Steve is finally back to occasionally blogging!

 

made by the C.W. Kelsey Manufacturing Company out of Hartford, Connecticut from 1910 to 1912.

https://serviside.blogspot.com/2024/11/three-wheeler-thursday.html
https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf14/lots/r161-1911-kelsey-model-m-motorette/

I wonder of that is related to Kelsey Hayes rims? 

I learn it's not. At least, not directly. It's likely that CW Kelsey is related to John Kelsey, who founded the  Kelsey Wheel Company, but without seriously diving into time consuming research, I won't find out how

Well, hell, you knew I needed to try.

There were brothers, it seems https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kelsey-2813 by the names of John and Charles William. But that isn't Charles Washburn. 

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John Kelsey formed the K. H. Wheel Company (with partner H. J. Herbert) in 1909 with the hopes of developing a spring wheel.

Advised by Henry Ford to focus instead on the production of traditional wheels made of hickory wood, Kelsey took his advice and by 1919 his company was producing wooden wheels at a rate of two million per year and in 1915 the Kelsey Wheel Company was reincorporated for $13 million.

Ford gave Kelsey his flying start, buying more than three quarters of the company's wheel production in 1909. Afraid of becoming too dependent on Ford, Kelsey diversified, giving Ford less than one-third of his business in 1910 and, following a disagreement with Ford, less than ten percent in 1912.

While still selling to Ford, by 1915 the company's business had grown to $3.5 million in total revenues and had 15-20 percent of the wheel market, supplying not only Ford but also Hudson, Paige, Chalmers, and Studebaker.

Government demand for artillery type wheels provided a further boost to profitability--in 1918, 80 percent of production was devoted to defense type wheels--and by the end of World War I the company was solidly profitable.

https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/kelsey-hayes-group-of-companies-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelsey_(automobile_company)

Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey's first ride in an automobile came in 1897, when a banker took him for a ride in a new Panhard. This inspired him to build his first car, a two-cycle, single-cylinder affair that proved to be a failure, but he kept many of the parts.

 Enamored of the Léon Bollée tricycle, he joined with a classmate, Sheldon Tilney, to build a three-wheel car called the Autotri, now said to be at the Smithsonian Institution. 

He became an agent for Autocar in Pennsylvania and continued to build cars of his own design before selling Maxwells, and then he became sales manager for Columbia in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1910, he attempted a startup with the Spartan car at Hartford. It was stillborn after a single prototype.

It was the Motorette that finally went into production. Kelsey again embraced the three-wheel formula, with a single rear wheel and a two-stroke 10-horsepower engine. 

After air-cooling proved insufficient, he switched to thermo-syphon water cooling and birthed the Motorette at $385 F.O.B. Hartford. With a 74-inch wheelbase, it weighed just 700 pounds, delivery models being slightly heavier and more expensive. Unfortunately, in 1912, he endeavored to cut costs with outsourced engines, which proved to be very poorly built. 

By the time the problems were solved, the Kelsey Manufacturing Company was in dire straits and went into receivership. A concept for an automobile drivetrain with enclosed friction discs failed to gain traction, although he endeavored to produce it in an otherwise conventional Kelsey car in 1920/21. 

Carl Kelsey spent most of his subsequent career with the very successful Rototiller company in Troy, New York. In the 1960s, he patented the Skycar, a two-passenger vertical-takeoff helicopter. He died in 1970, aged 89.

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf15/lots/r246-1911-kelsey-model-m-motorette/