Frederick Morrell Zeder

In 1909 after graduating from Michigan, Zeder was hired by the Allis-Chalmers Company in West Allis, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee for their apprentice course as an erecting engineer.[8] This is where he met Carl Breer. Allis-Chalmers selected twenty-five of the best students of mechanical engineering from top universities of the United States. Besides Zeder, Breer was such a student and was from Stanford University. Zeder and Breer became close friends in their training at Allis-Chalmers.[3][9][10]

Zeder then was hired in 1910 by a power plant in Detroit helping to build it. His next job, later in 1910, was at the E-M-F Company in Detroit taking charge of their engineering laboratory working on car body design,[8] while still a consultant of the Detroit power plant construction project for the Engineers' Manufacturing Company.[11] Studebaker brothers (wagon builders) took over E-M-F. in 1912 to produce Studebaker automobiles. Zeder became a consulting engineer for them using his university knowledge of mechanics and mathematics in laboratory controlled conditions.[1] Later in 1914, at the age of 28, he was Studebaker's chief engineer.[2][3]

1918 Studebaker

Studebaker reached their production peak in 1916, however had major financial problems and was about to be bankrupt. Zeder saw this as a weakness in the engineering department and hired two key knowledgeable mechanical engineers, Carl Breer and Owen Skelton, to form a new engineering nucleus. These three engineers were referred to as "The Three Musketeers" by those who knew them.[12] Zeder was the vice president of Studebaker and his main job was that of being in charge of engineering. Breer, because of his analytical skills, was made the director of research laboratories. Skelton was put in charge of design.[3]

In 1914 Zeder enticed Breer to come over to Studebaker to work with him in their engineering department. Zeder's relationship with Breer was quite close. Breer even married one of Zeder's sisters. Of the three engineers Zeder was considered the key front man because of his charismatic personality and advanced engineering talents. Skelton had engineering talents for engines and transmitting its power to the wheels and Breer had technical engineering design abilities.[13] Zeder was the chief engineer at Studebaker until 1920.[14] Then in 1921 he became president of Zeder-Skelton-Breer Engineering Company that the three of them formed in Newark, New Jersey.[8][15]

1924 Chrysler B-70 Touring Cars

"The Three Musketeers" of Studebaker and Willys—Zeder, Skelton, and Breer—were brought by Walter Chrysler over to the nascent Chrysler Corporation in 1924 and became the heart of its engineering department,[8] which over the next 50 years would earn a reputation in the automotive industry as one of the best such departments at any major manufacturing corporation. The Chrysler cars of the 1920s and 1930s featured many firsts in automobile engineering. For example, Lee Iacocca credited Frederick Zeder, who became Chrysler's vice-president in charge of engineering as the chief engineer,[16] with leading the development of rubber motor mounts. Iacocca said that Zeder was the first man to figure out how to get the motor generated vibrations out of the passenger compartment of automobiles. His solution was to mount the automobile engine on a base of rubber mounts thereby greatly reducing the motor vibrations from going to the automobile frame and body.[17]

Zeder's design of the automobile engine with his associates was good enough to attract bankers to invest in it and made the formation of the Chrysler corporation possible.[18] The first Chrysler 1924 automobiles came with all steel bodies, four-wheel hydraulic brakes, a multi-disc clutch, special chrome springs, Hotchkiss drive, aluminum pistons, and an air flow design.[19] The high-compression six-cylinder automobile engine developed 68 horsepower at 3200 revolutions per minute.[20] Later models came with independent springs for a smoother ride.[21] Zeder pointed out that these 1926 models were made with known and proven engineering techniques.[22] There was a test performed in 1930 on the rubber engine mounting that lifted a De Soto Straight Eight automobile two feet off the ground for five minutes. The test was a success with the rubber mountings stretching an eighth of an inch under the weight of the car. It was to demonstrate that the purr of the motor is deadened by these mounts.[23]