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Origins of General Motors. Original, ma

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:450.00 USD Estimated At:900.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Origins of General Motors. Original, ma
Origins of General Motors. Original, massive manuscript ledger, 1911-12, providing an exhaustive picture of the myriad costs of running the Pontiac, Mich. factory of the Cartercar automobile - one of the companies assembled by William Durant in 1909 to form the new General Motors family. "The most famous, the most successful and the longest lived" friction-drive automobile (Standard Catalog of American Cars), the Cartercar was technologically unique in the GM family as the "car of a thousand speeds," as well as makers of the first "Pontiac." Heavy leather tome, spine gilt-stamped "Manufacturing Expense / Cartercar Co.," raised hubs, marbled endleaves and fore-edges. 11 -1/2 x 1 4 -1/4 , 394 ruled pp. (8 pp. lacking), of which about 130 pp. bear entries in brown, red, and green inks, some very full, others with just a few lines, depending on the type of expense. Several pages were skipped between each type of entry, to allow room for future entries. Rich content, with recording of monthly costs (but not descriptions) to install and test chassis, maintain blueprints, factory equipment, expenses of the laboratory, engineering, and drafting departments, wages, and many other fascinating items, reflecting the breadth of expenses of this innovative automaker, part of what would grow to one of the largest industrial enterprises in the world. Other pages of expenses titled "Maintenance Machine Cutting Tools...Furnaces, Forges & Ovens...Conveyors, Hoisting & Handling Machinery...Special Tools, Dies, Jigs & Templates...Loose & Hand Tools, Repairs to Old Tools... Departmental Furniture...Building...Telephone System" (27 for Mar. 1912)," "Cutting Oils, Compounds, Lubricants," "Wages of Foremen, Asst. Foremen..." (as much as $25,000 per month!), "Defective Workmanship" (fascinating), "Cleaning & Sweeping," "Miscellaneous Non-productive Labor," "Repairs to products occasioned by accidents in Factory," "Lost & Found Material," "Calculagraph Clock Clerks," "Watchmen, Messengers, Janitors & Elevator Men," "Travelling & Entertainment Expense" ($1.00 in Apr. 1911), "Miscellaneous Experimenting," "Defective Designs" (two full pp.), "Assembling & Repairing Parts & Cars After Assembling," "Washing Finished Cars," and much more. Outer hinges cracking, covers with some wear, but binding tight; internally generally clean and good or better. Ornate Detroit stationers' label. A major rarity from the earliest years of General Motors, reflecting the stark differences between costs of running a car company some 93 years ago and today.