Litter Piston Factory

The Litter Piston was invented by Frederick Litter in Columbus Ohio.  The patent was purchased by local businessmen and a factory set-up on the West Side of Charleston.  It was successful for a while, and stock was offered to increase business. But something happened a year later:  the company went bankrupt and the business closed around 1928.  This is right before the great stock market crash of 1929.  It's unknown at this time why the business failed, but a lot of people both rich and poor lost a great deal of money on this venture.  The little boy in the photo has yet to be identified.

SO WHERE WAS LITTER PISTON?

Randolph Street is an optical illusion in this photo, in that due to the camera angle, it looks wider than normal.

The Litter Piston Company was also the dealer for Davis Motor Cars.

 

There are some heavy hitters involved here.... and some not so heavy.  Let's take a closer look:

And the Stockholders:

Notice that the usual heavy hitters are here.  Also notice people from Carbon and Blue Creek, Guthrie,  Quick,  South Charleston .  A lot of people had placed a big gamble on a company that only lasted about 3 years.  The stock market crash would have probably ruined them anyway.

Notice that it says "The piston in the US, Canada, India, Turkey, Brazil, and many other countries".

Poor old Litter Piston Co. Fantastic product and victim of big vision , early big marketing ploys that backfired . The Davis car company had fallen from favor with the Continental Motor co. And had violated patent and trademarking..George Davis claimed he built the motors in his cars when actually he swapped out Pistons from the Continental with his buddy Frederick Litters Pistons . Litter had two companies the Litter machine manufacturing co. And the Litter Piston co. Which thru a clever stock sale found investors in charleston wv. Davis managed to keep the Continental Engine Co. At bay from suit but the writing was on the wall. Davis’s car was aging in style. Sales were sliding. He bragged about a V12 engine coming , a V8 engine perhaps by 1928 if Litter could get funding to build the motors back in Ohio. He used Litter to raise money with the promise he would award the engine contract to him . But tine ran out . Enter the Automobile Corp of America In an effort to save the Davis automobile and now the encumbered Litter Piston Co. Davis papered a deal with edgy inventor and marketing guru Viller Williams to modify the remaining Davis’s that were left at the factory with a device to sideways park a car using small wheels and hydraulics . The stock money obtained from the business men of Charleston in 1926-1927 was redirected in 1928 thru Litter manufacturing , not Litter Piston of Charleston as marketed , to fund Davis and Villers scheme to build the Parkmobile . This move wiped put all of the Litter Companys holdings as they had banked everything on Davis’s scheme . All good strong names of the day stuck together . And Davis used his handicap to lure business men to him as a tool ( he lost his right arm at birth) yet managed to build carriages and cars and use his personality to sell his dreams . This type of marketing , and shady stock sales along with the industrial boon of the day led to the stockmarket crash just a year later in 1929. The Little piston company was an excellent patent and later was employed world wide during WW2 in radial engines and airplanes for the USA and Allies . Had the Litter’s not met the Davis’s the Litter manufacturing and the Piston company may have thrived to this day and Charleston may have benefited . The patents later were revised and held by Delta corporation and ultimately sold to Russia for use in the Daka motor co cars based off you guessed it. Old US defunct car builders patents such as Packard and Studebaker .

I have spent months trying to identify the photo,  and now I can move on to the next mystery.

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