Although many automobile companies started off building bicycles, some began with more mundane goods.

The George N.

Pierce Company of Buffalo, later to build the prestigious Pierce-Arrow, began with bird cages, then ice boxes.

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Peerless Manufacturing Company was making clothes wringers.

In 1901, the firm took a license from DeDion in France to build what it called the “Motorette,” a single-cylinder tricycle.

This was followed by two- and four-passenger versions, and soon by 12 and 16 horsepower vertical twin engines.

By 1904, the Peerless line included 24 and 35 horsepower fours with touring and limousine bodies.

Key to all these developments was engineer Louis P.

Mooers.

Mooers, a talented engineer from New Haven, Connecticut, had built a car of his own in 1900, but could not find financing to manufacture it.

He set out for Ohio when Peerless advertised for a chief engineer, putting the Motorettes into production and designing the twin-cylinder en...