The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was a Brass Era American manufacturer of automobiles. The company, founded in 1906, was based in Rochester, New York, and built automobiles from 1907 to 1914 and trucks from 1913 to 1932.[1]
History
The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was founded by George B. Selden, whose 1877 patent was the first U.S. patent of a "horseless carriage" which because of numerous later amendments was not granted until 1895.[2] To make the patent more credible, in 1907 Selden built a car on the lines of the 1877 design. This patent would be declared "unenforceable" in 1911.[3]
E. T. Birdsall designed the first Selden, a 30hp 4-cylinder car placed on the market in June 1907. A car in the $2,000 to $2,500 (equivalent to $81,750 in 2023) price range, the Selden grew from a 109-inch wheelbase car to a 125-inch wheelbase. In 1911 George Selden's patent was declared unenforceable, and his factory had a fire that summer. Insurance covered the damages and production continued. Late in 1911, the company was reorganized internally, with Frederick A. Law, formerly with Columbia became designer and plant superintendent. The last Selden passenger cars were built in 1914.[1]
In 1913, the company began production of Selden trucks and this successfully continued until the company's sale to the Hahn Motor Truck Company of Hamburg, Pennsylvania in 1930. Hahn and Selden went out of business in 1932. George B. Selden died in 1923.[3][1]
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