To be successful, any product not only has to be invented and manufactured, but also sold. Alexander Winton, who was born 163 years ago today, didn’t invent the automobile (although he was involved very early) but when he sold a car he had made in 1898 for $1000 (a pretty high price back then), it was probably the first such transaction in North America.
Winton automobiles weren’t particularly notable for being the lowest price or highest quality — when he sold one to James Ward Packard, the customer complained. In fact he complained in person to Winton himself. Apparently the meeting did not go particularly well, and Winton eventually told Packard that if he didn’t like his Winton car he should just build a better one. To Winton’s surprise, Packard did exactly that, founding the Packard Motor Car Company in 1899. And for decades, Packard cars were notable for being the highest quality.
That same year, Winton interviewed someone for the position of chief engineer in his company. He wasn’t impressed, and didn’t hire the man. He probably should have; it was Henry Ford, who went on to found the Ford Motor Company, and his Model T became notable for their amazingly low prices.
One thing Winton did invent was the semi-trailer truck. He wanted to deliver his cars to customers without running up their mileage driving them anywhere, so he built a truck that could haul several cars at a time. This was also all the way back in 1899. His car-hauler became widely used by other car manufacturers — and in those days the market was wide open; there were hundreds of different brands of automobiles in the US.
Winton’s car business did reasonably well — for a while — but again, his cars weren’t particularly notable in crowded field of competitors. So in 1924 he quit making cars altogether and switched to just building engines — for cars, trucks, boats, and ships. That company still survives, in a way — it was sold to General Motors in 1938, became the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division (because it was located in Cleveland, Ohio), and is now part of the “Electro-Motive Division” of GM. They’re still making diesel engines, now primarily used in railroad locomotives (which GM also manufactures).
When Winton was still building cars, he thought racing would be a good way to get attention for his product, so he built some custom racing cars and raced them himself. In 1901 he raced a car built by the guy he didn’t hire, Henry Ford. Winton lost. In the next couple of years he built two more racers — one lost a major race in Ireland, then was shipped back to the US to try for the world land speed record. A professional driver got it up to 80mph (130kph) on the sand at Daytona Beach, Florida…but it was just short of the record.
The few Winton automobiles that still exist are museum pieces at this point, and Winton himself is not widely remembered. In spite of his many near-misses, though, he was generally successful, was granted over 100 patents for his inventions, and if you travel to Lakewood, Ohio (I have no idea why you would), you can see his old mansion — it’s now a condominium complex, the Winton Place Condominium.
