EARLE C. ANTHONY'S FIRST CAR
By Newcomb Weisenberger

THE STORY OF HIS 70th BIRTHDAY RECORD, ITS LABEL and THIS PICTURE

After Mr. Anthony passed away, and KFI was sold, many things were changed. New Things replaced old things. This 12 inch acetate recording is one of the things I saved. Many years have passed, yet when I slip this disk from its envelope, it is shiny black, not a fingerprint is showing. It was a Presto blank recorded at KFI December 18,1950.

The hand lettered, label is very large for a twelve-inch disk. It reads:

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS TO EARLE C. ANTHONY
DECEMBER 18, 1950
33 1/3 RPM
Start Outside

Staff members pasted up this special label. They cropped this photograph of a young Earle C. Anthony posed on his Electric Runabout. The picture was one of the gallery That filled the back wall of Mr. Anthony's private office.

Allow me to point out parts of this old picture. First, please ignore the center hole. Luckily, it doesn't puncture the car but allows the disk to be played. E.C.A. assembled this electrified wagon as a young man and drove it on the Los Angles streets.

WHERE IT WAS MADE This electric carriage is parked in front of an open shed. The noon sun shines down on Mr. Anthony as it keeps the shed in dark shadow. The bright spots of light are headlights. (Gas, auto headlights.) We can barely make out the outlines of wheels and fenders. This must have been the family garage. Also most probably, the site for the construction of this vehicle.

HOW IT WAS STEERED Earle C has been having tire trouble. Two flat tires are on the ground by the rear wheel. The heavy load of batteries may be too much for the tires. E.C.A. is using chain drive to each rear wheel. The two front forks are coupled and linked to the lever in his right hand. He steers with a fore-and back-word motion of this lever. (A little motion here will swing the car across the road in a moment!) We can't see whether his feet can adjust the speed or apply a brake, if there is one.

(I would like to look under the lid of his covered, battery box.)
We can only guess whether he has more than an on/off switch. He might have been able to switch more or less batteries to adjust his forward motion. He probably could reach a speed of ten miles per hour on the level road. (This seems fast when you are sitting in the open and trying to herd the vehicle near your own side of the street.) Do not assume that he had a smoothly paved surface for his trial run.Note: Drivers of horse drawn vehicles were used to power steering and power brakes! The driver depended on the animal to steer the front wheels. He also depended on the harnessed animal (breeching) to use its considerable weight to slow, stop and back up the vehicle! (Wagons might have a parking brake also used on hills.)

The right side of he seat is notched as for a hand brake on the original wagon. ECA may have removed the brake and used this spot to connect his steering link. We see that the notch is longer than he uses to steer. The seat cushion is notched, on the right for the shorter, wooden, Control Lever.

Note: Early autos used a right hand drive. They had no electric battery, lights or starting motors. Horns were pneumatic. (Air bulb horns.)

I see no spring suspension for the body or the seat. The chain drive couldn't allow for such movement anyway. It was a rough ride But was a quiet one.* We hear only the wind and the whisper of the tires. I don't see a horn, bike bell or lights for nighttime excursions. (We wouldn't hear him approaching.)

THE POWER PLANT I believe that building a powerful electric motor, at the age of 17 and in that early century, was most remarkable and crucial for this electric car. E.C, Anthony as an owner of auto dealerships and radio stations KFI and KECA, kept this primitive electric motor on his polished executive desk. It survived the ancient car crash and Time, from 1903 to this day. (It is now 2005) We found his treasure on another desk. That is where the Curator of the Petersen Auto Museum, Mr. Leslie Kendall, keeps it now!

The motor/dynamo in Earle C. Anthony's electric car

The row of top terminals allows the DC motor to rotate in either direction as a series or compound Motor or Dynamo. There is an oiler cup at each end of the shaft. The long, solid carbon brushes are spring mounted. The two large field coils were wound by E.C. The armature was secured for him through the Packard Co. The commutator, carbon brushes and shaft bearings show no wear. I rotated the motor shaft. It turned smoothly with only the friction of its brushes. There is a small, flat belt pulley attached to the motor shaft. I notice that this DC motor was called a Dynamo. (More about that later.)

If ECA used 12 volts of battery, 30 to 35 amps would develop his 1/2 hp. (This would compare to a gas engine of approximately three hp) This car proved to be overpowered. And under sprung. It is said that E.C. Anthony used his engineering ability to construct his own batteries and build this 1/2 hp electric motor. The use of forks instead of axels made his car vulnerable to failure. We know that it was difficult to steer and perhaps difficult to stop properly.

DID E.C.A USE AN ELECTRIC BRAKE? It would be unlikely for him to ignore a brake for his car. There is little evidence of a mechanical or wheel brake. He may have used his motor as a retarder. We remember that he had a degree in engineering. His motor looks more like a laboratory machine than an auto part.

Note: Every High School Physics student learns of B E M F (Back ElectroMotive Force.) This condition keeps an electric motor from running free. Running as a motor, it generates an unwanted current with a polarity that opposes the power source. I think ECA did several things with his motor! He used it as a brake! When he disconnected his batteries from the motor, the slowing motor slowed the car. When he switched to brake, his motor became a dynamo and began to charge the batteries! (The batteries that powered the car, now become the braking load!) This is as modern as today's hybrid car.

HOW DID E.C. ANTHONY RE-CHARGE HIS HOME MADE BATTERIES? We don't know! But, in 1897, he didn't use a rectifier. I think that he used that little flat belt pulley on his motor/dynamo. It was already connected and in place. E.C.A. may have spun it with a small gasoline engine or an AC motor, powered by the Edison mains. (The Dynamo fed the batteries that the Motor drained.)

The thin sides of the wagon box were bored for the metal attachments. His homemade batteries were probably very heavy, even heavier than the commercial batteries. Contemporary Batteries of that time, used in Telegraph offices, were iron/nickel, in glass boxes over two feet cubed. Probably ECA followed the pattern of laboratory lead/acid batteries. These materials being more available.

How it was assembled Notes: Young Mr. Anthony was about 17 years old when he assembled this car. We think the year was 1897. We know that he didn't have access to electric hand tools! No drill, saw, hammer, grinder, or sander had an electric cord. Cordless was decades away. He used a hand auger to make holes in the wood. Black smiths could heat metal for bending and to punch holes. Machine shops might have drill press, lathe, hacksaw and grinders all powered by one large electric motor through an elaborate system of flat leather belts and overhead pulleys. Individual machines were put into operation by vertical shifting levers. Belts moved from idling pulleys to power pulleys. Shafting ran overhead, the length of the shop. Water and steam power has been used. (I saw the electric motor in use in the late 20's). At each revolution, metal splices caused the long leather belts to make a slapping noise.

E.C.A. could have taken work to these places but, if holes were required at the site, they would be drilled by hand. (Without power or drill press, using a hand brace, it takes over an hour to drill a 1/2-inch hole thru 1/4-inch steel.) Should a weld be required, a blacksmith could critically heat the two parts and on the anvil, beat them together by hand. This is a forging process, where molecules of metal actually penetrate the mating surfaces. (This is to point out that this car was more than a weekend project.)

Driving an Electric Car Mr. Anthony wore his good hat and clothes, his tie and gold chain when he drove this electric car. He didn't need to check the fuel tank. He didn't need to check the oil and water-cooling levels. He didn't need to set the spark and throttle or use the choke at start up. Nor did he have to climb down and crank the engine by hand. The electric car required none of the above.

(Author's aside.)
Our family Doctor, MD Nichols, practiced in Bellflower, California. His hobby was an antique electric coupe. This had a tall glassed body with twin glass bud vases. It was steered by a horizontal tiller bar across one's lap. This was coupled directly to the tie rod. I had helped my friend with his battery charger* and he let me drive his car. He had added two more batteries, which brought the top speed up to 23 mph. Batteries made the car as heavy as a light truck that drove like a tractor. It required a steady and strong hand to keep it in the road. That hand shook with each little bounce as the tires read the road through Dairy Valley.

* The battery charger was a vacuum rectifier. A starting battery heated the filament. Then the charging current replaced the starting battery, which could be disconnected.

Remembering that ride, it is easy to identify with Earle C. Anthony as he road tested his new electric wagon on L.A> streets.

I Wonder if anyone was ever invited to ride in the seat beside E..C..A.? How he kept his batteries charged. Did this vehicle ever find a parking place between the polished marble columns of the Earle C. Anthony Packard showroom? (I never saw this car or asked E.C.A. when I had the opportunity.)

No Safety Belt We should keep in mind that this frail vehicle is exposed to the worst of roadways. Bad enough to pitch a driver from his seat at the pace of a walking horse. There were no safety belts. One was expected to "hang on." There was a safety bar around the seat. We clung to that. I remember using it.

(These paragraphs add credence to the following story. It is a near myth but I believe it.)

The Crash Young Mr. Anthony totaled his electric runabout in a single vehicle crash on a public street! He was unable to dodge a large "chuck hole." One could see his front wheel drop in and stop. The tire burst. The forks distort. The metal works pry away from the splintered, wooden body. It broaches and crashes to the street. The heavy load of batteries spill and self-destruct. The glass shatters and the electrolyte spatters dangerously. The 17 year old youth tumbles forward onto the ruined car, no more roughed up than from a football play (There is no known record of medical treatment.) Part of what he learned from this experience, was not to do it this way again. (Especially to speed down hill.)

The metal parts of the car were all that survived. Nothing has come down to us about Mr. Anthony himself. Every indication is that he walked away. Here had been opportunity for a serious mishap!

WE VISIT THE PETERSEN AUTO MUSEUM

Earle C. Anthony's 1897 Restored Electric Car
The Petersen Auto Museum on Fairfax, L.A. exhibits a restoration of this 1897 E.C.A. Car. It is on loan from the Natural History Museum of L.A. County. Petersen's 3 D exhibit presents a Blacksmith Shop fronted by a filled horse trough with its hand pump. The dirt floor is littered with horseshoes. The hand blown forge is ready to go. The shop is surrounded with mural barns and sheds with actual wagon wheels and hand tools. Only the 1897 Anthony car looks out of place. Just as it did when it was new. (We heard a museum visitor telling her small son, "A horse used to pull it." To this day, people don't expect to find an electric motor under the seat.

I had the rare privilege of walking into this picture. The museum Docents and Security stood by for several moments as the alarms sounded and I almost touched the PAST. One young Docent, her eyes round with worry, stood at my side, not really trusting me! I could see why. Parts of the car seat are actually hanging by a thread.

This rebuild of the E.C.A. Car was done by 1954 for the celebration of 50 years of Anthony's Packard dealership. E.C.A. was 74 years old and the crashed car had rested in a tangled heap for 57 years! (Except for the motor, which was rebuilt in 1903.) And now, it is 51 years later. I hear, "Don't climb into the seat. Don't rock the car, and begging, Please don't touch the car, it is on loan."

Museum visitors crowded the exhibit. Hearing the sounding alarm of course and seeing the very old man in with the very old car. Both old enough to have visited the black smith shop when it was in operation, when horses drank from the trough and the Smithy quenched red hot metal in the water. (Few realized that he was remembering the sizzle, the odor of horses and the ringing sound of a pounding hammer on hot iron on iron. Much pounding of hot metal went into the car. The 17-year-old E.C.A. had lots of help.

With the exception of the spindly forks, now replaced, most of the original metal is in place again. Its fixed dimensions preserve the accuracy of this car's appearance. There is no indication that E.C.A. ever rebuilt his car or assembled another. However, he and his father drove and sold electric cars with steel axles, smaller wheels and larger tires, better brakes and "modern" steering.

His electric motor survived the crash and was placed on display in 1903 as the 1897 achievement of E.C. Anthony as a seventeen-year-old L.A. High School student.

Author's note Although I worked for and spoke with Mr. Anthony, and often visited at 141 Vermont, Buena Park and 10th and Hope locations, I never, until now, saw the replicar or heard about it being made or displayed. Mr. Anthony saw the replicar, what did he think of it? Why did they choose his failed project as a celebration logo? For us, ECA's electric car is a success. It marks the beginning of an adult life, for a large part, to be made up of Packard Motor cars and Radio Stations KFI and his namesake, KECA. This picture of his old car with the young man on board is appropriate for ECA's 70th birthday celebration. The recording contains the voices of his old Executive staff, wishing him well.

(My High School teacher used her red correcting pencil to make this faded comment on my assignment paper.) "Did you hear, that what you are at 18, you are for life?" The year was 1934

Mr. Anthony had then made his KFI a 50,000-watt station. After World War II, I would be one of his KFI engineers at this same old RCA 50B transmitter. This story is now over 50 years old.

This old Electric Runabout was the first of thousands of motorcars that would crowd Mr. Anthony's eventful life—a life that included me.

100 YEARS LATER This first car was short lived. Perhaps, assembling the car had totaled more hours than those ever spent, quietly rolling down the road. This electric car was too early for the road. It is a forerunner of the electric cars that are now poised to challenge the Gasoline Engine. Soon to come, there can be, similarly powered, autos with no exhaust pipe or emitted fumes, no muffler needed for the quiet motor, no coolant for the radiator, no oil for the crankcase and furnished with four-wheel drive without differentials, universal joints and drive shafts. Earle C. Anthony would recognize one of these in a minute.

We, the Author, Marvin Collins and Stanley Kelton, Thank all those involved, including Museum Curator, Mr. Kendall and his Curatorial assistant, Alex Symcox, for the hospitality that provided the special photo session with ECA's home made Electric Motor/Dynamo. The preparation of this article required our several contributions.)