history

By 1884 the first Charter engines were marketed by Williams & Orton. Because the Otto patents were still in force, the design was altered to avoid infringement. Patented under 270,202 adn 270,203 of January 9, 1883 these designs were created by Franz Burger but issues to John Charter. During the late 1920s a number of letters were exchanged between Lee F. Burger, a sonof the inventor and Wm. Robinson of Charter Gas Engine Company. These letters now serve a valuable role in defining the munication dated March 14, 1927, Lee Burger notes his father’s interest in engines using liquid fuels. He continues that “at this time my father had considerable opposition on this work, as Mr. Charter had no interest in same (gasoline engines), he thinkings such an engine would useless and no market for same, but my father insisted and was persistent in his efforts to develop such an engine, he being as far as my knowledge goes the first man to utilize gasoline in its raw state into an internal combustion engine…” From this letter and other bits of history the auctor is lef to conclude that Franz of Charter engines. Later on, Charter would bill theirs as the “original gasoline engine of the world.” After about ten years of work in the Charter factory, Burger concluded that many of the early promises and assurances would ever materialize. During 1893 he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and with a partner went on to become a prolific inventor, accumulating a great many patents for engines, turbines, adn scientific devices. Mr. Burger died in 1908.