THE SPRINGFIELD BODY COMPANY                                submitted by Keith Korbut [Bill, I have permission to use as much of this as you would like. I contributed to this article many moons ago. Many people don't know that the first convertables were built here in Springfield. I think members will enjoy the connections to local history.                                 Keith   ] The Springfield Body Co. is best known as the originator of the convertible, or more precisely the convertible hardtop body, in the middle teens.  The firm’s “Springfield Body” or “Springfield Top” was the first commercially available automobile body that could be converted from an enclosed vehicle to an open, pillar-less touring car.  A second incarnation of the firm specialized in commercial bodies and manufactured a line of suburban wooden station wagon bodies for Chevrolet and Ford chassis in the late 20s. The manufacturers of the Springfield top started life as the Springfield Cornice Works, a light structural steel fabricator located in Springfield, Massachusetts owned by Arthur P. Smith and managed by his younger brother Hinsdale Smith.  The younger Smith had taken an early interest in the horseless carriage, and, between 1896 and 1899, he designed and patented a number of automobile transmissions and gasoline engines.   Hinsdale built his own experimental horseless carriage in 1896 that was fitted with a wooden body built by the New Haven Carriage Co.  The vehicle was powered by an American gasoline engine that delivered power to the rear wheels via Smith’s own transmission via chain drive.  Additional prototypes were built in the next few years that were fitted with Smith’s novel spring-plate gasoline engine that was sometimes referred to as the Smith Spring Motor.  The legendary engineer Charles H. Martin moved to Springfield in 1898 to help the Smiths further develop their creations and, by 1900, their first vehicle, the Meteor, was ready for production.  (Among his numerous inventions, Martin’s claim to fame is the “rocking fifth wheel”.  Introduced on his Knox-Martin tractor-trucks of 1910-1920, the device continues to be the only secure means of connecting a semi-trailer to a truck.)   Martin and Hinsdale Smith formed the Automotor Co. to build the vehicle that was powered by a Dion engine delivering power to the rear wheels via Smith’s transmission and a single chain.

Sixteen examples of the $850 runabout were built between 1900 and 1901.  Automotor was a subsidiary of the Springfield Cornice Works and when Martin left the firm in 1902 to go to work for the Knox Automobile Co. (also in Springfield) the name of the vehicle became the Automotor.   The car was available with a planetary or sliding gear transmission that drove the rear wheels via shaft drive.  Various models were available using a combination of 16- and 20-hp powerplants.  A powerful 6-cylinder touring was even offered in 1905 for a whopping $3,500.  Sales of the vehicle were dismal; however, the aluminum bodywork created at the firm’s parent Cornice Works was innovative and highly regarded.  The brothers decided to concentrate on that aspect of the business and reorganized the firm as the Springfield Metal Body Co. in 1903 to better reflect their new line of work.  The firm manufactured aluminum bodies and folding tops for the regions many early automobile manufacturers who included Locomobile, Moyea, Orson, Pope-Hartford, Sampson, Stanley and Stevens-Duryea.  In fact, Hinsdale Smith was a friend of Frank Duryea and helped develop the firm’s first six-cylinder chassis.  As the firm’s chief designer, Hinsdale Smith patented a series of improvements to both the carriage top automobile body and automobile steering knuckle.

The bodies for a Springfield-badged automobile were built in small numbers by Springfield Metal Body in 1907 and 1908.   Designed by two local engineers, H.C. Medcraft and G.B. Bowersox, the car was sometimes known as the Med-Bow and manufactured by a syndicate headed by G.F. Hillman of Northampton, Massachusetts and included investors from both Springfield, Massachusetts and Springfield, Illinois.  Springfield Metal Body Company built the body for piano virtuoso Josef Hofmann’s self-built 1909 Hofmann automobile.   The body was a long demi-limousine that could be converted into an open tourer.  Skilled coachbuilders were hard to find and the firm recruited a number of European craftsmen to fill the void.  Their most famous recruit was Maurice Schwartz (1884-1961), who would go on to form the legendary Californian firm of Bohman & Schwartz.  Schwartz was born in Austria in 1884 and learned the art of body building at Armbruster Kaiser Koneg Hofwagen Fabrick, the Vienna firm that built carriages for the Kaiser.  In 1904, Armbruster added automobile bodies to their product catalog and Schwartz had six years experience in building them when he was recruited in 1910.  He stayed at Springfield for a couple of years then left to work for Willoughby in Utica, New York and Fisher Brothers in Detroit.  In 1918, he moved to Los Angeles, California to work for the Earl Auto Works which was eventually purchased by the Los Angeles Cadillac dealer Don Lee. In March of 1913, the Smith’s acquired the factory and assets of the Brightwood Mfg. Co., the producer of the 1910-1911 Orson automobile (aka the “Banker's Car” or “Millionaire’s Car”) and was reorganized as the Springfield Body Co.  Within a year, Hinsdale Smith’s revolutionary convertible sedan would guarantee the firm a lasting place in automotive history.  The Springfield all-year body featured removable door pillars and side windows that either slid down into the door cavity or were removed and stowed inside the car.  The body debuted on the 1914 Chalmers Sedan and, from 1915 through 1918, “Springfield-type” bodies were offered by at least two dozen automobile manufacturers including Auburn, Cadillac, Chalmers, Chandler, Chevrolet, Cole, Dodge, Ford, Haynes, Hudson, Locomobile, Maxwell, Mitchell, Oakland, Overland, Paige, Peerless, Pierce-Arrow, Pope, Pope-Hartford, Stanley, Stevens-Duryea, Studebaker, Toledo, Westcott and Willys-Knight.

The Springfield Top was resurrected by aftermarket suppliers in the early twenties as the all-weather or “California Top”, a popular accessory for touring cars, which gave them the functionality of sedan. Demand for the new body style quickly exceeded the factory’s capacity, so a New York investor named Walter L. Fry was brought in to bolster the firm’s finances.  In December 1914, the firm was reorganized as the Springfield Body Corp. with a $1 million capitalization.  Fry became the firm’s president, Hinsdale Smith, vice-president and chief engineer, and Arthur P. Smith treasurer.  Corporate headquarters were relocated to New York City at Broadway & 55th St., a Detroit Office was established in the David Whitney Bldg. at 1553 Woodward Ave. and the firm commenced operations at a leased plant in metropolitan Detroit.   On April 4th, 1916 The Wall street Journal reported that: "...following the sale of $750,000 in 8 per cent preferred stock in February, the business of the Springfield Body Corporation, formerly the Springfield Metal Body Company of Springfield, Mass., has increased handsomely.  Deliveries on contract in March increased 50 per cent of February, and April will probably show a gain of 33 per cent in March."  Prior to the reorganization most of the firm customers had been located in New England.  The Detroit office brought in lots of new business and a September 16th, 1916 newspaper article announced “A thousand percent increase in orders during the last twelve: That is the sensational record made by the Springfield Body Company, of Springfield, Mass.”  A few months later, the Springfield Body Corporation brought suit alleging patent infringement against the Fisher Body Corp.  In a November 1916 news release, Fisher Body’s president, Fred J. Fisher, stated that his company had been advised that there was no infringement and, had he thought there was, he would have abandoned that part of his business “since it does not constitute over 2 percent of our entire line”.  The two-year old Springfield Body Corporation did not survive the economic depression of 1917 and the firm suddenly and silently disappeared.  Existing patents were reassigned to the Edward G. Budd Corp. and Budd took over production of the convertible body.  Hinsdale Smith had little trouble finding another job and was appointed general manager of the Aeromarine Plane & Motors Co. of Keyport, New Jersey.  On the strength of orders from the US Army and Navy, Aeromarine constructed a new factory in 1917 adjacent to Raritan Bay in Keyport, New Jersey and Smith was hired to oversee the construction.  During World War I, Aeromarine made observation planes for the Army Signal Corps and trainers for the Navy.  Things did not go well for Hinsdale Smith in New Jersey and he returned to Springfield within the year to take another stab at the body building with his brother.  In 1918, the pair sought out contracts from the regions automakers, bought a factory in West Springfield and formed the Smith-Springfield Body Corp.  When Rolls-Royce of America, Inc. commenced production of the Springfield Silver Ghost in their East Springfield, Massachusetts plant, Smith-Springfield was selected as one of the automaker’s chief body suppliers.   In late 1921, LeBaron’s Ray Dietrich was hired as a consultant and spent close to a month designing and engineering the firm’s Rolls-Royce bodies.  Sixty-one Smith-Springfield bodies were built for the Springfield Silver Ghost chassis between 1921 and 1923.  LeBaron selected Smith-Springfield to build them a sporty dual-cowl phaeton for Milton Budlong, the New York City Lincoln distributor, to display at the November 1921 New York Auto Salon.  The caveat was that the car needed to be built in just 18 days, and Smith-Springfield delivered the completed car, on time.

Springfield made a few low-volume production bodies for other manufacturers such as the air cooled Fox which was built in Philadelphia, PA.  But, by late 1922, most of the plant was devoted to Rolls-Royce body program and, at the end of the year, Rolls-Royce of America purchased the entire operation.  Smith-Springfield’s craftsmen became the backbone of Rolls-Royce’s Custom Body Works, which were relocated from the West Springfield factory to the former Knox Automobile Co. plant on Waltham Ave. in 1923.  Peerless chose to introduce a new line of Springfield-built luxury bodies in 1924, and they chose the Winter 1923-24 New York Auto Show and Auto Salon for their introduction.  A fair amount of publicity resulted from the introduction of a radio-equipped Peerless sedan at the Springfield booth.  Springfield boasted that it was the first vehicle to include a radio as standard equipment.  The following year, Springfield exhibited two Peerless sedans at the winter 1924-1925 New York Auto Salon.  The New York Times took notice of the firm’s “…five-passenger car being finished in brown, with a hairline black striping and a centerline of gold.” In 1924, the Smith brothers took the proceeds of the Rolls-Royce sale and purchased the former Stevens-Duryea factory in East Springfield and commenced production of commercial bus and truck bodies.  The firm produced a few series-built wooden suburban bodies in the mid-to-late 1920s and early 30s.  Springfield offered the regions Chevrolet with a popular suburban body starting in 1925.  Similar in style to those built by Babcock and Mifflinburg, bodies were also available for Dodge and Ford chassis. In 1929, an unusual body was offered by Springfield called the "No.5 Estate Station Body".  The hardwood framework of this body was covered with sheet metal panels and painted the same color as the hood and cowl.  The extra-wide full frame doors were then edged with stainless steel or nickel-cadmium strips.  The roof edge was edged with these strips, and they were used at the belt line in single and double rows for decorative purposes.  Instead of side curtains, pull-up windows were used which consisted of a large wooden framed piece of canvas in which large isinglass panels were sewn-in.  The windows were raised by pulling them up out of their door pockets and snapped into place with fasteners.  These isinglass windows were placed in all 4 doors as well as the rear quarter windows and tailgate.  The same body was offered in 1930 as the No 35 Estate Wagon.  Although regular Springfield woodies were sold in large numbers, few of the new pocket-window design were sold, and none are known to exist today. Unfortunately, the firm did not survive the Depression. Hinsdale Smith continued to be active in the automotive field into the 1940s and held 35 patents when he passed away in Deerfield, Massachusetts on March 7, 1959 at the age of 89.

10 THINGS THAT USED TO BE COMMON - BUT WHICH YOU WON’T FIND TODAY     re-printed with permission by  Eric Peters www.ericpetersautos.com  Here's a fun way to test your age - or at least, your automotive IQ.  If you can remember even half of the following features that cars used to have, you're either over 40 - or know your four-wheeled history! * Floor-mounted dimmer switch - With modern cars, you pull back on a steering wheel-mounted stalk to activate (or switch off) the high beams.  In the olden days - prior to about 1981 - you'd use your left foot to tap them on and off.  The change was done ostensibly for safety reasons - though a argument can be made that having to take one hand off the wheel to dim the high beams is not necessarily an improvement, safety-wise, over tapping a button with your left foot - and keeping both hands on the wheel. * Column-shifted manual transmissions - As recently as the late '70s, some passenger cars equipped with manual transmissions still had their shifters on the steering wheel, just like pick-ups used to.  It could be a challenge to get the pattern right - and led to lots of grindin' on the way to findin' first, second and third.  But the upside was that with mastery came a sense of real accomplishment - especially if you could run through all the gears quickly. · Carburetors - They've been gone for 20-plus years now. Hard  to believe, isn't it?  Fuel injection (especially multi-port fuel injection, which has an injector for each of the engine's cylinders) is now standard equipment on all new cars and trucks.  It's more expensive and complex - but the gains in drivability, lower emissions and higher gas mileage are hard to argue against. * Frameless door glass - Ok, some cars (Subarus for one) still have frameless door glass, but it's increasingly uncommon.  Reason?  It's harder to get a tight seal, especially over time.  (Framed doors also add an element of structural integrity to the car, which can make it more crashworthy in side-impact accidents.) * Steel wheels/plastic wheel covers - Yes, some low-end/base model vehicles still come through with one or both.  But alloy rims - formerly found for the most part on high-end and high-performance cars only - are now dominant.  This is ironic, because steelies are sturdier - and it's much cheaper to replace damaged plastic trim covers than bent aluminum wheels.  But, aluminum wheels do look nice - and they're lighter, too. * Gas heaters - Cars with iffy/marginal heaters sometimes offered supplemental gas-fueled heaters that made them bearable in winter.  It also made them dangerous firetraps - or mobile gas chambers that had the potential to asphyxiate their owners with carbon monoxide.  Which is why you don't see them much anymore. * Air-cooled engines - Ever-tighter emissions control requirements did them in.  Porsche was the last to offer an air-cooled passenger car vehicle - but in the past, there were several makes on the road, including VWs and (in Europe) Tatras - some of which had air-cooled V-8 engines. * Wing vents - Before air conditioning became a near-given that most cars either came with as standard equipment (or at least, offered as optionally available equipment) cars came with window wing vents that could be adjusted to direct airflow into the car, which kept the interior reasonably cool.  But, the effectiveness of this system depended on the car moving at a decent clip - and as traffic worsened, that got harder and harder.  Air conditioning - and rolled-up windows - quickly became a "must-have." * Hoods that opened from the outside - Either we were more trusting or thievery was less an issue "back in the day," when you could open just about any car's hood from the outside, just by pulling a lever or catch.  No locks, no problemo.  Today, you need to pull a lever from the inside to get the hood to pop open - which makes it harder for no-good-niks to access your engine compartment. * Factory CB radios - Hey, good buddy!  For a few years during the mid-late '70s, Citizen Band radios were quite the rage. Some automakers even began to offer CB radios as factory-installed equipment.  But the craze died down as quickly as it appeared - and today, CBs are as rare as other icons from the past like 8-track tape players and non-digital tuners. www.ericpetersautos.com  (or EPeters952@aol.com ) for comments

ABOUT MEMBERS Keith Korbut notified several members of Harold Sharon’s passing.  Keith noted that Harold was a long time member of the CVR and a well respected restorer of early brass cars.  Harold lived in Glastonbury, CT and Keith had visited him at home to see some of his automobiles and his motorcycle.  “Harold was a master machinist with more talent in his little finger than I will ever have” stated Keith.  “I had one of his brass lights that he hand made into a tie clip. I gave it to Ray Baronas some time ago.”  Harold appears in many old Bulb Horns. He will be sorely missed.  The announcement of his passing reflects a lot about the man: "Harold M. Sharon, longtime Glastonbury resident, died Saturday four days before his 76th birthday.   He is survived by his 100 year-old mother, Rachel Sharon, sister Eleanor Rogers; wife Joanna and their children Melanie, Richard and Diana.  He will be missed by his grandchildren Maddie, Ben, Anna and Julie.  He spent his career as an engineer at Pratt & Whitney and the Turbo Power and Marine division of United Technologies.  He had many interests, especially antique cars.  He wrote for several hobby publications about the mechanics of very early cars.  Many people phoned him for advice on how to keep 'em running and no one ever saw him pass a fellow antique auto driver in distress without stopping to offer advice, tools and assistance.  When he was very sick, a call for advice always brightened him up.  He was a great father, a great friend, and a great husband.  He met his wife Jo in 1950.  They celebrated their 53rd anniversary last Valentine's Day.  He never wanted a traditional burial; he said, “The dead shouldn't crowd out the living.”  He didn't want a funeral, but he always told us “when I die, I want this epitaph in the newspaper, 'Having been in heaven since 1950, I have now gone to earth'”.  He loved life, and he joked with a dear friend just days before his death, “Don't cry for me.  I've already had more fun in my life than you'll ever have in yours.”

The Kokoski Family is not to be outdone by the Kelly family!  The most recent issue of the UMass alumni magazine had a central theme of family values.  On the cover, and within an article inside, CVR’s Kokoski Family was highlighted.  Members will remember an article which was reprinted here a few months ago about the Kelly Family.  Seems both the Kelly’s and the Kokoski’s have the UMass and Hadley community under control. The author for UMass wrote, “We sympathize with the postal worker who services Comins Road in Hadley.  The country lane is home to numerous Kokoskis (and their respective mailboxes), both the Mapleline Farm clan and their cousins, some who farm potatoes on adjoining land.  It was a rewarding challenge piecing together their family tree and figuring out the numerous UMass Amherst connections.  We proudly present the Kokoskis of Hadley and thank them for sharing their inspiring family history with us.” This picture accompanied the article.

Powered by CityMax.com