Auto industry
Charles Balough
1883–1966
· automotive engineer, Model T draftsman, founding president of Hercules Motors
Hungarian engineer who helped put the Model T on paper in Ford's Piquette experimental room, then built Hercules Motors into a major American engine maker.
- Born
Nagylak, Kingdom of Hungary- Died
Canton, Ohio
aged 82- Birth name
- Balogh Károly
- Also known as
- Balogh Károly · Károly Balogh
- Detroit years
- 1905–1910
- Field
- Auto industry
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born in Nagylak, Károly Balogh went to the Piarist gymnasium in Szeged and trained as a mechanical engineer in Budapest, where he became friends with József Galamb. The two crossed to America together in 1903 and worked their way through Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Cleveland before Balogh landed in Detroit in 1905 at the Northern Automobile Company. In early 1906 Galamb brought him into Ford to detail drawings for the Model N. After a stint designing tooling at Cadillac he came back in 1907 and joined Galamb and Jules Haltenberger in the third-floor experimental room at the Piquette plant, where the Model T took shape. He then designed trucks for Reliance and Rapid, both soon folded into General Motors, and in 1909 married Eva Gertrude Myers of Jackson. In 1915 he moved to Canton, Ohio, as a founder and first president of Hercules Motors, which built engines for the Fordson tractor and hundreds of thousands of military engines in World War II.
Highlights
- Detailed Model N drawings at Ford in 1906
- Worked on the Model T in the Piquette experimental room, 1907–1908
- Founder and first president of Hercules Motors in Canton, Ohio
- Hercules supplied engines for the Fordson tractor
- Hungarian Cross of Merit, third class, 1933
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1906, 1907–1908
Ford Piquette Avenue Plant
Ford's plant where he detailed Model N drawings in 1906 and worked on the Model T in the third-floor experimental room; today a museum.