These days, do-it-yourself implies building a headboard out of pallet wood. When the automobile was still in its infancy, the term called for a wider range of skillsets in order to cast and machine the engine for a scratchbuilt horseless carriage, as illustrated by the circa-1900 English Mechanic plan-built automobile coming up for auction next month.

Long before Mechanix Illustrated published guides for rolling basic sheetmetal shapes over a Ford chassis to build a sports car, Thomas Hyler White had an idea. An engineer who had worked for Daimler shortly before the turn of the century, Hyler White came to the conclusion that just about any bloke could build his own automobile rather than purchase one from the nascent auto manufacturing concerns – as long as he had an engineer like Hyler White to guide him.

Of course, the majority of the new automotive public didn't know how to drive, let alone build an engine from scratch.