Haynes, Elwood (1857–1925)

US manufacturer. In 1898 he formed, with Elmer and Edgar Apperson, the Haynes-Apperson Automobile Company that produced one of the most successful of the early cars. By 1908 the Appersons left in a dispute over who deserved credit for designing the original car, but Haynes continued to make his cars until the 1920s. Meanwhile he turned his interest to metal alloys and developed several including Stellite, a cobalt chromium alloy that would not rust and kept its hardness when heated (1907), and stainless steel (1919). He formed Haynes Stellite Company in 1915, then sold it to Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation in 1920.

Haynes was born in Portland, Indiana. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1881. By 1891 – allegedly to make his job as a field supervisor for an Indiana utility company easier – he began to develop a gasoline-powered automobile. With the help of Elmer and Edgar Apperson, he built a one-cylinder car that was first demonstrated in Kokomo, Indiana, on 4 July 1894 (it is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution).