1912 electric starter INFORMATION WANTED

[Andreas]

This is a question from Germany:

Dear Cadillac enthusiasts,
Im writing my diploma thesis in vehicle engineering and found out, that Cadillac was the first to introduce an electric starter for road vehicles in 1912.
As scientific proof for that, I need some pictures of the starter, mounted aside the engine and/or a scan of the concerning pages of the spare parts catalogue/owners manual or brochure.

I hope that you can help me with that specific subject!

Many thanks!

Andreas Luettmann


PS: First in Europe, Citroen introduced the electric starter in 1919.

[JIM CLC # 15000]

09-13-06
ANDREAS, you should be able to find the information you are looking for by going to your search-engine and type in United States Patent and Trademarks and click-on to how to, and go from there.
HTH
Good Luck,JIM

[Rhino 21150]

http://www.gm.com/company/corp_info/history/gmhis1910.html TARGET=_blank>http://www.gm.com/company/corp_info/history/gmhis1910.html
What Caillac REALLY had was the first practical electric starter and a complete electrical system on a car. There were other self starting engines that used acetylene, compressed air and simply using the gas from the last time the engine ran to start the engine by manually setting one of the spark plugs to firing. In a four or more cylinder engine one of the cylinders will be in the power stroke regardless of where the engine stops. These werent reliable, although some big trucks still have compressed air starters.
Have fun!

[john fotakis]

Didnt cadillac win the Dewar trophy for this nifty bit of engineering? Maybe some information can be obtained following this lead.

[Warren Rauch]

 Yes , indeed the DEWAR TROPHY was awarded the second time to Cadillac for the self starter. The unit was both generator and starter. If you want a copy of the wiring diagram for the 1912 cadillac, send me an email with your post office address and Ill copy the one I have. (It was printed in 1923,if that would be a problem ) Warren

[Rhino 21150]

http://www.answers.com/topic/automobile-self-starter TARGET=_blank>http://www.answers.com/topic/automobile-self-starter