Henry M. Leland

Henry M. Leland (born February 16, 1843, Danville, Vermont, U.S.—died March 26, 1932, Detroit, Michigan) was an American engineer and manufacturer whose rigorous standards contributed to the development of the automobile.

After an apprenticeship as a machinist in Worcester, Massachusetts, he worked in the U.S. Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, during the American Civil War and for the next 18 years at a factory in Providence, Rhode Island, where he supervised the sewing-machine division.

In 1890 Leland moved to Detroit, where he soon organized Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to build engines for automobile makers. In 1903 he created his own motorcar, the Model A Cadillac, a machine that proved successful and remained in production for several years. In 1908 the British distributor of Cadillac dramatized Leland’s meticulous production system at the Royal Automobile Club’s test facility at Brooklands, near London, by having three Cadillacs disassembled, the parts scrambled, and all three cars reassembled; each performed flawlessly in 500-mile tests, winning Leland the Dewar Trophy. In 1917 Leland resigned from the Cadillac company, of which he was president, to start the Lincoln Motor Company, which passed into the hands of Henry Ford. Among Leland’s automotive innovations were the V-8 engine and adoption of the electric starter.