Alexander Winton

Alexander Winton, who lived from 20 June 1860 to 21 June 1932, was a Scottish-American bicycle, automobile and diesel engine designer and inventor, as well as a businessman and racecar driver. He founded the Winton Motor Carriage Company in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1897, making the city an important hub of early automotive manufacturing. The source credits him with taking one of the first long-distance car journeys in America and with developing one of the first commercial diesel engines. He liquidated his car company in 1924 to focus on the powertrain engineering firm Winton Gas Engine and Manufacturing Company, which he had established twelve years earlier for engine development. That business was sold to General Motors in 1930 and became the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division. He died in 1932 and is interred in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.