Monday Updates.

The African American Collins family lived in the Eastern Shore of Virginia for centuries. They are related to me in many ways. First, it is important to go way back. My 2nd great grandfather was Harry Bailey. He was born in 1855 in Virginia. His mother was Emily Bull. Harry Bailey married Esther Brickhouse Bailey (1862-1955) on 1882 in Locus Mount, Virginia. Harry Bailey and Esther Brickhouse Bailey had the following children: Carlton Bailey (1883-?), Effie Sarah Bailey Bryant (1891-1977), Ida Bailey (1892-1910), Calvin Bailey (1892-1954), Carrie Bailey (1895-?), Evaline Bailey (1895-?), and James Bailey (1896-?). Effie Sarah Bailey Brant was my great-grandmother who was born on June 13, 1891 at Virginia. Her first husband was Jacob Collins (1869-1928). Effie Sarah Bailey Bryant and Jacob Collins married on the date of July 4, 1909 at Northampton County, Virginia. Their child was my great-uncle Wilbert Collins (1909-1990). Effie’s 2nd husband was William Henry Bryant (1892-1962). Wilbert Collins married Lillian Mapp to have the following children: Ralph William Collins (1928-2008), Mallie G. Collins (1930-present), and Richard Collins (1935-?). Wilbert Collins was born in Northampton County, Virginia and he passed away at Philadelphia on June 22, 1990. Lillian Mapp Collins lived from October 15, 1909 at Virginia to May 26, 1996 at Philadelphia. My 2nd cousin Iris P. Douglas-Collins (1955-1995) married Archie Lee Collins Jr. (1952-1994). Their child was Archie Lee Collins III, who has links in Florida. Iris P. Douglas’s mother was Dorothy Mae D. (1937-2014), whose father was James Curtis D. (1915-1992), whose father was Carl Doggett (1886-1968), and whose father was Adam D. Archie Lee Collins III is my 2nd cousin. His father was Archie Lee Collins Jr., whose father was Archie Lee Collins (born in 1933), whose father was George Henry Collins (1897-1965), whose father was Douglas Collins (1877-1920), whose father was Caleb Collins Jr. (his wife was Peggy Bailey. Caleb Collins lived from 1834-1920), whose father was Caleb Collins (whose wife was Adah). Caleb Collins lived from 1834 to 1920. Adah Collins lived from 1838 to 1896. Caleb Collins’ father was Major Collins (1816-1877) and Lakey Collins (1810-?) was his wife.


A new car era came about by the late 19th and early 20th century. The American George B. Selden filed for a patent on May 8, 1879. His application included the engine and the 4 wheeled car.  Selden filed a series of amendments to his application which stretched out the legal process. This resulted in a delay of 16 years before the patent did more to hinder than encourage development of autos in the United States. Selden licensed his patent to most major American automakers, collecting a fee on every car they produced. The first production of automobiles was done by Karl Benz in 1886 at Germany. It was under license in France by Emile Roger. There were numerous others including tricycle builders Rudolf Egg, Edward Butler, and Leon Bolee. Bollée, using a 650 cc (40 cu in) engine of his own design, enabled his driver, Jamin, to average 45 kilometres per hour (28.0 mph) in the 1897 Paris-Tourville rally. By 1900, mass production of automobiles had begun in France and the United States. The first company that was created to build automobiles exclusively was Panhard et Levassor in France. It introduced the first four cylinder engine. It was formed in 1889. Panhard et Levassor was quickly followed by Puegeot 2 years later. By the start of the 29th century, the automobile industry started to take off in Western Europe. 30,204 cars were produced in the region by 1903. This represented 48.8% of the world automobile production in that year. In America, brothers Charles and Frank Duryea created the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in 1893. This was the first automobile manufacturing company. The Autocar Company was created in 1897 with innovations still in use. It remains the oldest operation motor vehicle manufacturer in the Untied States. Yet, it was Ransom E. Olds and his Olds Motor Vehicle Company (or called Oldsmobile later) that dominated that era with the introduction of the Oldsmobile Curved Dash. It was on its own production line in 1901. The Thomas B. Jeffrey Company formed the world’s second mass mass-produced automobile, and 1,500 Ramblers were built and sold in its first year, representing one-sixth of all existing motorcars in the United States at the time. Within a year, Cadillac (formed from the Henry Ford Company), Winton, and Ford were also producing cars in the thousands. The Studebaker brothers, having become the world's leading manufacturers of horse-drawn vehicles, made a transition to electric automobiles in 1902, and gasoline engines in 1904. They continued to build horse-drawn vehicles until 1919.
The first motor in Central Europe was produced by the Austrian-Hungarian company called  Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later renamed to Tatra in today's Czech Republic) in 1897, the Präsident automobile. In 1898, Louis Renault had the De Dion-Bouton modified, with fixed drive shaft and differential making it the first possible hot rod in history.

Renault and his brothers were part of the car industry. There was massive innovation during the early 1900’s. There were changes in basic vehicle architecture, body styles, and controls. Many veteran cars used a tiller instead of a wheel for steering. By 1903, Rambler standardized on the steering wheel. It moved the drive’s position to the left hand side of the vehicle. Chain drive was dominant over the drive shaft, and closed bodies were extremely rare. Renault introduced drum brakes in 1902. In 1903, the Dutch designer Jacobus Spijker built the first four wheel drive racing car. It was never competed, and it would be 1965 and the Jensen FF before four wheel drive was used on a production car. After a few years, new technologies were used by hundreds of producers worldwide. Steam, electricity, and petrol gasoline powered cars competed for decades. By the 1910’s, petrol/gasoline and international combustion engines were dominant in the car industry.  Dual- and even quad-engine cars were designed, and engine displacement ranged to more than a dozen liters. Many modern advances, including gas/electric hybrids, multi-valve engines, overhead camshafts, and four-wheel drive, were attempted, and discarded at this time. The oil industry grew including the gasoline industry. They replaced coal oil, kerosene, vegetable and animal oils. Music was used in car culture. The veteran era has cars introduced as novelties not in a high level of usage by the public yet. Car breakdown was common.

Fuel was difficult to get. Major breakthroughs in proving the usefulness of the automobile came with the historic long-distance drive of Bertha Benz in 1888, when she traveled more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, to make people aware of the potential of the vehicles her husband, Karl Benz, manufactured, and after Horatio Nelson Jackson's successful transcontinental drive across the United States in 1903. Lots of older cars made were made with an assembly line which would help mass produce cars which some company's still use today because it's more efficient. The Brass or Edwardian era lasted form 1905 to 1918. Many vehicles used brass. It was filled with experimentation. The Stanley Steamer ran over 120 mph. Panhard et Levassor's Système Panhard was widely licensed and adopted that recognizable and standardized automobiles were created. This system specified front-engined, rear-wheel drive internal combustion engined cars with a sliding gear transmission. Traditional coach-style vehicles were rapidly abandoned, and buckboard runabouts lost favor with the introduction of tonneaus and other less-expensive touring bodies. The Model T was in existence. The ignition system was popularized. Key developments included the electric ignition system (by dynamotor on the Arnold in 1898, though Robert Bosch, 1903, tends to get the credit), independent suspension (actually conceived by Bollée in 1873). and four-wheel brakes (by the Arrol-Johnston Company of Scotland in 1909). Leaf springs were widely used for suspension, though many other systems were still in use, with angle steel taking over from armored wood as the frame material of choice. Transmissions and throttle controls were widely adopted, allowing a variety of cruising speeds, though vehicles generally still had discrete speed settings, rather than the infinitely variable system familiar in cars of later eras. Safety glass also made its debut, patented by John Wood in England in 1905. (It would not become standard equipment until 1926, on a Rickenbacker). Car companies in America, Europe, and Japan like the Mitsubishi Model A made by Mitsubishi. 

The Vintage era lasted from 1918 (or the end of World War II) to the end of 1929 (with the Wall Street crash). This era saw cars like the 1926 Bugatti Type 35, the 1929 Austin Seven, and the 1929 Alfo Romeo 6C. This time saw the front engine car dominating society and standardized controls being the norm. In 1919, 90% of cars sold were open and by 1929, 90% were closed. Rapidly, there was the development of the internal combustion engine. There were multi-valve and overhead camshaft engines were produced at the high end. This time saw V8, V12, and even V16 engines. They were used by mostly the super rich.  Also in 1919, hydraulic brakes were invented by Malcolm Loughead (co-founder of Lockheed); they were adopted by Duesenberg for their 1921 Model A. Three years later, Hermann Rieseler of Vulcan Motor invented the first automatic transmission, which had two-speed planetary gearbox, torque converter, and lockup clutch; it never entered production. (It would only become an available option in 1940). Just at the end of the vintage era, tempered glass (now standard equipment in side windows) was invented in France. The revolutionary ponton design of cars with lenders, running boards, and other non compact ledge elements was created. Mass production of these cars started after WWII. American auto companies in the 1920s expected they would soon sell six million cars a year, but did not do so until 1955. Numerous companies disappeared. Between 1922 and 1925, the number of U.S. passenger car builders decreased from 175 to 70. H. A. Tarantous, managing editor of "MoToR Member Society of Automotive Engineers", in a New York Times article from 1925, suggested many were unable to raise production and cope with falling prices (due to assembly line production), especially for low-priced cars. The new pyroxylin-based paints, eight cylinder engine, four wheel brakes, and balloon tires as the biggest trends for 1925. The prewar era of cars was from 1930 to after World War Ii. This time saw saloon or sedan body styles. There was runabouts, phaetons, and touring cars. There was the front wheel drive being introduced by Andre Citroen. In the same vein, independent suspension was originally conceived by Amédée Bollée in 1873, but not put in production until appearing on the low-volume Mercedes-Benz 380 in 1933, which prodded American makers to use it more widely. In 1930, the number of auto manufacturers declined sharply as the industry consolidated and matured, thanks in part to the effects of the Great Depression.


By Timothy