The Knox Automobile Company was a manufacturer of

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarde ...

s in Springfield,

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United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, between 1900 and 1914. Knox also built

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

s and

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

s until 1924. They are notable for building the very first modern fire engine in 1905.

History

Harry Austin Knox built three experimental gasoline cars at

Overman Wheel Company Overman Wheel Company was an early bicycle manufacturing company in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts from 1882 to 1900. It was known for bicycles of higher quality and lower weight than other bicycles of its time. Despite a nationwide bicycle craze i ...

between 1895 and 1898. He left Overman when they decided to build a

steam car A steam car is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE) in which the fuel is combusted outside of the engine, unlike an internal combustion engine (ICE) in which fuel is combusted ins ...

. Knox joined with his former employer, Elihu H. Cutler of the Elektron Company to form the Knox Automobile Company in Springfield Massachusetts in 1900. The

Waltham Watch Company The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., was a company that produced about 40 million watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time delay fuses, and other precision instruments in the Un ...

factory was purchased and Knox built 15 cars in their first year. The Knox Model A was a three-wheel runabout with a 5-hp one-cylinder air-cooled engine. In 1902 a four-wheel runabout and a 8-hp two-cylinder engine joined the model line-up. Early cars were called Knoxmobile with the Waterless Knox being used from 1903. A slogan used was "The Car That Never Drinks". In some models, passengers rode up front over the front axle while the driver and another passenger sat in the back over the engine.100 Years of the American Auto Millennium Edition, page 24, Copyright 1999 Publications International, Ltd.

The "Old Porcupine" engine

The flat-mounted

single-cylinder engine A single-cylinder engine, sometimes called a thumper, is a piston engine with one cylinder. This engine is often used for motorcycles, motor scooters, go-karts, all-terrain vehicles, radio-controlled vehicles, portable tools and garden machinery ...

was

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

. Rather than flanges to improve the efficiency of cooling, 1,750 threaded 3/16 inch (5mm) diameter rods were screwed into the cylinder casing as projecting studs, which led to the engine sometimes being referred to as "Old Porcupine". A 2-speed

planetary transmission An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) consists of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear revolves around the center of the other. A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and rotates the planet and sun gea ...

was fitted. This engine was situated at the center of the car and produced 8 hp (6 kW). It was also called a "hedgehog". The one-cylinder engine was used until 1905. In 1902 a two-cylinder version was added that was used up to 1907.

Growth

Knox pricing for the one-cylinder and two-cylinder models went for a low price in 1900 of $750, () to medium-priced by 1904. A 1904 Knox Tuxedo Touring model, equipped with a

straight-twin engine A straight-twin engine, also known as an inline-twin, vertical-twin, or parallel-twin, is a two-cylinder piston engine whose cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. Straight-twin engines are primarily used in motorcycles; ot ...

producing 16 hp (11.9 kW), was priced at $2,200, . In late 1904 Harry Knox left the company over a disagreement on policy with Elihu Cutler. Harry Knox set-up a new business across town to build the

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

air-cooled car. In 1906 Knox Automobile Company introduced the Model G, a 40-hp air-cooled

four-cylinder engine The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...

on a 112-inch

wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

. With a limousine body priced at $5,000 (), Knox had entered the

luxury car A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars. The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and the ...

market. The two-cylinder models were phased out in 1907 and all Knox's became mid-priced to high-priced cars. Knox progressively improved their models, moving the engine from under the seat to up front under a

bonnet A Bonnet is a variety of headgear, hat or cap Specific types of headgear referred to as "bonnets" may include Scottish * Blue bonnet, a distinctive woollen cap worn by men in Scotland from the 15th-18th centuries And its derivations: ** Fea ...

and going from chain-driven to shaft-drive. In 1908 a

water-cooled Cooling tower and water discharge of a nuclear power plant Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. Evaporative cooling using water is often more efficient than air cooling. Water is inexpensive and no ...

four-cylinder engine was introduced and customers could choose air-cooled or pay $100 more for water-cooled models. A

six-cylinder The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balan ...

engine became available in 1910 and all Knox's became water-cooled. Only luxury-priced Knox's were offered after 1910. A Vanderbilt Cup, start

Racing

The Knox was raced by Billy Bourque in the 1909 AAA Championship Car race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 1910 a Knox was driven by

Fred Belcher Fred William Belcher (June 3, 1881 – February 18, 1951) was an American racing driver who competed in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 50 ...

in the

Vanderbilt Cup race The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. History An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held on October 8 on a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island ...

Fate

By 1912 Knox sales were slipping and a receiver was called in. The last Knox automobiles were built in 1914 and Knox was declared bankrupt in 1915. Knox reorganized as the Knox Motors Corporation and continued build tractors and trucks until 1924. Afterwards Harry Knox moved on to design tanks for the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

Ordnance Department The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army comb ...

; his

T1 Light Tank The Light Tank, T1 was a United States Army light tank of the late 1920s and early 1930s that was only built in prototype form. The tank was an Army design built by James Cunningham, Son and Company. Introduced in 1927, it was developed up throug ...

wasn't adopted, but his

Vertical volute spring suspension The vertical volute spring suspension system is a type of vehicle suspension system. This type of the suspension system was mainly fitted on US and Italian tanks and armored fighting vehicles starting from throughout the 1930s up until after the e ...

and his track design were used on almost all American tanks of the WWII, and he designed its replacement HVSS, which served until 1980s in some countries, as well.

Gallery

File:MHV Knox Threewheeler 1901.jpg, alt=, 1901 Model A Three-wheeler Runabout File:MHV Knox C 1903.jpg, alt=, 1903 Knox Model C Runabout File:MHV Knox F 1905.jpg, alt=, 1905 Knox Model F Surrey File:MHV Knox G 1906.jpg, alt=, 1906 Knox Model G Touring File:MHV Knox O 1909.jpg, alt=, 1909 Knox Model O Tonneauette File:MHV Knox S 1910.jpg, alt=, 1910 Knox Model S Touring

History

The "Old Porcupine" engine

Growth

Racing

Fate

Gallery

Knox Models

Knox Production

References

See also