Professor Ferdinand Porsche (two syllables, please!) was the last automotive engineer to design an entire car, and he did it well. Possibly too well, his designs continued to perform and sell well long after he wanted to move on to newer challenges. The inexpensive car he wanted to build at Mercedes, which he prototyped for NSU, and which became the postwar Volkswagen, has sold more units than any other car in history, surpassing the Ford Model T in 1972, and is still in production today. (I mean the original Bug, now built in Latin America, not the Golf with the vaguely Bug-like body that is sold in the US today.) At the other extreme he built what may be the greatest car before the depression, the 1928 Mercedes SSK - only 32 were built, proud and fast owners included Harpo Marx and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Yes, he was a friend of Hitler. Der Führer admired the Porsche-designed Mercedes Benz cars, and the people's car had been a pet idea since he read Henry Ford's books while in prison in 1924. Of the thee designers proposed, two were Jews, and Hitler courted Porsche. Whether Porsche's judgment of politicians and friends was wanting or he was just overcome by the attention of the most powerful man in Europe isn't clear, but his judgment in automotive matters was second to none.
It's Labor Day weekend in the US, which means that a staggering number of Americans are on the road. (Not me, I wouldn't leave the quiet safety of Whidbey Island this weekend on a dare.) A transportation theme was clearly indicated only minutes after I wrote up Porsche's entry. The Northern Pacific railroad was officially opened, and the first electric rail service was launched in an attempt to improve air quality in New York City. I picked quotes to match.
Today also marks the formal end of the American Revolution, almost a year after the last significant fighting convinced the British that independence for the colonies was inevitable, and the first declarations of war against Germany were made following the invasion of Poland.
1783 - "There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between his Brittanic Majesty and the said states, and between the subjects of the one and the citizens of the other, wherefore all hostilities both by sea and land shall from henceforth cease." That, along with provisions for fishing rights, free navigation of the Mississippi, and other details were part of the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution and signed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay.
1883 - The Northern Pacific transcontinental railroad was officially completed at Gold Creek, Montana. The first spike driven in at Carletin, Minnesota in 1870 had been pulled out and brought to the ceremony, it was hammered down by NP president Henry Villard and former president Ulysses S. Grant.
1931 - The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western began electric train service between Montclair, New Jersey, and Hoboken, New York in an effort to cut down on smoke in the metro area. Edison designed the electric cars, Thomas Edison himself took the controls on the first run out of Hoboken. The early coaches were called "wickerliners" after the passenger seating, with little change other than upholstery the line was operated until 1984.
1935 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, age 50, piloted his last "Blue Bird" over the Bonneville Flats in Utah at a speed of 301.129 miles per hour, the first time the record had gone over 300. In the fifteen speed records set since his own mark of 146.163 in September of 1924, Campbell set ten.
1939 - A British ultimatum for Germany to withdraw from Poland expired at 11:15 am, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain was at war with Germany, formed a War Cabinet with Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty. France, Australia, New Zealand, and India followed suit later in the day.
St Marinus Day, San Marino - Although this tiny (38 square miles, 10,000 citizens) republic has briefly been taken over at least three times (and at least five more attempts were made, most recently in 1853), the origin of the city-state was circa 350 and no exact date is available. So the feast of the patron saint and founder is their national day.
1875
- Ferdinand Porsche, German engineer - Born at Maffersdorf in Bohemia,
as teenager designed and installed electrical system in family home which
led to work at electrical manufacturer Bela Egger in Vienna while still
in school. At Bela Egger (now the giant Swiss engineering firm Brown Boveri)
created electric motors installed in front wheel hubs of the Lohner-Porsche
Electric Car, a sensation at the Paris Exposition of 1900, designed hybrid
gas/electric drives for trains. Technical director at Daimler's Austrian
branch in 1906, designed aircraft engines and racing cars - in 1922 his
Sascha cars won 51 of 52 races entered. Raced successfully himself, starting
with the 1910 Prinz Heinrich Fahrt, a six-day rally, in 1910. 1923 became
technical director of Daimler Benz, created the powerful Mercedes S, SS,
and SSK models. Wanted to design an affordable Mercedes, was turned down
and wnt to Steyr Werke in Austria in 1929 before the merger of Steyr and
Daimler led him to open his own design and consulting firm in 1931. His
Type P designs for Auto-Union dominated Formula races in the '30s with
a mid-engine V16 design. In 1934 started a series of prototypes for an
affordable car, the Model 32 commissioned by NSU, designing at least three
bodies and 20 engines. Office moved to Stuttgart in 1938, finished the
Type 60 (the original Volkswagen) in the garage at his villa and supervised
assembly plant for it in Wolfsburg which built a jeep based on the Type
60 during the war. He also designed and built tanks, airplane engines,
and trucks for the military and farm equipment during the war, and was
jailed by the Allies until 1947. In addition to building vehicles for
the war, his factories had been staffed predominantly with prisoners of
war and German soldiers court-martialed and sentenced to work there. The
design offices were moved to Gmünd, Austria in 1944, after release from
prison at Dijon h created a Grand Prix design for Cisitalia, in 1948 the
Porsche 356 was created under the direct supervision of his son Fredinand
"Ferry" Porsche and daughter Louise Piech, with a light body and mostly
VW parts. Died at Stuttgart's Marien-Hospital on 30 January 1951.
Europeans, like some Americans, drive on the right side of the road,
except in England, where they drive on both sides of the road; Italy,
where they drive on the sidewalk; and France, where if necessary they
will follow you right into the hotel lobby.
- Dave Barry
If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would
probably be Labor Day Weekend.
- Doug Larson
There isn't a train I wouldn't take, No matter where it's going.
- Edna St Vincent Millay
If automobiles had followed the same development cycle as the computer,
a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and
explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
- Robert Cringeley
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