Some of the first self-starters manufactured by the newly formed Delco.
Ultimately Delco became part of the vast and far-flung General Motors organization which progressively brought new industries and with them expanded employment to Dayton. The small acorn, planted in the barn, had sprouted to giant proportions.
The business arrangement with Leland developed into a strong and lasting friendship. Father and sons could have had no deeper regard for each other than the dean of motordom and the two young men who had made Delco possible. So satisfactory was the relationship between them that the contract for the ignition system was their first and last. Subsequent dealings involving many millions of dollars were arranged by telephone, telegraph, or orally.
This relationship had an interesting and, so far as the automobile industry is concerned, an historic sequel. Although the episode did not transpire in the barn it was a direct result of all that happened there. As such it is well worth relating.
As Delco grew in prestige and prosperity Deeds and Kettering purchased between them a tract of beautiful rolling country just outside Dayton. Each built a residence on his property. Deeds called his place Moraine Farm because all the hills around Dayton are terminal moraines. One of the first features he installed was a model dairy where the milking was done by electricity. Part of the dairy became the setting of an experiment that re-enforced motor car equipment. The Delco electric ignition, lighting, and starting system had been born in a barn. The Cadillac V-8 was perfected in a cow shed.
The first Delco system had been put on a four-cylinder car. In 1914 some of the large automobile manufacturers advertised that they would produce a six-cylinder car. Leland at once announced that Cadillac would never make a six-cylinder car and gave it wide publicity.
Deeds learned that Leland’s plan to meet the six-cylinder car competition was to put a two-speed rear axle on his four-cylinder car. Deeds, as you will recall, had installed a two-speed rear axle on his “Suburban Sixty” and found it wanting. He realized that with such an arrangement Leland would trail in the parade of high-powered cars. Deeds and Kettering viewed the situation with concern so they decided to do something about it. If Leland’s competitors were to have a six-cylinder car, why should he not have an eight-cylinder car? At that time an 8-cylinder car was undreamed of so far as American production was concerned. The idea was revolutionary, but Deeds and Kettering had always done the revolutionary. They now set about doing it again.
The first V-8 car seen in this country was a French De Dion which was exhibited at the New York Automobile Show. Deeds and Kettering purchased it and had it shipped out to Moraine Farm. They found it clumsy and unsuitable for study or adaptation. If Leland had ever seen it he would never have fallen in with the suggestion for a Cadillac V-8.
Deeds cast about for a suitable experimental engine. He knew that E. J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Company in California—the same Hall who was destined to have such an important part in the designing of the Liberty engine—had built an eight-cylinder aeroplane engine and installed it in a chassis. Perhaps this might serve the purpose. Deeds wired Hall to send it by express. “Do you mean express?” wired Hall in reply. “Yes,” answered Deeds.