THE HISTORY OF THE BUICK

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 72, 25 March 1931, Page 11

THE HISTORY OF THE BUICK

EARLY DAYS OF A PIONEER VEHICLE’ While the history of the Buick Motor Company dates back to 1003, the Buick automobile actually had its beginning in 1900 when David Buick, who had a snug little business in Flint. Michigan, manufacturing stationary farm engines, began tinkering with an internal combustion automobile motor. Buick’s early experiments promised success, but he had little ready money to carry them forward to completion. Buick and Briscoe, his partner in this first venture, in 1903 incorporated the original Buick Motor Company. The plant was a little one-storev building in Flint, it was the cradle of what has grown to be one of the world’s largest and most successful motor-car companies. Several Buicks were produced in 1904, and so staunchly were they built that investigation has revealed’a few of them are still actually in operation. But production did not get under way on an ambitious scale until in 1905, when 673 cars were turned out. In day a year s production of 673 units for a new car just being introduced was a pretty fair showing. Buick to-day turns out that number in half a day when the present plant is operating at peak schedule. That first Buick, completed in 1904, had a power plant of two cylinders, horizontally opposed, located under the centre of the car. W ater and petrol were carried in tanks located forward under the hood, which was low arid small as compared to those of present-day design. Those pioneer Buicks also featured crankshaft lubrication, a mechanical oiler being used with an individual pump supplying the oil to each bearing. In fact, many mechanical principles developed by the Buick company during those early days have, in improved form, become standard engineering practice in the Buicks of to-day. Outstanding among these early principles are the torque tube drive and the valve-in-head motor. In 1906 Buick production took an upward ileap, increasing to practically three and onehalf times the first year’s output: 2295 cars were turned put. Deyrelapment then became very rapid. Changes in design and improvements in the motor came with each anniversary day. The two-cylindered motor was discarded in favour of the more powerful fourcylinder engine. The Buick Motor Company was the nucleus around which the General Motors Company was formed in 1908. Cadillac, Oakland and Oldsmobile were the other important producing units acquired in the original formation of this gigantic enterprise which within two years had absorbed more than twenty companies variously associated with the automotive industry. In 1910 Buick brought out a sixcylinder motor-car, a step which at that time was considered revolutionary. By the end of 1912 production had reached 94,000 cars, and was followed by a steady annual increase until 1918, when production purposely was curtailed so that Buick might build Liberty motors for the American armies in the World War. The company also designed and built for the British Government during this period a complete power and driving unit for military tractors, with a Buick valve-in-head motor and a specially designed driving axle.

The Buick Motor Company meanwhile had passed through various organisation changes, culminating in the appointment of Harry H. Bassett as president. With the war over and the plant again wholly available for the manufacture of motor-cars, the company, under Mr Bassett’s leadership, forged swiftly ahead. Production increased, figuratively speaking, by leaps and bounds, and then in 1926 Mr Bassett, at the peak of a successful career, died. He was succeeded in the presidency by E. T. Strong, who still holds this post. During the past year Buick has passed another milestone in its progress. In step with the swing of engineering developments, and the trend of public demand, the Buick Eights were presented just a few months ago, replacing the former lines of six-cylinder cars.

Flint. Michigan, is still the scene of Buick’s manufacturing activities, but in striking contrast to the original onestorev shop with its mere handful of workmen, stand to-day seventy-two big buildings covering an area about a mile and a half in length ana approximately five city blocks wide. In this huge plant, during normal business seasons, employment is given to about 25,000 men. ®