The Project Gutenberg EBook of The 1893 Duryea Automobile In the Museum of
History and Technology, by Don H. Berkebile

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Title: The 1893 Duryea Automobile In the Museum of History and Technology

Author: Don H. Berkebile

Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30055]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY:
PAPER 34

THE 1893 DURYEA AUTOMOBILE
IN THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

_Don H. Berkebile_

EARLY AUTOMOTIVE EXPERIENCE 5

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS 6

DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTOMOBILE 16

[Illustration: FIGURE 1.--DURYEA AUTOMOBILE in the Museum of History and
Technology, from an 1897 photograph. The gear-sprockets were already
missing when this was taken, and the chain lies loosely on the pinion.
Shown at the right, the Duryea vehicle following the recent restoration
(Smithsonian photo 34183).]

_Don H. Berkebile_
THE 1893 DURYEA AUTOMOBILE
_In the Museum of History and Technology_

_During the last decade of the nineteenth century a number of
American engineers and mechanics were working diligently to develop
a practical self-propelled vehicle employing an internal-combustion
engine as the motive force. Among these men were Charles and Frank
Duryea, who began work on this type of vehicle about 1892. This
carriage was operated on the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts,
in 1893, where its trials were noted in the newspapers. Now
preserved in the Museum of History and Technology, it is a prized
exhibit in the collection of early automobiles._

_It is the purpose of this paper to present some of the facts
discovered during the restoration of the vehicle, to show the
problems that faced its builders, and to describe their solutions.
An attempt also has been made to correlate all this information
with reports of the now almost leg