Springfield Motor Car Company

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Med-Bow Automobile Company
H.C. Medcraft Automobile Company
Springfield Motor Car Company
legal form Company
founding 1907
resolution 1910
Seat Springfield , Illinois , USA
Branch Automobiles

Springfield Motor Car Company , previously Med-Bow Automobile Company and HC Medcraft Automobile Company , was an American manufacturer of automobiles .

Company history

Harry C. Medcraft and George C. Bowersox founded the Med-Bow Automobile Company in February 1907 . The seat was in Springfield , Massachusetts . The name was a string of the first syllables of their last names. Of the various directors, some lived in Springfield, Massachusetts and others in Springfield, Illinois . In the same year the production of automobiles began. The brand name was officially Springfield , unofficially Med-Bow . George Readio was the designer.

In the fall of 1907, the name was changed to HC Medcraft Automobile Company . A source speculates that Bowersox was eliminated.

In early 1909 the headquarters were moved to Springfield, Illinois. The brand name did not change as a result. The new company name was Springfield Motor Car Company . Readio, however, stayed in Massachusetts and founded the Morse-Readio Auto Company .

Production ended in 1910. The Rayfield Motor Car Company took over the company.

There was no association with the Springfield Automobile Company , which used the same brand name for their passenger cars between 1899 and 1903 .

vehicles

All vehicles had a four-cylinder engine from the Rutenber Motor Company . At first it had a 114.3 mm bore , 127 mm stroke , 5212 cm³ displacement and made 35 hp . The chassis had a wheelbase of 272 cm . Construction was an open touring car . It reached a top speed of 80 km / h and cost 2500 US dollars .

In 1908 a roadster supplemented the range on the same basis. Its top speed was specified with 104 km / h and the new price with 2750 dollars.

After the move in 1909, the engine was retained. The wheelbase was extended to 325 cm. Now there were five- and seven-seat touring cars and four-seat torpedoes . They cost $ 2,500.

Another source gives a 50 HP for 1910 . It had a four-cylinder engine with 127 mm bore, 120.65 mm stroke, 6113 cc displacement and 50 hp. The wheelbase was also 325 cm. The only structure was a touring car with seven seats.

Quantities

Forty-six vehicles have survived during the time in Massachusetts. Either 11 or 200 vehicles were built in Illinois. Another source names plans for 200 or 300 vehicles in Illinois, but only ten that were actually made.

William Howard Taft , then President of the United States , was driven in a Springfield in 1911 when visiting the city of Springfield.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1370-1371 (English).
  • George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 3: P-Z . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1485-1486 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1370-1371 (English).
  2. ↑ George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 3: P-Z . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1485-1486 (English).
  3. ^ A b Automobile Quarterly , Volume 32, Issue 1, pp. 38–51.