CRANE

Crane Motor Car Co. (1912-1914)
Bayonne, New Jersey 

Crane-Simplex Co. (1922)

Long Island, New York 

This is a Crane serial plate (1912)    ms
Size: Unknown

Henry Middlebrook Crane was a successful engineer, who had developed a series of powerful motor boat engines. Henry Crane became interested in motor cars and established the Crane Motor Car Company in 1910 but it was 1912 before his Model 3 Crane Six was made available. The Crane Six had a 46 hp engine which could develop 110 hp.

Crane Six motor cars were expensive and very few were built. It is believed that less than forty Crane cars had been built by the end of 1914 when the company was bought by the Simplex Automobile Company (see Simplex). The Crane operation was moved to New Brunswick and the Model 4 Crane Six engine was improved and a new chassis built. This car was put into production as the Simplex, Crane Model 5. The car was marketed as a Simplex but also carried the unofficial Crane-Simplex name.

Henry Crane purchased the Simplex assets in 1922 after the collapse of the Simplex Automobile Company and tried to revive the Crane-Simplex. A few cars may have been built in 1922 but the venture failed in the same year.

Emblem

A very rare surviving example of a 1912 Crane Six touring car on display at the Seal Cove Auto Museum does not carry a radiator emblem, see below:

Crane Six touring car (1912)   ms

The following Hells-Bright ball bearing advertisement from 1912 includes a photo of a Crane Six touring car, which confirms that the Crane Six did not carry a radiator emblem:

Hess-Bright ad showing a Crane Six (1912)  tha

Detail showing the Crane Six with no radiator emblem (1912)

It appears that the only external identification of the "Crane" name was on the sill plates and hub caps, see examples shown below:

Crane Six sill plate (1912)    conceptcarz

Crane Six hubcap (1912)   ms

The Crane name was also displayed on the serial plate, which is mounted on the front of the dash on the example seen at the Seal Cove Auto Museum, see photo shown above at the top of this post and again below, although this serial plate is more likely to have been originally mounted on the dash inside the car or under the seat. Original Crane serial plates are extremely rare.

This is the Crane Six serial plate (1912)   ms
Size: Unknown

I have found no details of any emblems or nameplates that may have been used on any Crane-Simplex cars produced in 1922. Any such emblems or nameplates would be extremely rare and possibly ultra rare.