Rutenber Motor Company

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The Rutenber Motor Company was first organized as Rutenber Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois to manufacture the first four-cylinder engine, which was the design of Edwin Rutenber.

Rutenber studied the trade of mechanics and about 1892, invented a single cylinder engine. By 1898 he produced his first four cylinder gasoline engine. A six-horsepower, single cylinder engine was used by Frank Eckhart in his 1900 prototype car that was the seed for the Auburn. Auburns were outfitted with Rutenber engines until about 1923. In 1902 Rutenber relocated his company, renamed the Western Motor Co., to Logansport, Indiana.

There, the company designed and manufactured 4- and 6-cylinder engines for the emerging automobile and truck industry. Rutenber himself briefly entered the auto business, creating the Rutenber auto in 1901 or 1902, but quickly exited the business to focus on engines. By 1907 the company employed three- to four-hundred men and shipped engines all over the United States.

Rutenber engines were used from 1905 in the Stoddard-Dayton autos which became well-known for their speed and power, winning the Indianapolis race in 1909 with a Rutenber engine. In 1905, the Moon made its debut in Detroit with a 35-hp four-cylinder engine. In 1913, the Moon was equipped with a six-cylinder Rutenber engine. In 1907, a 60-hp Rutenber engine powered the Meteor that went from Chicago to St. Louis (400 miles) in 23 hours. Rutenber engines were also used in a long list of early automobiles: American, Burg, Glide, Halladay, Jewel, the Lexington and Westcott and were exported for use in the Australian Six. They were also found in early Indiana trucks, De Berry airplanes, Wetmore tractors, Howe fire pumpers, marine applications, and many were used to power carnival carousels.

In 1912, Edwin Rutenber sold his interest in the company and rights to the name and severed further connection to it. The company was renamed The Rutenber Motor Company. Edwin Rutenber then turned his attention to the manufacture of electric appliances to exploit the rapid electrification of the nation.

In 1973, a Rutenber engine was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by a Rutenber descendant.