Early Automobiles

1879 Selden Motor Buggy

Selden Motor Vehicle Company of Rochester, NY, was one on America's principal early automobile manufactures.

George B. Selden was born in 1846 in Clarkson, New York, He became a patent attorney in Rochester in 1871. In 1877, Selden improved upon George Brayton's two-stroke gasoline engine and outlined a vehicle in which to use it. In 1879, he filed for patent rights on a "road locomotive" and in 1895 the patent was granted, the popular assumption being that Selden had patented the automobile. For years, many automobile manufacturers paid royalties to Selden, but Henry Ford refused and forced Selden to sue in order to test the patent in court. In January, 1911, the courts declared the Selden patent "valid, but not infirnged," observing that Ford and other manufacturers were using Otto four-stroke engines and not Brayton two-stroke engines.

Selden himself had begun producing automobiles in 1906, but the Selden Motor Vehicle Company stopped automobile manufacturing in 1914. The company continued to make commercial vehicles until 1932, the year George Selden died.

Model: 1879 Selden Motor Buggy
Manufacturer: Selden
Location: The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan
Photo by: Douglas Wilkinson

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