Arthur J. Paige & the Rose Technie

Wabash Valley profiles : a series of tributes to hometown people and events that have shaped our history

Description:	One typed page including photograph; brief history of the first gasoline-powered auto in Terre Haute. ABASH VALLEY WP R O F I L E SA series of tributes to hometown people and events that have shaped our history.Arthur J. Paige & The Rose Techniehe first gasoline-powered auto on the streets of Terre Haute was built by Vigo County native Arthur James Paige while he was a student at Rose Polytechnic Institute. Before entering his junior year at Rose, Paige began working on a motor vehicle in preparation for his senior thesis. In the summer of 1900, he contrived a two-cylinder, six-horsepower gasoline engine (two singlecylinder engines coupled together with cranks). That fall he started work on the carriage. As he later explained, The manufacture of automobiles was in such an experimental stage...that very little literature on the subject could be obtained, while much that was obtained was worthless for practical purposes. After all, Ford Motor Company did not sell its first auto until July 1904. Paiges project was completed in the spring of 1902, consuming nearly two years. All work was accomplished in the Rose Poly Shops at 13th and Locust streets. Paige made patterns for castings but shares credit with Edward T. Wires, instructor at Rose Wood Shop, for the final product. He also received assistance from shop superintendent Alvah W. Clement, shop foreman Garrett W. Logan and several students. One of Paiges gifted classmates, Claude E. Cox, designed the first Overland automobile for the Standard Wheel Company of Terre Haute in 1903. When finally assembled, Paiges vehicle, aptly named The Rose Technie, was a four-seat, 850-pound carriage steered by a center lever so it could be operated by either front-seat passenger. An unusual four-note musical horn was added. To enhance engine durability, Paige innovated the use of steel tubing liners for the cylinders. The car appeared much more sophisticated than the steam and naphtha-powered McConnellSeger Co. auto that first operated on local city streets in March 1900. As a result of his thesis, Construction and Test of a Six Horse-Power Gasoline Automobile, Paige received the coveted Heminway Award from his alma mater in 1903. He later described his work in the March 1903 issue of The Rose Technic, the campus periodical. The precocious son of Terre Haute piano tuner Almer H. Paige earned a mechanical engineering degree in 1902 and remained as an instructor at Rose until 1908, residing with his parents at 420 S. Center St. He was awarded a masters degree in 1907. Thereafter he worked for several auto manufacturers beginning with the Fort Pitt Motor Manufacturing Co. in New Kensington, Pa., where he designed the Pittsburg Six. In 1910 he was chief draftsman for National Motor Vehicle Co. of Indianapolis. And in 1911, he was mechanical engineer at the Western Motor Co. in Marion, Ind. After assembling the car that won the 1912 Indianapolis 500, Paige earned national renown for improving the design of rotary gasoline engines and two-stage carburetors. Though he lived in the Detroit metropolitan area for most of this life, the Terre Haute native died in Redondo Beach, Cal., on Jan. 10, 1972, at age 89.TTERRE HAUTE(812) 238-6000NATIONAL BANKAlways Close to HomeDate published: Feb. 1, 2001Filename: Paige, Arthur profile
Origin:	2001-01-31
Created By:	McCormick, Mike
Publisher:	Terre Haute Tribune-Star
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/vchs/id/569
Collection:	Vigo County Historical Society
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Paige, Arthur James, 1883?-1972 Automobiles Automobile industry People Transportation

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