Monopoly on Wheels: Henry Ford and the Selden Automobile Patent

PREFACE

Preface The story of the early motor car industry in the United States is inseparable from the shaping influence of the Selden automobile patent and the pioneer builders who took their stand as champions or opponents of the broad Selden claim to the invention of the gasoline automobile. The formative period of the industry is also inseparable from the emerging legend of Henry Ford, who gained his first luster as an individualist by his central role in battling the Selden patent. This volume, which attempts to set down the first full-scale narrative of this celebrated patent controversy, is primarily a study in industrial and technological history. The book had its origin in 1952, when I went to Detroit as research associate of the Ford Motor Company History Project sponsored by Columbia University and executed under the directions of Allan Nevins. Some of the material in the present study appeared in different form in the initial volume of the Ford history, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1954 under the title Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company. It is a pleasure to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Dr. Nevins, De Witt Clinton Professor Emeritus of American History at Columbia University, now senior research associate of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, and Frank Ernest Hill of New York City, both of whom gave warm encouragement when this manuscript was being prepared as a doctoral dissertation accepted at Columbia University. Various persons and institutions have provided me with valuable help. I am thankful to Henry E. Edmunds, archivist, the Ford Motor Company Archives, Dearborn, Michigan, and his staff, for giving me access to a veritable storehouse of manuscript and published materials bearing on Ford history. I am obligated to the following persons and collections in Detroit: at the Detroit xm Preface Public Library, Mrs. Elleine H. Stones, former chief of the Burton Historical Collection, Mr. Robert E. Runser, chief of the technology department, and Miss Maud Payne of the Automotive History Collection, which has a matchless file of early motor trade periodicals; the law division of the Wayne State University Library; and the patent department of the Automobile Manufacturers Association. I am also under obligation to Dr. F. Clever Bald, assistant director, Michigan Historical Collections, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Ralzemond D. Parker of Washington, D.C., and Grace E. Parker, of Royal Oak, Michigan; T. V. Quarnstrom, patent officer, American Steel and Wire Division, United States Steel Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio; the Buffalo Public Library and the late Professor Ralph C. Epstein of the University of Buffalo; the New York Public Library; William V. Connell, clerk, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; the late Frederic R. Coudert of New York; the Hartford Public Library and the Connecticut State Library; and, in Washington, D.C., the United States Department of Justice, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, and David C. Mearns, chief of the manuscripts division, Library of Congress. To the late Hermann F. Cuntz of Washington, D.C., who patiently answered inquiries about events in which he played a role, goes a special acknowledgment. I alone am responsible for any errors of fact and for the opinions expressed in this book. Special thanks go to my wife, Ellen Chanin Greenleaf, for her helpfulness, patience, and wise counsel. WILLIAM GREENLEAF DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE JULY 15, 1960 xw ...