Topic: SOLVED: WTH # 280 - 1915 Eagle-Macomber car with rotary engine

[sixtee5cuda]

What car is this, and what sort of engine is it?

[Jean-Marie H]

Lion car (1911-1920)

It's a "gyroscopic" engine

[WayneB]

1915 Simplicity fitted with a Macomber Rotary Engine.
It was driven from San Diego to Chicago in 1915 by Walter Macomber to demonstrate his engines reliability when installed in an automobile.

[sixtee5cuda]

LOCKED for WayneB. 

That is a Macomber Rotary Engine.  I did not have the name Simplicity for the car.  When I am home again, I will double-check the name of the car.

Let me know, if you find a different name for the car.

[WayneB]

I also saw a photo captioning it as an 1915 Eagle-Macomber.

I dont believe it is actually an Eagle-Macomber as that was his own brand of car that followed up this proof of concept prototype installation of his unique engine, however the photo I found with it labled as a 1915 Simplicity may also be wrong as I found Simplicity went out of business in 1911.

It could be a Simplex or Crane Simplex Speedster though.

[sixtee5cuda]

The handle on the hood (bonnet) makes it look like the same car.  Is that a fender or a wheel in the lower left corner of my picture?  If fender, it is not the Los Angeles-to-Chicago car.

(More later)

[sixtee5cuda]

The photo by WayneB may or may not be the puzzle car.  I will award him the point, as I believe the puzzle photo is a 1915 Eagle-Macomber.  The photo of the Los Angeles to Chicago car, is certainly an Eagle-Macomber, as described in the Chicago Evening American on December 2, 1916:

            A stubby, sturdy-looking yellow car pulled up before 307 West Madison Street, and two browned men stepped out into a welcoming crowd.

            They were W. G. Macomber, inventor of a rotary engine said to be the last word in automobile “kultur,” and his mechanician, Arthur Lee. They had just finished a cross-country trip of 2,600 miles from Los Angeles, in one of the new Eagle cars, which own the exclusive right to this new Macomber rotary engine. The car pulled through with scarcely any mishap and Macomber made the triumphant declaration of its eighteen-horse power capacity with a 3,000 pound load.


Aren't rotary engines great?  I've known about the Julian for a long time, I just learned of the Eagle-Macomber and Adams-Farwell this week.

[WayneB]

Yes I agree rotary engines are great, but when I was at engineering college we were told that gas turbines were going to be the next big thing in automobile propulsion.