# 3019-23 - 1995 32c Antique Automobiles

US #3019-23
1995 Antique Autos

• Last stamps issued in 1995
• Set features 5 antique automobiles

Category of Stamp:  Commemorative
Set:  Antique Autos
Value:  32¢, First-Class mail rate
First Day of Issue:  November 3, 1995
First Day City:  New York, New York
Quantity Issued:  30,000,000
Printed by:  J.W. Fergusson for Stamp Venturers
Printing Method: Photogravure
Format:  Panes of 25 (from printing cylinders of 200 – 10 across, 20 down)
Perforations:  10.1 X 11.1

Reason the stamp was issued:  This set of five stamps was issued to commemorate some of the first American automobiles.  It follows the popular Classic Cars set (#2381-85).

About the stamp design:  The stamps were created by the same artist, Ken Dallison, who was the talent behind the Classic Cars stamps.  He specializes in painting cars, and his work has appeared in several publications.  In addition to the Classic Cars set, Dallison also did the artwork for some of the stamps in the Transportation series and the Pioneers of Aviation airmail stamps.

First Day City:  These stamps were dedicated on the second day of the American Stamp Dealers Association’s Postage Stamp Mega-Event.  The event was sponsored by the American Philatelic Society and the US Postal Service.  IT was held at the Jacob K. Javits Conventions Cetner in New York City.  Ken Dallison, the stamps’ designer, was one of about 500 people who attended the ceremony.

History the stamp represents: 
1893 Duryea: The Duryea brothers were two of America’s greatest automobile pioneers.  Charles E. Duryea and J. Frank Duryea built the first successful gasoline-powered car in the United States.  This prototype car was a powered horse buggy, with a single-cylinder four horsepower engine and friction drive.  Frank Duryea built a second car, and with it, took first place in America’s first automobile race – the Chicago Times Herald race, which was held on Thanksgiving Day.  Only one other car finished the 50-mile race.  The Duryea brothers collected the first-place prize of $2,000 for their speedy performance – their car averaged 7 miles per hour!
In 1895 the brothers formed the Springfield, Massachusetts-based Duryea Motor Wagon Company.  Thirteen cars were produced by this enterprise in 1896.  Frank Duryea left the company and joined Stevens Arms Company in 1898.  There he designed four-cylinder and six-cylinder Stevens-Duryea automobiles.

Charles Duryea went on to form three other successful commercial automobile interests: Duryea Mfg. Co., based in Peoria, Illinois (1896-1898); Duryea Power Co., located in Reading, Pennsylvania (1899-1908); and Duryea Motor Co., based in Saginaw, Michigan (1908-1913).
1894 Haynes: In 1894 Elwood Haynes (1857-1925) designed and produced one of America’s first successful automobiles.  He enlisted the help of Elmer and Edgar Apperson for the actual construction of this buggy-type machine, which featured a single-cylinder, one-horsepower engine.  It was first driven on July 4, 1894, and traveled at speeds of 6 to 7 miles per hour.  Now on display in the Smithsonian Institution, the 1894 Haynes is the oldest US automobile still in existence.
Inspired by their success, Haynes and the Apperson brothers formed the Haynes-Apperson Co. in 1898. The two parties split-up in 1902, and in 1905 the company’s name was changed to the Haynes Automobile Company.  In 1904 the first production models were produced. These cars featured 2- and 4-cylinder engines, sliding-gear transmissions, and shaft drives.
A trained engineer and chemist, Haynes created numerous alloys, including tungsten chrome steel, chromium nickel, chromium cobalt, and a type of stainless steel. His inventions included mufflers and carburetors – he was the first person to use aluminum in an automotive engine.  Haynes also claimed to receive the first US traffic ticket in 1895, when a bicycle policeman ordered him to get off the streets of Chicago!

1898 Columbia: The first electric automobiles appeared in Europe in the 1880s.  Electric cars quickly became popular in the United States – in the late 1800s more Americans drove electric cars than gasoline-powered ones!  This 1898 Columbia is an excellent example of the popular and innovative electric cars of the day.
Electric cars offer several advantages over their gasoline-powered counterparts.  They produce no exhaust pollutants, and using batteries, do not rely on imported petroleum.  They are quiet, and their batteries can be recharged while the vehicle is not in use, so there is no need to stop for fuel.  However, electric cars have many disadvantages: they have limited driving ranges, their batteries are expensive, and need to be replaced over time, and they offer below-average acceleration.  As gasoline-powered cars improved, use of electric cars declined.  In 1900 they accounted for 38 percent of all US car sales – by 1905 only 7 percent of the cars sold were electric powered.
1898 Winton:  In 1891, Alexander Winton created Winton Bicycle Company and began producing bicycles from his own patented design.  The business was a great success, but within 10 years, Winton turned his attention to automobiles.  He built his first motorcar in 1896.  Using B.F. Goodrich tires, this marked the first use of pneumatic tires on an automobile.  Winton established the Winton Motor Carriage Company the following year.
By the spring of 1897, Winton had two functioning automobile prototypes.   He drove one on a 60-mile test drive to prove its reliability, but some were still skeptical.  So he arranged a much longer drive to prove the endurance of his vehicles.  On July 28, 1897, Winton embarked on a nine-day, 800-mile trip from Cleveland to New York.  In all, he drove for 78 hours and 43 minutes.  The success of that trip helped him to gain investors to build four more cars.
On March 24, 1898, Winton sold the first American-made standard-model gasoline car in the country.  Winton then made a more widely-publicized drive in 1899 that helped to boost his sales.
The 1899 Winton was the first “production” car ever sold in the United States.  With a list price of $1,000, the two-seater phaeton (an open carriage four-wheel vehicle) featured a horizontal single-cylinder engine, two-speed transmission, and laminated wood frame.  Two hundred of the cars were sold in 1899.
The popularity of Winton’s cars led to the opening of the first automobile dealership in Reading, Pennsylvania.  Winton didn’t want the cars to have miles on them when they were sold, so he built the first auto hauler in the country.  Soon other car companies began requesting car haulers of their own.  Winton also built the first mail delivery vehicle for the US Post Office.  He was a notable inventor, with more than 100 car and engine patents to his name.  Winton also allowed the free use of his patents when safety was involved.
Winton maintained his status as the top-selling automobile producer in the US for many years by constantly improving his product.  In 1902 Winton’s racing car, “Bullet No. 1” set a speed record of one mile in 52.2 seconds at Daytona Beach, Florida.
Winton designed and built four- and six-cylinder engines, as well as America’s first straight eight-cylinder.  In 1912 he founded the Winton Gas Engine Company to experiment with marine diesel engines.  In 1913, his company built the first diesel engine in America.  Upon retiring in 1930, he sold his company to General Motors.  He died two years later on June 21, 1932.  Winton was later inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
1901 White: The 1901 White was produced by Rollin H. White of the White Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland, Ohio.  White produced his first steam-driven automobile, a light chain-driven stanhope (single-seated open-carriage vehicle) with tiller steering, in 1900.  It had a simple two-cylinder engine mounted under the floor, and an underslung frontal steam condenser.
Steam-powered automobiles, or steamers, are propelled by the energy of expanding steam.  Fuel is burned within a furnace, which heats water inside of a boiler.  Water turns to steam inside the boiler.  This steam was used to drive the pistons of the 1901 White, and was then collected in the condenser.  The White could travel 100 miles on a single filling of water!
Steamers were extremely popular.  At the turn of the century 40 percent of all US automobiles were driven by steam – only 22 percent were powered by gasoline.  White sold 193 of these cars in 1901, their first year of full production.  But steam cars had many disadvantages.  It took a long time to heat the steam in the car’s boiler.  For automotive use, steam engines needed to be small, and therefore very high-pressured.  Such engines were costly to build and maintain.  By 1924 most major steam car companies were no longer in business.

Please note: Due to the layout of the pane, the se-tenant may or may not be provided in Scott Catalogue order.