Subsequent development
In 1892, Lambert decided to begin manufacturing stationary gasoline engines for farm and industrial use. In that year he moved to Anderson, Indiana, and incorporated the Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company. He formed the Buckeye Manufacturing Company in 1893 to make automobiles. He experimented further with drive-train technology, and devised the Lambert friction gearing disk drive transmission, which became a key feature on all of his future automobiles. The three-wheel gasoline buggy design from 1891 was eventually modified and developed into the four wheel Union automobile, which was first sold in 1902.[10][12] It was tiller-steered and about 300 cars were made which came with the friction disk drive transmission.
A second factory was constructed in 1905, for the manufacture of the Union car. At that time, changed its name to the Lambert Automobile Company, and the buggy was redesigned into a higher-quality vehicle suitable for mass production.[12] In addition to gasoline-powered street cars, the company made commercial trucks, fire-engine vehicles, railroad inspection vehicles, and tractors for farmers.[10]
The Lambert Automobile Company belonged under the umbrella of the Buckeye Manufacturing Company conglomerate group. It produced an average of 2,000 vehicles per year between 1906 and 1910, with 500 employees (and hiring more workers each year). The company employed over a thousand workers by 1910, and production increased to an average of around 3,000 vehicles per year until 1916. In that year, only about a thousand vehicles were manufactured. In 1917, when the United States entered into World War I, the plant retooled to make equipment for the war. They then made projectiles, ammunition, wheels, and special-purpose engines.
Lambert produced only a few vehicles after the war was over. He realized that, for automobile manufacturing to be profitable, cars had to be mass-produced in high numbers to enable economies of scale.[10] By 1922, the Buckeye Manufacturing Company had stopped manufacturing vehicles and automobile parts altogether. In the time of their production, however, automobiles had been the company's main enterprise. The company designed its own bodyworks and vehicle motors; sometimes these parts were made to order by third parties and manufactured to Buckeye's specifications. The automobile interiors were of high-quality upholstery, and the exterior paint was applied in fifteen layers.
