Patton Motor Company

The Patton Motor Company was based in 340 and 342 Dearborn St., Chicago, where it manufactured around 1898 patented electric street cars.

They required no poles, no wires, no power house, no bonding of rails but only ordinary track.

[1] A gasoline engine was used to drive a dynamo, which in turn operated the electric motor.

The principal claim of the inventor was the use of a storage battery, which accumulated the power of the dynamo, when on a down grade, or at rest, and which was automatically connected in to assist when the work was heavy.

During a trial run at Racine, Wisconsin on 8 July 1896 over the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad the car attained at times speeds of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) and surmounted grades of up to 55 feet to the mile (10%) without difficulty beyond perceptibly slowing down.