Pic-A-Day (1065) Albert Mach Fine Art

1891 Nadig

Wikipedia said:

Henry Nadig of Allentown, Pennsylvania invented a vehicle that history records he built sometime between 1891 and 1893. In 1905, Nadig reports that he began to construct a "horseless carriage" in 1891 and when he finished it, he then ran it on Fourth Street in Allentown. The original 1891 vehicle was extensively modified in the winter of 1892–93 to the point it could be almost considered a different vehicle. This vehicle was driven "for pleasure" for the next ten years. As of 1992, this vehicle was owned by a David K. Bausch of Allentown. About 70% of the original vehicle still existed, however it was in "rough" condition and needed complete restoration. The historical importance of this particular vehicle is that it may be the oldest America-made gasoline-powered automobile that still exists.

Was First Horseless Vehicle In Allentown?

January 02, 2000|by FRANK WHELAN, The Morning Call

Just about everyone in late 19th century Allentown knew Henry Nadig. The German born mechanic who operated out of a shop on a small alley called Yeakel's Court, near 4th and Hamilton Streets always seemed to be tinkering with one thing and another.

But it was in 1889 that town folk began to wonder about certain late night activities in Nadig's neighborhood. Reports were circulating that a strange horseless vehicle  had been seen bouncing over the cobblestone streets. At its tiller steering was Nadig, with beard blowing in the wind.

About 5 years before in Germany, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz had begun putting gasoline engines on motorcycles and carriages. If Nadig was indeed driving a horseless carriage in 1889, as evidence suggests, he may very well have been the first person in the U.S. to create a gas-powered vehicle.

The history books usually give that honor to Charles E. Duryea, who is said to have driven his car first on Sept. 20, 1893 in Springfield, Mass. But a lot of people were working on the project at the time.

The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles displays an automobile built by James Hill of Fleetwood, Berks County, which was gas powered and said to have been built in 1885, even before Benz and Daimler had done their work in Germany.

Longtime Allentown journalist Britain G. "Brit" Roth recalled in the 1930s seeing Nadig's machine late one night in 1889.

He was walking home from a restaurant with a friend, J. Marshall Wright. In the moonlight that reflected off the old Lehigh County Prison, they saw a horseless vehicle charging down 4th Street and turning up Linden Street as it roared past them. It was Wright who told Roth that it was Nadig.

Nadig was born in Germany in the mid 1840s and came to America from Germany at the age of 6.

Allentown in the 1850s and '60s was rapidly transforming itself from a farm marketing center to an industrial city. Iron furnaces and machine shops were making everything from boilers to railroad rails.

For a young man with an interest in tinkering with machinery, it must have seemed like the perfect place to live.

Nadig learned the trade of machinist at the Barber Foundry on lower Walnut Street. In the 1873-74 Allentown City directory, Nadig was listed with fellow mechanic J. Holmes Wright in Nadig and Wright Practical Machinists & Iron Founders.

Their advertisement promised "Vertical and Horizontal steam engines and pumps of every description for mining and other purposes. Machinery of all kinds made to order promptly and effectually repaired."

By 1878, the business had been reorganized. Wright had been replaced by Nadig's brother, Philip, and the firm was listed as Nadig Brothers.

In later years, Henry Nadig's sons, Lawrence and Charles Henry, would become active partners in the business with their father and uncle.

In 1873, Nadig married Clara S. Walter and in 1880 they built a home at 401 N. 4th street. Here they raised seven boys and two girls.

Both Roth and former Lehigh County executive and now an Allentown city councilman, David K. Bausch, who owns Nadig's car, say the car was built in 1889.

In 1905, Hery Nadig claimed in a legal document that he had created the car in 1891. Lawrence and Charles Henry were to state they had actually created the car in 1890-91. But in later years they would give 1893 as the year of the car's creation.

Former Lehigh County archivist Mahlon H. Hellerich belives that there may be several reasons for this confusion over dates.

"It is possible that in his effort to claim credit for building an automobile, Charles overlooked the pioneering and experimental work of his father as being a first and failed attempt, or that he and Lawrence played major roles in rebuilding the original car in 1891 and 1893 and that, in his opinion, the rebuilt and not original was the true automobile," he said.

Like many inventors Nadig had a tough time getting people to accept his horseless carriage. Among them was Col. Edward Young, owner of M.S. Young hardware, where Nadig purchased parts for his car. "Colonel Young told police he did not want to see Nadig's car on Allentown's streets during the day. He did not want it frightening his horses." according to one account.

Nadig took his car out to rural Lehigh County where he was met with taunts of "get a horse" from farmers and small boys who threw stones and cabbages. "Good heavens! Here's a wagon moving without horses," shouted a farmer's wife.

After one weekend test drive, a constable showed up at the door threatening to arrest the Nadig brothers for creating a public nuisance.

But the real problem Nadig had to face was the unwillingness of local bankers to back his project. His invention was too new and visionary for conservative businessmen to trust.

With nine children to support, Nadig was in no position to put up the vast sums that would have been necessary to mass produce his car. Stories that circulated later claim that Nadig's sons brought the car to a Madison Square Garden car show in 1900 where an auto company expressed an interest in buying the car for $10,000 and taking it on tour across the country. Nadig supposedly turned down the offer.

The Nadigs apparently never sought a patent on their car.

Although they operated an automobile sales business that sold the Queen Touring Car made by the Eureka Motor Car Company of Detroit, the Nadigs apparently made no effort to sell or produce their own car.

It was Bausch who is responsible for the memory of the Nadig living into the 20th century. His father, Elmer, had been the doctor to the Nadig family. As a child, Bausch was fascinated on his visits to Yeakel Court by a large stone owl the Nadigs had on display.

It was while driving through Quakertown in 1949 that Bausch was surprised to see the owl in front of a house. He was even more surprised to be greeted by Lawrence Nadig who became cordial after Bausch told him he was "Dr. Elmer's son."

At Bausch's request, Nadig showed him the car, which was in perfect condition in a shed behind the house. Bausch suggested the Nadigs donate it to Allentown as a museum piece. But Nadig protested that his family was still owed money by the city for repairs his father did to the roof of a building at the Allentown Fairgrounds that had never been been paid. Until he was paid, the car would remain right where it was. Bausch was not willing to argue and he left.

It was the mid 1960s before Bausch was to see the car again. He was organizing the first Das Awkscht Fest auto show in Emmaus, and thought the car might be showpiece. Arriving at the Nadig home in Quakertown, he found Lawrence Nadig ill and aging. Nadig told Bausch he could have the car if he could move it. Bausch was shocked to discover the shed had fallen down around the car leaving it exposed to the rain and snow for years. Everything on the Nadig that was made of metal had rusted.

Bausch had the car moved, but it was clearly never going to run again without extensive repairs. It was while checking the car over that Bausch tried to date it.

Looking at one of he wheels he noticed a serial number and a name, Hoops Brothers Darlington, West Chester, Chester County.

Bausch went to the company, which still existed, and asked if they had any record of that purchase. A clerk climbed a ladder, got into the dusty old records, and found a faded sales slip. It showed that M.S. Young Hardware of Allentown had purchased the wheels for there customer Henry Nadig. The year was 1889.

This was seen at America on Wheels in Allentown, PA

http://americaonwheels.org/