The Selden organization was essentially a patent troll, holding a few patents and using lawsuits to enforce payment of royalties. Selden called itself the Association of Licensed Auto Manufacturers ALAM, and later renamed itself National Auto Chamber of Commerce NACC.
Ford refused to pay, so ALAM took on a larger role as union and lobbyist for all smaller carmakers. ALAM included Everyone But Ford. The parts of GM were ALAM members as well. GM was a loose holding company in those years, not a single unified giant. Ford was the only giant.
Curt McConnell’s excellent book on Great Cars of the Great Plains mentioned another function of ALAM. Great Smith in Topeka was a member of ALAM. As Smith faded, it was bought by a company who intended to move the tools and factory to Michigan. ALAM was trying to maintain LOCALISM in carmakers and threatened to withdraw the license. So ALAM was also Everywhere But Michigan. Several of its members were in Michigan, but ALAM wanted to spread the industry as widely as possible.
ALAM also had its own peculiar measurement for horsepower: Bore times number of cylinders times 2.5 = ALAM horsepower. This was the same formula used in Britain for “taxable horsepower”. The number has only a slight correlation with actual HP, which depends on a huge number of incalculable factors like valve timing and carburetion.
The ALAM annual handbooks are well-made books, with especially good pictures. Most of the pictures in old books end up illegible after Google’s scanning, but these remain clear and pretty. Good material for my digital models!
Open cars around 1910 were becoming long and low. From 1920 to 1930, all cars were tall and blocky, with lots of wasted vertical room over the engine.
National, made in Indy, shows the long and low trend:
Here’s a snazzy Willys roadster, made in Toledo:
Here’s a late Great Smith, after the company had converged to normal ‘assembled’ mode:
SGV had a pushbutton preselect shifter on the steering wheel, copied much later by Edsel:
This Hupp shows a weird trademark that I hadn’t seen before:
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The later history of ALAM is unusual. It changed its name to National Auto Chamber of Commerce (NACC) and continued issuing its useless “horsepower” ratings. In the 30s it switched modes entirely and became the Auto Manufacturers Assocation. The AMA was no longer the independent fighter against Ford’s monopoly. The AMA became the default trade group of all automakers, and is the same now.
Polistra's Mill 