Louis Semple Clarke, or Semple Clarke or simply LS, (1866-1957) was a pioneering businessman and engineer in the American automotive industry. One of the central founders of The Autocar Company, Clarke was also an inventor who made numerous contributions to the development of modern motor vehicles, including innovations in the use of the drive shaft, circulating motor oil, sparkplugs, and the American convention of placing a vehicle's steering wheel on the left.
Family
Thomas Shields Clarke started out with a single river boat the “Beaver” in 1832, then by 1842 he and his brother in law William Thaw started Clarke and Co and by 1855 his son Charles joined the firm. Originally the firm was called Clarke and Thaw and over 15 years operated a fleet of steam boats which traveled all the way to New Orleans and was the designate shipping firm for all shipping west of Pittsburgh for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Louis was born into an influential family at an influential time in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, a time of great economic expansion and innovation for the region and country. The names with which the Clarkes associated themselves were Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon and Henry Clay Frick all of whom were also members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The club's dam broke in May 1889 causing the largest man-made disaster in US history at the time, the Johnstown flood.
Louis was inspired at this time of innovation and took a keen interest in new inventions and technologies. Louis's inventive nature propelled him to build a handmade camera, with which he took many of the photos which are now part of the county's historical treasure trove. As an avid photographer he was the primary person who documented the SFFHC activities prior and after the dam's collapse in May 1889. The glass plates used to take the pictures surfaced 100 years later when his granddaughter in 1991 found them in the attic. At the time she called Charles Guggenheim who had just finished a documentary on the Johnstown flood and would win an Academy Award for short documentary in 1991. Additionally, the film was narrated by David McCullough who had also written a book The Johnstown Flood in 1968 with various pictures including a picture of Louis.
Louis was probably the last man at the age of 22 to join the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, as his membership stock certificate is dated April 1889, although he attended the club under his father's membership since his father and various other members had founded the club in May 1879. He and other younger members were energetic about all things mechanical and given the times they placed a small steam engines on boats to cruise across Lake Conemaugh and often LS would dress up as a sailor and “man” his station.
The Autocar Company
LS was an educated engineer and in the 1890s started working with his brother Charles developing motorized vehicles resulting in the Pittsburgh Motor Vehicle Company supported by brothers, John S. and James K. Clarke along with their father Charles and friend William Morgan in 1897. Initial production included a motorized tricycle and a small car, which the brothers called “The Pittsburgher.”
In 1899, the name of the company was changed to “The Autocar Company,” and operations were relocated to Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a western suburb of Philadelphia. In 1901 they produced what is considered to be this country's first multi-cylinder, shaft driven car. Initial sales brochures touted that it “cannot blow up or burn up” as well as its ease of control, to the point he taught his wife to drive, making her the first known woman driver in the county.