks, and stationary equipment from the 1900s through the 1960s. Continental Motors also produced automobiles in 1932–1933 under the name Continental Automobile Company. The Continental Aircraft Engine Company was formed in 1929 to develop and produce its aircraft engines, and would become the core business of Continental Motors, Inc.
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