The First Horseless Carriage Race

[00:00:00] Breakfix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.

The 1895 Horseless Carriage Contest. Sponsored by the Chicago Times Herald. Also known as the first auto race in America. This presentation is a peek into the what, why, when, where, and who beyond the auto history lore of a Duryea victory on a cold and snowy Thanksgiving day in Chicago. Presenter David Schmidt is a director at the Society of Automotive Historians as well as a panel chair for the SAH Bradley Award.

He is also a member of the Porsche Club of America and FuelFed, a private club for enthusiasts of European cars. Transcribed Born in Detroit, his father and grandfather both worked for General Motors at Fisher Body. Being a product of a certain generation, he experienced the muscle car era firsthand, [00:01:00] cruising the famed Woodward Avenue in the late 1960s.

David received a B. A. from Michigan State University, M. A. and Ph. D. from Indiana University, and after a career in financial services, retired from TIAA. As an auto enthusiast, He can be seen driving about town in a 1967 Volvo Amazon or a 1989 Porsche Carrera. The importance of his presentation is of this auspicious event and is perhaps best captured that same year by Peter Studebaker of the eponymous wagon maker, who with prescience commended the sponsoring newspaper quote, for transferring the manufacturer of the motorcycle, a term applied to the horseless carriage, concentrating the inventive faculties of the nation on this new departure.

And my endeavor today is to discuss the first automobile race in America in 1895. You and I would be hard pressed to find a more appropriate introduction to my topic today. Hiram Percy Maxim, pioneer motor vehicle inventor and [00:02:00] umpire in one of the vehicles entered in the contest, I will explore, wrote the following in his book, quote, the Times Herald horseless carriage race.

Which I believe was the first motor race in America was to be held in Chicago on Thanksgiving day, 1895. I had yet to learn that being entered for a motor race is considerably different from participating in a motor race and altogether different from finishing a motor race. With over 80 entries in this contest, only six appeared at the starting line and only two finished in regulation.

And because this contest has been so well documented, today, I will endeavor to address myself selectively to some of the facts and circumstances surrounding the event by examining questions of what, why, when, where, and who. So this is my effort to provide the context for that Thanksgiving Day contest in 1895.

Chicago Times Herald, July 9, 1895. Newspaper reads, prize for motors [00:03:00] must be tested in a race. Milwaukee to Chicago in November, cash rewards for inventors. The newspaper goes on to say, it is a fact which cannot be denied or overlooked. That the United States is in the rear of the procession in this branch of inventive progress, while it should be in the front rank.

The horseless carriage is the sensation of the hour in France and Germany, and already has commanded favorable attention of the English parliament. These words were an obvious reaction to horseless carriage races in France, Paris to Iran in 1894, Paris to Bordeaux in 1895. As well as a reaction to inventories in Germany, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler.

This July 9 announcement, no official race date had yet been established, but it was to be somewhere near November 1. And significantly, a committee was to be formed to oversee the race. Of greater or equal importance, the committee represented by the department of war, the national carriage builders association, and electrical engineers [00:04:00] was to preside over the tests, which were designed to obtain vehicle technical data.

Uh, This testing is to become an important element in granting the coveted gold medal. Subsequently, it would be determined that the preliminary testing for the racing was to be held starting October 29 for quote, vehicles, the mode of power of which will be electricity, steam, oil, gas, or air with a race date set for November 2.

Fast forward to the very morning of Saturday, November 2, the Chicago Times Herald front page reads, Race is postponed. Judges of the motorcycle contest yield to pressure. I’ll explain motorcycle in a moment. Informal trial today. Inventors not entirely ready for the final event. Of 83 inventors working on vehicles, less than a handful were ready.

Contest gets postponed again until Thanksgiving day, November 28. But an exhibition run or consolation race or the informal trial with a 500 purse to the winner took place on that Saturday. For [00:05:00] those vehicles that were ready. Two entries, H. Mueller Manufacturing Company of Decatur, Illinois and Duryea Motor Wagon of Springfield, Massachusetts made the run while remaining entries demonstrated their vehicles, but did not run the entire course.

Mueller won the contest. Duryea was sidelined when running into a ditch, trying to avoid a collision with a horse drawn wagon. Two weeks later, rules for the Thanksgiving day race were revised and published on November 16. There were 27 articles in the rules, such as must have three or more wheels, must have trumpet, fog horn, or other signal capable of sounding warning signal of approach requiring an umpire be in each vehicle, et cetera, et cetera.

But article 20 seems to me to be the key to race results. It reads. The judges recall the committee I was mentioned above recall the judges will base their awards on the showings made in the preliminary tests and in the road contest in November 28 and making the final awards judges will consider and weigh the general utility and [00:06:00] adaptability ease of control speed economy of operation cost general appearance and And excellence of design in each contesting motorcycle.

What is that term? Well, it was a term applied for horseless carriages after a naming contest was sponsored by the Times Herald because the term automobile was not yet widely accepted and perhaps seen by some as too quote Frenchy close quote. And by the way, there was also a publication of the same name, motorcycle appearing for a few issues covering developments of this budding new horseless carriage era.

Preliminary tests for the Thanksgiving Day race began on November 19 in a building owned by the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. They made the facility available for race tests, as well as the exhibition of motorcycles. Race rules required each vehicle be tested before being allowed to compete.

The testing machine was a raised platform dynamometer. Horseless age, the periodical of the time, similar to motorcycle, wrote with this device it is possible [00:07:00] to measure the load the vehicle will carry, how steep a grade it will climb, the consumption of fuel, the power and efficiency of the mechanism. So we go to race day, which finally arrives.

This is the Chicago Times Herald of November 29, the following day. Of 11 entrants the night before, pre race favorite Haynes Apperson Crash trying to avoid a street car and four others failed to make the starting line with inclement weather, which was 12 inches of snow and 60 mile an hour winds the previous days, leaving ice and drifts coupled with race temperatures.

In the thirties, a race shortened 54 mile contest commenced with six competitors. After more than 10 hours, the Duryea Wagon was first with a speed of 5 miles an hour. Mueller Benz was second. The Macy Benz finished the next day, not in regulation time. Based upon reports of the umpires in each vehicle reporting lost time, any violations, etc.,

Plus testing data, the judge awards were announced not until December 5th on page three, not on page [00:08:00] one on December 6th in the Times Herald to the verbiage and award of 2, 000 to the Duryea Motor Wagon Company for best performance in the road race. For range of speed and pull with compactness of design, an award of 1, 500 to H.

Mueller and company motorcycle for performance in the road race and economy of operation. And an award of the Times Herald gold medal to the Morris Solemn Electrobat, the name of the electric horseless carriage that they had for best showing made in the official tests for ease of control, safety, absence of noise, vibration, heat or odor cleanliness, and general excellence of design and workmanship.

So interestingly, Duryea and Mueller get the purse, but Morris and Salomon get the gold. A logical question might be asked if the contest was held on November 28, why did it take another week to announce the awards? On that, the Times Herald wrote, the problem presented to judges was a knotty one. And that problem was, all three contestants that finished the race [00:09:00] violated the rules.

All went off course, some had to be pushed, one failed to finish in the allotted time. Hence the Times Herald wrote. It is therefore found that under any construction of the plain rules of the race, not a contestant had a valid claim to a first award. And yet, between practicality on the one hand, so many entrants, over 80, with an abundance of interest in the outcomes, not just race results, but testing results as well, And then on the other hand, preserving the newspaper and its publisher’s reputation, somehow closure was reached and awards were presented.

The test results were announced by Horseless Age in January 1896, quote, the first scientific investigation of this important subject. It will be awaited with interest by manufacturing and technical world. Well, the report of the committee with detailed figures and performance came out on February 16, 1896, covering horsepower, fuel economy, and pull.

And this is one scientific American in April, 1896 carried a piece entitled motor [00:10:00] vehicle tests. The engineers submit their report to the tests made at Chicago, valuable data for makers and users alike. So that’s what happened in the contest in 1895, a condensed version of a much larger experience with many tales shared in print by a variety of participants in that Thanksgiving Day race.

During my literature review, I came upon this Saturday Evening Post article that caught my attention because Alexander Witten, inventor of the steering wheel, is the man Henry Ford beat in a sweepstakes race in 1901, which subsequently helped put Ford on the map. But I’m jumping ahead about six years.

Wynton began experiments with horseless carriages in 1893. Duryea brothers, 1891, 1892. So I wanted to dig a little deeper. We know what happened on that Thanksgiving day, but why this race in 1895? Because according to Horseless Carriage, quote, until the year 1895, few American inventors devoted any attention to the problem of mechanical propulsion of vehicles, and the results of the laborers are generally crude and [00:11:00] impractical.

The stimulus of a widespread public interest was lacking then. Few inventors whose ideas assumed the more practical form were forced to curb their impatience and wait until the public should manifest a livelier curiosity. That way it was, of course, brief. Paris to Rwanda in 1894, and then Paris to Bordeaux in 1895 led to an explosion of efforts on both sides of the pond.

The Horseless Age wrote, the race from Paris to Bordeaux and return last June was such a phenomenal performance that all Christendom paused for a moment. The Chicago Herald Times offering of cash rewards for inventors was the spark on this continent. Inventors had operated in isolation from one another.

Quote, blissfully ignorant that so many of us began work so nearly the same without the slightest notion that others were working on the same problem, wrote Hiram Percy Maxim in his book, Horseless Carriage Days, nearly four weeks before the contest on November 2 in 1895, a letter to the editor of the publication, the Motocycle, the other Horseless Carriage publication, addressing itself [00:12:00] to the upcoming Times Herald race.

Quote, your action in the Times Herald has hastened the development of motorcycle several years. And what is more important, it has had the effect of transferring the manufacturer of the motorcycle from Europe to America. That letter was written by Peter Evers Studebaker of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company.

He was the publisher of the Times Herald newspaper and is credited with organizing the first auto race. And as far as I can determine, there are at least four reasons why this is the case. First from Colsette in his own words, carried in a Saturday evening post article, January, 1924, it reads quote in May, 1895 in the Chicago club, I picked up a copy of El Istracion of Paris containing an account with illustrations of the Of an automobile race between Paris and Bordeaux, which had taken place a few weeks before.

It gave me an idea, a contest in Chicago of horseless vehicles. Second reason for the contest was that Colesat felt, [00:13:00] quote, the greatest use of the motor wagon would be for the army and commercial trucks. He actually turned to president Grover Cleveland and asked the war department to both take charge of the experiments, AKA vehicle testing, as well as the race.

The motorcycle, the publication wrote in December, 1895. With armor clad, horseless carriages, capable of climbing fences, running over rocks and such obstacles and of being moved over the country, Uncle Sam would have a formidable weapon. Well, obviously the war department heading up the race day committee had already taken notice and was awaiting test results along with 80 plus other interested parties.

The third reason Colsette sponsored the race was he was a shrewd businessman. Apparently La Petite Journal increased its own circulation by sponsoring the 1894 Paris to Iran excursion. In those days, newspapers had to scratch for circulation. There were 29 newspapers in Chicago. In Carriages Without Horses by Richard Sharsberg, He writes, all newspapers were giving space to the announcement of the [00:14:00] coming race, and it was all good publicity as much as they hated to have anything to do with promoting a news story fostered and thrust upon the public for the express purpose of advertising a rival journal.

And the fourth reason why Colesat was to sponsor the race was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Times Herald. This was the Chicago Tribune on Thanksgiving day. Writing, the day we celebrate the day when Turkey and football rule could be 2023. This rival newspaper’s front page referenced football.

University of Michigan was playing University of Chicago at Marshall Field in close proximity to the start of the first auto race in America. Saturday Evening Post wrote. As they, the vehicles, passed Lincoln Park, they were greeted suddenly by cheers from a crowd of thousands. These weren’t race fans, but attendees at the football game between University of Chicago and University of Michigan, who noticed the horseless carriages slowly working their way up the street on that Thanksgiving day.

But wait, according to Colesat’s own article in [00:15:00] January, 1924, in the Saturday Evening Post, he said when the contest was to be held, on the 4th of July. So let’s backtrack a moment. What happened? Of the 60 contestants entered at that time, only one horseless carriage was ready, Haynes Apperson of Kokomo, Indiana.

So the contest was to be rescheduled, possibly to Labor Day. But then on July 9th, the Times Herald wrote, The 85 miles between Chicago and Milwaukee probably afford the finest roadway for such a test that can be found in the country. Date of the contest will not be far from the 1st of November. But a month later in August, roads north of Waukegan near Racine, Wisconsin were judged undesirable.

So the contest would now start and end in Chicago. Contestants, again, not having their vehicles ready, petitioned for another extension of time. So it was again, rescheduled back to Thanksgiving day, November 28, and the contest from Chicago to Waukegan and back of only 92 miles. Then due to severe snow storm, 12 inches on the 25th of November, a couple of days before the event, coupled [00:16:00] with cold weather, winds, and snow drifts on race day, the contest distance was further reduced to 54 miles from Chicago to Evanston and back.

That gets me to. The question of where a newspaper reporter for the New York Herald described crowds in the first race in France, spurring American newspapers to attempt something like the 1894 Paris Durand race. So that begs the question, where in America should such an event take place? New York City?

Kokomo, Indiana? Allow me to suggest three reasons for the contest being held in Chicago. First, I don’t believe it’s a mere coincidence that the initial horseless carriage contest in France and the United States both followed in the sights of imagination and invention that in those days accompanied the world expositions.

Expositions provided opportunities for the newest developments in machinery, science, and technology. For example, the Paris Expo of 1889 saw escalators, diesels, and Electric cars and talking films. Chicago in [00:17:00] 1893 introduced the automatic dishwasher, fluorescent light bulbs, the zipper, and the first electric automobile in America initially developed in 1890.

There were only two horseless carriages at the Chicago World’s Fair, William Morrison’s electric carriage and Gottlieb Daimler’s gas engine quadricycle. It became apparent that the gas engine Daimler had the more lasting impact. Elwood Haynes, Ransom Olds, Charles and Frank Duryea, Henry Ford, Charles B.

King, William Packard, all visited the World’s Fair and examined the Daimler. They all came to recognize the gasoline engine was likely the better source of power for horseless carriages. Even William Steinway of Steinway Pianos saw merit in the gas engine Daimler. As his archives suggest, the American Daimler Motor Company produced a gas powered vehicle around 1895 or 1896.

And there was an additional link between inventors with curious minds and world’s fairs. Medals and awards were very popular, especially from world’s fairs in the decade 1890 to 1900. Paris in [00:18:00] 1889, Chicago in 1893, Brussels 1897, Paris in 1900. So it should come as no surprise that Kolstad in promoting this horseless carriage event would arrange to give awards for various aspects of engineering or design innovation coupled with a prestigious gold medal for the best horseless carriage.

My second reason for the race being in Chicago is bicycles. Albert Pope helped launch the cycling craze in America with the introduction of his Velocipede under the Columbia brand. And as you can see that same Columbia brand was later applied to automobiles. In 1890, American companies built 30, 000 bicycles.

60, 1894. By the mid to late 1800s, Chicago was the home to nearly 100 bicycle manufacturers. German immigrant Ignaz Schwinn came to America in 1890 to explore the bicycle industry. In 1895, he and a meatpacker, Adolf Arnold, formed Arnold Schwinn and Company. A year later, Schwinn built an electric car, but decided to proceed no further.

The [00:19:00] Rambler name was applied to a bicycle in Chicago prior to becoming a well recognized name in automobile history and moving to Chicago. You can see the transition from Velocipede to bicycle to automobile, but the bicycle craze was on the decline by the mid 1890s. Albert Pope tried to expand his Columbia bicycle business by hiring Hiram Percy Maxim under the Pope Manufacturing Columbia Motor Carriage firm.

Alexander Witten had a bicycle shop in Cleveland. He later founded Witten Motor Carriage. Most interesting, James Fink, author of America Adopts the Automobile 1895 to 1910 wrote, quote, no preceding technical innovation, not even the internal combustion engine was as important to the development of automobiles as the bicycle.

That gets to my third reason, transportation, proximity to transportation. Chicago had become the railroad Mecca of America. By the 1880s, Cord Scott pointed out that Chicago had been a central crossover point for rail and river shipping. So inventors had the opportunity to ship their cars to [00:20:00] Chicago rather than drive and risk any number of potential impediments, accidents, breakdowns, or bad weather.

And indeed that is exactly what RH Macy Benz, yes, that department store Macy, did after leaving New York for Chicago and getting no further than Schenectady. Bicycle department manager, Frank McPherson had the carriage loaded onto a train bound for Chicago. So a Chicago World’s Fair, Chicago is the bicycle capital of America and Chicago as a transportation hub, all contributed to explaining where the first auto race would be located.

This gets me to inventors and industrialists having briefly examined questions of what, why, when, and where. In closing, I am taking the liberty of selecting a few names who failed to garner the recognition of the Duryea brothers, much less the later luminaries such as Ransom Owls or Henry Ford.

Nevertheless, these three award winners were involved in the development of the horseless carriage from the outset. A bit about the endeavors of the second place finisher, the many automotive accomplishments of the umpire in that second place vehicle, and the electric [00:21:00] powered gold medal winner, all participants in that Thanksgiving Day contest.

Then there are two titans of industry I found to be of interest, plus a famous piano manufacturer. We know the race winner, Duryea Brothers, accredited with building the first automobile in America and going into production for a number of years, Duryea Motor Wagon, later Stevens Duryea. But what of Hieronymus Muller?

The driving force behind the second place, Mueller Benz. He was intrigued with the horseless carriage because during my interview with the Mueller museum director, she said either he, or perhaps his wife was afraid of horses. So he bought the Benz in April, 1895, refined it with such features as a reverse gear, water cooled radiator, newly designed spark plugs, all leading to patents.

While horseless carriages were a sideline to his very successful plumbing business. He did intend to go into production with his own motors, not a Benz motor. He built half a dozen vehicles, but in 1900, while working on one of his vehicles, he was exposed to open flame around gasoline fumes. The fire resulted in very serious burns that claimed his life.

His wife was so upset. She [00:22:00] told the Chaundra to sell the vehicles and the patents. Thus the brief history about the tragic ending of our second place finisher. Brings me to Charles B. King. Charles B. King was the umpire in that Mueller Bench, driven by Harroneth Mueller’s son, Oscar. King steered that Mueller Bench to second place, as Oscar was either overcome by the wind, snow, and cold weather, or as another tale suggests, Oscar was given a flask, whiskey, from which to drink to keep his insides warm.

Accepting that Oscar may not have been accustomed to alcohol, this apparently had a very negative consequence as he was unable to continue driving. But back to Charles B. Smith. He was an inventor who, like many others, could not finish his vehicle, a four cylinder, four stroke engine in time for the race, but the vehicle became the first car on the streets in Detroit in 1896.

He drove Woodward Avenue long before the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise. A tale often suggests that he was followed that day in a bicycle by none other than Henry Ford. King was a prodigious inventor with 40 patents. He won the prize at the Columbia Exposition in [00:23:00] Chicago, was recognized for engineering prowess at home, connected for a time with ransom oals, and abroad had the opportunity to participate in the 1894 race Paris Rouen with the Stintz Gas Engine Company.

Developed the first eight cylinder engine, left hand drive, proposed the American Motor League, which many of the automobile pioneers merged into, and in 1904, became AAA, American Automobile Association. He helped Henry Ford, working at the time for Edison in Detroit, build his quadricycle. And later he formed the Automobile Old Timers in 1939, which today is the automotive hall of fame in Dearborn.

Brings me to the Electrobat. This is the electric powered vehicle, nicknamed the Electrobat by Morris and Solem of Philadelphia, which won the gold medal. The publication Motorcycle, parroting the awards committee wrote, Morris and Solem get the gold medal in the Electrobat, notwithstanding the fact that they did not go over the course, but the general excellence of the machine was shown so decidedly in its official tests that this award must [00:24:00] meet with the hearty approval of all interested in the perfect development of the motorcycle.

The carriage is very economical, in power, to say nothing of almost complete absence of noise, vibration, total absence of heat and odor. Yet Charles B. King suggests the award was not without some consternation among contestants. And in fact, in March, 1896, Veronimus Mueller has a letter to the editor that appears in Horseless Age, noting that quote, it seems as if there was no first prize as the carriage coming in first received the 2, 000, but did not receive the gold medal for reasons best known to the judges.

Morrison Salem announced that they had plans to manufacture, sail, and rent their vehicles. But in 1897, Morrison Salem sold off their enterprise, which was later reincorporated and insured by Albert Pope and the Columbia Automobile Company. And as for electricity, Alexander Witten said, electric vehicles clogged the market, but in the end, opinion turned to gasoline because it was clean, safe, and dependable.

Which brings me to the tycoons of the world of electricity. [00:25:00] Westinghouse and Edison competed for the contract to light the 1893 Columbia exposition. Westinghouse underbid Edison and won. In 1895, George Westinghouse is said to have started work on a gas engine. I found no activity of note until 1901 when Westinghouse purchased patents of hub motors, which produced a few electric cars in Chicago.

In 1905, Westinghouse introduced gas powered vehicles designed in Pittsburgh, but manufactured by Westinghouse in France, production ceased in 1907, and Edison said in November of 1895, 17th of November issue of New York World, quote, the horse is doomed. The horseless vehicle is the coming wonder. Will these vehicles be run by electricity?

I don’t think so. As it looks at present, it would seem more likely that they will be run by a gasoline or naphtha motor of some kind. It’s quite possible, however, that an electrical storage battery will be discovered, which will prove more economical. But at present, the gasoline or naphtha motor looks more promising.

And on that Edison never gave up, hoping to develop [00:26:00] better performing batteries. He started in 1899 on an alkaline storage battery that took 10 years to perfect. By then the Model T was on its way to cementing its place in the automobile world, Edison patented an electric car, building three in 1912, but they never went into production.

It’s been suggested that Henry Ford partnered with Edison around 1914 to explore options for low cost electric cars. I did not pursue it. That gets me to Steinway, Steinway of piano fame founded American Daimler motor company in 1888 building motors using American rights to Daimler patents. They were used primarily for stationary machines and boats.

Steinway company had good woodworking knowledge for boat building, having been producing pianos. The archives suggest that there was a vehicle produced around 1895. Steinway dies in 1896 and the firm was declared worthless. Following Steinway’s death, a new Daimler manufacturing company was formed in 1898, takes over the business of Daimler Motor and produces the first Mercedes made in America and [00:27:00] continues in production until 1913.

And if you visit the Mercedes Benz Public Archives or the Mercedes Benz Group magazine, you’ll note Mercedes Benz still celebrates its original adventure with William Steinway. Writing of the Thanksgiving Day Race, America’s oldest literary magazine, Yale Review summed it up with these words, Thus, amid praise and ridicule, our pioneer motorists made their first feeble assaults upon the barriers of space that one man had built and another could keep motion.

Strong in this faith, they suffered, endured, and conquered. Yale Review, December, 1895. So with that, I’d like to thank you for your attention. Allow me to share the source information from my slides by thanking IMRRC and SAH, as well as my son and daughter for their assistance in cropping, arranging, coloring, and sizing some of the images.

I look forward to receiving any questions. Thank you much. This episode is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center. Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history of motorsports, spanning continents, [00:28:00] eras, and race series. The center’s collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.

The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events. To learn more about the Center, visit www. racingarchives.

org. This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians. They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers. Organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden and deepen the understanding of motorized, wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into the future.

For more information about the SAH, visit www. autohistory. org.

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Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction and Sponsors
• 00:16 The 1895 Horseless Carriage Contest Overview
• 00:37 Presenter Background: David Schmidt
• 01:21 Significance of the 1895 Race
• 02:53 Race Day Preparations and Challenges
• 07:10 The Thanksgiving Day Race
• 08:44 Post-Race Analysis and Awards
• 10:07 Impact and Legacy of the 1895 Race
• 10:43 Why the 1895 Race Was Held
• 11:29 The Role of the Chicago Times Herald
• 14:56 Rescheduling and Final Preparations
• 16:08 The Birth of American Auto Racing
• 16:28 Why Chicago?
• 18:18 The Bicycle Craze and Its Influence
• 19:44 Chicago: The Transportation Hub
• 20:30 Unsung Heroes of the Horseless Carriage
• 21:18 The Tragic Tale of Hieronymus Muller
• 22:06 Charles B. King: A Prodigious Inventor
• 23:36 The Electrobat: An Electric Pioneer
• 24:56 The Battle of Electric vs. Gasoline
• 26:23 Steinway’s Automotive Adventure
• 27:34 Conclusion and Acknowledgements

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