FALL RIVER — According to the state Registrar of Motor Vehicles’ most recent census, Fall River is home to more than 64,000 cars and trucks, all of which could be in your path for a loaf of bread or a few scratch-off tickets. A short trip to buy something turns into a 45-hour trip. -Minute chores.
In the transition from the horse and buggy era to today’s car-dominated world, someone had to own Fall River’s first car. After all, the story of perhaps Fall River’s first car is a fascinating story about vehicles built right here in town. This is a story of American ingenuity, following trends, technological advances beyond people’s imagination, and ultimately, deception.
Let’s take a ride on the Alsam Motor Car.
Who was Fall River’s first mayor?Doctor Know Nothing, the amazing life of Fall River’s James Buffington
People from Fall River and Swansea invented the Altham carriage.
In the late 1800s, a global race to perfect the automobile began. After decades of prototyping, the last few years of the 19th century saw a flurry of innovations that would give horse-drawn carriages a real start. The cars set off powered by steam, electricity, and other liquid fuels.
George J. Altham, a Fall River native who lives in Swansea, was fascinated by these developments. Born in 1862, he was an engine designer and inventor. He patented his motor in 1891 and invented his 40 horsepower motor used in streetcars in 1892.
As automobile development accelerated in the mid-1890s, Altham kept up the pace, rapidly inventing and patenting engine governors, friction gears, and power transmission mechanisms. And in 1897, in his workshop at 28 Burrard Street in River Falls, he put these parts together and installed the first gasoline- or kerosene-powered engine in his horse-drawn carriage.
“Speeds of 15 to 17 miles per hour are said to be possible with this motor,” the report states. Fall River Daily Evening News “And the carriage will be running for almost a week before it needs to be refueled.”
Altham’s car had not reached its breathtaking speed when it was demonstrated for Thomas Kirwan. boston herald His car was a two-seater open wagon with large pneumatic tires and a six-horsepower engine. Starting, stopping, and steering were done with a single lever, “like a tiller on a boat.”
Remembering Lincoln Park:Dartmouth Amusement Park was a popular summer destination, but why did it close?
The horse-drawn carriage “left the factory and drove off around the railroad tracks. …Here the speed of 9 miles per hour was maintained for more than half an hour, but in a straight line the horse-drawn carriage would easily reach 10 miles per hour at the same speed. .”
However, Alzam was not yet ready to cruise the Avenue. “He didn’t apply the brake attachment,” Altham said, worried that he wouldn’t be able to stop fast enough if he spooked a passing horse.
Still, Kirwan was impressed by its smooth operation, saying, “A smart 10-year-old boy could learn to operate a horse-drawn carriage within an hour.”
“Within modern inventions, you would be hard-pressed to find a machine that incorporates as many original mechanical devices into its construction as the Altham motor carriage. …It is the horse-drawn carriage of the future.”
America’s car craze begins, but Fall River is left behind
It is not known with absolute certainty whether Altham’s car was originally owned in Fall River, as the car’s registration and driver’s license will not exist for many more years, but previous reports regarding the car Considering that there is no such thing, the possibility is very high. At that time, many of the cars you saw on the streets were still experimental. And only the super wealthy may have owned it.
Altham founded the Altham International Motor Car Company in 1898 to manufacture automobiles. This was months before the automobile boom took hold of the public’s imagination.
The summer of 1899 was automobile season in Newport, Rhode Island. The first automobiles were purchased by trendsetters, the Vanderbilt and Astor families, and the rest of Newport’s elite followed suit. News reports said more than a dozen of the new machines were lined up on Bellevue Street and there was a waiting list to buy them. Developments in Europe made cars faster. One in Paris reached an incredible speed of 32 miles per hour. On August 31, 1899, the brave Newtons drove up Mount Washington, starting a bumper sticker trend that continues to this day. Sports newspapers began covering auto racing, and the rest of the newspaper’s pages were devoted to discussing what cars meant to humanity. “When the automobile becomes widespread, there will be no such thing as a suburb of a city,” he writes. lewiston journal.of chicago records He wondered if flies would become extinct “if this ordinary world became a world without horses.”
With cars comes accidents, and the story of a Vanderbilt man who was thrown from his car was in the news for a week. The city of Providence has introduced an ordinance imposing fines for reckless driving after a runaway horse-drawn carriage ran through the city, and a 5-year-old boy was hit and seriously injured in New Bedford. One of Altham’s carriages startled a butcher’s horse in Daboll Street, and the horse ran north onto George Street, spilling its load. Concerned that cars might scare horses, an inventor created a car that was hollow and acted as a fuel tank, with a fake horse head stuck to the front.
But just as automobiles were beginning to become popular, Altham’s factory on Burrard Street in Fall River suddenly closed. A December 1899 notice stated that “this company has not been very successful from a financial point of view.”
What’s your name?We are not alone in Fall River.Let’s go on a trip with 5 more people.
What happened to Altham International Motor Company and its inventor?
William W. Coe, the financial director of Altham International Motor Company, borrowed $5,000 from one of the company’s shareholders, using a note issued by the company and several hundred shares of stock as collateral. Ko then fled to “unknown regions”. Coe was arrested in New York state in January 1900 and charged with theft and embezzlement, but he pleaded not guilty and managed to scrape together $5,000 in damages and the case was dismissed.
However, Mr. Koh literally tore out pages of the books, making proper accounting impossible and leaving the company’s finances in shambles. Altham International Motor Company was dissolved. Only a few Alsams were built.
Altham continued to patent engines, but never re-entered the automobile business. He died in his 1932 year, by which time automobiles had become commonplace. He and his wife Nellie had no children. She died in her 1972 year and lived to be 100 years old. Both are buried in Swansea.
In 1906, Fall River held its first Independence Day “car parade.” By this time, the city’s most prominent citizens, politicians, and factory owners all owned cars. They decorated steam locomotives, electric cars, and gas cars with flowers, bunting, crepe paper, and flags. In some cases, Knox runabout vehicles were made to look like battleships.
None of the cars were Alsams.
Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Please support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to the Herald He News today.