The date of the building of the first American gasoline automobile that ran was 1892. The man who performed the feat was Charles E. Duryea. He had the assistance of his brother, Frank Duryea, but what was more, he had the benefit of knowledge of what had been accomplished in Europe in the gasoline motor field.
Panhard, Levassor, Peugeot, De Dion, Bouton, and Serpollet were Frenchmen who had done things with gasoline cars, all (except Serpollet and Levassor) principally through the manufacture of finished cars. Levassor conceived the idea of a central frame to carry the power plant, and thus solved the problem of road shock.
Serpollet had done more. He had invented the flash boiler, reviving an art the English had previously discovered, which made the use of dry or superheated steam possible. Higher pressure could be used, water economies effected and weight reduced.
When Duryea and others, about 1892, gave concentrated thought to gasoline propulsion, all the problems of automobile making had found solution, except two. They were a method of cushioning wheel rims, and some method by which the motor could be so placed that it would be immune from shocks and vibrations.
So, when Duryea, in 1892, built the first American gasoline car that would run successfully, he merely “assembled” the ideas that had then accumulated.
The first auto-race in the world was run from Paris to Rouen, about 80 miles. It was run in July, 1894. There were 46 cars entered, of which twelve only were steam cars. The Petit-Journal, a Parisian newspaper, was the organizer and patron of the race. The winners were all equipped with the Daimler gasoline motor.
A little over one year later—Thanksgiving Day, 1895—the first American automobile race was run from Chicago to Waukegan. The organizer and patron was a newspaper—the Chicago Times-Herald. Of two entrants, the “Buggyaut” of Charles E. Duryea was one.
Duryea built his first car in 1892.
Henry Ford built his in 1893.
Elwood Haynes built his in 1894.