August Duesenberg
August Samuel Duesenberg (December 12, 1879 – January 18, 1955) was a German-born American automobile and engine manufacturer who built American racing and racing engines that set speed records at Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1920; won the French Grand Prix in 1921; and won Indianapolis 500-mile races (1922, 1924, 1925, and 1927), as well as setting one-hour and 24-hour speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1935. He also shared with his older brother, Frederick S. "Fred" Duesenberg, patents filed in 1913 and renewed in 1918 for a four-cylinder engine design and the Duesenberg Straight 8 (an eight-cylinder engine with a single, overhead camshaft).
August Samuel Duesenberg
In 1913 the brothers founded the Duesenberg Motor Company, Incorporated, which was subsequently sold, and in 1920 joined with other financial investors to establish the Duesenberg Automobiles and Motor Company, which manufactured passenger cars in Indianapolis, Indiana, from 1921 until 1937. Augie Duesenberg initially worked as the plant manager, while Fred Duesenberg was the chief design engineer and later in the 1920s served as the company's president. The Duesenberg Model A, the brothers' first, mass-produced vehicle was manufactured between 1921 and 1927. Although the Model A was technologically advanced, it proved to be unpopular with car buyers because of its high cost and unstylish exterior. Following Errett L. Cord's acquisition of the Duesenberg company in 1926, Augie Duesenberg focused on the Duesenberg Brothers, a separate racing business established in August 1920, and was not involved in the Indianapolis-based automaker's production of luxury passenger cars.
Marriage and family[edit]
August Duesenberg married Gertrude Pike of Garner, Iowa, in 1906. They had two children, a son, Frederick P. "Fritz" Duesenberg, and a daughter, Dorothy Duesenberg. Fritz Duesenberg died in 1974 and is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.[3][4]
Career[edit]
Early years[edit]
In the 1890s, Augie Duesenberg began building and racing bicycles in Iowa with his older brother Fred. Around 1900, they began experimenting with designing and building internal-combustion, gasoline-powered engines and installing them on bicycles to create motorcycles. Augie and Fred operated a bicycle repair shop in Rockford, but the business went bankrupt in 1903. A short time later the two brothers established another bicycle and motorcycle shop in Garner, Iowa, but Fred left the business in 1903 to pursue other mechanical and auto manufacturing training in Wisconsin and in Iowa.[1][5]
In 1906, Augie's brother, Fred, met Edward Mason, an Iowa lawyer who provided the brothers with financing to manufacture cars. The business was incorporated the Mason Motor Car Company in April 1906 and began manufacturing cars four months later.[1][3] Augie worked as a patternmaker at the company; Fred was a superintendent and designer.[5] After U.S. Senator F. L. Maytag, the future Maytag washing machine and appliance magnate, acquired majority interest in the company, it reorganized in 1909 as the Maytag-Mason Motor Company and manufactured cars at Waterloo, Iowa. Maytag and Mason lacked experience in the car manufacturing business and the Maytag-Mason partnership was dissolved in 1912. The Mason Motor Car Company ceased production the following year.[3]
Around 1910 Augie and Fred Duesenberg began working on their "walking beam" four-cylinder engine, which the Duesenberg Straight-8 engine later replaced. The brothers shared the patents for both engines, which were filed in 1913 and renewed in 1918.[2] In 1913, the Duesenberg brothers moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where they continued to design and build automobile and marine engines and racecars. The two brothers contracted with Commodore James A. Pugh of Chicago, Illinois, to build a racing-boat engine and used the proceeds from the contract to further develop their racing business. The two brothers founded the Duesenberg Motor Company, Incorporated, in June 1913.[5][6]
Early auto racing[edit]
The Duesenberg brothers began racing bicycles and motorcycles in the 1890s and turned to auto racing after the turn of the twentieth century. Along with other automobile makers, they used the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a test track for their cars. Duesenberg entries participated in Indianapolis 500-mile auto races for nearly twenty years, and were especially active between 1912 and 1932, when Augie served as the team's supervisor and chief mechanic. The first Duesenberg entry in the Indianapolis 500-mile race occurred in 1912. Although their Mason Motor Company-owned racer practiced for the race, it had a mechanical failure and did not compete.[3][7]
Between 1913 and 1916, the Duesenberg racing team gradually improved its standings in the annual Indianapolis 500-mile race. In the 1913 race, the team took ninth place in the race. In the 1914 race, Eddie Rickenbacker, the future World War I aviation ace, drove a Duesenberg-powered racecar to a tenth-place finish and US$1,400 in prize money.[8] The Duesenberg team also had a twelfth-place finisher that year. In the 1915 race the team took fifth and seventh places, and in the 1916 race rookie driver Wilbur D'Alene finished in second place.[9] Racing at the Indianapolis 500-mile race went on hiatus in 1917 and 1918, when efforts focused on wartime production during World War I.[10] When Indianapolis 500-mile auto races resumed in 1919, the Duesenberg team had mechanical and fuel issues and its entries did not finish the race that year, but the team had better success in the 1920s.[10]
World War I-era engine manufacturer[edit]
In 1917 the Duesenberg Motor Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the Loew-Victor Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois, merged into the Duesenberg Motor Corporation. Fred Duesenberg was its chief engineer and Augie Duesenberg was assistant engineer. The Loew-Victor Company arranged to produce aviation and marine engines for military use for the American, British, Italian, and Russian governments during World War I. A new factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey, was constructed especially for this purpose and the two brothers moved to New York City in 1917 to supervise operations at the new factory.[11][12]
During the war, the Duesenberg brothers' experience with the Bugatti aircraft engine changed many of their own engineering ideas and led to refinements in their design of the Duesenberg straight eight,[3] an eight-cylinder engine with a single, overhead camshaft.[13] At the end of the war the brothers stopped building aviation and marine engines in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to focus their efforts on development of race cars from a rented space in Newark, New Jersey.[11] In 1919, after the Duesenberg Motor Corporation was sold to John Willys, the brothers completed their work at the company's Minnesota and New Jersey factories and relocated in 1920 to Indianapolis, Indiana, where they established the Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company with other financial investors.[3][14]
Later years[edit]
During the tough economic times of the Great Depression, Duesenberg began working in 1934 for E. L. Cord as a consultant to the Auburn Automobile Company at its factories in Auburn and Connersville, Indiana.[32] With dwindling numbers of buyers for its luxury cars, Duesenberg auto production ended in 1937,[16] and the Cord Company, near bankruptcy in 1937, was sold to Aviation Corporation.
In 1940, Augie Duesenberg and his nephew, Wesley Duesenberg, formed Duesenberg Model Company to manufacture miniature racecars. During World War II, Augie Duesenberg worked as a subcontractor for Indianapolis-area industries. After the war, he retired to a farm southwest of Indianapolis, near Camby in Decatur Township, Marion County, Indiana. Fritz Duesenberg, Augie's son, became involved in the Duesenberg auto business in the 1960s, when he attempted a revival of the Duesenberg marque (brand name), but he did not succeed.[3] Marshall Merkes, who owned the rights to the Duesenberg marque, also tried to revive the Duesenberg automobile, but his efforts were unsuccessful as well.[20][33][34]