Ransom E. Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Co. in 1897 and soon started rolling out prototypes. By 1901, he had many as six horseless carriage prototypes stored inside the Olds factory in Detroit, Michigan. Plans to put multiple models into production went up in smoke when fire broke out at the plant on this day in 1901. The flames destroyed the facility and all but one of the prototypes, a Curved Dash rescued by fleeing workers.
Top – An Olds prototype destroyed by the fire
Inside a surviving building reserved for corporate affairs, workers installed a production line. Curved Dash models soon began rolling down it. The automaker produced 425 of them by the end of 1901, making Olds the first company to mass produce a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. Even as the company relocated to Lansing, the Curved Dash remained a staple of Old’s lineup through 1907. The following year, Oldsmobile, as it was known by then, would be sold to General Motors.
