chain and chain it to a lamp post whenever I left it anywhere. And then
there was trouble with the police. I do not know quite why, for my
impression is that there were no speed-limit laws in those days. Anyway,
I had to get a special permit from the mayor and thus for a time enjoyed
the distinction of being the only licensed chauffeur in America. I ran
that machine about one thousand miles through 1895 and 1896 and then
sold it to Charles Ainsley of Detroit for two hundred dollars. That was
my first sale. I had built the car not to sell but only to experiment
with. I wanted to start another car. Ainsley wanted to buy. I could use
the money and we had no trouble in agreeing upon a price.

It was not at all my idea to make cars in any such petty fashion. I was
looking ahead to production, but before that could come I had to have
something to produce. It does not pay to hurry. I started a second car
in 1896; it was much like the first but a little lighter. It also had
the belt drive which I did not give up until some time later; the belts
were all right excepting in hot weather. That is why I later adopted
gears. I learned a great deal from that car. Others in this country and
abroad were building cars by that time, and in 1895 I heard that a Benz
car from Germany was on exhibition in Macy's store in New York. I
traveled down to look at it but it had no features that seemed worth
while. It also had the belt drive, but it was much heavier than my car.
I was working for lightness; the foreign makers have never seemed to
appreciate what light weight means. I built three cars in all in my home
shop and all of them ran for years in Detroit. I still have the first
car; I bought it back a few years later from a man to whom Mr. Ainsley
had sold it. I paid one hundred dollars for it.

During all this time I kept my position with the electric company and
gradually advanced to chief engineer at a salary of one hundred and