Carl Breer

Carl Breer (8 November 1883 – 21 December 1970) was an American automotive industry engineer. Along with Fred M. Zeder and Owen Skelton, he was one of the core engineering people that formed the present day Chrysler Corporation. He was the design engineer behind the Chrysler Airflow automobile.

Breer went to Stanford University and became a mechanical engineer. He made material contributions to the Tourist Automobile Company, Allis-Chalmers, Studebaker, and the Durocar Company. He invented and designed steam powered automobiles and was employed by Toledo Steam Cars, Spalding automotive, Northern automotive, and White Motor Company.

Early life and education

Breer was born on San Pedro street between Second and Third streets in the first brick house built in Los Angeles, which is now the Little Tokyo District. His date of birth is November 8, 1883, and he was from German descent. His father came from a village of the Hartz Mountains in Germany, while his mother came from a village of the Black Forest. Breer was the youngest of 9 children in the family. He had 2 sisters and 6 brothers. Breer's father's name was Louis and his mother's name was Julia. His father was born in 1828 and his mother was born in 1840. Breer's father was a skilled blacksmith refining his skills by traveling from village to village in Germany. At the age of 20, to avoid being selected for a three-year term in the German army, Breer's father moved to the United States. He moved about quite a bit for the first few years while in the United States, but ultimately settled in the Los Angeles area making horse-drawn carriages, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Breer's mother was born in Ober-Owerisheim, Baden, Germany, located in the Black Forest. His mother and her younger sister moved to the United States to join an uncle who had a shipping business on the west coast of the United States. They settled also in the Los Angeles area. This is where Breer's father and mother met and they were married in 1863. When Breer was a child growing up his family had a redwood cottage they stayed in for the summer months in Santa Monica, some 16 miles away that took about a three and a half hours one way by horse and buggy from their Los Angeles home. Breer participated in the operations at his father's blacksmith shop where he constructed horse-drawn carriages when he was a teenager. There he learned the basics of iron works and acquired journeyman blacksmith skills.

Breer was 14 years old in 1897 when he was given a personalized tour of the Los Angeles Water Works pumping plant by Fred J. Fisher, the engineer in charge. During the tour he noticed an innovation that Fisher made a homemade electric generator to generate electricity for light bulbs in the dark corners of the plant. Mr. Fisher became Breer's mentor. He would often visit him at the plant on weekends and when out of school. He copied Fisher's generator, using it to light his family's home. This was Breer's first inspiration for engineering.

Mid life

Breer was 17 years old in 1900 when he was inspired to build a motor-driven car. The inspiration came when he saw a Duryea motorized horseless carriage in his neighborhood. He confided in Fisher and they decided to build a steam engine for the new car, since Breer's blacksmithing experience had given him some understanding of what was needed. Using Stanley Steamer designs from a magazine as an initial guide, he roughed-out a two-cylinder steam engine, from which he drew detailed sketches of the component parts. He took the drawings and a wood-carved model of the cylinder block to a foundry to be cast. When the foundry failed on several attempts to make the casting, Breer asked if he could try using their facilities and made a satisfactory cylinder on his first attempt.

Breer made additional parts needed for the steam engine. One piece was a Bunsen-type burner fueled by gasoline to heat the boiler for the steam. This required about 3,000 small holes to be drilled into the inner chamber of the air tubes. Since there was no drill that could do this, Breer improvised a high-speed Pelton type drill press that operated on water pressure from their outdoor water faucet. With his innovation, the holes were drilled in a short time. Breer assembled his car in 1901, with some help in upholstery, trimming and painting the car supplied by hired carriage workers. The maiden voyage of Breer's steam car was made in September 1901.

Several improvements were made to the car over the next couple of years. One was a spare gas tank for the boiler, so that he could go trout fishing with his brother Bill at San Gabriel Canyon near Azusa, California—some 35 miles away on rough dirt roads, a trip not possible with horse and buggy. Breer registered his car, as was required by Los Angeles for all horseless carriages, and obtained a favored locomotive number, 666.

Breer rated his steam car at 25–35 miles per hour or about twice the speed of a horse. His car was more efficient than a horse for long-distance travel and hill climbing. While his steam car was more effective this way, it was determined by English engineers that steam-powered cars were less effective than gasoline-powered cars. They conclude they could not compete with gas cars under a 1,000 horsepower rating. Also a gasoline car would start instantly, where a steam-powered car took time to build up its power. A gas car was more efficient in miles per gallon and a more compact vehicle. These reasons motivated some steam-powered car companies to convert to gasoline vehicles.

Career

The Tourist Automobile Company

Breer wanted a job and experience, so he applied at the Tourist Automobile Company (a major United States west coast manufacturer of automobiles at the time), located then at North Main and Alameda Street in Los Angeles. He had no prior job experience to offer to the head of the service garage, but demonstrated his steam car he made that he drove there. This obtained for him the first official engineering job during his summer vacations from high school to demonstrate, service and design steam-powered automobiles. This led to other similar job opportunities from East Coast steam-powered automobiles such as Toledo Steam Cars, the Spalding, the Northern, and the White Steamer. He was also a developer of the cutting edge two-cylinder steam powered Durocar that had advanced mechanical features.

Los Angeles Commercial High School that he attended had no credit standing for an official mechanical engineer. In 1904 he drove his steam car from Los Angeles to Pasadena and showed it to Throop Polytechnic Institute (forerunner of Caltech). The school enrolled him in a one-year term which he completed with full credits as a mechanical engineer. He then qualified to be able to go to Stanford University in the fall of 1905 to learn advanced mechanical engineering.

Allis-Chalmers

Breer graduated from Stanford University in 1909 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and became a mechanical engineer. He soon received a job opportunity from Allis-Chalmers of West Allis, Wisconsin near Milwaukee and initially went through their two-year apprenticeship course. Allis-Chalmers selected twenty-five of the best students of mechanical engineering from top universities of the United States. Besides Breer, Frederick Morrell Zeder was such a student. Zeder was from the University of Michigan. Breer and Zeder became close friends in their training at Allis-Chalmers.

Studebaker

Breer moved to California in 1911 and was employed by the Moreland Motor Truck Company. He helped organize the Home Electric Auto Works company in 1914, but soon lost interest and sold his ownership share to his partner. He then built for himself a combination experimental garage and shop in 1916. In this same year he received a letter from his friend Fred Zeder asking if he would be interested in joining him at Studebaker to organize a research division. Zeder was then chief engineer at Studebaker and was developing a new engineering department for them. He also invited Owen R. Skelton to Studebaker, bringing together the Zeder-Skelton-Breer engineering team, which came to be known as "The Three Musketeers".

Zeder's job was to develop engineering that replaced the obsolete Studebaker models. The engineers worked together efficiently and produced cutting-edge engineering technology that resulted in immediate profits for Studebaker. The " Big Six" Studebaker 1918 spring models came with such things as a unique clutch, lower center of gravity design, and detachable cylinder heads. Studebaker was so confident of the new technology that they discontinued making horse-drawn carriages in 1919.

Breer formed a close relationship with Fred M. Zeder and later with Owen R. Skelton. They all had an engineering background. Skelton's expertise was as a technical engineering design analyst. Breer had the capacity to solve difficult technical engineering problems (especially in engines) with existing technology, and Zeder was a capable administrator and salesman as well as an engineer. Breer was the oldest of the three.

World War I

Studebaker was involved in World War I obligations and built tanks for the United States Army. Breer was given the assignment of working on Liberty aircraft engines of the De Havilland biplane for the government during the end of World War I. His responsibility was to discover why the aircraft engines would break up and come apart. His work was analyzing the 50-hour engine tests. Many pilots were lost during the war because the engine would explode for no apparent reason within 50 hours. Breer eventually found that metal fatigue on certain connecting rods that came apart, then broke other parts. He was able to solve the problem eventually, but by then the war was over and the solution had no benefit for World War I pilots. However the solution was beneficial to pilots that followed, the airmail carriers particularly.

Walter P. Chrysler association

Walter P. Chrysler had just left Buick and General Motors and joined Willys enterprises as their vice-president in January 1920. Chrysler asked Breer, Zeder and Skelton if they wanted to join him at Willys-Overland. Breer with his two cohort engineers made several business trips to New York and the new cutting edge high-tech Willys factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The three elite engineers decided this would be an excellent move for them, as did 28 other of the best engineers from Studebaker. They all went to work designing a new car for Willys-Overland the "Chrysler". It was soon discovered that the Willys Corporation was out of money due to one of their branches taking all the reserves. Willys was bankrupt. Chrysler resigned from Willys in 1922 and became chairman of the board for Maxwell Motor Company.


Breer and his two cohorts formed a consultant business located in Newark, New Jersey - The Zeder, Skelton and Breer Engineering Company (initially financed by Chrysler), which consisted of other engineers from Studebaker. They rented from the Willys receivers the laboratories they had already established at the high tech plant at Elizabeth, New Jersey. The plant went up for auction from receivership and William C. Durant bought it for $5.5 million. Even though Chrysler help them get started in their consultant business, they contacted Durant for business since he bought the plant.

Durant wanted his failed Mercer car plant in Scranton rejuvenated and asked the Zeder, Skelton and Breer Engineering Company to go there. After seeing the old brewery building where the cars were being made they decided against moving there. Breer and his cohort engineers settled on a deal with Durant instead to design a new engine for Durant's Locomobile, a car company Durant acquired in 1922. The company of high end automobiles for the Durant Motor Company went out of business, but not due to the engines which were satisfactory. Breer and his engineers then designed another engine for Durant, ultimately built by Continental Motors of Detroit. The plant where the actual automobile was built was located in Flint, Michigan. The "Flint car" was designed to compete with the Ford automobile and called the "Star". Breer and his cohorts had nothing to do with the "Star" car design, just the engine.

In 1923 when Breer was on vacation with his family in California, Zeder and Skelton had a meeting with Mr. Chrysler in New York about the possibility of installing their engine in a new car and calling it a "Chrysler". The three engineers designed a car and started working with engineering at Maxwell Motor Company where Mr. Chrysler was the vice-president. It was to become Chrysler's first car, the 1924 Model B-70 Chrysler. The 'Three Musketeers' (Zeder, Skelton, and Breer) and their group of engineers (originally from Studebaker) was now working for Maxwell Motor Company. This new car with the three engineers' engine needed $5 million to start its production, which the Maxwell Motor Company could not furnish. The Chrysler automobile was to be shown at the 1924 New York Auto Show, which likely would have produced and secured the loan necessary for production. Because the "Chrysler" was not in official production it did not qualify to be shown. However Chrysler rented the lobby at the Hotel Commodore (show's headquarters) and displayed the "Chrysler" there. The necessary financing was secured from Chase Securities Corporation. Chrysler produced 32,000 automobiles in 1924 and sold them for the same price as the Buick. The $5 million loan produced a profit of over $4 million. The Maxwell Motor Company was reformed into the Chrysler Corporation in 1925.

Chrysler Engineering School

The first class of the Chrysler Engineering School was formed from 16 engineering graduates with degrees in professional fields. They were selected in September 1931 from several hundred candidates representing 15 universities. Consideration was given to their academic and personal qualifications for their selection. Breer and Zeder were instrumental in expediting the school, taking inspiration from having done the Allis-Chalmers student apprenticeship course years before. They based their curriculum on the major industrial schools in the United States and the Chrysler way of engineering. The leading universities accepted credit from this school towards advanced degrees.

Airflow car

One day in the late twenties while driving Breer saw a formation of Republic Army planes flying low across the highway in the distance. This lead him to consider the idea of airflow and a relationship to cars. Wind tunnels for aeronautical purposes were very expensive, so one of the engineers consulted with Orville Wright. In a few months time they had made a 20 X 40 space as an aerodynamic lab for testing various shapes of small car models. The wind tunnel they built had a throat of 20 inches X 30 inches in cross section. The wind creating propellers were driven by a 35 hp motor that could be regulated for various speeds. The first models they tested were of production cars. The results were shown by black smoke from an oil lamp.

When the aerodynamists were doing their tests, Breer suggested they test the models in the opposite direction. They were astonished to find that the air resistance drag was 30% less this way. Breer looking out a window then made the remark

This test resulted in the idea that an automobile shape should not be box-shaped, but like a blimp in front and tapered off to a smaller section in the rear. This made airflow much more efficient since it then would be close to the body as it flowed toward the rear. Breer's idea of running a car in the opposite direction for streamlining was the birth of the Chrysler Airflow automobile. The first experimental Airflow cars were the model Trifon of the later 1920s, prototypes done in secret. The Airflow was first produced in 1934 and continued through 1937 when it was determined that the sales were so poor it was not worth producing.

Popular wisdom is that the Airflow was a failure. While it was commercially unsuccessful, its massive change in profile, use of a modern (and heretofore unknown) space frame instead of a 'ladder chassis', and its reconfiguration of the auto's basic design and a massive redistribution of weight, all made it one of the most important car designs of the thirties. That it was ahead of its time, out of sync with popular taste, and did not sell does not diminish either its innovation or its artistic and technological merit and long-term importance. Breer wrote in his published autobiography (Parts III - V) about the Airflow Car. It was replaced by a model called the Airstream, that sold better.

Personal life

In 1915, Breer married Barbara, who was Fred Zeder's sister. She was seven years younger than Breer and they had their first child, Carl Frederick, in 1919. Carl and Barbara had three children (boys) by 1930. The Breer family often spent their summers at Gratiot Beach in Port Huron, Michigan, with their sons. Carl and Barbara had four children by 1940, all boys. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1976.

Later life and death

Breer retired from Chrysler management in 1949, but continued as a consultant for another four years. He spent the last five weeks of his life in a hospital prior to his death on December 21, 1970. His wife died in 1964.

References

Bibliography

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Breer, Carl
1883 births
1970 deaths
American automotive pioneers
American founders of automobile manufacturers
American people of German descent
American chief executives of manufacturing companies
Chrysler executives
Studebaker people
Machinists
Mechanics (trade)
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Michigan
Engineers from Michigan
Engineers from California
20th-century American businesspeople