Cornell engineering graduate, JohnWilkinson, designed his first prototype air cooled cars for the New York Automobile Co.

but, unsurprisingly fell out with them when he failed to be properly recompensed.

Finding financial backing from Alexander T.Brown, combined with support from Herbert H Franklin, Wilkinson's prototype designs went into production with the H.H.Franklin Mfg.

Co.

of Syracuse, the first car leaving the production line in June 1902.

From the outset, air-cooled engines were the norm for Franklin with four cylinder engine units featuring overhead valves, early examples being transversely mounted at the front in European rather than typically American style.

The Franklin was robustly built and stood up well to the dust roads of the time.

Remarkably in 1904 L.L.Whitman, driving a Franklin, challenged the records set by Winton and Packard for the trans-America drive from New York City to San Francisco, setting a new record of just 33 days and gaining hugely valuable pu...