Baker Electric Vehicles
Version 3.6
For information about Baker Electric model descriptions, please see the A-B Webpage.
Walter C. Baker had a passion for mechanical efficiency. His father, George Wells Baker, invented successful sewing machines and roller-skates for the White Sewing Machine Company. These were traditionally human powered machines requiring minimal friction loss, so Walter grew up steeped in the advantages of efficient mechanical design.
The White sewing Machine Company founder, Thomas H. White, had eight children, and his sons became significant figures in the design and manufacture of automobiles, trucks, and tractors, both steam and internal combustion.
Walter Baker became closer to the family of T. H. White’s unrelated business partner – Rollin Charles White. Rollin’s daughter, Fannie, was Walter Baker’s boyhood sweetheart, and he married her in 1891.
Walter and Fannie in their 1897 Woods electric
After graduating from Cleveland’s Case School of Applied Science (now Case Western Reserve University), Baker worked for a few years in the ball bearing division of White’s Cleveland Machine Screw Company, which made the screws and ball bearings for White Sewing Machine Company’s products. They had a patented process for making inexpensive small ball bearings stamped from wire.
Baker then started his own company, financed by Rollin C. White. He partnered with Rollin’s son Fred R. White, engineer/inventor John J. Grant, and the Dorn brothers. They co-founded the American Ball Bearing Company in 1895, making ball bearings and axle assemblies. There was no auto industry yet – the sale of motorcars made in America began in 1896 – and the established high-volume producers dominated competition for bicycle bearings.
Baker focused on the advanced designs and metallurgy necessary to make ball bearing axles that would take the heavier loads of horse drawn vehicles, most of which still depended on simple sleeve bearings. His first equine draft customer made sulkies for harness racing. People tend to notice what wins races more than how happy a workhorse is at the end of the day.
The founding of the Baker Motor Vehicle Co, in 1898, had a lot to do with demonstrating the efficiency of his ball bearing axles for the emerging motorcar field.
Dozens of inventors made prototype electric cars followed by big announcements. Like most of the few early successes, Baker had the backing of an established profitable company, giving the time and money to work out bugs and build a marketable product.
The first production cars were assembled in a single-story wood framed building on Jessie St. (now N. E. 69th St.) in a residential neighborhood of Cleveland, a couple of blocks from the American Ball Bearing factory, which had a rail siding. Construction of a much larger five-story brick factory began on the adjacent lot, it got up and running in the spring of 1902, allowing for greater volume, and more components to be produced in-house.
Thomas H. White’s sons started making steam cars at the White Sewing Machine Company around the same time as Baker, with the other White family, introduced their electrics. Baker’s electric cars had similar sales, and were produced over a longer time span, than the White steam cars. Thomas White’s eldest son, Rollin Henry White, and Thomas White’s unrelated business partner, Rollin Charles White, both having the same first and last names, has caused much confusion in historical accounts.
Walter Baker was not an electric car purist, but in pursuit of efficient motorcars, electric propulsion was perfect for his quest. The first Baker Electric runabout was about as small and light as a battery motorcar could be. It was designed to represent Baker’s philosophy of maximum motive efficiency. The rolling resistance was so low that it only needed a motor rated at ¾ hp continuous duty, with 3 hp peaks. The ten-cell Gould battery weighed 186 lbs, and the entire two-passenger car only weighed 530 lbs. The range was given at 20 miles. A bigger battery would have given more range, but every increase in the weight of one component had a similar effect on the other components. Baker was committed to light and efficient.
In 1900 Thomas A. Edison bought the second one made.
A very still photo, Edison didn’t drive
By 1901 Cleveland Ohio was (briefly) the center of the American automobile industry.
Baker soon put his cars on the track for speed, and on roads for distance, to prove that a car with low friction loss and superior aerodynamics could outperform cruder designs with much greater power. Baker understood the exponential nature of wind resistance. At the speeds allowed by the bumpy, rutted, dirt roads of the time, aerodynamics were not a significant factor. At speeds above 12 mph wind resistance eventually becomes the principal consumer of power. What speed this occurs at depends on how “slippery” the body is. To demonstrate these principals Baker made two specialty cars in 1902 and 1903, with the first fully aerodynamic automobile bodies. Aerodynamic bodies had been used on a few land-speed cars before then, such as the Jeantaud and Jenatzy cars in France, but they did not completely envelop the driver or running gear.
Baker went all out with his land-speed record car, the notorious “Road Torpedo.” It weighed 3,100 lbs (with full battery), had tandem sling seats with seat belts, and a 7-12 horsepower Elwell-Parker motor, linked through countershafts to chain-drive at the rear axles. The body was like a full motorcycle fairing, built like an old wood and canvas canoe. The canvas was doped with enamel paint and stretched over a wood-slat body in the shape of a flat-bottomed torpedo. The 36” wire spoke wheels were shod with 3-inch, pneumatic tires, with canvass covers over the wires to reduce turbulence. A lack of doors required that the body be removed until the occupants were seated. The driver put his head up into a small leather hood with an isinglass window, giving a very limited view. In the second seat an electrician, switched the battery sets, while watching the voltage and amperage meters as the car gained speed. The horn was powered by a small tank of liquid carbon dioxide.
The car’s weak points were very limited steering and view of the road. Potentially worse, was the lack of useful suspension. As with contemporary land speed cars, it was not designed to corner.
Gould made a special light-thin-plate battery for the car, it could carry 40-cells, but on Memorial Day, May 31, 1902, they raced with only 20. The Automobile Club of America sponsored one-mile speed contests on Southside Boulevard near Grant City on Staten Island, New York. Among about two thousand spectators were Clarence A. Whitney from Hartford, Connecticut, who made the roller chains, and a Mr. Phillips from Elwell-Parker in Cleveland. Thomas Edison observed the race from a hotel balcony. 34-year-old Walter C. Baker drove the “Road Torpedo” with Edward Denzer seated behind him. They averaged 63.62 mph for the kilometer, and reportedly reached 70-80 mph, before the car got loose on a slightly undulating part of the roadbed. Baker told Denzer to cut the power and hit the brakes; the rear wheels locked up and the car went sideways. Bicycle type wire wheels have limited lateral strength, and the right rear wheel collapsed. With no more control than a hockey puck, the car spun 180º and slid into a cluster of spectators—who had snuck under a rope over to the wrong side of the road—resulting in two fatalities and five other serious injuries. The car was hauled to the rear of the Enterprise Hook & Ladder Company’s headquarters, where it was observed by the curious.
Baker and Denzer were both wearing seatbelts and not seriously injured. They were held overnight at the Smith Infirmary, then spent Sunday in jail, before limping into court on manslaughter charges. Bail was set at $10,000, for Baker and $5,000 for Denzer; accused of causing the death of Civil War Veteran Andrew Featherston (63) at the scene, and carpenter John G. Bogart (68), who passed the following day. They were later cleared of criminal charges; but civil action was successfully brought against the City of New York, the Automobile Club of America, and the Baker Motor Vehicle Co.
Due to this accident, no further street races were sanctioned by the Automobile Club of America. The “Torpedo’s” time for the mile was not recorded, as it crashed soon after it passed the kilometer mark. Due to very bad press, the car was not raced again in public.
After the deadly crash, Baker was quoted as saying:
“I do not care a snap of my finger for records, but I wish to satisfy myself, and in time possibly the public, that my theory of applying power is correct; that it is not essential to have too great power to secure great results. Or, in other words, it has been my theory and practice in the manufacture of automobiles to secure the greatest possible results from comparatively little power. Such a result I believe I have secured, not merely by guesswork, but by the most careful calculations and based on the accepted laws of motion, atmospheric pressure and mechanical resistance. I believe in a small motor and little battery equipment. That from two to four times as much horsepower is used as is necessary. Hence, to prove my theory I constructed the racing machine and carried its lines to the extreme. The lines of this racing machine were as carefully considered as the swiftest yacht, while the mechanical parts show precision, perfect alignment and even balance. Anti-frictional devices have been my life study, and all I have learned in a long mechanical experience has been applied to this car. The motor had a nominal rating of 7-hp, but we developed to 12-hp in working up to high speed. In my belief the speed did not result from mere multiplication of power, but by reduction to the minimum of atmospheric pressure and mechanical friction.”
Baker Torpedo Racer at Speed
Baker Torpedo Racer After the Wreck
Press reports, calling it a “Freak Machine,” sensationalized how strange looking, fast, and lethal the “Torpedo” was, not how wonderfully efficient.
Baker decided the car was too powerful to make his point clearly. While everyone else made subsequent race cars with more power to achieve greater speed, Baker built his second race car, during the summer of 1903, powered by a 1½ hp motor. The 750 lb, single-seat, “Torpedo Kid” was designed to steer around the curves of dirt track ovals to race against other light cars. The Kid looked like a four-wheeled turtle, with the driver’s head poking out the top. As the fixed gear ratio was set at about 4-1 for top speed, the car had some trouble getting off the line. On level paving, or with a running start, this was not important. On the soft dirt horse-tracks of the time, it was helpful to have a little push to get rolling.
Baker raced the “Kid” against other light cars at Glenville, a horse track near Cleveland, that September. The un-banked turns were dangerous. On Thursday, during practice runs, the Packard “Grey Wolf” hit a curve too fast and skidded off the track, nearly killing the driver. On Friday, the first event was a two-mile race for vehicles under 1,000 lbs. The gasoline cars were the 800 lb, 7-hp, Olds “Go-Devil”; a stripped down hot rod version of the popular Olds “curved dash” model, driven by Dan Wurgis; the 900 lb, 12-hp, French made, Rainey Special, driven by Charles Myers; and the 975 lb, 12-hp, “Ottokar,” driven by Walter R. Stone.
The Olds “Go-Devil” led from the start and finished first, with an average speed of 48.98 mph. Even with Baker’s brother-in-law, Fred R. White, giving a push off the line, the “Kid” got off to a slow start. Baker eventually passed the other cars to finish second, averaging 40.9 mph. In a race the following day the “Kid” passed the “Go-Devil” just before the finish line with an average speed of 43.9 mph. On the next day, Walter had D. Chisholm drive the “Kid” to a new 5-mile record for electrics, averaging 46.27 mph.
On the smooth, hard packed sand of Ormond Beach, Florida, the Olds, with no body or fairing, went 54.38 mph, and the “Torpedo Kid” was clocked at 59.41 mph, clearly demonstrating Baker’s principals. The 25-hp Packard “Grey Wolf” managed 77.58 mph.
It is widely reported that the Torpedo went as fast as 120 mph, and the Torpedo Kid achieved 105. It makes no sense that the Kid was shipped all the way to Daytona Beach to try for less than the best. It is more likely that the original Torpedo made the 105 mark, and the 120 figure is creative writing. 105 mph was faster than any other road vehicle or aircraft at that time. Only a few big steam and electric (in Germany) locomotives had gone over 100 miles an hour.
Baker “Torpedo Kid” at Glenville, Olds “Go-Devil” at far right
Baker introduced bevel-gear shaft-drive to electric cars with a Motor-Front Surrey exhibited at Madison Square Garden, New York, January 1904. Bicycles, and a few gasoline cars had previously used shaft-drive, and electrics such as Van Wagoner’s “Century Electric” and a French de Dion-Bouton electric had shaft drives a bit earlier, but these were not made in quantity. W. C. Baker and Alanson P. Brush, who was principal designer of the first Cadillac, patented these early Baker bevel-drive rear axle designs. The light cars continued to use a transverse motor driving the center of the rear axle differential assembly by chain, after speed reduction gears.
American Ball Bearing was in full production at a new factory campus, built in 1903, in the Edgewater Park neighborhood of Cleveland. They were making ball bearing front and rear axel assemblies for many clients, including Cadillac, Chalmers, Detroit Electric (briefly, before 1910), Ford (early), Lozier, Mercer, Olds, Packard, Peerless, & Pierce-Arrow. Baker’s new factory, built adjacent to the ABBCo plant, was delayed by a softwood lumber shortage caused by a smallpox outbreak in the south. By this time the formerly abundant softwood forests of the great lakes region had been clear-cut, or destroyed by several devastating forest fires. The Baker Motor Vehicle Co commenced production at the modern, purpose-built, Edgewater Park factory in 1906, and production ramped up considerably, with many new models. The two factory campuses were separated by a powerhouse and three rail spurs.
Around 1906, the electric car market was shifting from light open cars to luxury, enclosed coaches, where efficiency was sacrificed for comfort. These cars were successful commercially, but they had the aerodynamics of phone booths and were not aligned with Walter Baker’s personal priorities in vehicle design. Around 1907, shortly after moving into their new factory, Walter Baker handed over principal design to German emigrant Emil Gruenfeldt, from Daimler (which became Mercedes-Benz), who improved the suspension, designed a new rotary controller, and introduced a popular new faux radiator runabout. Edward Remde designed many of the bodies. Although Baker continued his involvement with the vehicles, and the larger axle and bearing company, he was spending more time with other business ventures and civic duties.
From approximately 1907 to 1911 Baker was the largest maker of electric automobiles in the world, until Detroit Electric eclipsed them around 1912. From 1909-1915 Baker spent considerable money producing and placing some of the best full-color magazine ads of any electric car company.
Baker Electric Advertisement
Baker used Elwell-Parker motors before the move. In 1909 Anderson/Detroit Electric merged with E-P and got exclusive rights. In 1910 Baker used Westinghouse motors, after which they employed GE motors.
In 1915, Baker’s American Ball Bearing Co. lost some important patent suits over their bevel-gear shaft-drive designs (which were no longer used in the electrics), and axle bearings. In June the Baker Electric Vehicle Co. merged with cross-town rival Rauch & Lang. The Companies were of similar capitalization, and many of Baker’s staff stayed with the new company. The Baker brand was dropped for pleasure cars after 1916, but continued for commercial specialty vehicles, made by the Baker Materials Handling Co, during most of the rest of the century.
American Ball Bearing merged with several competitors in 1920 to form the Standard Parts Company, the assets of which were acquired by the Eaton Axle & Spring Company in 1923.