Vehicle Description
BEING SOLD WITH TITLE 1 of 1 Prototype/Debut 1st Year of BrushRuns
and DrivesOverall in good condition on Older RestorationTouted as
''Everyman's Car''Wooden Chassis and Axles6HP 1 Cylinder EngineTwo
Gas-Powered HeadlampsGas-Powered Light in the Rear60-Inch
TreadHeavily Documented! A whopping $485 would buy you this
Runabout back in 1907. Don't you wish cars cost that much today?
This Model BC sports a bright red paint body with a deep maroon
chassis and black leather seat and top - all in good to very good
condition. This car runs and drives, and the brass is in very good
condition. These Brush models were built with a wooden chassis and
even wooden axles in a time when they were losing favor, but this
one is in good shape, showing no visual signs of stress. One
interesting and thoughtful note was that Brush designed his
6-horsepower single-cylinder engines to run counter-clockwise to
make hand-cranking it safer on the user. This is a cool piece of
history that shows the ingenuity of those early inventors. The
American company Brush Motor Car Company operated from 1907-13. The
company was founded by Alanson Partridge Brush who designed a light
car with a wooden chassis (wooden rails and iron cross-members),
friction drive transmission and 'underslung' coil springs in
tension instead of compression on both sides of each axle. The
frame, axles, and wheels were made of oak, hickory, or maple, and
were either left plain or painted to match the trim. Powered by a
water-cooled single cylinder engine They were an entry level car,
simple, reliable, and easy to operate. Two gas-powered
headlampsprovided light, along with a gas-powered light in the
rear. The frame, axles, and wheels were made of oak, hickory, or
maple, and were either left plain or painted to match the trim.
Wider axles were available for use in the Southern region of the
United States, where a 60-inch tread fit wagon ruts on country
roads.The horn was located next to the engine cover, with a metal
tube running to a squeeze bulb affixed near the driver. A small
storage area was provided in the rear, with a drawer accessible
under the rear of the seat. According to a contemporary review
fromCycle and Automobile Trade Journalin 1907, author Hugh Dolnar
described the recently introduced Brush as a "...very, very new and
also very, very old, as will be seen from the detailed construction
illustrations below..." In his critique of the Brush, Dolnar was
referencing the decision to use wooden axles. In addition to the
Runabout, Brush advertised a $600 "Package Car" (also advertised as
the "Delivery Car") based on the same chassis as the runabout. Also
offered was a "Coupe" model for $850. It is unknown how many (if
any at all) of these models were ever produced or sold by Brush.
