Early Air-Cooled Cars: The History of Franklin and Holmes Automobiles
- Jun 25
- 8 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
On an early winter morning, before modern antifreeze was common, a water-cooled car could become its own worst enemy.
The water that kept the engine alive could freeze overnight. A radiator could leak. A hose could fail. An overheated engine could leave a driver stranded miles from help. In the first decades of the automobile, cooling was not just a technical detail.
Some engineers looked at that problem and asked a simple question, what if the car did not need water at all?
That question led to one of the most fascinating side roads in automotive history: the air-cooled automobile. Instead of using water, pumps and radiators to control engine temperature, air-cooled cars used moving air to carry heat away from the engine.
At the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, three cars tell this story beautifully: the 1905 Franklin Model F Touring, the 1917 Franklin 9A and the 1922 Holmes Series 4 Limousine.
The Ride That Changed Everything
Herbert H. Franklin first built his name in die-casting. By the mid-1890s, his Syracuse, New York company was producing precise metal castings, not cars. Nothing about those early products suggested that Franklin would become one of America’s most distinctive automobile builders.
Then John Wilkinson arrived. In 1901, Wilkinson drove up to Franklin in a car he had designed himself. The engine was an inline four-cylinder, but its most unusual feature was what it did not have: a water-cooled system. No traditional radiator. No water pump. No network of hoses waiting to leak or freeze.
Franklin took a ride in Wilkinson’s experimental car and saw the future. By 1902, the H.H. Franklin Manufacturing Company was building air-cooled automobiles in Syracuse. Franklin would continue automobile production until 1934 and became America’s most successful air-cooled automobile manufacturer.
Wilkinson was not trying to build a normal car with one system deleted. He believed the whole automobile had to be designed differently.
To Wilkinson, weight was lazy engineering. A car should be light, flexible, efficient and carefully thought out from end to end. That philosophy shaped Franklin’s use of air cooling, overhead valves, lightweight construction, full-elliptic springs and careful materials.
At a time when steam, electric and gasoline cars were all competing for the future, Franklin claimed that the gasoline automobile could be lighter, simpler and more dependable if it refused to carry a miniature plumbing system everywhere it went.
1905 Franklin Model F Touring: Air Cooling Proves Itself
By 1904, Franklin was ready to make a very public argument for air cooling. That year, a Franklin completed a coast-to-coast run from San Francisco to New York in 32 days, 23 hours and 20 minutes. The previous record had been set in 61 days. Franklin had covered the same ground in less than half the time.
A year later, Franklin introduced one of America’s earliest six-cylinder automobiles, then used it to prove the company’s engineering on another coast-to-coast run. This time, the journey was completed in 15 days.
The 1905 Franklin Model F Touring belongs to this era of proof and momentum.
At this point, automobiles still carried traces of the carriage age. Roads were rough, long-distance travel was difficult and reliability mattered more than ornament. Franklin’s answer was not to build a heavier car, but a smarter one.
Without a conventional radiator and water-filled cooling system, Franklin could reduce complexity and weight. That mattered because early engines did not need to be massive if the car around them was carefully designed.
Franklin Refines the Formula
As Franklin grew, the company became known for engineering features that were advanced for their time, including six-cylinder power by 1905 and automatic spark advance in 1907.
Franklin became the leading air-cooled automobile maker at a time when most other manufacturers relied on water cooling. Wilkinson’s genius was understanding that the cooling system, chassis, engine, suspension and body all had to agree with each other.
That thinking helped Franklin pioneer or popularize many advanced ideas, including overhead-valve engines, lightweight construction, full-elliptic springs, pressure lubrication, aluminum pistons and other features that made the company stand apart.
1917 Franklin 9A: Air Cooling Becomes Elegant
By 1917, Franklin had moved far beyond its early runabout roots.
The 1917 Franklin 9A shows how refined air-cooled design had become. With its air-cooled engine, lightweight construction and aerodynamic aluminum body, the 9A looks more modern than many cars of its era. It is not simply an old car without a radiator. It is a car shaped by the belief that less weight, fewer cooling parts and careful design could produce a better automobile.
The 9A also shows how Franklin’s ideas had matured. Early air-cooled cars were often praised for practicality. By the late 1910s, Franklin was proving that air-cooled cars could also be stylish, comfortable and sophisticated.
In a Franklin, air cooling was no longer just a solution to winter problems. It had become an identity.
And that identity inspired another engineer to ask an even bigger question.
Arthur Holmes Pushes the Idea Further
Arthur Holmes did not come to air cooling as an outsider. A Canton, Ohio native, he had worked at the Franklin Motor Company as vice president and sales director, and understood air-cooled engineering from the inside.
Holmes knew why air cooling made sense. It avoided water-related failures. It reduced cooling-system complexity. It fit naturally with lightweight construction and efficient design. Period business coverage described Holmes as Franklin’s first serious competitor in the air-cooled field, which says a great deal about how his new venture was viewed by those watching the industry.
But Holmes believed the idea could go further than Franklin had taken it.
In 1918, he founded the Holmes Automobile Company in Canton, Ohio. His goal was ambitious. Franklin had proven that air cooling could work in refined automobiles. Holmes wanted to prove it could work in a larger, more formal luxury car.
That was a much harder challenge.
A larger car meant more weight. More weight meant more heat, more strain and more doubt from buyers. If Franklin had made air cooling respectable, Holmes wanted to make it grand.
Holmes also knew how to demonstrate his conviction. In the winter of 1918, he personally drove a new Holmes car from Canton, Ohio to New York City and back through steep grades, snow drifts and icy roads. The company used the trip as advertising proof that its air-cooled car was durable, economical and dependable.
It was exactly the kind of bold, personal statement that the early automobile industry rewarded.
1922 Holmes Series 4 Limousine: Luxury Without a Radiator
The newest chapter in this story is the museum’s 1922 Holmes Series 4 Limousine, a rare new arrival that shows just how far air-cooled ambition could go.
This was not a small car. It was a full-sized luxury automobile with a formal limousine body, a 126-inch wheelbase and an air-cooled overhead valve inline six-cylinder engine. The engine displaced 246 cubic inches, used a single Stromberg carburetor and produced about 32 horsepower.
Holmes was not trying to build another lightweight Franklin-style car. He was trying to bring air-cooled engineering into the luxury market. The company advertised the Series 4 as the only full-sized air-cooled car available.
To make that claim credible, Holmes developed and promoted a cooling system it called the Aeroduct. Period advertisements made the Aeroduct the centerpiece of the car’s identity, claiming it made air cooling practical in a full-sized automobile. Holmes even advertised a guarantee against damage caused by overheating, using phrases like “Air-Cooled, Yet the Only Motor Guaranteed Not to Overheat” and “The First Real Guaranty Ever Offered on a Motor Car.” The company also marketed the Series 4 as “America’s Most Comfortable Car.”
Those were bold claims, and they should be read as the advertising language of their time. But they reveal something important. Holmes knew buyers might question whether an air-cooled system could handle a large luxury car. Instead of avoiding that concern, the company turned cooling into its strongest selling point.
The promise was simple and dramatic: a luxury car without the worries of water cooling.
What Happened to Air-Cooled Cars?
Air cooling disappeared because the automobile changed around it.
Water cooling improved. Antifreeze became common. Manufacturing became more standardized. Dealer networks became more important. Buyers grew used to conventional radiators. As cars became heavier, faster, quieter and more tightly regulated, liquid cooling offered more precise temperature control and better noise management.
Franklin lasted far longer than Holmes, surviving until the Great Depression forced the company into bankruptcy in 1934. But Franklin’s engineering story did not end with automobiles. Its air-cooled engine knowledge continued into aviation through later Franklin-related engine work, where light weight and simplicity were still valuable. Former Franklin engineers formed Air Cooled Motors in 1935. By 1938 a range of flat-4 and 6 aircraft engines was being produced, retaining the Franklin name. This post-war product was the largest model. In 1975, the company disbanded and sold all rights to the Polish government, becoming part of PZL, an association of Polish aero and engine manufacturers. Following the 1989 fall of Communism, the firm became WSK PZL – Rzeszów.
Air cooling also became famous in vehicles like the Volkswagen Beetle, the Fiat 500, the Citroën 2CV, Porsche sports cars and the Chevrolet Corvair. For decades, air-cooled engines continued to prove useful where simplicity, weight and packaging mattered. Now it helped make a rear-engine compact car possible, without a radiator up front or long coolant lines running through the body.
Eventually, modern passenger cars moved away from air cooling. Emissions standards demanded more precise temperature control. Drivers wanted quieter, smoother cars. Liquid cooling became the dominant answer.
Still, air cooling never truly vanished. It lives on in motorcycles, lawn equipment, chainsaws, small engines, specialty aircraft and the devotion of enthusiasts who understand its mechanical honesty.
See the Automobiles in Person a the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum
Stand beside the 1905 Franklin Model F Touring and you can see the early idea taking shape. Look at the 1917 Franklin 9A and the idea becomes refined. Then compare them with the 1922 Holmes Series 4 Limousine, where air cooling is pushed into the world of full-sized luxury.
Visit the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum to see these remarkable air-cooled vehicles in person, including our newest arrival, the 1922 Holmes Series 4 Limousine. Each one reveals a different chapter in the story of early automotive engineering, from practical innovation to elegant refinement to full-sized air-cooled luxury.