Just for fun I went down this rabbit hole and found Buick involved... The “AC” came from Albert Champion's initials. In 1974, General Motors merged AC Spark Plug with United Delco, resulting in AC-Delco. Albert Champion (5 April 1878 – 26 October 1927) was a French track bicycle racer and later an industrialist. Champion won the Paris-Roubaix race and he received a contract from a bicycle manufacturer in Boston to race in America for the 1900 season. Champion became interested in gas-combustion engines and car racing while he was in the US. In 1904 he moved back to France and won the national 100-kilometer race on the Parc des Princes track and then retired from cycling at the end of the summer. He remained in Paris to work in car factories, including one founded by his friend Edouard Nieuport, who manufactured Nieuport spark plugs and magnetos. Champion returned to America and incorporated the Albert Champion Company in 1905 to import French electrical parts, including Nieuport components. Champion was president of the company with partners Frank Stranahan as treasurer and younger brother Spencer Stranahan as clerk. By 1907 The Albert Champion Company was manufacturing porcelain spark plugs with the name Champion stamped on the side, Robert Stranahan, the youngest of the brothers, finished his classes at Harvard and went to work in the company stockroom. Late in the summer of 1908, Champion met William Durant at Durant's Boston Buick dealership. Durant, persuaded Champion to move to Flint and supply his spark plugs to Flint. A week after Champion arrived in Flint, Durant incorporated General Motors and quickly purchased Cadillac and Oldsmobile motor companies. Champion incorporated the Champion Ignition Company, in Lansing, Michigan in October 1908. His office was on the top floor of Buick factory 1. Champion's partners, the Stranahan brothers, moved to Ohio, and incorporated the Champion Spark Plug Company in Wilmington, Delaware. The Stranahans then sued Albert Champion and his Champion Ignition Company over his name and the suit dragged on in federal court. Champion finally settled out of court in 1922 and changed the name of his company to AC Spark Plug Company, after his initials, To this day, both names survive as AC Delco and Champion spark plugs sold by Federal-Mogul. (summarized from Wikipedia)
Yes, that is what I was told by Dennis Manner, when I went to Buicks on the bricks in Flint Mi. Buick started the GM division. Lot’s of GM history in Flint…The Motor City.
Yes, I knew about the AC part,being the initials of Albért Champion. Article from a company that sells spark plugs: AC Delco Albert Champion was a champion bicycle racer who came to America in 1899. He established the Champion Spark Plug Company in Boston and Robert A. and Frank D. Stranahan invested in this company. Albert Champion left this company in 1908 after a disagreement with the Stranahan brothers. Albert Champion had at least one spark plug patent (from 1898). In 1908, Champion had a meeting with William C. Durant of the Buick Motor Company concerning producing spark plugs and other ignition parts for Buick, which was a founding General Motors brand. Durant moved Champion to Flint, Michigan and the Champion Ignition Company began business. However, the Stranahan brothers had the name “Champion” trademarked so in 1908, Albert Champion set up another business with the Buick Motor Company called the AC Spark Plug Company (using Albert Champion's initials). Alfred P.Sloan reorganised GM in 1916 into AC Division as a producer of spark plugs, speedometers and other equipment for sale to other manufacturers of cars. Sloan named Albert Champion the president of the AC Division company. Champion died in 1927 and General Motors bought the remaining stock owned by Champion's estate and took over the AC company. Charles A. Lindbergh used AC plugs during his historic solo flight across the Atlantic in May 1927, and later praised their reliability. In 1974 General Motors merged AC and United Delco divisions to create AC-Delco. It has a long history and has been known as ACDelco, United Delco, United Motors Corporation and United Motors Service. AC Spark Plugs and The Green Spark Plug Company. Our AC spark plugs are the last remaining stock. The stock is reducing but we do buy any AC surplus stock that we can source. You can buy AC spark plugs through our website or we are available for telephone enquiries and orders.
Wish I could come up with the pictures I took when there for Buicks on the bricks that street was absolutely packed with nothing but people walking up and down it. No room for vehicles. It was a sight.
Delco- Dayton engineering laboratories co. Founded by Charles Kettering. Kettering invented the electric starter and points ignition systems
What ignited the fuel air mixture before that invention? Or did Kettering work together with whomever invented the internal combustion engine maybe? Or maybe nothing did but super high compression along with a super fast flash point fuel. We ourselves experimented with a fast flashpoint fuel in our snowmobile race engines. It made more power on the dyno but could get us in trouble with pre-detonation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Kettering Guy was a genius. Almost as smart as John Moses Browning
A system called hot-tube and flame. It's too complicated for me to try to explain here, but if you Google hot-tube and flame ignition you can find more then you really want to know about it. BTW: Robert Bosch invented the modern spark plug, but if you want to get really into it, a French engineer named Etienne Lenoir in 1860 invented a low-voltage spark plug for an engine that he was building. As the Otto-cycle engine was not invented until 1876, Lenoir's engine was not something that we would recognize today, and presumably his spark plugs were likely not a spark plug that resembled a modern plug.
Also, we get a kick out of people thinking high octane fuel raises the hp out of an engine. It does the opposite. Low flashpoint = lower power.
