With clever engineering, Graham successfully introduced supercharging to the mid-priced field and built more supercharged cars than anyone in the 1930s. 

Brothers Joseph, Robert, and Ray Graham were successful entrepreneurs in a wide range of enterprises, from agriculture to glass to auto manufacturing—today we would call them venture capitalists. After selling their Graham Brothers Truck Company to Dodge Brothers and departing from Dodge senior management, they immediately reentered the auto industy in 1927, acquiring the Paige-Detroit Company and renaming  it Graham-Paige. And from the beginning, the brothers decided the new brand would need special features to stand out among the vast herd of independent automakers.

One area where Graham chose to stand apart  was in styling. Amos Northup was commissioned to design the trend-setting 1932 Graham Blue Streak (see our feature here) and the striking sharknose 1938 Graham (here). For mechanical innovation, the brothers turned to their veteran assistant chief engineer, Floyd K. Kishline, who was working on one of the hot new trends in the auto industry at that moment: supercharging.

It so happened that Kishline was a friend of supercharger pioneer Louis Switzer, and he freely adopted the same general centrifugal blower layout Switzer-Cummins produced for Duesenberg and Auburn. But unlike the systems engineered for these more expensive cars, the Graham setup was cleverly engineered for bare minimum cost. Graham’s cars were then priced in the $750-$1330 range, roughly in Oldsmobile territory.

Intead of costly precision ball bearings, Kishline used plain bushings to support the blower shaft, carefully sorting out their lubrication. He devised a novel cone worm gearbox to drive the blower from the back of the water pump, using a pair of flexible couplings to dampen torsional vibrations. In place of the usual (and expensive) machined blower impeller, he worked with Bohn Aluminum and Brass of Detroit to develop a low-cost cast aluminum impeller in a special alloy,saving untold dollars.

Delayed for a time by poor economic conditions, Kishline’s ingenious blower setup was first used on the 1934 Supercharged Custom Eight, shown above. A very conventional L-head straight eight that displaced 265.4 cubic inches, it managed to produce 135 hp at  4,000 rpm as the supercharger both lifted and extended the power range. (Its slightly smaller, normally aspirated sibling was rated at 95 hp at 3400 rpm.) This was accomplished with a conservative 3.5 psi of boost, with the 7.5-inch impeller turning at 5.75 times engine speed or 23,000 rpm. While the blower added around $170 to the list price, the Supercharged Custom Eight was capable of nearly 90 mph.

When the straight eight was dropped for 1937, the supercharger assembly was transplanted to the company’s L-head straight six engines. This required relocating. the unit from the right side of the engine to the left and adding a belt drive, but otherwise the systems are similar. By this time Kishline was promoted to chief engineer, and he and his staff adapted the blower to both the 199.1 CID and 217.8 CID sixes. They were good for 106 hp and 116 hp, respectively. However, for 1938 the smaller six was discontinued.

In its ultimate 1941 tune, the Graham supercharged six (above) was rated at 124 hp at 4,000 rpm, still from the same 217.6 cubic inches, with 185 lb-ft of torque at 2400 rpm. (That works out to 128 psi BMEP, very respectable for a prewar flathead six.) In its final appearance it powered the ill-conceived, Cord-bodied Graham Hollywood (below). While the final total is difficult to nail down with any precision, historians agree that in the years before World War II, Graham-Paige surely built more supercharged automobiles than anyone in the United States.