A CAR NAMED HOTCHKISS
business, Benjamin moved to France in 1867, in part to search for new markets for his military hardware, but also, as the story goes, to marry his mistress. In France, he started a munitions factory, Hotchkiss et Cie, in a suburb of Paris. There, he helped supply Napoleon III with quick-firing rifles. Business thrived; by the early 1880s, there were five Hotchkiss factories in five different European countries. But it wasn’t until nearly 20 years after Benjamin died in 1885 that plans for a Hotchkiss car reached the drawing table. When the market for firearms declined in peacetime, the company began directing its
efforts toward automobile manufacturing. In 1903, the first Hotchkiss car — an 18-horsepower, four-cylinder model — rolled off the factory floor. It debuted at the Paris Salon that same year, its distinctive round radiator bearing a crossed-gun badge, a nod to the company’s roots. By 1905, a six-cylinder model Hotchkiss had become the favored ride of the English aristocracy, competing with the RollsRoyce Silver Ghost for the distinction of most reliable car in the world. The Nizam of Hyderabad (Prince of India) rated the Hotchkiss his favorite among his fleet of
luxury cars; the Duke of Westminster and the Marquess of Linlithgow each had two Hotchkiss automobiles. Despite its popularity in Europe, the first Hotchkiss car was not imported to the U.S. until 1907. Meanwhile, the company continued to produce armaments. By 1914, it manufactured an air-cooled, gas-operated infantry machine gun mounted on tanks that was widely used by several countries, particularly France, during World War I. Over the years, the Hotchkiss company changed ownership several times, and the Hotchkiss had numerous incarnations. In
1954, the company merged with Delahaye, another French luxury car brand, to become Société Hotchkiss-Delahaye. In 1956, that company was taken over by Brandt, a household appliance maker, to become Hotchkiss-Brandt, which was bought in 1966 by Thomson-Houston. The company continued to manufacture military vehicles until 1967, and trucks until 1971. But today, the legacy of the Hotchkiss car has all but faded into history, and the only place you’re likely to spot one is at vintage car shows — or flipping through the pages of Tintin.
From the Dirt Roads of Lakeville to the Monte Carlo Speedway BY WENDY CARLSON
During the 1900s, they crossed the finish line in the French Riviera to win the coveted Monte Carlo Rally six times, and they even had a cameo in the Adventures of Tintin comic books. Savvy vintage automobile aficionados may know all about the car named Hotchkiss and its eccentric past, but most alumni aren’t aware of the French automobile’s connection to the School. Enter Mark Gall ’59, a longtime British car buff who has owned the same 1969 MGB for 48 years. He didn’t know the Hotchkiss car existed until last year, when he went to a British Motor Club of Oregon meeting and met a man named Frank Hotchkiss. Gall wondered if he had any relation to the School. He didn’t. But he did inform Gall about the Hotchkiss car. The news sent him digging to see if the car had any connection to Maria Bissell Hotchkiss, the School’s founder. The search led him to a 1981 article from a British publication, Automobile Quarterly, that traced the history of the Hotchkiss car
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H o t c h k i s s
M a g a z i n e
back to Benjamin Berkeley Hotchkiss, the husband of Maria Bissell Hotchkiss. As it turned out, the cars were made between 1903 and 1955 by the French company, Hotchkiss et Cie, in Saint-Denis, Paris. The car badge was a pair of crossed cannons, a clue to its Lakeville connection. Benjamin Hotchkiss had been a machinist in the Colt Firearms Factory in Hartford, founded by Colonel Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver and the Winchester rifle. He eventually set up his own shop in Sharon, CT, where he and his older brother, Andrew, also a machinist, began working on a new type of cannon projectile. It was so successful that during the Civil War, the brothers delivered more shells to the North than all the other suppliers combined. But that was just the beginning. Benjamin Hotchkiss went on to invent an even more popular firearm, a light mountain gun that could be mounted on mules and accompany a cavalry troop travelling in rough country. It would prove to be a decisive weapon during the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, and again in Cuba for the attack on San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. Buoyed by the success of his armament
CAR AD: HERITAGE IMAGE PARTNERSHIP LTD/AL AMY STOCK PHOTO; HOTCHKISS EMBLEM : LES L ADBURY/AL AMY STOCK PHOTO
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or a time, they were the chariot of choice for maharajahs.
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