1910 Maxwell Model AA

The Maxwell automobile company produced automobiles from 1904 through 1925. The operation began in Tarrytown, New York, under the name of Maxwell-Briscoe Company. The name was chosen after its founders, Jonathan Dixon Maxwell and the Briscoe Brothers Metalworks. Jonathan Maxwell had gained experience while working for Oldsmobile, and Benjamin Briscoe was one of the early industry pioneers. Their factory was the former location used for John Brisben Walker's Mobile Steamer.

The twin-cylinder Maxwell runabouts were popular due to their competitive price tag and durable engines.

In 1907 a fire destroyed the Tarrytown, NY factory. A new location was chosen in New Castle, Indiana, and the Maxwell Company created what was, at the time, the largest factory in the world. The factory would be used by Chrysler until its demolition in 2004.

By 1909 the company was third in the industry in terms of production figures. During that year, Alice Huyler Ramsey and three female friends made an all-girl coast-to-coast journey in a Maxwell. This was unheard of and unthinkable for an all-woman crew at the time, which made the accomplishment even more memorable and astonishing.

The Maxwell company became a part of the United States Motor Company, formed in 1910. It was the only profitable company in the union. The United States Motor Company failed due to conflicts between two of its backers and disbanded in 1913. Maxwell was the only surviving marque to emerge from the failed company.

In 1913, the Maxwell assets were purchased by Walter Flanders, who reorganized the company as the Maxwell Motor Company, Inc. The operation was moved to Detroit, Michigan, with other facilities located in Dayton, Ohio.

In the post-World War I era recession, many manufacturers were devastated by a poor and slow-moving economy. Maxwell found themselves in peril after over-extending themselves, resulting in large amounts of debt and over half of their production unsold. In 1921, Walter P. Chrysler took a controlling interest in Maxwell and the company was re-incorporated in West Virginia with Walter Chrysler as the chairman. Chrysler, a name associated with Buick and Willys-Overland Company, had stepped in to sort out quality problems and boost sales. Around the same time, Maxwell was merging with the ailing Chalmers Automobile Company. Production of the Chalmers Company ceased in late 1923.

In 1925 Walter Chrysler formed the Chrysler Motor Corporation, and the Maxwell line was phased out, and its assets were absorbed by Chrysler. The Chrysler automobiles in 1926 were basically four-cylinder Maxwells from the year before.

by Dan Vaughan

Runabout
Chassis number: 6103
Engine number: AA6103

Jonathan Maxwell was a trained machinist and engineer whose resume included working at Olds Motor Works and Detroit's Northern Manufacturing Company. In 1904 he was invited to join industrialist Benjamin Briscoe in a new automotive venture. Leaving Detroit, they took over the factory of the Mobile Company of America, a defunct steam-car manufacturer, at Tarrytown, New York. Much of the start-up capital for the Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company was provided by John D. Rockefeller,

The early Maxwell was powered by a water-cooled twin-cylinder engine with mechanical intake valves. There was a two-speed planetary gearbox with shaft-drive. Sales were strong, with the runabout priced at $750. During its inaugural year, nearly 1,000 examples were built. To promote the car, sales manager Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey persuaded Alice Huyler Ramsey to drive three female friends across the country to San Francisco in a Maxwell, becoming the first woman to make the journey by car. That was the same year that Maxwell placed third in industry sales.

The 10hp Maxwell Model A became the 11 hp AA in 1910, gaining four inches of wheelbase in the process.

This particular Maxwell Model AA Runabout is finished in red with black fenders and broad accent striping. The seat is upholstered in diamond-pattern black buttoned leather. There is a varnished wood dashboard with a single instrument, an eight-day jeweled-movement clock. Power is from a horizontally opposed, water-cooled twin-cylinder engine which is ignited by a Splitdorf ignition system. The lighting comprises a Maxwell No. 4 script brass taillamp and No. 27 acetylene headlamps, fueled by a carbide generator on the left running board.

by Dan Vaughan