Re: Packard Bikes
Posted by Leeedy On 2022/7/23 9:23:46
Okay. Let's crank up the "way-back machine" and travel back to 1897.
If you remember or know the origin of Packard Motor Cars (or if you never knew) it all started with the purchase of a Winton automobile. Winton cars were an offshoot of the Winton bicycle, which was rather well known by the late 1800s.
James Ward Packard stepped up and purchased one of the new-fangled Winton cars. Of course, Mr. Packard expected the car to... well... be a car. But the contraption broke down several times on the way back home from Cleveland to Warren, Ohio. Ultimately the sputtering, chattering, clunky Winton automobile ended up being hauled in behind a team of horses!
Mr. Packard was so upset that he went back to Alexander Winton to complain about the terribly unreliable car. Packard also suggested countermeasures to improve the Winton. But Mr. Winton had a nasty temper and instead argued back that if Mr. Packard was so smart, why not build a better car himself? We know the result of this challenge, don't we?
Anyway, thought that you might like to see the cover of a Winton Bicycle catalogue from 1897. Courtesy of National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA.com). And thus the early bicycle genesis for the Packard automobile...
Attach file:
Winton1897WM.jpeg (123.27 KB)
If you remember or know the origin of Packard Motor Cars (or if you never knew) it all started with the purchase of a Winton automobile. Winton cars were an offshoot of the Winton bicycle, which was rather well known by the late 1800s.
James Ward Packard stepped up and purchased one of the new-fangled Winton cars. Of course, Mr. Packard expected the car to... well... be a car. But the contraption broke down several times on the way back home from Cleveland to Warren, Ohio. Ultimately the sputtering, chattering, clunky Winton automobile ended up being hauled in behind a team of horses!
Mr. Packard was so upset that he went back to Alexander Winton to complain about the terribly unreliable car. Packard also suggested countermeasures to improve the Winton. But Mr. Winton had a nasty temper and instead argued back that if Mr. Packard was so smart, why not build a better car himself? We know the result of this challenge, don't we?
Anyway, thought that you might like to see the cover of a Winton Bicycle catalogue from 1897. Courtesy of National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA.com). And thus the early bicycle genesis for the Packard automobile...
Attach file:
Winton1897WM.jpeg (123.27 KB)This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=246348