ANASAGASTI WAS THE FIRST

By ENRIQUE SÁNCHEZ ORTEGA

Horacio Anasagasti was in charge of carrying out and carrying out the first Argentine automobile factory. At first, they were simply different armed parties here, then they were built entirely in our country. Anasagasti took one of the cars of his brand to run to Europe and won, which became the first winning Argentine car and racer on that continent. Later, many of the models left the factory became taxis and at the end of 1915 the house closed.

This is the story - intertwined - of two stories. The one of a miraculously resurrected car and the other, that of a brand that, unknown, is a bit legendary in the synthetic list of really Argentine car factories.

The note began with the collection of data from that was the first national car produced serially and seriously. And for this investigation, the fact that this year marks the centenary of the birth of Jorge Newbery helped us to obtain an almost unexpected result.

At this moment, Aeronautics is committed to rescue the figure of Newbery as it deserves and to give it its preponderant place in the history of our aviation. The tributes began to be much more frequent, a biographical film is filmed, a man answers on television - and earns five million - questions related to the life and surroundings of the remarkable pioneer. Chance or circumstances were driving things. And I think a little magic was also in all this. And so, suddenly, we find ourselves with the tip of a skein too exciting to despise it: as a complement to the acts related to Jorge Newbery, a group of people from the Air Force had taken charge of restoring (after six months of work ) an Anasagasti car created by engineer Horacio Anasagasti, who was a close friend and companion of Newbery's sporting adventures. Through the latter, the Aviation School, newly born, had received it as a donation.

From the moment we were aroused by the interest in the car, news began to rain on us. Curious coincidence but infallible by ungovernable mechanisms. We detected the restored car and began tracking the trajectory of the Anasagasti house and its cars.

It was written that we should deepen the subject.

First contact: Commodore Santos Domínguez Koch. Currently active in the Air Force and "father of the Anasagasti car", as someone told us in the Condor building, Domínguez Koch was the factotum of the Anasagasti rebirth that ended up in the hands of that Aviation School.

In those moments of collecting data, a journalistic colleague provides the first anecdotal assumption: "That Anasagasti was lying in a waste shed. One day the order came to sell everything as scrap; along with the aluminum pieces of the planes were going to go the remains of the historic car. At the moment of loading everything in a truck, a non-commissioned officer appears who has been in barracks for dozens of years and suggests that the car not be taken away because he has a vague idea that it was received as a donation, which prevents its sale. That timely intervention saved the car from the final hammer. "

Another story, slightly different but more momentous, says that the good sense of brigadier Ángel María Zuloaga during a sale of backlog material made by the Aeronautics made him recognize it above the scrap pile that transported a truck and ordered download it This happened around 1930.

Nobody could confirm this beginning of a story, but Domínguez Koch took care to make us a neat chronological account of that Anasagasti: "Shortly before the official inauguration of the Military Aviation School, on September 8, 1912, they begin to get donations from commercial and industrial companies, associations and individuals. At the request of the president of the Aero Club Argentino, the engineer Newbery, before his intimate friend Horacio Anasagasti, donates to the Military Aviation School a car that carries his brand, with only two front seats. The vehicle begins to be used for runway service, such as transport of pilots, assistance in cases of accidents and towing of aircraft.

"Years later, an aeronautical technician, around 1920, introduces some modifications to the chassis, giving it a device with a clutch that, coupling it to the core of the propeller of the already powerful aircraft engines of that time, it allowed them to start up without the tremendous effort and danger of having to propel the propellers by hand. The Anasagasti carried out this task for many years, until it was almost unused and was left lying in an old warehouse at El Palomar air base.

"In the mid-1960s, the National Aeronautics Museum was created on the initiative of Brigadier Edmundo Civati Bernasconi, its first director. The car was transported to the Quilmes Regional Workshop in the state of ruin it was in and became part of the Museum's heritage. " In 1974, Commodore Domínguez Koch, carrying out historical investigations of aeronautical character, especially about the life of Newbery, proposes to his superiors the restoration of the car so that in 1975 it was exhibited as part of the tributes. They give him approval and the car is transferred to the Rio IV regional workshop. Before beginning the tasks of resurrection, they consult the engineer Antonio Bianchi (possibly the person who knows more about the subject Anasagasti) and the engineer Roberto Sinigaglia, son of a former foreman of the house Anasagasti, who in his youth had a car that brand with which he traveled to Córdoba after finishing his studies at the Industrial School.

This is how the only surviving model of the mythological brand Anasagasti, the first Argentine automobile factory, was saved from the oven.

We had already managed to gather relatively good information. With all that material gathered in our hands we began to attack the interrogations of profundis: Was Anasagasti a real factory? Who was the engineer Horacio Anasagasti? Was it an aristocrat living and bon vivant who had fun making these devices, which by then were aimed at a very limited minority? Could it have been a farce? All this was spinning while in front of us a logo engraved in bronze on the honeycomb of the radiator and an enamelled shield full of symbolism, which could have something of initiation, of esotericism, of inspiration in some lodge, imposed us to deepen more. We could not forget that at the beginning of the century, before the end of the first decade, even the most advanced countries, the rectors of industrialization, still built their cars in a very rudimentary way. With purely handmade methods. The automobile is an element of transportation that in the whole world, anywhere, is still very expensive. It does not occur to anyone to think that this luxury can be extended to the most modest social classes. Moreover, no one thought that in the future it would be a good business, or that something would justify mass manufacturing, on a large scale. For this reason, in Europe, only the possibility of manufacturing them in a traditional way and with relatively modest, universal-type machine tools is considered. Here the same idea is adopted.

Horacio Anasagasti is not an improvised industrialist, especially in the specialty he intends to pursue. For that he has an important professional and technical experience, in practice and sports. And what is much more important: it has enough economic resources to face any type of industrial production. That was accompanied by the environment in which he moved, the sports and aristocratic spheres, where more than one begins to be interested in having in his power the novel sportive medium that is the automobile.

Anasagasti graduated as an engineer in January 1902 from the University of Buenos Aires. He becomes one of the most competent Buenos Aires technicians in the automobile field after a long study trip through Europe and the United States. Back in our country, in mid-1907, he won an opposition contest and was chosen to take a course at the Italian car factory Isotta-Fraschini in Milan.

Returns bringing the representation of this brand to Argentina. For personal use, a model of that brand with a 45 HP engine and sports body, with two seats, baquet type, is included. With him he starts in the sport participating in his first races, of which there are photographs that show him, with his companion, dressed in the same type of sweater and the two have sewn on the front a huge star of six points. An inexplicable symbol, but that has its origins, in which the amulets and the customs of the aeronautics are mixed. When Horacio Anasagasti began to make his first balloon ascensions he adopted a pennant (as was customary) where the six-pointed star already appeared.

In May 1908 he joined a partnership with Messrs. Ricardo Travers and José Gálvez to continue with the representation of Isotta-Fraschini and added the distribution in our country of French cars Gobron-Brillie and Gregorie. They settle in the street Arenales 1086 almost corner Cerrito. They also have the exclusivity of the Stepney wooden spokes, an imported device to inflate the tires by taking pressure from a cylinder, removing the spark plug and the whistles that worked with the Stentor exhaust. In that same place they already have installed an oven to melt bronze and aluminum. Ten operators work.

The June 1908 issue of the first Argentine magazine (monthly) dedicated to the automobile, called "La Argentina Automóvil", brings an article signed by the engineer Anasagasti, where it deals with the estimated calculation of the power of the automobile engines. and that is entitled Empirical formulas that quickly give the maximum effective power in horsepower of steam engines. There he critically criticizes the formulas elaborated by the French engineer Charles Faroux, who over the years would become one of the most well-known technical critics in the world of sports motorsport. With this note he also becomes the first technical columnist of the automobile of Argentina.

In the next issue of the same magazine, on the technical page, an Anasagasti note entitled Special steels used in the construction of automobiles is published. It is obvious, already at this point, that the engineer had in mind something similar to the manufacture of cars. At the same time it proves to be super-updated on the subject and with a real capacity to deal with it.

Between 1909 and 1910 he serves as 1st vice president of the Argentine Scientific Society, founded in 1892.

In "La Argentina Automóvil" of April of 1909 a notice of the signature Anasagasti, Travers and Gálvez is published, where they announce the "Construction, repair and transformation of automobiles and machines in general. Plans and budgets of mechanical installations. Bronze and aluminum casting. Gears of all kinds are cut ".

On Sunday, October 24, 1909, the race called the Kilometer Championship was organized by the Moto Club Argentino. One of the juries of the test is Jorge Newbery, while the review commission of the engines is in charge of the engineer Anasagasti.

At the end of 1909, an automotive publication called "Sport Álbum" was published by Mr. Scoppa de Warrial. In one of his collaborations, Anasagasti announces his intention to manufacture cars in the country. In December of that year, he separated from the company he had with Travers and Gálvez and simultaneously announced that he had set up a new company, which would continue to operate in the local area of ​​Arenales Street until the new building on Alvear Avenue (today Libertador) was finished. 1670. The work ends in 1910.

The firm Horacio Anasagasti y Compañía was born on December 30, 1909. In that year, Anasagasti turned 30 years old, and has as sole partner Luis M. Velarde, although 99% of the capital is contributed by Anasagasti. The purpose of the firm is "the installation and operation of a precision mechanical workshop, with casting of bronze and aluminum, intended for the manufacture of engines for agriculture, automobiles and airplanes, with all their accessories." Curiously, Anasagasti enrolls in a race with the pseudonym "Samurai". The telegraphic address of your signature is "Anatraga" and the cable address, "Nagasaki".

The workshop is equipped more than discreetly for the time: a good batch of new machine tools, four universal lathes, a large universal milling machine, a special machine designed to chamfer the teeth front of the spur gears. gearboxes, a special shredder designed to correctly cut the straight teeth of the pinion and crown bevel gears and planetary and differential satellites, a planer, a mortising machine, column drilling machine, metallic metal saws, deburring grinder , tracing and adjustment marble and a welding equipment. There is also a section for carpentry, sheet metal and painting for car bodies.

The new company presents its first mechanical elements for the car at the Great International Exhibition of Railways and Land Transport, held in Buenos Aires in 1910.

In the section dedicated to the automobile, Italy exhibits the same Itala of 35 HP with which the count Scipione Borghese, Luigi Barzini and Ettore Guizzardi fulfilled the famous raid Peking-Paris in 1907. Germany exhibits the same car Benz (the Blitzen) Benz) of 200 HP with which the Hémery runner reached 205 km / h at the Brooklands Speedway a short time before.

The products presented in the same pavilion by the firm Anasagasti y Cía. They are: a gearbox with four forward and reverse gears and a four-cylinder in-line engine for cars, in which the parts have been completely manufactured by them. All these mechanisms were built expressly with large glass side covers so that the public could observe the interior and its operation. With them, the firm obtains in that section the biggest prize reserved for the Argentine industry, which is the Grand Prize Diploma.

In 1910, already installed on Alvear Avenue, Anasagasti travels to Europe again aboard the Italian steamer "Principessa Mafalda". Will study the environment and get in touch to engage in trade negotiations with manufacturers of parts and subassemblies for automobiles. It has its eyes set on France, a country that in terms of cars was clearly at the forefront. The first deals are made with Ballot et Cie., Founded that same year by the brothers Ernest and Edouard Ballot. This firm is dedicated to manufacturing four-cylinder engines to naphtha for some small houses, private car builders and taxis. To them he communicates his intention to make cars in Argentina, initially importing the engines and other important elements, but then his idea is to manufacture them progressively in his workshop in Buenos Aires along with the rest of the car. For that, he orders them - in addition to a few Ballot engines of 12 and 15 HP - a complete set of wooden models of all the castings that have their engines. At first the task of fusing them here is difficult due to the lack of experience and of the first 20 Argentine blocks, only eight are redeemable.

Then visit the house Malicent et Blin (MAB) to provide the almost complete chassis, with its wheels, axles, brakes, suspensions, gearbox, box and steering mechanism and differential. The firm Societe d'Embragages Hele-Saw orders its clutches of the type of multiple discs in an oil bath. Radiators buy them from G. Moreaux et Cie., From Levallois-Perret and from the Swiss house Catules Megevet in Geneva.

Finally, he ordered the carbide headlights from the two famous brands Blériot and Ducellier. Argentine engines would come with Zenith carburetors, unlike the French Ballot that fed the Claudel carburetors.

Anasagasti returns in 1911 with the idea of ​​progressively building an absolutely Argentine car except in those impossible parts, such as spark plugs, magnets, carburetors and bearings. And so it does. There are testimonies from people who worked in the factory, who say that there were manufactured cylinder blocks, crankcases, cranks, crankshafts, full speed gearboxes, rear axle reducers and differentials, elastic, shaft ends, shafts, cardan with their crossarms , steering mechanisms and bodies. Even the design of the Ballot engine is improved, introducing a forced lubrication system to the crankshaft. The radiators are provided by the local firm of the Catalan Francisco Villasis. In the middle of 1911 there is already an armed car using most of the imported parts and some local elements, among which the bodywork must be highlighted. The Anasagasti brand is on the radiator.

The models of 12 HP brought bodies of two types: double phaeton, fully convertible, and another type landaulet, of which there were two versions, one of "simple glass" and another of "double glass". All, for having the levers of changes and external hand brake on the right side, forced all models to bring forward only one door, the left.

On September 17, 1911, Anasagasti signed up for the Rosario-Córdoba-Rosario race under the pseudonym "Samurai" and a double model phaeton of 12 HP. It is the first time that a model of the brand is presented in public. The motor is a ballot with 4 cylinders cooled by water to thermosyphon. With a displacement of 2,125 cm3, side valves on the same side of the block, this one with Claudel ascending carburetor, Bosch magneto and splash lubrication. The covers are blind and the crankcase (upper and lower half-shell) and the distribution cover are cast aluminum. Despite having mechanical problems, he obtains the first prize.

It was not until January 1912 that the commercial presentation of the Anasagasti car was made. They distribute as a gift to prospective customers or interested alpaca medals with the shape of the radiator of the cars. The price for both body models (12 HP) is 6000 pesos and they are also sold in monthly installments of 200 pesos.

Between 1912 and 1913 Anasagasti goes to Europe. The finances of the factory are badly managed. The clients stop paying their dues, alleging bad economic situation despite being people of recognized fortune, while the European suppliers, when the war breaks out, stop sending mechanical elements because they have to dedicate themselves to the war industry. The economic recession produced by the European war also causes many of the buyers to stop paying the fees to speculate. As the situation continues, at the end of 1915 the factory closed its doors after producing almost fifty cars. Throughout the year 1915 the engineer Anasagasti remains in San Francisco (USA), appointed by the Argentine government as curator of our pavilion at the International Exposition of San Francisco. The workers of the factory, already at the beginning of 1916, request that they be allowed to continue going to work, at the risk of not being able to collect their salaries later.

Anasagasti was then 35 years old and his factory had imposed working conditions that later, over the years, would become laws. We worked eight hours a day (no other industrial establishment did it), in summer each worker had an individual fan in his place of work, in the middle of the workshop there was a container with fruit juice and Anasagasti, on returning from each trip, always brought Gifts for your people. On one occasion he gave them a pocket watch and a penknife to each of his workers. The salaries he paid were among the highest and most prominent in the local industry.

The reliability of their cars was reflecting to some extent the personality of Horacio Anasagasti. For that reason, many of their cars were adapted as taxis in Buenos Aires and remained in service for more than a decade. Much more. But that confidence that Anasagasti had in the people was what led him to failure as an industrialist. Sinking with him the first Argentine automobile factory that today, more than sixty years later, deserves recognition and unveils what has always had an aura of legend.

SPORTS HISTORY OF ANASAGASTI CARS

On Sunday, September 17, 1911, the Rosario-Córdoba-Rosario race took place, in which the engineer Anasagasti participates with the pseudonym "Samurai", following that unusual Japanese connotation. It is the first time that a car of the brand and one of the first times it appears in public. Anasagasti takes Francisco Roubina as a mechanic and Pedro Rova as his companion. Obtain the first prize, consisting of a silver medal.

In July 1912, Horacio Anasagasti personally participates with one of his 12 HP models in the Paris-Madrid race. Realizes 1515 kilometers of route without any penalty, being the winner. According to data obtained a few years ago, at that time the same Anasagasti told his relatives that after this triumph he gave his racing car to King Alfonso XIII of Spain, a renowned lover of mechanics. This car was kept in the royal carriages until it disappeared during the Spanish Civil War.

On Sunday August 25, 1912 the engineer Anasagasti intervenes in a race organized in the French city of Calais. The result of the test is unknown, but Anasagasti received a bronze medal from Ville de Calais.

On Saturday, September 21, 1912, the English engineer Brown, driving one of the models of the 15 HP brand, intervenes in the car rally to San Sebastian departing from France. This departure is made from the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, at the foot of an equestrian statue of General San Martín. Travels the 1332 kilometers to the finish line without suffering any penalty and is ranked among the winners.

On Monday, September 26, 1912 an Anasagasti intervenes in the climbing race of Mount Ullain (in the north of Spain), reaching 4th in its class and 17th in the general classification of 106 participants.

On Sunday October 6, 1912, the famous French runner Guyot participates with an Anasagasti in the XIII Climbed to the Côte de Guillon. It fulfills the kilometer in ascent (with 8 percent of slope) in a time of 37 seconds to an average of 97.3 km / h. With this time he triumphs in the 5th category and also achieved the 2nd prize in the Performance Competition among the 13 participants with the most important brands of the time.

During the days 6, 7 and 8 of January of 1913, Horacio Anasagasti participates in Uruguay in the race Montevideo-Salto-Montevideo. There are 2000 kilometers in total, organized by the local newspaper "La Tribuna Popular". He drove a car with his 12 HP mark. He was accompanied by Mr. Vallebilia and Max Steiner. Finish 4th in the general and with the first prize or Grand Prize in its category, called "A".

In February and March 1913, three 15 HP Anasagasti Sport cars participate in the Tour de France, a 12-day race and 5500 km of route. A cup instituted by the sports newspaper "L'Auto" (which would later become "L'Equipe") is disputed. The three cars were driven respectively by the English engineer named Brown and by two Frenchmen: the Marquis d'Avary and Mr. Repousseau. The latter is the only one that mechanical problems can not finish the test. On the other hand, the other two triumph ex aequo, that is to say, on equal merits with eight other French, Belgian and North American production cars.

The Marquis d'Avary obtains a silver medal bathed in gold as the first prize in the Elegance Contest organized by the Automobile Club de Nice. It was presented with a Sport model of 15 HP to this confrontation in the spa of Nice.

The Automobile Club of the South-West of France (A.C.S.O.) organized the La Flèche-Laval meeting in 1913. It turns out 1st engineer Brown in the 9th career category driving an Anasagasti of 15 HP and gets a silver medal.

On September 21, 1913 the same newspaper "L'Auto" has another Cup played with departure from Boulogne-sur-Mer. An Anasagasti achieves 7th place this time.

In November 1913, Mr. Pablo Sinigaglia, foreman of the Anasagasti factory, intervenes as pilot of the factory in a race held in the field of "La Hípica". During the race, he touches another car and overturns. Sinigaglia is unharmed but abandons.

In March 1914 the "Córdoba Sports Week" is celebrated, with a long journey through dirt roads in terrible conditions and mud holes. Two Anasagasti Sport of 15 HP participate, which were already popularly known as "the Habanos". One is managed by Vicente Madero and the other by Mr. Pagetti. The category "Amateurs" is won by Madero. Mr. Pagetti is third in the "Professionals" category.

On Thursday, November 25, 1915, the Second Kilometer Championship was held, speed competition on a paved straight line linking the town of Florida with San Martín, in the vicinity of Buenos Aires. An Anasagasti Sport participates led by Ricardo Zuberbühler. Travel the kilometer to an average of 103,970 km / hour, winning its category (up to 4000 cm3) and finish second.

In 1915 this kilometer test is repeated and an Anasagasti led by the already named Pablo Sinigaglia, accompanied by his brother Timoteo, does not lower the time of the Anasagasti of the previous year.

• On June 16, 1920, the Buenos Aires Automobile Club organized the speed competition called Mileage Championship, on the road section located between kilometers 7 and 11 of the route to La Plata. Macoco Álzaga Unzué participates in the category "Amateurs" with an Anasagasti powered by a Janvier engine (Paris factory responsible for supplying engines to the car factories) with four cylinders, double overhead camshaft and 2800 cm3. it gave a power of 85 HP at 3000 rpm. Thus, with an average of 126,976 km / hour, Macoco triumphs in the general classification. According to Álzaga Unzué himself, this Anasagasti Sport had bought it from Ricardo Zuberbühler, who in turn bought it in Europe and won there in the climbing races in 1912. According to Macoco, these cars had Isotta-Fraschini chassis , like some Anasagasti of 12 HP.

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