Posted By  @ Motoramic            
 
 
 
 
Charles and Frank Duryea
 
Charles and Frank Duryea
The birth of the American auto industry has been fogged over by debate almost since it began.

 There are historians who cite one John Lambert of Ohio as having built a working automobile in 1891 — the era when internal-combustion engines were new and fascinating. Others would contend that Elwood Haynes built the first true car — one not capable of being pulled by a horse if needed — in 1894.

 But the majority of citations give the title of the first car on American roads to the creation of brothers Frank and Charles Duryea, whose "Buggyaut" hit the streets of Springfield, Mass., on this date (reportedly) in 1893.

 The one-cylinder car creation's spurred a feud between the brothers that never healed; Charles Duryea was a bicycle builder who came up with the idea, but Frank, a talented mechanic, took credit for actually making a working vehicle after the first drive sputtered along at walking speed.

 The two would form separate carbuilding firms with modest success, but never fully capitalized on being the first on the road. That original Duryea was later donated to the Smithsonian, where it remains today. Here's the sound of the revolution at its beginning: