Category:Selden road engine

The Selden road engine or Selden road wagon was a motor vehicle invented in 1877, and partially built 1877-ca. 1880, by patent attorney and inventor George Baldwin Selden. Before being finished, Selden applied a patent in 1879, based on blueprints and scale model pictures. It was granted (No 549160), November 5, 1895. Based on this patent, legal actions followed by the Electric vehicle Company and the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers who tried to control motor vehicle production and import in the USA. Around 1905, during the Selden case against Henry Ford, at least two replicas of the vehicle were fabricated, one by George Selden himself, assisted by his sons and using the original engine (showing "1977" on the sides), and another overseen by Hiram Maxim at the Columbia Automobile Co. workshops. Both Selden road engines still exist. The Selden-built replica is now part of the Henry Ford Museum collection, the Columbia / Maxim example was or is part of the Connecticut State Library in Hartford, Conn.