Well known in its time but barely a footnote today, the 1900-12 Elmore was America’s  popular two-stroke automobile.

The pioneer years of the automobile were a challenge for car makers and car buyers alike. With the engineering in its infancy, manufacturers struggled to develop marketable products. And buyers found early automobiles so prone to breakdowns and complicated to operate that many well-to-do families hired mechanic-chauffeurs to drive and service their vehicles for them.

As automakers fought the complexities of the early automobile, some chose the obvious path of simplifying their machines, and one seemingly attractive solution was the two-stroke engine. With fewer moving parts than the standard four-stroke design, there were fewer things for the factory to get wrong. Manufacturers of two-stroke automobiles in the USA included American Simplex, Sunset, Atlas, and others, but the best known of them was probably the Elmore of Clyde, Ohio.

Like so many of their peers, the Becker brothers, Burton and James, came to the automobile business through bicycle manufacturing, building their first car in 1900 and launching series production as the Elmore Manufacturing Co. in 1902. The bicycle enterprise had taken its name from its original home in Elmore, Ohio, midway between Cleveland and Toledo, but moved 25 miles southeast to a vacant organ factory in Clyde in 1897.

The basic Elmore powerplant (above) was about as simple as an internal combustion engine can be. Thre were only three moving parts inside: piston, crankshaft, and connecting rod. A three-port aka bypass-port setup, this type of two-stroke is familiar to us on millions of outdoor tools and motorcycles. (At the time this system was known as the Clark-Day patent, for which the Beckers acquired the rights.)  Air-fuel mixture is admitted into the crankcase, where it is compressed and sent into the the bypass chamber and to the cylinder itself as the piston covers and uncovers the appropriate ports. Just two strokes: compression and expansion.

There was no reed valve or anything else in the Elmore, only a simple wire-mesh screen in the bypass chamber (labeled H above) to prevent flashover and a deflector fin on the piston (G) to limit pumping losses. With no valves, the Elmore was enthusiastically marketed as “valveless,” an attractive selling point when poppet valvetrains were so erratic and undependable.

Early single-cylinder Elmores used a bore and stroke in the neighborhood of 4.5 by 4.0 inches for a total displacement of 60 cubic inches and power ratings of from 5 to 9 horsepower. With a power stroke every crank revolution, the output was competitive with the four-stroke, single-cylinder Oldsmobile and others of its class, despite its smaller displacement.

Above left is the engine in a 1904 Model 9, which was mounted horizontally in the middle of the chassis and coupled to a basic two-speed planetary transmission and chain drive. A twin-cylinder version was offered by simply installing a second engine alongside the first, neatly doubling the power.

As Elmore models grew more sophisticated, three and four-cylinder engines were produced by combining the company’s two-stroke cylinder assemblies on a common crankcase, as shown on the 1908 Elmore above right. Later on, Elmore developed a more complex two-stroke engine that used stepped pistons and a tubular rotary valve to provide a compression phase, getting the air-fuel mixture out of the crankcase and providing up to 70 hp, but it sacrificed the utter simplicity of the original design.

From 1902 through 1904, the company produced one and two-cylinder vehicles with the engine under the seat and starting in 1903, bodywork similar to the Ford Model A: a two-seat runabout with an optional rear entrance tonneau section for two more passengers. In 1905 a false-front hood was offered, but the engine remained under the seat. Throughout the company’s history, all production Elmores featured right-hand drive, and from 1903 on, a steering wheel.

In 1906 the little Elmore grew up, if you will, with a range of vertical inline engines of three or four cylinders, all two-strokes, mounted up front with power ratings of 30 hp and more—impressive output at the time, especially for the price. Most every body style was offered, closed and open (1910 Model 36 Laundalet below) and the company thrived, building as many as 1000 cars per year and employing 200 workers. In September of 1909, General Motors founder William C. Durant, on an acquisition spree, purchased Elmore and all its assets for either $500,000 or an even $1,000,000 (accounts differ). Hedging his bets, he guessed that two-stroke engines might possibly be the future.

Years later, Durant reflected on his purchase, saying,  “”How was I to know what these engineers would say next?” Of the two-stroke engine he mused, “That’s the kind they were then using on motorboats, so maybe two-cycles were going to be the thing for automobiles.” But by then the two-stroke had reached the limits of its potential, at least for a while, while four-strokes were continually improving.

A true visionary but financially reckless, Durant was ousted from GM in 1910, and in cleaning up his tangled mess of purchases, the company’s management dissolved Elmore and closed down the Clyde plant in September of 1912. Americans would not see two-stroke gasoline automobiles again in any numbers until Saab and others arrived here from Europe in the 1950s.