Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Alexander Hardy... took on the Selden Patent, and won. Still lost a lot, and had to go back working for a company after losing his Flint Car Co.


The Flint Roadster was the brainchild of Alexander Hardy, formerly with the Durant-Dort Carriage Company of Flint, Michigan.

 Hardy decided to go it alone, launching the Flint roadster towards the end of 1902. The steering was designed so it could have the tiller swapped to either left or right side of the seat, where ever the driver preferred to steer from

Hardy then fell foul of the infamous 'Selden Patent', granted in 1895 to George Selden for an internal combustion powered carriage, which severely hampered the development of the US auto industry prior to WWI.

Hardy was sued by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, and although he won the resulting court case, ceased manufacture of the Flint Roadster in 1904 after 52 examples had been built. He returned to Durant-Dort, which had acquired the fledgling Buick concern, and would later serve as general manager of both Marquette and Chevrolet.


http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22724/lot/109/

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