Ford Quadricycle

The Ford Quadricycle was the first vehicle developed by Henry Ford and the machine from which the Ford Motor Company eventually grew. Ford finished it on 4 June 1896 in a small workshop behind his home at 58 Bagley Avenue in Detroit after more than two years of experiment, building a simple frame with an engine mounted on four bicycle wheels. Its two-cylinder engine produced 4 horsepower and drove the rear wheels by chain through a two-speed transmission that had no reverse; it was steered with a tiller, had wire wheels and a fuel tank of about 3 US gallons under the seat, and reached about 20 miles per hour. The name comes from the quadricycle type, a French invention of the 1880s that borrowed spoked wheels, tyres and chain drive from bicycles. Its success led to the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899, the Henry Ford Company in 1901 and the Ford Motor Company in 1903, and the original is kept at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn.