Ransom E Olds

In 1899 Ransom. E.Olds opened the Olds Motor Works in Detroit. Olds Had been in the automobile business since the mid 1880's ,but with little success.After nearly closing down his company he convinced a financier named Samuel Smith to investing the company. Samuel Smith invested his entire fortune but the two din agreed on what the Olds Motor Works should be making. Smith argued for a high end market cars and Ransom Olds was intrigued by the possibility of building a car that could be marketed to the middle class Ransom Olds could not commit to one idea and finally prepared 11 different prototypes.



But fate decided something else his factory burned down in a fire accident and all the prototypes went up in the flames except one prototype which happened to be right near the door and to be light enough that a lone person could push it to safety.
The protype that survived was the low cost model that Ransom E Olds imagined could be sold to a large middle class market. Olds rushed that protype into production which became a huge sucess. That vehicle is known as "Curved Dash Olds", since the floor curved up to form the dashboard. Olds Motor works sold 4,000 vehicles in 1903 more than anyother manuf in USA

Ransom E Olds left the company soon following a fight with Samuel Smith's Sons and started a new company REO