Friday 5th March 1875

The Wisconsin state legislature offered a $10,000 reward to any man who could supply “a cheap and practical substitute for use of horse and other animals on highway and farm”. In 1895, Selden received U.S. Patent No. 549,160 for his “road engine.” With the granting of the patent, Selden, whose designs were generally inferior to those of his contemporary automotive pioneers, won a monopoly on the concept of combining an internal combustion engine with a carriage. Although Selden never became an auto manufacturer, every automaker would have to pay him a percentage of their profits for the right to construct a motor car. In 1903, Henry Ford refused to pay Selden the percentage, arguing that his design had nothing to do with Selden’s. After a long drawn-out legal case that ended in 1911, the New York Court of Appeals upheld Selden’s patent for all cars of the particular out-dated construction he originally described, and in doing so ended Selden’s profitable reign as the father of the automobile. Ironically, it wasn’t until Ford’s Model T that the car became a significant substitute for “the horse and other animals” as stipulated in the aforementioned challenge issued by the Wisconsin legislature. By that time, Henry Ford didn’t need the $10,000.