Honda

In October 1946, in Hamamatsu, Japan, when Soichiro Honda took over a factory wartime bombings had left in ruins; determined to succeed post war he established the Honda Technical Research Institute. Soichiro's first attempt at manufacturing was the "rotary weaving machine"; then he tried his hand at mass-producing frosted glass windows. After failing to "take off", and not one to give up, he next tried manufacturing woven bamboo roof panels. Then Soichiro came across a surplus of two-stroke motors and had an idea. With very little gasoline available for transportation, Soichiro decided to build motorbikes. Soichiro started adapting the small 2-cycle motorcycle engines to run on turpentine and attached them to cycle frames Hamamatsu factory workers built. The bikes were popular and soon sold out leading Soichiro to begin manufacturing his own engines; and the history of Honda began.