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Brush Motor Car Company

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This article is about the U.S. automaker. For the British rail-locomotive company, see Brush Traction.
Brush Runabout
Overview
ManufacturerBrush Motor Car Company (1907-1909)
Brush Runabout Company (1909-1913)
Production1907–1913
13,250 produced
Body and chassis
ClassEntry-level car
Body style2-row phaeton
Powertrain
EngineOne Cylinder,

Brush Motor Car Company (1907-1909), later the Brush Runabout Company (1909-1913), was based in Highland Park, Michigan.

History

The company was founded by Alanson Partridge Brush (February 10, 1878, in Michigan – March 6, 1952, in Michigan). He designed the first Oakland Motor Car, ancestor of Pontiac and who helped design the original one-cylinder Cadillac engine. Although there were many makes of small runabouts of similar size and one to four cylinders at this time (before the Model T Ford dominated the low-price market), the Brush has many unusual design details showing the inventiveness of its creator.

The Brush Runabout Company, along with Maxwell-Briscoe, Stoddard-Dayton, and others formed Benjamin Briscoe's United States Motor Company from 1910, ending when that company failed in 1913. Runabouts, in general, fell out of vogue quickly, partly due to the lack of protection from the weather.

1912 Trans-Australian Trip

In 1912, Sid Ferguson, Francis Birtles and a dog named Rex drove a Brush Runabout across the Australian continent. The pair started out on the west coast in Freemantle and ending on the east coast in Sydney, with the trip occuring between March and April of that year. Ferguson and Birtles became the first persons to successfully undertake such a trip.[1]

Design

Brush designed a light car with a wooden chassis (actually, wooden rails and iron cross-members), friction drive transmission and "underslung" coil springs in tension instead of compression on both sides of each axle. Power was provided by a large single-cylinder water-cooled engine. Two gas-powered headlamps provided light, along with a gas-powered light in the rear. The frame, axles, and wheels were made of oak, hickory or maple, and were either left plain or painted to match the trim. The horn was located next to the engine cover, with a metal tube running to a squeeze bulb affixed near the driver. A small storage area was provided in the rear, with a drawer accessible under the rear of the seat.

A feature of engines designed by Brush was that they ran counter-clockwise instead of the usual clockwise, which, in those days before the invention of the electric starter, was Brush's idea intended to make them safer for a right-handed person to crank-start by hand. With clockwise-running engines, many injuries were sustained, most often dislocated thumbs and broken forearms, if the hand crank kicked back on starting, especially if the car was not properly adjusted before starting, or the person cranking it did not follow correct safety procedures, including fully retarding the manual spark advance, keeping the thumb alongside the fingers instead of around the crank, and pulling the crank upward in a half turn, never in a full circle or pushing down.

Extant Examples on Display

  • Brush Runabout Company factory
    Brush Runabout Company factory
  • 1907 Brush Model B Runabout
    1907 Brush Model B Runabout
  • 1909 Brush automobile, housed in the Linn County Historical Museum in Brownsville, Oregon.
    1909 Brush automobile, housed in the Linn County Historical Museum in Brownsville, Oregon.
  • 1911 Brush Model F
    1911 Brush Model F
  • 1912 Runabout
    1912 Runabout
  • 1912 Runabout, owned by a resident of Saskatoon, in a local museum.
    1912 Runabout, owned by a resident of Saskatoon, in a local museum.
  • A bevy of Brushes
    A bevy of Brushes
  • Brush ID Plate
    Brush ID Plate

See also

  • brushauto.net Brushauto.net is a website with original brush media and information including advertisements,

manuals, and images.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brush vehicles.
  1. ^ "Two men in a Brush and a dog called Rex". The Barrier Daily Truth. 15 Apr 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2020. {{cite web}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help)
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