Leland, Henry Martyn

born Feb. 16, 1843, Danville, Vt., U.S.

died March 26, 1932, Detroit, Mich.

U.S. engineer and manufacturer.

Trained as a machinist, he founded Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Co. in Detroit in 1890 to build engines for automobile makers. In 1904 he merged the company into his newly founded Cadillac Motor Car Co., where he created the successful Model A Cadillac. In 1917 he founded the Lincoln Motor Co., which was purchased by Henry Ford in 1922. He was known for his rigorous standards; his innovations included the V-8 engine and adoption of the electric starter.

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▪ American engineer and manufacturer

born Feb. 16, 1843, Danville, Vt., U.S.

died March 26, 1932, Detroit

      American engineer and manufacturer whose rigorous standards contributed to the development of the automobile.

      After an apprenticeship as a machinist in Worcester, Mass., he worked in the U.S. Armory at Springfield, Mass., during the American Civil War and for the next 18 years at a factory in Providence, R.I., where he supervised the sewing-machine division.

      In 1890 Leland moved to Detroit, where he soon organized Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to build engines for automobile makers. In 1903 he created his own motorcar, the Model A Cadillac, a machine that proved successful and remained in production for several years. In 1908 the British distributor of Cadillac dramatized Leland's meticulous production system at the Royal Automobile Club's test facility at Brooklands, near London, by having three Cadillacs disassembled, the parts scrambled, and all three cars reassembled; each performed flawlessly in 500-mile tests, winning Leland the Dewar Trophy. In 1917 Leland resigned from the Cadillac company, of which he was president, to start the Lincoln Motor Company, which passed into the hands of Henry Ford. Among Leland's automotive innovations were the V-8 engine and adoption of the electric starter.

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