J. Frank Duryea

James Frank Duryea (October 8, 1869 – February 15, 1967) was an American engineer and inventor who, with his brother Charles (1861–1938), made the second American gasoline-powered automobile.

Biography

The brothers were born in Illinois, Charles in Canton, Illinois, in 1861 and Frank in Washburn, Illinois, in 1869. Both graduated from high school. Charles moved to Washington, D.C., to work in the bicycle business. Frank followed closely on his heels in 1888. Two more moves in as many years brought the Duryea brothers to Springfield, Massachusetts. Charles had already earned a reputation for unusual design elements in his "sylph" bicycle, with a smaller wheel in front and a steering lever on the sides of the seat. Said one colleague, "Charles, it's a freak."

The two brothers researched the internal combustion engine at the Springfield public library. Charles drew the designs and made the connection with their chief investor, Erwin Markham. Markham provided $1,000, which paid for space in an old machine shop, a collection of cast-off parts, including an old phaeton buggy, and Frank's $3-a-day salary. Charles went back to Illinois to follow other pursuits.

Frank worked ten hours a day to make Charles's design a reality. Over the course of four road tests, Frank changed those designs in significant ways. By trial-and-error, Frank worked out problems of ignition, carburetion, and transmission. He devised a method of muffling the engine's extreme noise with a wooden box. In January 1894 Frank made what he believed was his first successful road test.

A total of three times Erwin Markham agreed to provide money, but when it came time to put the vehicle in production he backed out. 175 other investors stepped forward to buy $100 shares. Frank was awarded 160 shares, and Charles was given 320. The Duryea Motor Wagon Company was established in 1895. It was incorporated in September 1895, two months before the Chicago Times-Herald race.

Winner of the first car race on American soil On November 28, 1895, Frank Duryea won the first motor-car race in the United States of America, the Chicago Times-Herald race. The race course was a 54-mile loop along the lakeshore from Chicago to Evanston, then through multiple Chicago neighborhoods, and then back to the starting point. The race was a harrowing one—it was held during one of Chicago’s great snowstorms, two of the contestants became comatose from exposure to the cold, and the contestants’ cars got stuck in snowdrifts, slid into other vehicles, and stalled repeatedly. Duryea, who completed the race in 10 hours and 23 minutes, traveled at an average speed of 5 1/4 miles per hour.

The world’s first motor race, the 1894 Paris–Rouen, had clearly demonstrated the merits of the Daimler gasoline motor and had generated a great deal of publicity for the horseless carriage. Herman H. Kohlstaat, the publisher of the Chicago Times-Herald and a tireless booster of the newfangled automotive technology, decided to drum up interest in the motor wagon by sponsoring a similar race. More than 80 people entered, most of whom were building their own cars at home; as a result, the event had to be postponed twice because the vast majority of the racers weren’t yet ready. Only two people made it to an exhibition race at the beginning of November: Frank Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts, driving a "buggyaut" that his brother Charles had designed, and Oscar Mueller of Chicago, driving his father’s imported Benz. (Mueller won the race; Duryea had swerved to avoid a farmer’s wagon and had fallen into a ditch.)

Legacy In 1996, he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.