Ferdinand N. Kahler Inventions Information

Ferdinand Nickolas 'Ferd' Kahler, Sr. (November 20, 1864 – November 14, 1927) was an American inventor, entrepreneur and automobile pioneer who founded The Kahler Co. in New Albany, Indiana.

He was a manufacturer of wood and lumber products, founded two early American automobile companies and was granted patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his inventions.

Kahler was born in Hermsdoren, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). At the age of 17, he traveled to New York City on the passenger ship Elbe, immigrated to Reading, Pennsylvania in 1881, visited Louisville, Kentucky and moved to nearby New Albany, Indiana in 1884.

Kahler built the last home constructed on Cedar Bough Place, after purchasing the two lots in 1901. The home was built by 1905 in the Airplane Bungalow style of American Craftsman architecture. In 2011, the Kahler home earned a New Albany Historic Preservation Commission "Facelift Award" for "outstanding restoration and rehabilitation."

Kahler was buried in the City Vault on November 17, 1927 and later reinterred in the Kahler family vault in New Albany's Fairview Cemetery on April 23, 1929. The Kahler family vault was built by the Peter and Burghard Stone Company of Louisville, Kentucky.

Kahler began his career as a bench carpenter, building railcars, streetcars, double-deck cars and their interiors at the American Car and Foundry Co. in nearby Jeffersonville, Indiana. Originally the Ohio Falls Car Manufacturing Co., this plant was responsible for most of American Car and Foundry Co.'s considerable interurban car production.

In January 1903, Kahler was one of three founders of the New Albany Table Manufacturing Company, incorporated with a $20,000 capital investment. In 1904, Kahler was listed as Manager and Bookkeeper of the Henry Klerner Furniture Co. in the New Albany City Directory. By 1905, he was conducting business as "Ferdinand Kahler and Son", advertising "Woodworking Specialties."

He founded The Kahler Co. in New Albany, Indiana in August, 1907, incorporating with a $5,000 (equivalent to $134,446 in 2018) capitalization. The Articles of Incorporation mention "manufacturing table tops and for doing interior work in residences and offices." The company also manufactured custom wooden case goods, ice boxes, folding tables and other products. Early advertising mentions "store fixtures, saloon fixtures, special furniture and anything in the wood line that has to be made to order."

In 1908, Kahler personally oversaw the installation of laboratory furniture The Kahler Co. manufactured in its New Albany plant for use in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Omaha, Nebraska and Nashville, Tennessee USDA Bureau of Chemistry food purity testing laboratories. The contracts were awarded several months earlier.

Kahler's success allowed him to build a new factory in New Albany in 1910 on Grant Line Road. It had its own power plant to generate electricity. The plant featured highly efficient direct-geared electric motors at each work station instead of the then-common belt-driven tools powered by overhead shafts. The Kahler Co. plant had its own dry kiln and a long rail siding, allowing both inbound and outbound freight to be handled under cover. The siding was connected to a rail line that carried freight for four railroad companies, allowing Kahler great flexibility in shipping. One reason the factory was considered "one of the model wood working plants in the city" was due to its "concrete construction".

In 1915, it was reported Kahler had broken ground on an addition to the factory which would double its capacity.

Kahler's entry in automobile manufacturing started in 1908 with The Kahler Co. providing the wooden frames and wooden body components for many automobile companies. The company successfully filled an early order for 6,000 automobile bodies earning Kahler credibility within the automobile industry.

In 1909 it was reported "The Kahler Co. at Pearl and Oak streets, New Albany, will be operated at its fullest capacity for the next eighteen months, having received a contract from an Eastern automobile factory for a large number of automobile beds." The article claimed thirty men were working 13 hour days to fill the order.

Kahler won a contract from the Clark Motor Car Company of Shelbyville, Indiana in 1909 to build 125 "small car bodies at $ 42 each" and "150 large car bodies at $ 44 each." After delivering the small car bodies, Kahler sent a representative to take measurements for the larger bodies. After a few of the larger bodies had been finished and delivered, the Clark company rejected them and denied that a contract had been negotiated. Kahler became another plaintiff against the company, suing in December, 1911 for $6,600 in damages. The case was dismissed in September, 1912.

In 1911, the Kahler Co. won a contract to build the frames and other wood components of the American Automobile Manufacturing Company automobile being assembled in New Albany, Indiana. Founded in Kansas CIty, Missouri in 1908, the American Automobile Manufacturing Company acquired the Jonz Automobile Company of Beatrice, Nebraska and moved its offices to Louisville, Kentucky in December, 1910, setting up manufacturing by moving its manufacturing equipment to the idle New Albany Woolen Mills factory. The factory buildings were two and three stories in height, located on a six-acre tract on Vincennes Street in New Albany. The factory was reported in 1914 to be "one of the very largest factories in the state of Indiana... and is equipped with machinery, tools, raw materials, parts and accessories for the manufacture of motor cars."

Promising huge potential profits, the company sold $900,000 (equivalent to $24,200,357 in 2018) worth of stock. and produced a limited number of cars which were marketed as "The Jonz (automobile)," named after the patented "Jonz 'Tranquil Motor'" developed by the three Jones brothers in Kansas. The American Automobile Manufacturing Company built the two-stroke engine American from 1911 to 1912 in New Albany.The American Automobile Manufacturing Company was reincorporated as The American Automobile Corp. in Arizona on March 13, 1912 with a capitalization of $500,000.

In September, 1912, the company heard a proposal to merge with the Advance Power Company, a Chicago, Illinois manufacturer of automobile motors and transmission gears. The plans for the merger included changing the company name to "The Advance Motor Car Company" and the production of a 1,000 pound truck with a double-friction drive that was to sell for $ 400.00. The stockholders voted to leave the decision up to the board of directors.

The company was instead reorganized the third time under the name "New Albany Automobile Corporation." That corporation went bankrupt, and Kahler purchased its assets.

In December, 1912, he reorganized the company with a capitalization of $450,000 (equivalent to $11,682,931 in 2018), changing the name to Ohio Falls Motor Company, largely to protect the assets of his woodworking business.

In June, 1913, the company owed The Kahler Co. $3,102. Kahler petitioned the Floyd County Circuit Court to appoint a receiver while allowing the company to continue production during receivership. Kahler purchased the company in November, 1913, paying $1,500 in cash and assuming $25,000 (equivalent to $671,779 in 2018) in outstanding liens against the company. The Ohio Falls Motor Company was dissolved and reincorporated as The Falls City Motor Company. Kahler served as president of the new automobile company as well as president of The Kahler Co.

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