 1919 Selden advertisement in The Literary Digest | |
| Industry | Automotive |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Buffalo Gasoline Motor Company |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Founder | George Baldwin Seldon |
| Defunct | 1932 |
| Headquarters | Rochester, New York, |
Key people | George B. Selden, E. T. Birdsall, Frederick A. Law |
| Products | Automobiles |
Production output | 7,424 (1908-1914) |
The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was a Brass Era American manufacturer of automobiles. The company, founded in 1906, was based in Rochester, New York, and built automobiles from 1907 to 1914 and trucks from 1913 to 1932.[1]
History
The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was founded by George B. Selden, whose 1877 patent was the first U.S. patent of a "horseless carriage" which because of numerous later amendments was not granted until 1895.[2] To make the patent more credible, in 1907 Selden built a car on the lines of the 1877 design. This patent would be declared "unenforceable" in 1911.[3]
E. T. Birdsall designed the first Selden, a 30hp 4-cylinder car placed on the market in June 1907. A car in the $2,000 to $2,500 (equivalent to $78,518 in 2022) price range, the Selden grew from a 109-inch wheelbase car to a 125-inch wheelbase. In 1911 George Selden's patent was declared unenforceable, and his factory had a fire that summer. Insurance covered the damages and production continued. Late in 1911, the company was reorganized internally, with Frederick A. Law, formerly with Columbia became designer and plant superintendent. The last Selden passenger cars were built in 1914.[1]
In 1913, the company began production of Selden trucks and this successfully continued until the company's sale to the Hahn Motor Truck Company of Hamburg, Pennsylvania in 1930. Hahn and Selden went out of business in 1932. George B. Selden died in 1923.[3][1]
Advertisements
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1909 Selden Model 29 advertisement
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1910 Selden Model 35 advertisement
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1911 Selden Model 46 advertisement
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1920 Selden Motor Trucks advertisement
See also
- List of defunct automobile manufacturers
- Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers
- Electric Vehicle Company
External links
- 1911 Seldon Model 40R at ConceptCarz
- Barnes, J. W. (1981, April). Rochester and the Automobile Industry. Rochester History, XLIII
References
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ Rochester and the Automobile Industry (PDF). pp. 2, 5, 6.
- ^ a b Georgano, Nick (2001). The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile (3 vol. ed.). Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ISBN 1-57958-293-1.
This page was last edited on 16 November 2023, at 22:58