As with most new products and inventions, there is a rather cloudy line that distinguishes who was first. This holds true for airplanes, phones and slot cars. In the case of the automobile, it is stipulated that Daimler and Benz were the first to "manufacture" a car in the late 1800's, but the manufacturer that had the most impact on the industry to the point where it first began in 1900, and without which the industry might have been set back by decades, was Ransom E. Olds.

He built the first auto factory in Detroit in 1900. A young automotive wizard from Lansing who had actually built cars and ran them several years before the Duryeas did and perhaps as early as Daimler and Benz in Germany. But they were steam-powered and Olds was coming to the view that the relatively new internal-combustion gasoline engine was the way to go.

The first Olds plant was built on East Jefferson, near the Belle Isle Bridge. While the plant was being built, Olds' engineering people designed and built 11 pilot models, including several sizes of cars and a couple of electrics.

Among them was a small, light horseless carriage with a single-cylinder, water-cooled four-cycle engine at the rear. Its most distinctive feature was its curved dashboard. The little Curved Dash Olds was a favorite in the plant, but it was not widely known to the public and was not much of a factor in the company's sales. That car was considered a "mascot" or a "toy."

But in March, 1901, fire destroyed most of the Olds Motor Works and the only car that was saved was the Curved Dash Olds. Olds decided to rebuilt immediately and to put all the firm's production resources into the little Curved Dash Olds, the "Merry Oldsmobile" of musical fame.

It was a momentous decision, because it committed Olds to production of a small, relatively inexpensive car, the first "high-volume" model. Disproving the adage that it's an ill wind that blows no good, the fire had a positive effect -- news of the fire made thousands of people aware of the car. Inquiries and orders began arriving, some accompanied by cash payments.

One of the ways auto makers drew attention to their vehicles in those early days was to take trips in them. No one had driven from Detroit to New York, so Olds commissioned a young associate, Roy D. Chapin, to drive a Curved Dash Olds to New York for an appearance at the New York Auto Show.

Chapin left Detroit on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1901. The New York show opened the following Saturday, Nov. 2. He went through Ontario to Niagara Falls, covering 278 miles on Wednesday, an amazing performance for its time.

He crossed into the United States on Thursday, then on Friday he encountered heavy rains between Syracuse and Albany. Wagon drivers warned him that the muddy roads were impassable.

Chapin pondered his situation. He reasoned that barges, pulled by mules, moved along the Erie Canal in any kind of weather. The towpath used by the mules was level and finished well.

On inquiring about using the towpath, he was told it was federal property and that he would be jailed if he used it. Fifteen minutes later, he pulled the little Olds onto the all-weather road that stretched along the canal to the horizon.

By evening, he was within 200 miles of his goal, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Saturday he stopped to replace a bent axle, but still covered 120 miles. He planned to reach the hotel on Sunday.

But after 50 uneventful miles, his transmission developed trouble and had to be rebuilt, which took all day Monday. He started out early Tuesday and on Fifth Avenue, only blocks from the Waldorf-Astoria, he swerved to avoid hitting a man who stepped in front of the Olds. The car hit the curb and deformed a wheel. Chapin bent it back as best he could and drove on.

Roy Chapin, who would later head the Hudson Motor Car Co. and whose son, Roy Jr., would head American Motors Corp., had completed the longest automobile trip that had been made in this country up until that time.

Ransom Olds was waiting in the lobby of the hotel to greet him, but Chapin -- covered with grease and dust -- was ordered by the doorman to use the service entrance at the rear of the hotel.

The remarkable stunt proved to be quite successful, and generated a lot of interest in the Oldsmobile. Over 100 years after that event, the final Olds will roll off the assembly line.