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Excerpt from:
History of the FWD Company
Story by Albert Mroz, Menlo Park, California
Photos by Don Chew, Fred Perkins, and Albert Mroz
It’s hard to drive down the road today without being surrounded by four wheel
drive SUVs. But most of those SUV owners would be very surprised to discover
that four-wheel-drive was invented nearly 100 years ago. Ottow Zachow and his
brother-in-law, William Besserdich made automotive history in their
Clintonville, Wisconsin, machine shop when they created a practical
four-wheel-drive axle for motor vehicles. It was the first double-Y
universal-joint encased in a drop-forged ball and socket, which they patented in
1908.
After a successful test drive of their first vehicle, nicknamed “The
Battleship,” Joe Cotton, editor of the Clintonville Tribune, predicted:
“If the recently patented drive lives up to expectations, it will revolutionize
the automobile business and place the inventors, Zachow and Besserdich, on easy
street.”
Of course, things were not
that simple. Zachow and Besserdich’s new car building venture was first named
the Badger Four Wheel Drive Auto Company...For the whole story, subscribe to Old Time Trucks® and read the
Jun04/Jul04 2004 issue.
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History of FWD
