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N0KFQ > TODAY 03.09.15 16:03l 51 Lines 2284 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 65829_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Sep 3
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<GB7CIP<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150903/1400Z 65829@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1900
Charles Wisner's "Buzz-Wagon" debuts in Flint
On September 3, 1900, the first car ever made in Flint, Michigan
makes its debut in the town's Labor Day parade. Designed and
built by a county judge and weekend tinkerer named Charles H.
Wisner, the car was one of the only cars built in Flint that did
not end up being produced by General Motors. In the end, only
three of the Wisner machines were ever built.
Wisner's car, nicknamed the "Buzz-Wagon," was a somewhat
ridiculous contraption: it was "very noisy," according to The
Flint Journal; its only door was in the rear; and it had no
brakes. In order to stop, Wisner had to collide with something
sturdy, usually the side wall of his machine shop. At the Labor
Day parade, however, he didn't have a problem with the brakes;
instead, in front of 10,000 spectators, the car stalled and had
to be pushed off the parade route.
Wisner's lemon notwithstanding, Flint soon became the cradle of
the American auto industry. GM was formed there in 1908, and the
city quickly became known for all the Chevrolets and Buicks-not
to mention the engine parts and electronics-produced and
assembled there. The sit-down strikes at Flint's GM plants in
1936 and 1937 won union recognition for autoworkers along with a
30-hour workweek and a 6-hour day, overtime pay, seniority
rights, and "a minimum rate of pay commensurate with an American
standard of living." These victories guaranteed a middle-class
existence for generations of autoworkers. In fact, for a long
time, Flint had the highest average per-household income of any
city in the United States.
But GM has been declining painfully since the 1970s, and Flint
has suffered along with it. The 1988 film Roger & Me, which told
the story of 30,000 layoffs at one of Flint's GM plants, made the
city's woes famous. In July 1999, GM closed its Buick City
complex, the last assembly plant in the city. And in the
beginning of 2009, as a financial crisis enveloped the auto
industry and the nation as a whole, Michigan's Genesee County
(which includes Flint) had an unemployment rate of nearly 15
percent-higher than it had been in 18 years and almost twice the
national average.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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