Anchor Buggy Company Explained

The Anchor Buggy Company was an American buggy manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1886 to 1917. After 1917, it operated as the Anchor Top and Body Company till 1927.[1]

The Anchor Carriage Company also had a short-lived automotive branch called the Anchor Motor Car Company (1910—1911).[2]

History

Anchor Buggy Co.

The Anchor Buggy Co. was founded between 1886 and 1887 by Alfred F. Klausmeyer and Anthony G. Brunsman.[3]

Herman H. Uckotter was an inventor for the company, who invented a steering device called "the fifth wheel".[4] The company had successfully applied a new principle in fifth wheels and attachments for carriages, with the gear being known to the trade as the "patent anchor fifth wheel and king-bolt".[5] [6]

Anchor was one of the largest carriage building companies in the region,[7] and at its peak in 1897, manufactured 125 buggies, surreys and phaetons a day.[8]

In later years, Anchor shared its production line with the Lion Buggy Co.; the combined firm was one of the first carriage manufacturers to set up a production line with each worker performing only one task. The firm is also credited with being the first to develop a process for painting wheels using centrifugal force.[9]

Advertising

An 1890 advertisement for the Anchor Buggy Company featured the "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" optical illusion; when viewed one way the image looked like a young woman, when viewed another way the image looked like an old woman.[10] In the late 1890s, Anchor built, what was claimed to be, the “Largest Buggy in the World”, to advertise their buggies at various fair and expositions across the Mid-West.[11]

Anchor Motor Car Company

In 1910, Anchor was formally incorporated as a stock company, and the Anchor Motor Car Company was set up as an independent automobile division.

The first automobile made by the company was Anchor-35, a 5-passenger "touring car of modern design", with a 35—40 hp (28 tax hp) 4-cylinder engine, and a price tag of $1850.[12] [13] [14]

But in 1911, after the death of Anchor's co-founder and president Anthony G. Brunsman, the series production of the automobile was shelved. While the automobiles were manufactured only from 1910 to 1911, they continued to be sold till at least 1916.[15]

Anchor Top & Body Co.

In 1917, as buggy sales declined, Anchor began selling tops with windshields for Ford cars, and later for Dodge, Olds, Buick, and Oakland.[16]

The company remained in business as the Anchor Top & Body Co. till 1927.[17]

Anchor Buggy and Carriage Company

In 1958, Samuel W. Levinson, founder of the Stuart Manufacturing Company– that made children's night lights and toys– retired from his company, and established another one called the Anchor Buggy and Carriage Company.[18]

From 1958 to 1964,[19] the company created exact miniature plastic carriage models based on the carriages and buggies made by the original Anchor Buggy Company. Levinson had acquired permission from Anchor in 1935 to use their name.[20]

External links


Notes and References

  1. Web site: Anchor Buggy, Anchor Top, Anchor & Body Company, Cincinnati, Alfred F. Klausmeyer, Anthony G. Brunsman, Earl M. Galbraith, Oscar A. Brunsman, Auto Tops, California Top . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231129075808/http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/a/anchor/anchor.htm . 2023-11-29 . 2024-11-19 . CoachBuilt.com.
  2. Book: Kimes, Beverly Rae . Standard catalog of American cars, 1805-1942 . Krause Publications . 1989 . 978-0-87341-111-0 . 2nd . Iola, Wisconsin . 47.
  3. Web site: Sneed . David E. . 2016-08-31 . Anchor Buggy Company – A Real Giant . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240302103413/https://wheelsthatwonthewest.com/blog/anchor-buggy-company-a-real-giant/ . 2024-03-02 . 2024-11-19 . Wheels that Won the West . en.
  4. News: 1930-01-29 . Carriage Maker Dies . The Cincinnati Enquirer . Cincinnati, Ohio . 12.
  5. Book: Modern Mechanism: Exhibiting the Latest Progress in Machines, Motors, and the Transmission of Power . 1892 . Macmillan . Park . Benjamin . 111 . en.
  6. Web site: Anchor Buggy Company Patented Fifth Wheel Sample . 2024-11-24 . www.bidsquare.com . en.
  7. News: 1909-05-21 . Buggy: Being Displaced By Auto . The Cincinnati Enquirer . Cincinnati, Ohio . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  8. Stuckey . Col. N. D. . August 1967 . Downing . Paul H. . The Carriage Industry Old Timers . The Carriage Journal . Carriage Assoc. of America . 5 . 2 . 88.
  9. September 1983 . Ryder . Thomas . A Short History of Carriage Building in Cincinnati . The Carriage Journal . Carriage Assoc. of America . 21 . 2 . 65.
  10. Web site: Old Woman and Young Lady Illusion, the original. 30 November 2008. 3 December 2014. live. 5 December 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131205014555/http://opticalillusion.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/old-woman-and-young-lady-illusion-the-original/.
  11. 1903-05-30 . The Kingman Jumbo Buggy . Farm Implements . XVII . 5 . 16B.
  12. Book: Kimes, Beverly Rae . Standard catalog of American cars, 1805-1942 . Krause Publications . 1989 . 978-0-87341-111-0 . 3rd . Iola, Wisconsin . 49.
  13. Web site: Automobile Catalogs 1903-1915 (3-TOP Vol. (p.v.) 5 – 109) . 2024-11-24 . The New York Public Library.
  14. Book: List of Registered Motor Vehicles, with Motor Vehicle Law, Rules of the Road, List of Automobiles showing Taxable Horse-power Ratings Of Pleasure and Commercial Cars, Also Table of Fees . Secretary's Office . 1913 . State of Connecticut . Motor Vehicle Department.
  15. Web site: Hand . Greg . 2018-04-02 . Why Didn't Cincinnati Become America's "Motor City"? . 2024-11-24 . Cincinnati Magazine . en-US.
  16. Web site: Anchor Top & Body Co., Cincinnati . 2024-11-24 . COACHBUILD.com – Forum.
  17. Web site: Anchor Buggy . 2024-11-24 . wrenchwiki . en-US.
  18. Web site: West . Lizabeth . 2000 . The Anchor Buggy & Carriage Company . https://web.archive.org/web/20010817151018/http://dkmoon.tripod.com/anchor.html . 2001-08-17.
  19. Book: West, Lizabeth . Cincinnati Magazine . April 2001 . Emmis Communications . 15 . en.
  20. Web site: 2024-02-01 . Anchor Buggy and Carriage Co. - model carriages . 2024-11-19 . www.vintagestuart7.com.

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