14 BULLETIN 198, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



control being by two levers placed at the driver's right and by a small 

 knob, which can be turned by hand. 



The transmission consists of three exposed pairs of constant-mesh 

 gears on two transverse parallel shafts, the rear shaft being a right- 

 hand extension of the crankshaft. Of the left pair the gear on the 

 crankshaft is integral with the driving sprocket of the chain. The 

 right pair of gears includes a reverse idler gear in its train. To engage 

 low speed the left of the two levers is pulled back, clutching the middle 

 gear of the crankshaft to that shaft, after the hand-operated knob has 

 been turned to clutch the mating and otherwise free-running gear to 

 the front shaft. The crankshaft motion is thus transmitted from the 

 crankshaft to the front shaft, and from the front shaft back to the 

 sprocket gear running free on the crankshaft. To engage high speed 

 the right lever is pulled back, clutching the driving sprocket directly 

 to the crankshaft. Keverse is accomplished by pushing the left lever 

 forward. This clutches the right-hand gear of the front shaft to the 

 shaft, and transmits the crankshaft motion through the reverse idler 

 gear and the front shaft back to the driving sprocket running free on 

 the crankshaft. 



A foot-operated accelerator was connected to the carburetor at the 

 rear of the engine, but the carburetor is now missing from the vehicle. 

 A large fin-cooled water tank is supported under the right side of the 

 body at the rear, while the gasoline tank is to the left and over the 

 engine. A hand crank, normally resting in a receptacle in the floor- 

 board, can be fitted for starting purposes to the gearing at the right of 

 the engine through a hole in the side of the body. 



The front axle, which has steering knuckles at each end, is secured to 

 the rear-axle housing by reach rods, thus keeping the two parallel. 

 The frame of the car, which supports the engine, is mounted on the 

 two axles by four full-elliptic springs, one of the earliest instances of 

 excluding the weight of the engine from the unsprung weight. Steer- 

 ing is by tiller, and the four wheels are wire-spoked, the front wheels 

 being equipped with 34-by-3-inch single-tube pneumatic tires and the 

 rear with 36-by-3-inch tires of the same type. 



KNOX GASOLINE AUTOMOBILE, 1899 



U. S. N. M. No. 30S332 ; original ; from Mrs. Lansing Van Auken in 1924 ; photo- 

 graph No. 8483-A ; plate 9, a. 



Built by Harry A. Knox, of Springfield, Mass., this vehicle is an- 

 other example of the many makes of 3-wheeled automobiles constructed 

 at the turn of the century. Mr. Knox was one of the schoolboys 

 who helped build ten of the thirteen 1896 Duryea automobiles in the 

 Springfield Industrial School. In 1909 this car was driven in the 

 parade at the Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York City and was 



