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Washington, D.C., circa 1915. "Witt-Will motor truck plant, 52 N Street N.E." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
The truck in the background has a chain drive on the rear wheels. I didn't know that chain drives were used on road vehicles, I have only seen them used on heavy equipment (tractors, etc.) of the era.
[Many if not most early automobiles and trucks used chain or belt drives. - Dave]
Looks like a considerable horn mounted there just aft the driver's seat. Electric? Air-powered? Is that a little lever on top for the driver to pump?
I'm struck by the truck for G.M. Woolf's "Agricultural Implements and Seeds" located at 1005 B St. NW. I believe the Department of Justice now stands there, on the street long since renamed Constitution Avenue.
Washington Post, Apr 5, 1914Making Trucks Here
Witt-Will Company Takes Over Business
Started by W.W. Griffith.The newly formed Witt-Will company, with large facilities for building motor trucks and maintaining motor-truck service, is the outgrowth of the automobile truck manufacturing business begun here by W.W. Griffith in 1911. The company has taken over the manufacturing plant at 52 N street northeast, and is proceeding on a schedule which calls for five completed motor trucks each month. The company is maintaining a service department and a complete repair shop, together with a body building and paint shop.
The Witt-Will trucks are designed for 1-ton capacity and upward, many heavy trucks being in commission at the present time and giving good service. W.W. Griffith, who is well known as a large coal and ice dealer, is president of the company. William F. Legg, the vice president and factory manager of the company, is a Cornell graduate in mechanical engineering, and has been successively head designer for the Thomas B. Jeffery Company; factory manager and head designer for the St. Louis Motor Car Company; superintendent for the E.R. Thomas Motor Company, and factory manager and head designer for the Carter Motor Car Corporation.
John L. Bowles, who is the secretary and auditor for the company, has had a long business career, and for the past year has been an auditor for Mr. Griffith's motor truck building business. John M. Dugan has resigned as superintendent of the Washington office of the Bradstreet company to accept the position of treasurer and sales manager of the Witt-Will company.
Witt-Will trucks were manufactured in Washington, D.C., at 52 N Street N.E., "in the shadow of the White House." The company was an outgrowth of the W.W. Griffith Company, which started as an automobile manufacturer in 1911. In March 1914 Griffith founded the Witt-Will Truck Company, which folded in 1933.
Photobucket has a few photos of Witt-Will coal trucks.
[One of them taken from Shorpy! - Dave]
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