Another new motorcycle manufacturer?

[pem]

Has anybody ever heard of the New Manufacturing Company of Detroit, Mi. circa 1913? I have a letterhead with this name and below it it says;

Builders of the
Detroit Electrocycle
Side cars. Cycle Electrics.
3 and 4 Wheel Machines

No address on envelope or letter. No luck on the web so far. I've searched Google Books, Google, Bookfinder, Henry Ford Museum, Smithsonian, etc. with no luck.

I think this may be one of those companies that went out of business before they made anything. Just don't know.

Dick

[pisten-bully]

Short mention found on Google, (lower RH corner) maybe you can follow the names of the guys who incorporated the business?

[pem]

Thanks Harry. Most of those names are on the letterhead. What intrigues me is that they invested $150,000. That's a lot of money in 1913. Also it was to establish sales agencies for motor vehicles. Said nothing about manufacturing. Curious! It is the right date. Then in 1914 everything changes with WWI and the Model T. A lot of industries collapsed.

[pisten-bully]

Dick, I think that time is really interesting...I mean look at that one page I put up and all the incorporations. Times were such that budding mechanics/engineers/tinkerers/dreamers would get an idea and build something, then hope to make it with mass appeal (like Henry Ford)...all the motorcycle companies that came and went ...we haven't seen anything like those years of innovation since! BTW there was also mention of an electric motorcycle built in Indiana (before 1913) when I Googled "Detroit Electrocycle".

[pem]

Harry, I also find it interesting during that time period. I don't think we will never know the exact number of motorcycle companies or builders. In the early 1900's in a lot of small towns and cities countless home built motorcycles were made not to mention small production run companies like Comet or Pirate. We'd have to search every newspaper printed after 1900 just for starters.

That's an idea. I urge everybody to go to their local library and search your local newspaper starting in 1900 for any kind of motor(moto)cycle. Most libraries or historical societies have newspaper microfiche films on hand. Plus photographic archives. Be prepared for eye strain and headaches.