1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile

The Curved Dash Oldsmobile is the invention of Ransom Eli Olds. He was the founder of the Olds Motor Works, the company that made the Curved Dash Oldsmobile. Mr. Olds also founded a town you may have heard of: Oldsmar! In 1915, he paid four hundred thousand dollars for 35,000 acres on Tampa Bay. Oldsmar was originally called R. E. Olds-on-the-Bay. It was a city designed for working people. The streets were paved with Oyster shells and a sawmill and foundry were built. There was library and a pier. Mr. Olds had invested nearly five million dollars in Oldsmar!

This is the 1901 Curved Dash Olsmobile, the very first American car to be mass-produced. Mass production is a method of producing a large number of goods at a low cost. Ransom Eli Olds knew that if he used this method of production, he could make many more cars in less time. Most other cars were still made by hand in 1901, one at a time, which took took much longer than mass production. So, most cars at the time were very, very expensive, and not many people could afford to buy a car! But Ransom Eli Olds paved the way for change with the mass production of the 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile.