Buckeye gasoline buggy

The 1891 Buckeye Gasoline Buggy
Overview
Production	1890
Model years	1891
Designer	John William Lambert, inventor

The Buckeye gasoline buggy or Lambert gasoline buggy was the first practical gasoline automobile available for sale in America, according to automobile historians.

John William Lambert made America's first such automobile in 1891, according to a five-year extensive study by L. Scott Bailey, a well-known automobile historian, editor, and publisher. The study found substantial evidence to enter this claim on Lambert's behalf. The evidence from Bailey's study shows that Lambert designed, built, and ran a gasoline engine automobile in the early part of 1891 that he put on the market. It shows that neither Henry Ford nor the Duryea Brothers have the distinction of building the first such practical working internal combustion gasoline engine automobile in the United States. In Europe Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler produced the first gasoline automobiles in 1885/1886. The Duryea brothers made their automobile in 1893 and started the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in 1895 mass-producing cars. Henry Ford started mass-producing cars in 1899 at the Detroit Automobile Company.

Lambert initially designed and built his "horseless carriage" gasoline automobile in 1890. He successfully tested it in January 1891 inside an 80-foot (24 m) farm implement showroom he owned in Ohio City, Ohio. Lambert's three-wheeled surrey-top gasoline-powered buggy was his own design. It had a single cylinder, four-stroke engine. This, the Buckeye gasoline buggy, was a one-seat tricycle with large rear wheels.

Lambert designed a sales brochures advertising its specifications in January 1891. He mailed this brochure out to prospects in the first part of February 1891 with a price of $550. Later in the month of February 1891 he was running his automobile on the main street of Ohio City. Bailey points out there are several letters on file dated in the latter part of February and the early part of March 1891 requesting additional information on this "horseless carriage" that Lambert described in the brochure. Other letters of inquire continued, however Lambert ultimately was not able to sell any.