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Fay and Bowen History - a short and informal outline put together by myself and my son Chris for a talk we gave at a Finger Lakes ACBS Meeting. A Historical Look at the Fay and Bowen Company, I. I would like to talk about a company that would become the Fay and Bowen Engine Company of Geneva, NY. II. The bicycle craze of the 1890’s was brought about by the introduction of the bicycle with two equal-sized wheels.
· During this craze, Walter Fay and Ernest Bowen started their first company in 1895 to manufacture bicycle spokes and spoke nipples. · This bicycle obsession also revived interest in roads. New Jersey, in 1891, became the first state to adopt a "state-aid" plan, under which a state appropriates funds to be made available to its counties for road improvements. · Goodrich first made tires for bicycles as a successful rubber manufacturer. · Farmers who initially resisted being taxed to pay for good roads so wealthy city "peacocks" could ride their bicycles became enthusiastic advocates of good roads with the introduction of Rural Free Delivery (RFD), which depended on the existence of passable roads for home delivery of mail. III. While their bicycle spoke business flourished, Mr. Bowen, the engineer, had become interested in the internal-combustion engine. · The German patents had run out in 1895 and the idea had exploded all over the world. After studying what was available in the US, they were convinced that they could build a better product. They sold their bicycle parts business to a CT. firm in 1900 and went into the 2-stroke combustion engine business.
IV. They ran their prototype engine in a 25’ boat around Owasco Lake for the fall of 1900, testing and improving. · At this time in history, there were very few miles of well-maintained roads, but thousands of miles of waterways in the US. Marine and stationary farm engines were the largest market, automobiles being a distant third. · But other American companies had already produced more than 4000 hand-built motorized vehicles and things were undergoing a change.
V. The next year they added a line of boats to their product line. From 1901 to 1911 they produced about 450 boats, one half of the companies total production. · Their craftsmen-built boats cost an average of 2 year’s wages. · In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the low-priced Model T that the average person - not just the wealthy - could afford. His auto was priced at a reasonable 6-month’s worth of wages. · Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Mr. Bowen had designed a 4-cycle, 4-cylinder prototype engine with his sights on the motor-vehicle market in 1911, but contracted typhoid fever and died the next year. VI. Mr. Fay should have been watching this event with great personal interest, but he wasn’t. · Mr. Fay was a typical gentleman of the late Victorian period- times when, for the upper class at least, life was leisurely and placid. They considered their boats as “pleasure” craft, to be used in leisurely enjoyment of life. · With this mindset guiding the company, The Fay and Bowen Motor Company headed toward the 1920’s as a company with valid expectations of continued success. VII. During WWI, (1917 -1919) the Fay and Bowen Company contributed to the war effort by building pontoons and plane fuselages for Curtiss Wright Company. · Jesse G. Vincent, chief engineer for Packard, and E.J. Hall, of the Hall Scott Motor Car Company, contributed to the war effort by locking themselves up in a Washington, DC suite for six days and designing the first light weight, modular liquid-cooled 225HP engine standardized for mass-production. It became known as the Liberty Engine. · WWI saw the first wartime use of modern technology :airplanes, machine guns long-range submarines and tanks. VIII. The US had changed by the end of WWI. It was the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution in American Manufacturing. · Efficient electrical machinery was replacing steam and water powered equipment. · Much of the new, automatic machinery could be used by unskilled or semi-skilled workers. · GM employment went from 10,000 to 50,000 workers. · Corporate profits tripled from 1914 to 1919. · Since Henry Ford announcement of a new wage system ($5 for an eight-hour day) in 1914, industrial jobs earned high wages and had shorter workdays. · Leisure became a more regular part of everyday American life. But it wasn’t the leisure that Mr. Fay knew. The work hard/play hard American style of life had been born.
IX. Sales dropped steadily for the Fay and Bowen Company though out the 20’s. · The mass-produced mahogany speedboat equipped with high-speed auto engines sold for half of the cost of a comparable Fay and Bowen. · The enactment of Prohibition in 1920 had brought about a new industry that made men wealthy overnight- Rum running. Rumrunners were the patrons of early hi-speed boat development. · Many boat builders set to work designing new hi-speed hulls to use the vast quantities of surplus WWI aircraft engines for power. They literally would run circles around the law enforcement people. Law enforcement people would then contract the same builders to build them an even faster craft. · Much of the technology acquired building these boats filtered down into the builder’s consumer lines, resulting in hi-performance boats that were moderately priced.
X. The price/performance gap between the Fay and Bowen Engine Company and their competitors continued to broaden. In 1928, Fay and Bowen began the process of changing ownership. The new company called FAYBOW Boats would try to make the change from displacement launches to high-speed V-hulls. Both companies were advertising in 1928.
· In February 1929, after 29 years of business, the Fay and Bowen Company was liquidated. · The FayBow Boat company made a small line of 18 –25’Dodge-appearing v-bottoms powered by Lycoming and Scripps engines. · The company struggled until 1937 when it closed its doors. |
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