One of the most original and cleverly engineered cars in the early years of the Motor City was the 1907-13 Brush.

Alonson Partridge Brush (1878-1952) was one of the most inventive minds of the early auto industry. (For an enjoyable afternoon or two, run a patent search on his name.) Starting his career with Henry Leland at Leland & Faulconer, he lent his self-taught engineering talents to the products of Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Oakland, Ferro, and Scripps-Booth. And with the backing of investors led by Frank Briscoe, in 1907 he introduced a car under his own name, the Brush. It was unlike any other car on the road, and it sold at the impossibly low price of $500, sometimes even lower.

To reduce cost, wood was used extensively in the construction. The frame rails were of white ash and the axles were hickory, as hardwood was cheap and plentiful in Michigan and the components could be produced on inexpensive machinery. Brush’s original ideas can be seen throughout the car. For example, the coil springs at all four wheels are arranged to work in tension on bump rather than in compression (above).

Due to its novel wood constuction, the Brush earned the taunt, “Wooden frame, wooden axles, wouldn’t run,” but it was more of a playful jibe than an actual critique. In truth, Brushes were known for their sturdy and reliable nature, especially for such a low-priced car. While the two-seat Brush Runabout was the most common style, the company also produced some closed models and a delivery van. For truly pennywise buyers, the Brush could be purchased with solid rubber tires rather than pneumatic for $50 less.

The Brush engine (above) was simple in the extreme, with a single water-cooled cylinder, an L-head arrangement with its valves at the front, and a large flywheel to smooth out the torque variation. With a 4.0-in bore, 5.0-in stroke, and 62.8 cubic-inch displacement, it was rated at 6.4 hp. Another noteworthy Brush innovation: the engine ran in reverse rotation for greater safety in hand cranking. A two-cylinder version of this engine was briefly produced by Brush, and a variant was also adopted by Oakland. Following his departure from his namesake company, A.P. Brush enjoyed a long career as a freelance engineer.

In 1910, Brush was acquired by Benjamin Briscoe’s United States Motor Company, an early attempt at an auto conglomerate that also included Maxwell, Columbia, Stoddard-Dayton, and others. A stripped-down version called the Liberty Brush was offered at the impossibly low price of $350, but like most of the U.S. Motor brands, the company failed to thrive and it ceased operations in 1913. The Brush factory on Oakland Avenue was acquired by Maxwell in the reorganization, and it survived into the 1990s as part of the Chrysler Highland Park complex.