Monopoly on Wheels: Henry Ford and the Selden Automobile Patent

INTRODUCTION

Introduction DAVID L. LEWIS Kudos to the Wayne State University Press for reprinting William Greenleaf's definitive book on the Selden patent suit, which a century ago liberated the auto industry and became a foundation stone upon which Henry Ford's folk heroism was built. Copies of the original book, selling for $5.95 in 1961, are commonly priced at more than $800 on the used-book market. One seller is asking $1,044. Why such high prices? The question cannot be answered with certainty. One driver may be law firms engaged in patent litigation that might find instructive Greenleaf's perceptive analysis of legal patent issues. There are, of course, collectors willing to pay almost any price to round out a collection . Continuing interest in Henry Ford may be another factor. In any event, the reprint makes Monopoly on Wheels affordable to a much wider audience. The book grew out of Greenleaf's 1950s research in the Ford Archives, which led to the two best chapters in Allan Nevins's 1954 book, Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company. Nevins, a Columbia University professor and twice a Pulitzer Prize winner for history, was Greenleaf's doctoral chairman. His protege's research and writing doubled as a dissertation and the basis of his book. The thesis was "one of the outstanding dissertations of the Columbia History Department," Columbia historian Richard B. Morris wrote two decades after its completion. At first glance a treatise on a patent suit may not seem a compelling read, even though, as Nevins observed, it is based on a "wealth of colorful material" and records "one of the great trials of America's industrial history." Greenleaf, making the most of these assets, wove the suit's strands and personalities into an interesting, even suspenseful, book. xv Introduction Reviews for Monopoly on Wheels were highly favorable. The Journal of Economic History's reviewer introduced his essay by stating, "I begin by seconding Allan Nevins's statement in the Foreword [that] 'this is a tale of unflagging interest. Mr. Greenleaf, thorough in research, vigorous in style, has given us a definitive treatment of a significant and previously cloudy episode.'" The Journal also described the book as being "dramatic and wonderfully revealing of the history of the automobile's 'invention' and early production, as well as of the oddities of the Selden case and patent law." Technology in Culture's review noted that "Dr. Greenleaf's research has been exhaustive . . . the material he has produced is impressive . . . he has given us a useful and lucid account of an important event in automotive history." The Business History Review described the book as an "admirable account of the litigation." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review observed that it was an "excellent monograph" [and] "provides a provocative framework for the record he [Greenleaf] has painstaking assembled." There was criticism. Harold G. Vatter's Mississippi Valley critique accuses Greenleaf of having a "pro-Ford perspective." Automotive historian John B. Rae, in Technology and Culture, questions some of Greenleaf's inferences and suggests that the book should have an additional subtitle: "The Case for the Defense." Rae also observes that the author, in discussing the technical aspects of the case, is sympathetic toward Ford, then adds that his criticisms "are admittedly details, perhaps minor." First, I offer a summation of the suit and its contribution to Ford's image—especially that of a "magnificent individualist"—then commentary on a self-effacing author described by former colleagues as a "great academic," "a traditionalist teacher," and a "devoted father." The suit grew out of an 1879 patent application filed by a visionary Rochester, New York, attorney, George B. Selden, for a road vehicle he had designed but not built. In anticipation of a future auto industry, he cleverly delayed the patent's issuance for sixteen years by filing additions and changes that took advantage of technological developments in the intervening years. His claims were valueless, of course, until motor vehicles were being built and xvi Introduction sold in the United States. Finally, in 1895 he obtained a patent for a "road-carriage" covering all gasoline-powered vehicles designed since 1879 and manufactured, sold, or used in the United States during a seventeen-year period ending in 1912. In 1899 Selden assigned the patent to the Columbia & Electric Vehicle Company (reorganized as the Electric Vehicle Company in 1900) for $10,000 and a percentage of whatever...