8 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

In January 1905, businessman Herbert L. Bowden from Boston appeared in the year's speed trials at Daytona Beach with his much-modified Mercedes 60 nicknamed 'The Flying Dutchman'.  The car's chassis frame had been extended to accommodate in effect a second '60' engine in tandem with the first.  The intrepid Mr Bowden was timed at 109.756mph one way, which was rated by many as having broken the contemporary World Land Speed Record, blowing away Arthur Macdonald's 104.65mph in the 15-litre Napier, which had been set about an hour before Bowden's run.  However, 'The Flying Dutchman' was reputedly then disqualified "by the Florida authorities" because it weighed far in excess of the 1,000kg (2,204lbs) maximum weight limit applied for Ormond Beach Speed Week events.  Its weight overall appears to have been as much as 450lbs over the regulation limit.

 

Furthermore, within the 'official' world governing body offices in France, no records set on American soil were considered for recognition, which put both the Macdonald and Bowden marks out of contention for 'official' Land Speed Record status.

 

Someone has just suggested to me that in addition to that weight limit being applied, there was also a contemporary restriction upon wheelbase length for 'acceptable' competition cars.  Would anybody have a reference confirming or denying such a possibility?

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 18 July 2024 - 08:01.

[Vitesse2]

Er, I'm confused, Doug. Both the Seherr-Thoss report (FIA 1987) and the Mercedes Benz website say that the record set by Bowden was officially recognised by the ACF - and it certainly appears in Seherr-Thoss's tables, although Macdonald's does not. There are also two other previous entries for records set on American 'soil' - Henry Ford on 999 on the ice at Lake St Clair and WK Vanderbilt (Mercedes 90HP) at Ormond Beach, both in January 1904. The lists also subsequently include Mariott's run in the Stanley Steamer - Ormond 1906 - and Barney Oldfield's 1910 run at Daytona on the Benz, after which Seherr-Thoss distinguishes between one-way runs (all in the US - Burman twice in 1911, de Palma 1919, Milton twice in 1920) and two-way runs (all in Europe, starting with Hornsted at Brooklands in 1914). Frederick Lindsay Lloyd had proposed two-way record runs in 1910 and this was adopted in 1911, at which point the RAC and BARC became the official keepers of records recognised by the AIACR and Brooklands the only de facto site where records could be set as it possessed the only certified timing equipment - as I understand it previously the CS of the ACF was the officially appointed authority for all sporting matters and this 'split' continued until the AIACR set up its own CSI in 1922, when the whole thing was unified. See also Don's contribution to this discussion of the Glenn Curtiss motorcycle 'record' at Ormond Beach in 1907.

 

So, in short, the 'on American soil' bit only applies between 1911 and 1928. And presumably even if there was some sort of dispute over the car's wheelbase (an AAA rule?) it was immaterial as far as the ACF were concerned.

 

 

[robert dick]

Herbert Bowden's "Flying Dutchman II" ("Flying Dutchman" was the name of his power boat) was powered by two 9.25-litre Mercedes Sixty engines coupled up in tandem (140 x 150 mm, 18.5 liters). 

Charlie Basle and Charles Meyer completed the straight-eight just one week before the Florida event. 

One of the engines came from Bowden's Mercedes Sixty, the other one from his power boat. 

The frame of the Sixty was stretched by twelve inches, resulting in a wheelbase of 120 inches. 

The Bowden special had no gearbox, just a clutch, and had to travel quite three miles before getting up full speed. 

Dry weight was 2,650 pounds so that Bowden could not start in the 2,204-pound/1,000-kg class.

 

As far as I know, there was no rule restricting the wheelbase.

The wheelbase of Alfred Vanderbilt's twin-engined/straight-eight special (two 10.5-litre Fiat engines in tandem), which appeared in January 1906, was even longer.

 

 

Concerning Bowden, there was an article in the magazine Automobile Topics, 25 February 1905, "Fact about Record-Breaker Bowden":

"A dozen or more years ago Herbert Bowden was a young man, engaged in a modest way in the shoe business in Boston. His home was in Melrose, a suburb of that city. Then he met and married Mabel, the daughter of John R. Farnum, of Waltham, and immediately his success began. [...] Mr. Farnum made his daughter a wedding present of $100,000, and Mr. Bowden went into the felt business. His friends say he is a perfect Midas, that everything he touches turns to gold and that last year alone he cleared $1,000,000. So wrapt up is Mrs. Bowden in her husband's most enthusiastic hobby that at one time, receiving a telephone message from her husband that he was starting at once for the South, she left everything as it was and started to join him on the same train. Yet, every time she sees her husband start off in his car, Mrs. Bowden tells her friends she grows cold at the thought that she may never see him alive again. Still, she is his most constant companion, and whenever Mr. Bowden starts off on a race, whether it be in Florida or Massachusetts, Mrs. Bowden, a plump, gracious blonde little woman, is ever by the track to wave adieu and welcome." 

 

[DCapps]

The Florida Auto Annual of 1905 (https://www.floridam...ems/show/326729) covers the events quite well.

[Vitesse2]

L'Auto reported on Jan 24th: 'The 120HP Mercedes of Bowden would be the big favourite here, but is too heavy and cannot take its place in any category.' (report signed John C Wetmore)

 

But from Don's link it seems that Bowden's run was entirely separate - over the mile rather than the kilometre and not on the official event programme - much like the situation with Curtiss that I mentioned above.

 

L'Auto again, being - of course - very French and patriotic, suggested on January 28th that if Bowden's time was accepted as a record for the mile that did not diminish the time set by Paul Baras on a Darracq the previous November at Ostend and which they claimed was the 'only valid one'. That was however set over a kilometre.

 

This is where it gets a bit murkier. From the way Seherr-Thoss presents the records it looks like in some cases a time recorded over a one-mile course was back-calculated using the average speed to produce a kilometre time. Disregarding the Stanley Steamer, which was the final non-ICE record holder, the last instance of this appears to have been Fournier at Dourdan in 1904. However, it seems that even after that, the recognised records were set over a mixture of kilometre and mile courses. In some cases times are given for both distances, although speeds over a mile only seem to be quoted when they exceeded the speed over the kilometre, with the notable exceptions being Bowden (mile only given) and Héméry at Brooklands in 1909, when the mile speed was slower than the kilometre.

 

So I guess l'Auto at least assumed that the kilometre was the only valid measure. And that cars over 1000kg were ineligible. But had the ACF's Commission Sportive written a rule which said either of those things? Again as I said above, the definitive rules don't seem to have been written until 1910 ...

[robert dick]

Bowden's Flying Dutchman on the beach between Ormond and Daytona, Florida, January 1905
(photos from the Detroit Public Library, taken by Nathan Lazarnick):



Charlie Basle on the left behind the sprocket, Herbert Bowden behind the engine.
The two Mercedes Sixty engines were of the 1903 type, featuring a single low-mounted camshaft operating side exhausts and overhead intakes via pushrods and rockers. On flywheel level it is apparent how the frame was stretched.

Charles "Charlie" Basle was born in 1885, in Paris, France, and had been apprentice in the shops of Louis Bardon, Clichy (Bardon was well-known for his "balanced" Bardon engines = two-cylinder boxers). Basle came to America in 1903 to work for the New York Mercedes importer.

= = = =


 

[ReWind]

Herbert Lincoln Bowden was born 25 December 1865 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and passed away 08 May 1926 (60 years old) in Boston, Massachusetts.

[robert dick]

Despite the fact that quite a number of contemporary articles mentioned that the record of the Bowden special was not recognized as official because of overweight, I'm not convinced that overweight was the reason.

The Bowden special weighed more than 1000 kg/2204 pound so that it was not eligible in the "grosse voiture" racing car category/class of the ACF/AAA (the American Automobile Association, AAA, had adopted the weight classification of the ACF in April 1904). But for a free-for-all record there was no weight limit, no limit at all.

Time on the Florida beach was taken by A. L. McMurtry's timing apparatus. Each car recorded its start and finish itself when its tyres crossed an electrically connected steel tape lying across the course. In the case of Bowden's record trial, the McMurtry system did not work properly so that Bowden's record could not be recognized as official.

Motor Age, 2 February 1905:
"H. L. Bowden made a brilliant cut of his own record, opening the day with the mile world's record of 32 4/5 seconds, with his eight-cylinder Mercedes. He also undoubtedly cut the world's kilometer record of 21 2/5 seconds, made by Baras in a Darracq at Ostend, Belgium, November 14, 1904. The failure of the timing apparatus to make the register of it, however, will prevent its standing as a record.
The trial took place at the conclusion of the regular program. It took an hour to rig up the timing apparatus at the mile and kilometre post. The beach was then narrow, but there was a strong wind blowing from the north behind Bowden. Taking a start of over a mile the Bostonian swept down the course at terrific speed. A record was prophesied as he crossed the automatic tape at the kilometre. No pistol was fired, as it should have been, but at the mile it cracked and a dozen watches were snapped. None varied over a fifth of a second from the 32 4/5 seconds announced..
Inquiry from W. C. Baker at the kilometre post disclosed the fact that while the automatic button had not been pressed, a watch had been snapped at 20 3/5 seconds. The rate attained for the mile substantiated the probable accuracy of the kilometre watch."

= = = =

Concerning recognition by the ACF, there was Article 13 of the ACF's Regulations as to Records:
- No record will be recognized as official unless it has been established over distances rigorously tested, and unless the time has been checked by several official timekeepers recognized by the Automobile Club de France.
 

[robert dick]

From The Automotor Journal/London/4 February 1905, a report of the Florida event mentioning the exact weight of Bowden's special:
Bowden "was disqualified from taking the record owing to his car being found to be over-weigth, the actual scaling being 1,179.2 kilogs. The record therefore rests with Macdonald."






... and dated 18 February 1905: