Backbones of lansing with ichigan State University and State Capitol and we have automobile manufacturing. Kept lansing a very successful town. R. E. And with building this. One of the founders of the Automobile Industry in the united states. Here with his family when he was about 16 and his ander had a Machine Company they repaired machine and built and engines steam engines that is where he became familiar process. Manufacturing this is late 1800s and he hated horses and said theres got to better way to get around than a horse. In his fathers shop trying to build something selfpropelled nd behind me is a three wheel car he built. Steam powered and didnt work well. Three orilt the engine four times and finally scrapped it and he with built a bigger wheel steam car and it worked pretty well. There were remember no selfpropelled vehicles. He only sever propelled were maybe a steam engine, train or ship or Something Like that. Selfpropelled cars or automobiles. Name at t even have a the time. They had bicycles. Hat is the selfpropelled vehicle. He took the ideas and went with them. To have this guy in his running around lansing riving this thing but it worked. He could go 20 or 30 miles at the time with it. It caught the eye of a couple of investors and they said we want a car. Make they built three. And they sold them. In of them they got back and 1915 that car was given to smith sonnian and when we opened this we received it from the smithsonian. Aware in the 18 we are in the one of the three that were made in 1897. Rarest car we have. It is a gasoline car. Trap because once you got in the back seat and unkind got in the front of trapped in the back. What makes it unique and there were no cars on the road so you can find horses never be a bicycle but find a powered vehicle. This was the first of its kind. Three cars were done and the same investors said a car company so he bought his dad as company and works and e engine took that Profitable Company and put that into the olds motor the new company there were going to build cars with. Smith was the bigger backer. E lived in detroit and was a u. P. G guy and up in the apnd he put most of the money i. And started is he said if im going to be your car company we are going to build it in detroit. Built a factory in detroit and built prototypes and 1899 when they incorporated. Y 1901 they were going to production and the building burned down, the whole factory burned to the ground. Of lansing bestm usinessmen and said we have 53 acres we will give you if you will rebuild in lansing. Only took them up but rebuilt the factory in detroit in lansing factory all in 1901 and by the end of 1901 they had built 525 cars on that he had ine developed. The first car that came to roduction was this is what put oldsmobile on the map. He was a pioneer in the Automobile Industry. This has a gain engine and one ylinder between engine and slung underneath the car and it had a tiller steering, easy to operate. You crank the motor up on the a e and it had two gears and slow speed and top speed and reverse gear. That was very successful. Built 525 the first year. And third. Cond that is what propelled the olds business. S into in building tease cars he also these cars he built a assembly line. There car moved from station it 1901. On and this was in henry didnt sell his first car ntil 1907 and he watched this and said i can do it better. Here and a belt in make this assembly lane better and he did. Wanted to th family build big cars. Hey saw it as prestige and big money and big profit. R. E. Said no we are building a small car. It is good for the masses. It is easy to drive and maintain going tois what we are do and they got in a dispute and said im out 3 he of here. E lost control of his olds gasoline engine works because that was collateral to buy into the olds motor works. Believe there were making a profit and the smiths sold off works. Ds gasoline engine so, after the dispute he got out, he was not going to build any more cars. He was wealthy and made a lot of money and a group of lansing same group that got the factory going in lansing to build nt you another car. We will give you 51 because you the brains. We need your patent and the hings that you know to start another company. They did. They could not use olds any more they lost that. Oldsmobile owned his name so he initials. 1904 and d started in it is a real Motor Car Company 1904 we have two Car Companies in lansing. Then. E the motor city so, this little car you think it might be a toy it is not. R. E. Built this car in 1905 to new York Auto Show nd it was for dealers only and it was to show the dealers or the ective dealers what 1906 touring car was going to look like. Ahead of its time. They didnt have the dyes or a half scale built model all by end. Tires that 13 inch has 26. That is what started. R. E. O. Car company and it was ot for sale although he probably took several orders. People wanted this car for their kids or whatever. No we are not going to build that. Popular car a very during the day. But this was to be the heart and soul of the r. E. O. Mortgage car company. There were very advanced for day. R they always did things ahead of everybody else. A fullfledged Company Building several models of cars and all production of came to lansing in 1905 and this was a big automobile town then. Forgingre factories and companies and great for the city. Ofs man brought in thousands jobs and us thats of works and and d thousands of works now we can build churches and hospitals and this whole thing r. E. O. And F Development of a car. They built r. E. O. Mortgage cars and the depression will a lot to do that. They started building trucks. This is an example of a 1911r. E. O. Truck. First that e of the built companies. Were for packages and this was more utility vehicle. You could put something in the around. Carry it it was not a car. This s this is the r. E. O. Speed wagon. Wagons e called speed because there were fast for their days, faster than any utility type of vehicle. They had a bigger engine. Follows the 1923 and this became their stock in trade of the trucks. They were very popular trucks. Wagonen , r. E. O. Speed all they this was a rio and they r. E. O. Speed wagonen and i think the drumer liked call ame and said lets wagon. Ves r. E. O. Speed they built trucks until 1975. Company y the truck would be bought out and they would be bought out by the Truck Company but the r. E. O. Was so popular they were diamond r. E. O. So he was r. E. O. Company through the 1936 when it ceased exist, the truck portion. A lot of things for the community. One big impact that he had on about we are talking going from horses to building ancillary things that go with that, the mills,. Hops, forges they had read and 0 and fisher body r. E. O. Half that many. How he is that is got some people to work. Outou take lansing and r. E. Of the equation we wouldnt have the manufacturing we have today. Started the manufacturing. That is why weve the manufacturing in lansing today. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] we recently traveled it its ng to learn about history. To the watch more video from cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching american every tv all weekend weekend on cspan 3. Tonight we visit the tulane classroom of Professor John ray proctor to earn about play write August Wilson his contribution to africanamerican theater and pla play. Here is a preview. Perform the narrative of blackness in such a it becomes universal, maybee there can be america t the rest of to go you know what, this that hasg of blockness blackness that has happened level step gical away it is just a mother and that is a son. Look at rose and troy in we are hearing the story of a man and a woman, right . They dont really concern themselves with the white world around them. They are concerned with their lives. Process of exposing or deeply personal, showing the specific and personal is an attempt it make did to make that universal. Learn more about August Wilson tonight at 8 00 p. M. And midnight on lectures and history. The classroom here on American History tv. The Manhattan Project was a Nuclear Weapons research and conducted operation during word war two. It was disbanded in 1946 one the wars under. History tv a an veteran talks about the aftermath and impact on the main developmental oak ridge, tennessee. He focuses on the years 1945 it 1950. The American Museum science and energy in ok ridge hosted this event. To be here at the American Museum of science and energy. The talk tonight is focusing on the first five years after the war. A great many changes have occurred. What