An Illustrated Directory of the Specifications of All Domestic and Foreign…

This is the automotive industry in its most chaotic, glorious infancy. Published in 1907, when the automobile was still a bold experiment rather than a certainty, this exhaustive directory captures a moment of remarkable diversity: steam cars that whispered down quiet streets, electric vehicles considered the clean choice, and gas-powered machines being wrestled into respectability. Here are hundreds of vehicles from American and foreign manufacturers, each rendered with specifications that tell their own story: engine configurations, horsepower ratings, wheelbases, prices, and the names of companies that would vanish within a decade or endure into legend. For the automotive enthusiast, this is not mere reference material but a portal. To browse these pages is to stand in a 1907 showroom, to see the road ahead as it once appeared: uncertain, exciting, full of possibilities that history would close off. Steam gave way to petroleum. Electric faded until the twenty-first century. The names here - Oldsmobile, Ford, Cadillac - are familiar, but the machines they built bear only faint resemblance to what came later. This is where it all began, captured in specs and illustrations.