Torpedo Motorcycles Advertisement 1909

This advertisement for Torpedo Motorcyles was published in The Daily Times on April 3, 1909. The cycles manufactured by The Hornecker Motor Mfg. Co, in Geneseso, Illinois, were sold by John Vollertsen in Davenport, Iowa.

Des Moines Iowa Automobile Advertisements 1909

Iowa residents had a large assortment of automobiles to choose from in 1909. Like today, you could select a gas or electric model, and in some cases steam driven. 

Here are two advertisements from Des Moines Automobile dealers taken from the Des Moines Register. November 28, 1909.

Thomas Flyer - Model H, sold by Moyer Auto Co,

Proposed Route Davenport-Iowa City Interurban Railway

 

Map showing the proposed route of the Davenport-Iowa City Interurban Railway. Company name: Davenport, Iowa City & Western Traction Co. It would run within five miles of the Rock Island and Clinton-Iowa City branch of the same road.

(The Daily Times. October 18, 1909)

Muscatine Company Starts Work on “Littlemac” Auto Plant

In late 1929, the Thompson Motor Corporation began construction on a new automobile manufacturing plant in Muscatine, with plans to build a small, lightweight car unlike anything else on the road.

The company was led by Herbert G. Thompson, mayor of Muscatine. The new venture was capitalized at $1 million and aimed to produce three different models of a compact automobile called the “Littlemac.”

The Littlemac was designed to weigh less than half as much as a typical light car of the day. The vehicle would weigh about 1,100 pounds and stand between five and six feet high. Despite its smaller size, the company claimed it could reach speeds of 75 miles per hour.

It featured a 50-inch wheelbase and a 40-inch tread. A specially designed axle system was built to keep the car steady while turning corners. Power came from an 18-horsepower Red Seal Continental engine.

Davenport Locomotive Company Engine Used In China

Des Moines Register. September 14, 1930.

The Des Moines Register printed this picture of the Number One locomotive on China's K. P. Railroad. It was made by the Davenport Locomotive Company and has been in service for years. 

Skyjack Hill Motorcycle Climb - Carlisle, Iowa

Riders came from across the country for a motorcycle hill climb at Skyjack Hill, located five miles southeast of Carlisle, Iowa. The event was held on June 1, 1930.

The contest drew twelve professional riders from different parts of the country, along with over 30 riders from Iowa and neighboring states.

Several well-known hill climb riders entered the contest. Petrali of Chicago was listed as a national hill climb champion. Reiber of Milwaukee entered as the runner-up from the previous year’s championship climb. Art Erlenbaugh of Milwaukee also competed. He was reported to hold a hill climb record of 6.25 seconds.

 

Steamboat Muscatine

The Davenport Democrat and Leader published this image of the Steamer Muscatine on August 25, 1929. The paper said the boat began service on the Mississippi River in 1864.

Mason Motor Car Company Des Moines Iowa

Mason Motor Co. ad, 1906

The first thing you need to know about the Mason Motor Car Company is that it never should have worked. Not in Des Moines, not in 1906, not in a state where most people still trusted a good horse over any contraption that hissed, rattled, and tried to kill you on a dirt road. Yet for a few bright, reckless years, two brothers with machine oil on their hands and speed on their minds tried to drag Iowa—kicking, screaming, and occasionally bleeding—into the automobile age.

Fred and August Duesenberg weren’t normal. They looked at a peaceful bicycle and thought, What if this thing went 60 miles an hour and tried to shake its rider’s fillings out? The Des Moines Daily News called them “the sort of young men who consider mechanical noise to be a form of conversation.” They were tinkerers, racers, mechanics, engineers—whatever you want to call them—but above all, they were hungry. Hungry for speed, recognition, and the clean snapping sound an engine makes when it finds its rhythm and behaves. So when Des Moines attorney Edward Mason threw some money at them and said, “Make a car,” they didn’t hesitate. They built the Mason, a small, explosive two-cylinder machine that rattled windows, terrified horses, and made its owners feel like they were cheating death—or at least borrowing trouble from it.