Coffee With Jim

5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 112

Do you remember the adage that is better to fill the head with useless knowledge than no knowledge at all? The subject of this episode is flying cars. Did you know that a company offered flying cars in the 1950s? Did you know that subdivisions were designed with runways and special garages to accommodate flying cars? Did you know that the first flying car made its debut more than 100 years ago?

5 Minutes With Jim: Episode 111

On this week’s episode I am sharing the story of a nearly forgotten visionary. Glenn Curtiss was possessed with an insatiable curiosity that led him to pioneer motorcycle development, make a fortune in real estate development, transform automotive design, and make incalculable aeronautical contributions.

5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 110

The history of the American auto industries infancy is littered with stories of manufacturers that showed great promise, that were innovative in many areas, and that vanished with little to mark their passing. Their obscurity in the modern era is even more surprising when one considers longevity, contributions made to the industry and volume of production. As an example, consider the Mitchell manufactured in Racine, Wisconsin.

5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 109

Much has been written on the early technological development of the automobile, the visionaries who moved it from circus sideshow curiosity to necessity, and the dramatic societal changes wrought by abandonment of the horse and buggy. Curiously, a key component in this transition and the publics acceptance of the automobile has received little more than cursory examination.
Cadwallader Kelsey was a promotional master worthy the legacy of P.T. Barnum. Before reaching the age of twenty-five Kelsey had established a profitable garage, talked his way into being appointed the only dealer of Maxwell-Briscoe’s in the city of Philadelphia, and became the largest volume seller of those automobiles in the United. And as a result, he was given the position of national sales manager for Maxwell Briscoe.

5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 108

For a brief moment in time, after WWII the eccentric visionary, the innovator and the quick buck artist found a place in the American auto industry. For a few short years, just as in the infancy of the industry, independent manufacturers could challenge the monolithic corporation.  
Preston Tucker was ambitious. Preston Tucker was imaginative. Preston Tucker was a man who cut corners to reach a goal. Hayward and Channing Powell started their business endeavors with the manufacturing of radios in Compton, California during the mid-1920s. In the early 1930s they abandoned radios and began manufacturing scooters and scooter sidecars. 
The story of Tucker and the Powell brothers is a story of independent thinking. 

5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 107

Bicycles. Bicycle touring. Bicycle racing. An international obsession with bicycling. An argument could easily be made that the cornerstone of the auto industry, the modern highway system in America, and even iconic Route 66 is the bicycle. The first successful modern chain-drive bicycle, known at the time as the safety bicycle, was produced under the "Rover" name with pneumatic tires in 1885 by John Kemp Starley. In the blink of an eye hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were enjoying a new kind of fun and experiencing unprecedented mobility. By 1895 more than 300 manufacturers were producing bicycles in the United States, and almost that many were in operation in Europe. There were also countless assembly and repair shops, including one in Dayton, Ohio, operated by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Albert Pope, owner of Pope manufacturing Company had five factories running day and night turning out bicycles at the rate of about one every minute to meet the ever-growing demand. At the dawning of the new century, Pope diversified by adding engines to bicycles and manufacturing motorcycles, and then automobiles.
This program is sponsored in part by the Roadrunner Lodge in Tucumcari, New Mexico, a near perfect blending of the past and present, a living time capsule where the traveler is assured a restful night’s sleep after an adventuresome day on Route 66. 

5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 106

The period between 1890 and 1930 has long been of interest to me. It was an era of amazing transition fueled by visionaries, intellectual giants, and eccentrics. Many are forgotten today but we still benefit from their contributions. 
Charles F. Kettering forever changed the world when he devised the first practical key ignition and electric starter system. It debuted on the 1912 Cadillac. For better or for worse he was also the pioneer behind the creation of leaded gasoline and Freon gas, automotive safety glass and an incubator for premature babies. He also established a cancer research facility, an engineering school, introduced the electric cash register and developed an electric diesel/dynamo that would replace steam as the power for locomotives.
Harold Wills was possessed with an insatiable curiosity and a sharp mind. He had developed an abiding passion for automobiles in the mid-1890s. He apprenticed as a machinist at the Boyer Machine Company in Detroit. In 1899 he began moonlighting, for free, for another visionary genius with a natural mechanical inclination - Henry Ford.
This program is sponsored in part by the amazing Roadrunner Lodge in Tucumcari, New Mexico and through the magic of crowdfunding on the Patreon platform - www.patreon.com/jimhinckleysamerica

5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 104

On August 21, 1915, Roland Conklin of the Roland Gas Electric Motor Bus Company, his family, a chauffeur, mechanic, maid and cook family departed Huntington, New York for a two-month, 5,000-mile cross-country camping trip. Conklin, one of the wealthiest men in America, had commissioned construction of a 25-foot, 8-ton summer cottage on wheels that he dubbed the “Gypsy Van.”
On today's episode America's storyteller author Jim Hinckley shares the story of Conklin's amazing adventure, a tale about Edsel Ford and Lt. Dwight David Eisenhower's amazing adventure. 
This program is sponsored in part by the magical time capsule that is the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri and through the magic of crowdfunding on the Patreon platform - www.patreon.com/jimhinckleysamerica