Herbert H. Franklin, the founder, began his career in the metal die casting business before establishing his automobile enterprise.

[3] The two major characteristics of their automobiles were their air-cooled engines and in the early years their lightness and responsiveness when compared with other luxury cars.

Offerings for 1904 included a touring car model with a detachable rear tonneau and which seated four passengers.

Demonstrating reliability, L. L. Whitman drove a Franklin from New York City to San Francisco in 1906 in 15 days 2 hours 15 minutes, a new record.

Before the invention of antifreeze, the air-cooled car had a huge advantage in cold weather, and Franklins were popular among people such as doctors, who needed an all-weather machine.

By 1921, a change in cooling—moving the fan from sucking hot air to blowing cool air—led the way to the gradual increase in power.

Starting in 1925, at the demand of dealers, Franklins were redesigned to look like conventional cars sporting a massive nickel-plated "dummy radiator" which served as an air intake and was called a "hoodfront".

In 1930 Franklin introduced a new type of engine which ultimately produced 100 horsepower (75 kW), with one of the highest power-to-weight ratios of the time.

It was designed to be installed in a lightweight chassis, but the car became a 6,000 pounds (2,700 kg) behemoth when Franklin engineers were overruled by management sent in from banks to recover bad loans.