English, Carl

Carl English was a brilliant electrician and inventor. He invented the future and built it.

Carl was born in 1860 on a farm in South Boston Township, Ionia County. He graduated from The Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) in 1884. In 1894 Carl received a patent for inventing an electrical governor for water wheels.

Carl moved his young family to Ovid Michigan for a job, before moving back to Lowell in 1896 to take the position as the first superintendent of Lowell’s Municipal Light and Power Plant.

Carl English will always be remembered here for building the first auto in Lowell. In 1900 he introduced his horseless carriage. It was a two-cylinder air-cooled affair. The Lowell Cutter Company built the regular surrey body. The wheels were 30-inch solid rubber tires. The frame was made of two-inch angle iron, 1/8 inch thick. The two-cylinder gas engine was two and a half inch bore and six-inch stroke, usually fired with a hot tube for each cylinder, because electric ignition was not dependable at that time. The power was transmitted to the wheels from a friction clutch and jack shaft by sprocket wheels and chain, one speed ahead, ten or twelve miles per hour. To back up, the engine would reverse. While English received congratulations, so did Lowell, for “having so enterprising and useful a citizen.”

Unfortunately, the new carriage did not survive the casualties it caused. Horses ran away and buggies were wrecked. After Mr. English had paid several victims’ repair bills, he decided to abandon the use of the auto for the time being. The future was here, but practically, it was going to have to wait a few years. In 1935 J.C. Hatch found an engine in his garage that had been an early model by English, built before the invention of the electric spark. It was suggested that Hatch contact Henry Ford, to include the piece in his museum.

The Carl English family moved to the state of Washington in 1904. Even with the distance, he continued his friendships in Lowell. Snippets of letters Carl wrote to the citizens of Lowell were printed in the newspaper. When friends visited Carl and his family in Washington, Carl would send back well wishes to Lowell. Upon his death in 1956, 52 years after leaving Lowell, Carl’s family notified his Lowell friends. They said, “he always had a soft spot in his heart for Lowell and never stopped telling everyone about his experiences in the electric light plant at Lowell.”

Images:

First "Horseless Carraige" in Lowell, built by Carl English

Carl English Sr.
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Carl English the younger