Posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - 10:35 pm:

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"Martin Kessler designed an engine for the Chalmers Motor Co in 1907, and worked as an automotive consultant afterwards. In 1917, the Kessler Motor Company was formed to manufacture aircraft engines during the First World War.The Kessler Motor Co announced its plans for automobile production in January of 1920. The factory was located at 1297-1309 Terminal Avenue, at East Jefferson and the Terminal Railroad...

"...In September 1921, the Kess-Line Motor Company was formed...Martin Kessler was president, and W.H. Radford, prominent in car manufacturing since 1903, was V.P....The former factory of the Liberty Motor Car Company, on Lycaste Avenue and the Detroit Terminal Line, was leased for production. The factory had 70,000 square feet of floor space with a production capacity of 60 cars per day.

"The Kess-Line had a 119" wheelbase and used a 167 cubic inch tandem-four cylinder engine with a supercharger that produced 90-100 hp. The first car built was given 8,000 miles of the roughest road tests to prepare for production. The car was shown at the Detroit Auto Show in 1922, but never made it into production.

"The Kess-Line Motor was reworked and used in the Balboa produced in Fullerton, California in 1924-1925, with the help of W.H. Radford."

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Posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - 10:55 pm:

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"Good light had always been a concern of factory owners, but until the second decade of the twentieth century, discussion of lighting focused primarily on windows. Getting daylight , considered the best light for work, into factories required innovations in building and window design. As late as 1915, harry Franklin Porter, an engineer, wrote, "Window glass and white paint are better than electric lamps in the daytime for supplying factory illumination." Accordingly, industrial architects such as Albert Kahn enlarged factory windows by experimenting with reinforced concrete construction and changing the fundamental design of factory buildings, allowing the exterior wall to be almost all glass. The large windows installed in factories in that era concerned some employers, however. Some wanted translucent glass so that workers could not waste time by looking outside; others argued that a distant view gave the operative's eyes and mind an important rest from factory work."

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Posted on Friday, October 21, 2005 - 6:03 pm:

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In 1924, the Gotfredson Corporation acquired the Wayne properties from the Harroun Motors Company. On September 14, 1917, the Harroun Motors Corporation was incorporated for ten million dollars. While waiting for their 24,000-unit-per-year factory to be built, the Harroun Company took possession of the former Prouty and Glass Carriage Company. It is believed that the slow settlement by the government for munitions Harroun had made, and not finding new investors in the wake of the post-war recession, may have dealt the end to the Harroun Motors Corporation in June 1922. The factory lay abandoned until the Gotfredson Truck Corporation purchased the complete automotive plant and about 45 acres of land in 1924. All advances hinged on the sale of their existing plant on [3100] Meldrum Avenue (between Mack and Benson) in Detroit. On Tuesday, May 12th 1925, the sale was announced of the American Auto Trimming Company plant of the Gotfredson Corporation to the Briggs Manufacturing Company for approximately $1,500,000. The American Auto Trimming Company, with the merger of Gotfredson during the previous year, became the motor body division of the Gotfredson Corporation, which was one of the largest independent auto paint and trim plants in the industry. According to Mr. B. Gotfredson, the sale was made after the Gotfredson Corporation had completed plans for expansion beyond the limits of the Meldrum Avenue factory. The motor body division of the corporation was to occupy temporary quarters in the body plant of the Kelsey Wheel Corporation on Kirby to continue production until the entire plant could be moved to the Gotfredson properties in Wayne, Michigan.

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Posted on Friday, October 21, 2005 - 8:02 pm:

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Just as Ford was ramping up for the introduction of the Model A, a huge fire leveled Briggs’ Harper Ave. factory, leaving them with little to no space to manufacture the thousands of bodies they had hoped to sell to Ford. Since their other three plants - Mack Ave., Meldrum Ave, and Vernor Highway – were busy with other projects, a deal was struck with Ford where Briggs leased the 1.64 million sq. ft. Highland Park Model T plant which had been mothballed following the end of Model T production. Briggs signed a five-year renewable lease at $800,000 per year. Remarkably, the lease did not prohibit them from manufacturing bodies for other auto manufacturers, and for many years Briggs built Chrysler bodies inside a portion of the huge plant.

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Posted on Saturday, October 22, 2005 - 5:52 pm:

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Windsor Secures New Auto Factory That Will Employ 1,000 Men; Site Covers 10 Acres
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Barney Evirett (sic), the automobile king of Detroit, is starting mammoth industry in this city and will make the fur fly.
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BUILDINGS ALONE TO COST $75,000
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Factory district now practically sold out and city is arranging for purchase of 23 additional acres to satisfy new firms that want to locate here.

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Ald. W. W. Lanspeary, chairman of the Industrial Committee of the City Council, announces the decision of the Tudhope Automobile Manufacturing Co. to locate a mammoth plant in Windsor, occupying ten and a half acres in the factory district.

After some weeks spent in negotiations, Ald. Lanspeary succeeded in overcoming all obstacles and landing this big industrial plum for the city. He holds in his pocket an agreement executed by the firm to purchase the required land for a site and to begin the erection of a factory building not later than April 15, same to be completed by July 15, 1913.

A certified cheque for $300 has been deposited with the city as evidence of good faith in carrying out the agreement.

The Bylaw has been prepared and will be given the first reading at City Council meeting on Monday night. It will then be presented to the rate payers at the municipal election for ratification.

The new firm will spend $100,000 on buildings and site, exclusive of machinery and supplies. There will be a thousand men employed when the factory gets running to full capacity.

The man behind this big industry is Barney Everitt of Detroit, who was one of the founders of the E.M.F. Co. He knows the automobile business from alpha to omega, backwards and frontwards, and then some. He is recognized as a factory organizer of the first order and if anyone can make a success of an auto industry it is Barney Everitt.

The plant will be located between McDougall and Mercer, starting at Sheppard Ave. and running back to the Moloney Plant.

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Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2005 - 11:16 pm:

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Gray-Dort's originated in the Chatham carriage works of William Gray & Sons Company Ltd, founded in 1855 by William Gray.

In the mid 1900's Robert Gray (William's Father, then president of the company) began to build Ford bodies for the Walkerville Factory. They continued to do so until 1912. During this period, they also built bodies for the locally built Chatham car.

In 1915 Robert Gray obtained the Canadian rights to manufacture the Dort Automobile from Flint automobile manufacturer J. Dallas Dort, of the Dort Motor Co., and that year Gray-Dort was formed. They produced two cars the first year, a Model 4 roadster, and a Model 5 touring car.

Over the years Gray-Dort became known for their cars of reliable quality--ones that easily started in all weather conditions.

In 1923, after several years of successful but stressful business, J. Dallas Dort decided he wanted out of the automobile business. Try as he might, Robert Gray could not dissuade him. A few months later, Dallas Dort died while playing golf. Their easy access to U.S. sources of engineering and mechanical parts having abruptly come to a close, the company began to lose money. Gray-Dort scrambled to find new a U.S. based partner to no avail, and the last few years of its life were spent liquidating assets.

Over the course of it's lifetime, Gray-Dort manufactured around 26,000 quality automobiles

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