By: Howard Zendle
Introduction
The Northeast Classic Car Museum (NECCM) of Norwich, New York has the largest collection of the innovative air-cooled Franklin automobiles made in Syracuse, NY. This article completes the Central New York Automotive Trilogy, whose first entry, The Franklin Automobiles of Norwich’s NECCM, appeared in CCHS Journal 12:99 and the second, With This or Nothing, followed in 13:107. Its publication coincides with this summer’s 72nd Franklin Trek held from July 11 to July 17, 2026 at Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY. To attend this event, members of the H. H. Franklin Club transport their artfully restored vintage autos from all parts of the United States to the College. Moreover, on Monday, July 13, members of the Trek will drive their Franklins from Oneonta to visit the NECCM in Norwich. We dedicate the article to this auspicious event.
The Copper-Cooled Engine
The years between 1919 and 1923 were tumultuous for President Alfred P. Sloan and GM. During this timeframe Chief Scientist of GM Charles F. Kettering led a project to build an air-cooled engine consisting of iron cylinders attached to copper fins. The rationale was that copper was nine times more efficient than steel in heat dissipation.[1] The drawback was that it has always been difficult to bond dissimilar metals. After many unsuccessful attempts, researcher Charlie Lee designed a special electric furnace to braze the copper fins to an iron cylinder, which he perfected in January 1921. The effort cost nearly $50,000 and enabled the copper-cooled cylinders to be made for about $2.00 apiece. Three 4-cylinder engines were made to fit in a Chevrolet chassis. This approach was only marginally acceptable.[2] That same month, the GM Executive Committee announced its intention to develop a low-priced Chevrolet with the copper-cooled engine. Designed to compete with the light-weight Model T Ford (1.4 million produced in 1921 compared to 0.13 million Chevrolets), the new Chevrolet would also need a redesigned frame, axles, and steering gear[3].
Design specs were finished by fall 1921, followed by U.S. Patent 1,697,818, C. F. Kettering, Air Cooled Engine, April 17, 1922. The Executive Committee directed the Chevrolet Division to make the air-cooled “4” its standard engine by May 1, 1922.[4] Meanwhile, sales of water-cooled Chevrolets had increased rapidly during 1922.[5] What’s the payoff for going to a revolutionary new engine at such a time, realists like GM President Alfred P. Sloan asked themselves? When a copper-cooled “4” was sent to O.E. Hunt, Chief Engineer of Chevrolet, for testing in the lightweight chassis he had designed, low power was observed.[6] Yet plans were continued to gradually phase out production of water-cooled Chevrolets and replace them with the air-cooled model. The Copper-Cooled Chevrolet Superior was the smash hit of the New York Auto Show in January, 1923.[7]
Public DomainThe Denouement of Chevrolet Copper-Cooling
A total of 759 copper-cooled Chevrolets were manufactured.[8] Of these 239 were scrapped by production, and 520 were delivered to dealers. Only 100 were sold to customers and the rest were retained by GM. Customer complaints included excess noise, clutch problems, excessive cylinder wear, carburetor malfunctions, axle breakdowns, and fan-belt maladjustments. In other words, the copper-cooled car was a dud and was soon withdrawn from the market. In April 1923, Sloan became president of GM on the departure of Pierre S. Dupont, whose strong support for the air-cooled car had kept it going in the face of mediocre performance. Sloan possessed the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” philosophy of not changing to air-cooled cars when sales of the water-cooled Chevrolet were rising. (Sales of conventional water-cooled Chevrolets had risen from 243,479 in 1922 to 480,737 in 1923).[9] Work on the copper-cooled car ended. Kettering went on to other inventions, like adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline to prevent knocking (eventually recognized as environmentally unfriendly). On the positive side, to support the GM Frigidaire refrigerator division (a non-core GM business left over from Durant), he invented Freon, a non-toxic refrigerant which supplanted the poisonous gases used in early refrigerators. Taking into account his electric auto self-starter, we can score him at a 0.500 GM batting average. For the sake of completeness, we mention that it was not until 1960, when the Corvair was introduced, that GM achieved successful production of an air-cooled car.
The first successful Air-Cooled Chevrolet 1960 (Photo by Author)Home to Syracuse and a Question
In 1916, the Syracuse firm Brown-Lipe-Chapin, largest maker of automotive differentials in the world, passed into GM ownership. Although Albert P. Sloan Jr, the president of GM, fails to mention BLC explicitly in either of his 2 books, in My Years at General Motors he positions BLC as a GM division in a January 1925 organization chart.[10] Physically, we have shown that the U-shaped BLC plant opened on Marcellus St. about 1/3 of a mile east of the Lipe Machine Shop on the west side of South Geddes Street, where H.H. Franklin was introduced to John Wilkinson, the engineer who designed the car that became the Franklin. Just south of Lipe was the Franklin plant, the maker of the most successful air-cooled car in America. We also remember that the early Franklin was tough and durable, having been successfully driven cross-country. The question begs: To what had the Franklin auto evolved in the years 1921-23 when GM underwent such turmoil in its failure to manufacture a similar air-cooled car?
Site of the former Lipe Machine Shop on the west side of South Geddes St, Syracuse, NY in 2018. (Photo by Author)
The former General Motors Brown-Lipe-Chapin plant viewed looking East across S. Geddes St from the Lipe Shop. (Photo by Author)
The Franklin Plant Just South of the Lipe Shop in 1910. (Public Domain).By 1923, Franklin was producing the model 10, with a wheelbase of 115 inches and a weight of 2,450 lb. for the touring model.[11] Depending on equipage, the price of this car could rise to $3200. The 6-cylinder motor made 25 hp. The goal of GM’s copper-cooled car had been an engine of at least 14 hp. In a car weighing 1450 lb.[12] The designed wheelbase was 103 in. [13] Clearly, the Chevy car was envisioned as a much lighter car than the Franklin. But Franklin was successful, had a national dealership chain, and possessed a brilliant chief engineer in John Wilkinson. The question thus arises: Why did not Sloan or another GM executive walk the ½ mile from their Brown-Lipe-Chapin plant over to Franklin and ask for help? Remember Alexander T. Brown had been elected president of Franklin in 1901. Thus, the GM division and the Franklin company were physically as well as genetically related. Moreover, in 1922 Franklin itself had conceptualized a lightweight 4-cylinder air-cooled car, with a 102 in. wheelbase to sell for $1000. [14]
A Model 10 Franklin at the Northeast Classic Car Museum. (Photo by Author)While the light Franklin had been met with approval at a private showing for dealers during the January 1922 National Auto Show in New York City, by November 8, production of the car was indefinitely postponed due to the rising costs of materials that would prevent the $1000 price tag. The existing Franklin factory, tailored to manufacture a moderate number (about 10,000 yearly) of expensive cars, could not be easily converted for mass production of a low cost car. A new factory was cost prohibitive. and might produce automobiles that could draw off sales from the premium models. It is interesting that the key dates of the light Franklin idea predated similar milestones (New York Car Show, cancellation) for the Copper-Cooled Chevy in 1923 by a year.
We can only guess why GM and Franklin did not cooperate on the small air-cooled car. Perhaps the prestige of C. F. Kettering overshadowed any attempt to go outside of GM for help. Or perhaps the ongoing battle to standardize GM divisional practices in accounting, inventory control, and product rationalization distracted A. P. Sloan. And finally, Horace M. Benstead, a Franklin executive who became assistant to H.H. Franklin after WW1 service, stated that “General Motors … made overtures to buy H.H. Franklin’s majority interest in the Franklin Co. The sum mentioned was reportedly in 8 figures. There were those who urged him to sell, but Franklin’s determination to make an independent go of the Franklin car proved, over the years, not to have been the best judgement insofar as his personal fortune was concerned.”[15] Whatever the case, the road not taken may have led somewhere.
So lack of cooperation by GM and Franklin may have prevented either to market a similar product. GM shook off its loss of the copper-cooled car which proved trivial weighed against the success of its water-cooled models. For the first time in 1927 Chevrolet sales of 1.7 million exceeded those of Ford. During the 30’s, the sales leader went back and forth until 1937, when Chevy won and retained it until long after World War 2.[16] By comparison, Franklin never made more than 14,432 cars in 1929 its best year and only 360 in 1934, when the effects of the Great Depression tumbled sales of high-priced cars.[17] Another maker of luxury cars, Packard, muddled through the downturn by making lower-priced models. As we have seen, that option had been already discarded by Franklin. The company, which had employed 2600 to 2800 in 1929, shut its doors for good in 1934.[18]