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| The 1902 Cadillac |
There are now occasional references to Henry Leland on the Web, most notably in Chapter 3 of Richard Wright's Detroit, Inc: A Brief History of the First 100 Years of the Automobile Industry in the U.S., and the Detroit News has a page about him in its history archive. When I first wrote this page, however, there was nothing. Things are looking up! And the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont will have an exhibit about Henry Leland from May 22-Nov 1, 1999.
Henry was a cousin of my great-grandfather, Carlos Leland--not a close relative, but since most of the Lelands in the U.S. share a common ancestor in an earlier Henry Leland (who immigrated from England to Vermont in the 17th century), we all tend to feel a sense of being one family.
Henry Leland was an inventor and industrialist--though he got there by being a technician and a perfectionist. As a young man he held several factory jobs, all requiring high degrees of precision work. During the Civil War he made the tools for the manufacture of gun stocks for the Union Army, then at the Springfield (MA) armory he helped build the rifles themselves. Later he worked for Browne and Sharpe in Providence, where he learned precision standards accurate to 1/1000th of an inch and invented the first mechanical barber's clippers. In the 1880's he saw a failed demonstration of George Westinghouse's air brakes for locomotives. Henry saw that more precise grinding was needed for the pistons and cylinders, and produced workable parts for the new brake system.
Henry eventually moved to Detroit and opened a machine shop. He came to know all the early automobile manufacturers, and earned a contract providing parts to Ransom Olds. In 1901 Henry's shop developed a 10.25 horsepower engine, which he offered to Olds. When Olds refused the offer (he didn't want to retool all his manufacturing equipment), Henry decided to produce his own automobile: the Cadillac. It was the first car produced with fully-interchangable parts--thanks to Henry's insistance on precision in manufacturing. Cadillac Motors also opened the first school for mechanics, providing both two-year and three-year courses of study.
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| The 1902 Cadillac |
Other innovations Henry Leland developed for the Cadillac included the electrical starter, electric lights, and dimmable headlights. His son Wilfred developed the V-eight engine. By this time, however, Henry no longer owned the company. Recognizing that he was a manufacturer, not a businessman, he had sold the company to Will Durant's General Motors Company. He worked for Durant as head of the Cadillac divsion..
When war broke out in Europe, Henry urged Durant to begin manufacturing airplane engines for the war. When Durant refused, Henry quit his job and built a new factory to build 6000, then another 17,000 airplane engines for the government. (See Wright's Detroit, Inc., Chapter 5) Though his contract was non-cancellable, when the war ended, Henry allowed the contract to be cancelled. (The government was less considerate. The IRS twice sued Henry for War Profit taxes which he didn't owe.)
Since he again had a factory of his own, Henry turned again to automobile manufacturing at age 76. He modified the airplane engines and developed a second automobile: the Lincoln. (His co-workers wanted him to name the car the Leland, but he refused, chosing instead to honor the man he had idolized during the Civil War.) Unfortunately Henry was still not a great businessman, and the depression that followed WWI meant that few people were able to afford luxury cars like the Lincoln. He went bankrupt, and Henry Ford bought the company at auction for a fraction of its value.
Henry Leland died in Michigan in 1937, and he is buried in Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit.
Me--I don't ever expect to be able to afford either a Lincoln or a Cadillac!
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| The 1912 Cadillac |
Bruce Leland
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