Cadillac Series 341 A Fleetwood Limousine

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Cadillac was formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company. After a dispute between founder of Ford Motor Company and the sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production, Henry Ford (1863-1947) and his investors, Ford left the company along with several of his key partners in March 1902. Ford's financial backers William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in, american machinist, inventor, engineer and automotive entrepreneur Henry Martyn Leland (1843-1932) of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment in preparation for liquidating the company's assets. Instead, Leland persuaded the pair to continue manufacturing automobiles using Leland's proven single-cylinder engine. A new company called the Cadillac Automobile Company was established on 22 August 1902. It was named after French explorer and andventurer, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (1658-1730), who founded Detroit in 1701. From its earliest years, Cadillac aimed for precision engineering and stylish luxury finishes, causing its cars to be ranked amongst the finest in the United States. Cadillac was the first automobile manufacturer of a fully enclosed car in 1906. Cadillac participated in the 1908 interchangeability test in the United Kingdom, and was awarded the Dewar Trophy for the most important advancement of the year in the automobile industry. In 1912, Cadillac was the first automobile manufacturer to incorporate an electrical system enabling starting, ignition, and lighting. Cadillac was purchased by the General Motors (GM) conglomerate in 1909. Cadillac became General Motors' prestige division, devoted to the production of large luxury vehicles. The Cadillac line was also GM's default marque for "commercial chassis" institutional vehicles, such as limousines, ambulances, hearses and funeral home flower cars, the last three of which were custom-built by aftermarket manufacturers. It was positioned at the top of GM's vehicle hierarchy, above Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland, and Chevrolet. In 1926, Cadillac recruited initial designated head of Design at General Motors, later becoming Vice President, the first top executive ever appointed in Design of a major corporation in american history, Harley J. Earl (1893-1969). The first car he designed was the LaSalle, a new, smaller "companion marque" car, named after another French explorer and founder of Detroit, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. That marque remained in production until 1940. In 1934, U. S. businessman, Henry Frank Phillips (1889-1958) introduced the Phillips screw and driver to the market. He entered into talks with General Motors and convinced the Cadillac group that his new screws and drivers would speed assembly times and therefore increase profits. Cadillac was the first automaker to use the Phillips technology in 1937, which was widely adopted in 1940. Postwar Cadillac vehicles innovated many of the styling features that came to be synonymous with the late 1940s and 1950s American automobile. Incorporating many of the ideas of then General Motors styling chief Harley J. Earl, these included tailfins, wraparound windshields, and extensive use of chrome. Tailfins were first added in 1948 and reached their apex in 1959. From 1960 to 1964 they decreased each year until they disappeared in the 1965 model year (remaining only on the limited production 1965 Series 75 chassis, a carry-over from 1964). Detroit Assembly on Clark Street in Detroit, where Cadillacs had been made since 1921, closed in 1987.