American Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles of World War I:
Illustrated Histories of 225 Manufacturers

By Albert Mroz

Available from:
McFarland & Co. Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina and London
www.mcfarlandpub.com

Soft cover, 420 pages, $45

Reviewed by Larry Edsall
Zoom an e-mail to Larry

Did you know:

• The 1914 Briscoe Cloverleaf Roadster had a body made from compressed paper-mache?
• David Buick, whose name became known around the world, died impoverished -- at age 73 he was working at a trade school information desk in an effort to make ends meet?
• Chevrolet got its bow-tie emblem when it absorbed the Little Motor Car Co., another Billy Durant-launched automaker?
• Commercial Truck of Philadelphia was building gas-electric hybrid vehicles as early as 1915?
• Even though its cars were powered by electric motors, the 1919 Detroit Electric still had a hood and fake radiator?
• Truck-builder Mack was founded by five brothers who in 1901 built their first motorized vehicle - a 15-passenger bus? By the way, Mack's bulldog emblem traces to British soldiers who noted that trucks' strength in World War I.
• Warren Noble, a British-born gynecologist who helped launch four American car companies, later became Supreme Director of Industrialization in the Soviet Union?
• The 1910 Ohio Electric coupe was built with the woman driver in mind? It was steered from the back seat.
• Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the engine that bears his name, disappeared overboard while crossing the British Channel in 1913?
• Truck-builder Couple Gear took its name from technology that allowed its wheels to pivot 90 degrees so its trucks could move forward, back, left or right? But don't confuse the Couple Gear system with the Parkmobile, a feature that allowed passenger cars to move sideways into a parking space in the 1920s.

Those are just a few of the "inside baseball" facts gleaned from reading the weighty work of Albert Mroz, an artist, musician, machine designer and historian whose previous works include American Military Vehicles of World War I and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Truck and Commercial Vehicles.

None of those titles may appeal to the everyday motorist, but automotive historians will gobble up the details for 225 auto-, truck- and motorcycle-makers - from Acason to Zeitler & Lamson -- who were active in the United States during the years of World War I.

I used the term "inside baseball" not only because of the wonderful minutia in the book, but because of the almost baseball card-style displays that punctuate the prose, displays that show a photograph of a car, truck or motorcycle and provide complete statistics - I mean, of course, specifications - for that company's vehicle.

In addition to what some might consider to be historical trivia, Mroz writes about the amazing number of companies that used Continental engines to empower their vehicles, about the many companies - 150 of them -- that got together to produce the Liberty truck for the American war effort, and about how companies that expected to prosper from assorted defense contracts suddenly came to ruin when the war ended much sooner than expected and they were left with large inventories of raw materials or partially completed components which no longer were in demand.

Mroz also details the development of such automotive accessories as the Motometer and Buel whistle, and why the steering wheel came to be placed on the left side of the vehicle.

He also writes of the first "truck competition," which was held in late May of 1903, in part, he quotes Horseless Age Magazine, because "the motor truck must end its purely butterfly existence and be made to assume its share of the world's work, if it is to survive."

Thirteen of the 14 entries survived the drive around Central Park and across the Harlem River in New York City.

The rest, as they say, is history, and a slice of it is nicely presented in Mroz' newest book.