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| The opportunities presented by the development of the automobile industry nationally were
not lost on Sidney entrepreneurs. W.H.C. Goode gathered a
group of investors together in 1915, bought the assets of the defunct Bimel buggy
business, and formed the Bimel Spoke and Auto Works to manufacture auto parts. With T. M.
Miller, formerly a manufacturer in the buggy business as general manager/treasurer and
A.C. Noble as president, the company opened for business in February of 1915. It was
located at the old Bimel Buggy site on Miami Avenue across from (west of) Clinton Street,
just south of the canal. It was these two men who decided to manufacture an automobile later that year when the Elco Four model became available. Originally, this car was to have been built in Elwood, Indiana, by the Elwood Iron Works. The company went bankrupt before getting its product to market. The Elco was a four-cylinder, 30 horse-power gasoline car selling for $585. Initially, the cars continued to be marketed under the Elco name, (Elco 30) but ads in "The Sidney Daily News" promoted the roadster and touring models to Shelby County, Ohio, residents as a ‘Bimel F’. It is believed that the Bimel F and the Elco 30 were the same car, with the Bimel name emphasized in this case for ‘home town’ use. By July of the first year, management announced that the plant was producing four Elco 30 vehicles a day! In April, 1916, the Bimel Automobile Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $500,000. The success of the company was short-lived, however. The firm survived a year and went into a receivership by early 1917. The American Motor Parts Company of Indianapolis bought the assets of the company in May of that year. A few finished cars remained on hand, and these were also sold under the Bimel name. [Back] [Next] [Up] [New Search] Industry segment written in January, 1998 by Rich Wallace |