THE BAKER ELECTRICS: A BRIEF HISTORY

The original Baker Electric Torpedo was not something hacked together by some hobbyist in a garage. Rather, it represented the cutting (literally, bleeding) egde of technology at the turn of the century for the newly formed Baker Motor Vehicle Company (BMVC) which soon after was, briefly, the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world. Walter C. Baker (1868-1955), was an engineer and son of wealthy industrialist, George W. Baker (and Jeanette Baker). In 1891 he graduated in engineering from Case School of Applied Science and began experimenting with automobile design after being insprired to build an electrical vehicle of his own upon seeing the "Electrobat" automobile  at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Baker founded the American Ball Bearing Company in 1895 to produce axles for horse drawn carriages as well as for electric motors and steering knuckles.  He then teamed up with his brother-in-law, a Mr. Dorn, to form the Baker Motor Vehicle Company (BMVC) in Cleveland, Ohio in 1898, after building an electrical vehicle of their own in 1897.

BMVC's first car to market, in 1900, was a two-seater, the optimistically named "Imperial Runabout". Priced at $850 it weighed 550 pounds, had a 10 cell battery, a rear axle bevel gear and Baker's patented steering knuckle. In November 1900 it was shown in New York at the nation's very first auto show, where some of these vehicles were also likely on display. It was the first shaft-driven vehicle, and the first battery-powered vehicle, to be publicly displayed. The show attracted a number of notable buyers, including Thomas Alva Edison, who purchased one as his very first car. Edison also designed the nickel-iron batteries used in some later Baker Electrics. These batteries had extremely long lives and word is that some are still in use today. In 1901 the Runabout won a silver medal for it's performance at Buffalo's Pan American Exposition.

The BMVC model range was expanded in 1904 to two vehicles, both two-seaters with armored wood-frames, centrally-located electric motors, and 12-cell batteries. The Runabout had 0.75 hp and weighed 650 pouinds. The Stanhope cost $1,600, weighed 950 lb and had 1.75 hp and a three-speed transmission. It was capable of 14 mph (23 km/h).

In 1906 BMVC made 800 cars, making them the largest electric vehicle maker in the world at the time. They bragged that their new factory was "the largest in the world" in advertisements. The company also made a switch from producing Baker Electric Carriages to true automobiles. According to the company promotionals: "We employ the choicest materials in every detail of their construction and finish, producing vehicles which in every minute particular, cannot be equaled for thorough excellence." The 1906 Baker Landolet was priced at $4,000. The company also manufactured the Imperial, Suburban, Victoria, Surrey, Depot Carriages, and other new models "to be announced later." One of the most unique 1906 Bakers was the Brougham with the driver on the outside, in the back.

By 1907, Baker had seventeen different models, the smallest being the Stanhope and the largest the Inside Drive Coupe. There was also the $4,000 Extension Front Brougham with the driving seat high up behind the passengers mimicking a hansom cab. Baker also introduced a range of trucks with capacity of up to five tons.

BMVC's successes gave the company a level of prominence among the elite, which the company was quick to capitalize on. In advertisements around 1909, the brand boldly boasted that the King of Siam owned a Baker. A similar spash was made when President William H. Taft's administration purchased a Baker as one of the White House's first vehicles. Taft later added another Baker that went on to be driven by five First Ladies! (Jay Leno even has/had a 1909 Baker in his expansive collection. Incidentally, I recently met Jay and invited him to visit this website.)

By late 1910, the Baker Electric was quite luxurious and priced at $2,800. It had a seating capacity of four passengers and was painted black with choice of blue, green or maroon panels. The latest model also offered a "Queen Victoria" body that was "interchangeable on chassis" and priced at an additional $300. The Baker of 1910 was also the only electric vehicle that had a heavy, series-wound motor with 300 percent overload capacity, with a commutator "absolutely proof against sparking and burning under all conditions." To prove the point, Baker's new chief engineer, Emil Gruenfeldt, set a record for distance driven on a single charge, taking a Baker Victoria for a 201-mile trip at an average speed of 12 mph. Can you imagine?

To offset the range anxiety inherent in the electric vehicles of this era, BMVC began considering a local battery-charging infrastructure, but expansion into the production of electric trucks, police patrol wagons, and even bomb handlers, was not enough to fend off the surging popularity of the internal conbustion engine, especially after Cadillac introduced the first electric starter in 1912. Baker addressed these problems by constructing several recharging stations and hoped to have recharging stations at every major intersection in Cleveland, but only a handful were actually installed. Baker also reacted to the growing dominance of medium-priced gasoline cars by emphasing the elegance and expense of electric vehicles, going so far as to uinsg a Louis IV style on its car interiors and calling its vehicle "The Aristocrat of Motordom". In 1914 a French fashion designer was hired to make its decorating decisions.

BMVC tried to outwit the gasoline automobile producers with mechanical innovations as well. In 1912, it purchased the patent rights to the "Entz engine" which used a gasoline generator to drive an electric motor. The R.M. Owen Company then began producing the Entz engine for its own vehicle, the Owen Magnetic, under Baker's license. (Jay Leno owns an Owen Magnetic too!) But, by 1915 BMVC needed a new product so it merged with another electic vehicle maker, the luxury market focused Rauch and Lang Carriage Company, one of the most prominent electric car manufactures in Cleveland, and began producing Owen Magnetics. However, the Entz engine proved difficult to manufacture and by 1918 the Owen Magnetic was the third most expensive car in the country.

During World War I the new merger also produced electric lift trucks. It ceased the manufacture of electric cars in mid-1919, and was reorganized as the The Baker Raulang Company and thereafter focused on buiding electric lift trucks, along with car bodies for other companies which continued until 1943. In 1954 it became a subsidiary of The Otis Elevator Company and has carried on in one form or another until the present day.

Now, on to the show!

THE BAKER TORPEDOES

Between 1902 and 1903, while developing his car company, Walter Baker built three highly streamlined electric racing cars called "Torpedoes", the original Electric Torpedo and two "Torpedo Kids". These near forgotten pioneering electrics should be remembered for four (4) good reasons:

1) They allowed Walter baker to bevome the first man in history to break the 100 mph speed barrier in a motor vehicle;
2) The Torpedo bodies were remarkably streamlined, decades ahead of anyting else;
3) Because Walter Baker regularly crashed his cars, none of his speed records went into the record books; and
4) What saved his life in those crashes was a simple shoulder harness.

It is not commonly known that, at the dawn of the 20th Century, electric vehicles held the world land speed record (WLSR). Two electrics in particular kept re-upping the international mark: The French-bulit Jeantaud and the Belgian Jenatzy. In fact, until 1902, electrics remained considerably faster than internal combustion cars.

The photo at the top of this page was taken at the Glenville track in Cleveland, Ohio in September, 1903. One of the Torpedo Kids, No. 999, with Walter Baker behind the wheel, is lined up with the famous Oldsmobile Pirate on its right and Otto Konigslow's "Otto Kar" on its left. (No, this photo is not Photoshopped!)

Baker was tall and wiry, with a jaunty mustache and wore tinted goggles when racing. In 1901 he had decided to go after the WLSR for electric vehicles since he believed that speed would mitigate the common (and correct) perception that electrics lacked endurance. So, he laid out plans for an electric racer. But, unlike other builders, he fully appreciated the value of aerodynamics. He also figured that a sleek, fast racer would impress the American buying public and invested $10,000 of his own money in the Torpedo project.

The 1902 Baker Electric Torpedo was the first and largest of the Baker Torpedoes. It was 48" tall with a 117" wheelbase and weighed 3,100 pounds. The wheels were 36" spoked wheels, which were covered to reduce drag, and the wood rims were fitted with slender pneumatic tires. It seated two occupants in tandem, on webbed, hammock-like seats, and featured a chain-drive 14-horsepower Elwell-Parker (still in business) electric motor mounted behind the passengers, which ran a double chain to the rear axle. Distributed around the passengers, the driver and mechanic/electrician, were an array of 11 nickel-iron batteries that had emerged from Edison's Lab just months earlier.

The Torpedo's highly aerodynamic body was made of lightweight white pine covered with oilcloth coated with an enamel-based paint. Most importantly, the Torpedo's driver and passenger were strapped in place with innovative four-inch canvas shoulder harnesses, believed to be the first application of seat belts. Their heads poked up into an isinglass bubble surrounded by a cork crashpad. The windows were only about 2 inches tall.

On May 31, 1902, Memorial Day, it was time to make some history at a speed trial, conductred by the Automoblie Club of America on a public road, probably Seaview Ave., in Staten Island, New York. The route had a slight uphill grade and was encompassed by two curves, including a sweeping bend to the left at Hamden Ave. The first quarter mile mark was at Slater Ave., the half mile at Jefferson Ave. and the finish line at Bedford Ave. Unfortunately, there were some street car tracks that crossed at Lincoln Ave., which had been partially buried in dirt and gravel for the event. The streetcar patrons had to walk across to the other side. It was repoted that as many was 20,000 came to watch the speed display.

By this time, Walter Baker had already been in several crashes and his experience had taught him the value of not being ejected from the vehicle when one of his high speed runs went south. So, from an historical vantage point, May 31, 1902 would mark the introduction of seatbelts, in the form of the harnesses attached to the Torpedo's angle-iron frame.

As the day progressed, the series of speeding cars dislodged some of the dirt and gravel from the tracks, progressively exposing them as the clock ticked away. Before long, cars would hit the exposed top of the tracks and become airborne momentarily.

With Baker at the "wheel", using a rheostat to control the voltage to the motor and the speed, and his chief mechanic and electrician, C.E. Denzer, to manage the batteries and the brakes, the long, dark and menacing Electric Torpedo could be seen by spectators as a gathering a cloud of dust in the distance as it approached the finish line at Bedford Ave.. It was clocked through the "flying kilometer" at 100 mph, eerily silent and 25 mph faster than the existing WLSR set in France just a month earlier. It was a shocking, almost incredible speed and it would be another two years before another vehicle reached the 100 mph mark. The Torpedo actually topped out at 105 mph that day. Can you say "Ludicrous"?

Unfortunately, the Topedo, seen before the event, above, left, was built for straightaways and had little steering ability (ironic given Baker's patent for a steering kunckle) and almost no suspension. When it hit the exposed tracks at Lincoln Ave. it "leaped" from the street surface and the steering went limp. Denzer tried to brake, but a ton and a half of wood, iron, batteries and two men, going faster than any motorists had ever gone before, was beyond control. The Torpedo veered to the right, then sharply left and rolled onto its right side, as its wooden wheels disintegrated, before plunging into the horrified crowd, striking several and killing one, Andrew Fetherston, instantly. At least five were hospitalized, some with battery acid burns. But, Baker's safety harness likely protected him and Denzer from serious injury, although Baker and Denzer were immediately arrested on the scene for manslaughter. The aftermath of the crash is seen above, right. When it was ultimately determined that the victims had crossed a safety barrier, the charges were dropped. However, the crash disqualified Baker and Denzer's achievement that day from being entered into the WLSR record book.

Undaunted, Baker decided to re-build the Torpedo and raced it several times on closed circuits in 1902 and 1903. He also constructed the two Torpedo Kids, with production motors from actuall BMVC passenger cars. In October 1902, in Cleveland and Detroit, he drove one Kid in speed demonstrations, supposedly at record speeds, but the actual figures remain uncertain. Then, in August 1903, Baker entered both Kids in a special event for electric cars at the Glenville circuit near Cleveland. His co-driver, a Mr. Chisholm, started in the pole position and was doing fine untail he was sideswiped and lost his steering. Chisholm crashed and knocked down four spectators but no one was really hurt. But, Baker, who was driving the second Kid, decided to pull the plug on his electric car racing dream and stop running into people.

In 1920, at age 52, Baker had retired from active involvement in his businesses to pursue his hobbies of ham radio and flying. When he was 72, in 1940 he received the Distinguished Service Citation Award from the Automobile Hall of Fame and the main BMVC building still stands and was renovated as recently as 2007 and added to the National Registry of Historic Places. Despite his unfortunate moniker, Walter C. Baker was a true visionary in every sense.

Fascination with the Baker Electric Torpdoes continues and in 2017 a replica, using modern components, of 999 was built. Here's a 2010 video of Jay Leno comparing modern EVs with a 1909 Baker.

Wouldn't Mr. Baker's life make a great movie? Who should play "Bad Luck Baker"?

If you enjoyed this site, please be sure to visit our page about the 1955-57 Gaylord Gladiator, the "most expensive car in the world".

If any information here is incorrect, or you have some to share, please e-mail me.