Tracing the Career of Frank M. Underwood GAS ENGINE PIONEER
The Sandusky Automobile Co.
— Part four of an ongoing series
The latest in the F.M. Underwood series, this installment focuses on his engine design influence in relation to the Sandusky Automobile Co.
On March 12, 1900, the Sandusky Star reported, “The Sandusky Automobile and Gas Engine Co. has set up all of the machinery recently purchased in Bucyrus, has fitted up its plant in first-class style and has commenced operations. It is expected that the first automobile will be turned out in about a week."
One account states that the first car ever to run on the streets of Sandusky, Ohio, was built by the Underwood Motor Co. It was bought by George J. Schade and given its test run on July 8, 1900, a few months after Kimes & Clark indicates that Underwood had left the Sandusky Automobile Co.
However, there are conflicting reports about this automobile. The of September 7, 1900, reports that Mr. Schade referred to his auto as his “steammob.” Then the of May 3, 1901, actually refers to it as having a gasoline engine, then in the same paragraph, talks about its power going up a hill without reducing steam pressure. I later found the truth behind the confusion, in a memoir recorded in the of November 21, 1920, “Schade had been intending to have a gasoline engine in his car, but the man who was to have installed it, Underwood, by name, delayed so long that the former listened to the arguments of Caswell in favor of the steamer.”
