The Brass Lamp

M a y 2 0 1 5

The Brass Lamp “The initiative is ours,” Pres-ident Harry S Truman said at his second inauguration, Jan-uary 20, 1949. That phrase could have reflected the hard-fought war for votes which Truman won over opponent Dewey mere weeks earlier. But Truman was referencing the state of the world and the role of the United States. Without renewed initiative among car makers, the fol-lowing years would be do-or-die ones for Packard, the grand maker of luxury autos in America. One area in which Packard’s sales staff was trying to gar-ner attention was to boost sales of senior models. Leading the 22nd Series line of Packards in 1948 and ear-ly 1949 was the Custom Su-per Eight which only ac-counted for a miserly 3 per-cent of Packard production at that time.

Car companies secured more prestige for their models by negotiating with notable per-sonalities so that they would be seen in or with Packards at key events. This idea transferred to U.S. Presidents and candidates for the office.

After the 1948 election, Tru-man was miffed over GM’s neglect in providing transporta-tion for his campaign purposes. Feeling he was snubbed, once he firmly gained the White House after the election he lit-erally turned his back to that car maker.

That move gained immediate momentum according to histo-rian Paul W. Hatmon who thoroughly researched the

Truman cars during those Presi-dential years. Shortly following the 1948 election, Truman or-dered John Steelman of the White House Staff to remove every official GM car from the premises, Hatmon noted, “One of his first chores upon return-ing to Washington was to see that all the General Motors’ cars were removed from White House property.” Continued on page 6 >>>

Presidential Connection for Local 1949 Packard

by Gerald Perschbacher (LL.D.) all rights reserved

Word-of-mouth stories circulated around a1949 Packard Custom long-wheelbase se-dan: It was used by the Mayor of St. Louis, was used for the wedding of a Vice President, and carried at least one president around town during his terms. I knew about the car for more than 15 years before I claimed owner-ship. Then the research began in earnest to verify the heritage. This is Part One of Two.

This is not the Perschbacher vehicle, but serial number 2550-9-2006, one of the Packard Custom Super Eight vehicles placed into service at the Truman White House. It was recently sold.

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Celebrating 71 Years In

St. Louis!

Martin L. Hassel (314) 232-5934

President

Peter Bitzer (636) 256-7511

1st Vice President/Programs

Sharon Mercer (636) 928-8672

2nd Vice President/Membership

Louis Allen (314) 741-4158

Treasurer

Joe Yochim (636) 947-1157

Recording Secretary

Dr. Gerald Perschbacher (314) 849-5249

Corresponding Secretary

Directors Ted Hamburg(2015)

Ted Baker(2015) Bill Albertin(2016) Al Mercer(2016)

John Clark (2017) Ron Nelson(2017)

Ron Nelson

9826 Affton View Ct. St. Louis, MO 63123

(314) 638-7131 Brass Lamp Editor

Don Hoelscher

(636) 939-9667 Webmaster

www.hccmo.com (314) 991-HONK

The other day, I was sitting in my pro-gram management staff meeting at Boeing. The dilemma that had just been presented was a good one…find new ways to sustain the life of some of the legacy F/A-18 Hornets in service with our international customers.

A lot of this involves ongoing repair through replacement of bulkheads, longerons, control surfaces and even inner and outer wings. Millions of parts are involved, many of which are out of production. Avionics are con-stantly being upgraded as are cockpit displays….”state of the art” being a singular glass touch screen display. Some of the planes in use in interna-tional fleets are 30 years old, but they are a far cry from what was delivered back in the early 1980s. The particular problem we were addressing in the meeting was the design of a complex and costly part…and how we could have assurances that what we were going to “reproduce” would be accu-rate. The final suggestion was to 3D-Print the part from the CAD (Computer Aided Design) model to do a fit and functionality check. Do you remember going to school for “Show and Tell” and passing around various objects…it was that additional tactile feel that helped you comprehend and fully un-derstand what you were looking at. We’re creating “show and tell” by pro-ducing an accurate model in, literally, minutes rather than hours, days, weeks, months. The technology is so phenomenal, we can now produce a

metallic “printed” part that, in some in-stances, becomes the real part and can be used on the aircraft. This 3D printing technology is advancing rapidly. We see machines building machines.

I have a vivid mental image of when I start-ed at McDonnell Douglas 37 years ago. I guess that makes me an old geezer now since I can actually reminisce and share “war stories.” When I started, there were row-upon-row of desks and drafting tables, stacks of blueprints and mylars…all hand drawn by draftsmen. These were full size drawings and they were kept in a large drawing vault to be checked out. Often the drawings were also stored on microfiche aperture cards…essentially Hollerith cards with film windows that you placed in a reader. You often signed away your “first born” for a deck of cards to study a particu-lar engineering detail. You learned to speak the language…loft line drawings were pattern drawings that enabled part production from a very large one-to-one Mylar print. Automobiles were produced

largely in the same manner.

Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) began to ap-pear in darkened rooms…the term was CAD/CAM – “Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Manufacturing. They were wire frame models. This was short lived. Now…fast forward…the CRTs quickly became dinosaurs and they disap-peared in favor of newer tech. Not only did we have wire frame capability, we also had solid modeling and eventually some de-gree of animation. The ultimate “Buck Rogers” tech. was the ability to create surroundings – essentially the operating environment…say the hanger deck of an aircraft carrier and the aircraft could be moved about to see about clearances and placement. Ultimately these systems evolved to desktop/laptop technologies and Unigraphics emerged. This was a space age product that McDonnell Douglas produced. However, it wasn’t a core busi-

ness competency and the software

The President’s Column…

Musings on Where We Are in 2015, Where We’ve Been, and

the Future as I Envision it in my Crystal Ball By Larry Hassel

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company was sold off to Ross Perot’s EDS (Electronic Data Systems), which ultimately became a division of Gen-eral Motors back around 1984.

Unigraphics was applied to all sorts of things, technology with roots in aero-space. It is being applied to automo-tive manufacturing, performing every-thing from virtual design of complete automobiles to the factories them-selves with every detail automated in a virtual reality world. The end goal was to drive numerically controlled robotic machines to produce con-sistency in production – the same thing each time – COOKIE CUTTER! While it worked great, politics got in the way. GM was notorious for poli-tics. If you look up EDS, you’ll realize that the original owner was Ross Perot. Unfortunately, Roger Smith of GM didn’t get along with Ross Perot and the two parted ways. GM some-how struggled…where aerospace was succeeding by driving numerically controlled machining and chem. mill-ing, the auto industry lagged very far behind and in 1996, EDS was spun off by GM. Siemens AG picked up the pieces, advanced the product and now calls the tool PLMNX (Product Life Cycle) to optimize product devel-opment and manufacturing. The fi-nancial crisis drove Detroit to answer for sloppy workmanship, cheap parts and a cavalier attitude. Painful as that was, what emerged was quality and advanced technologies. When you look at your new car, recognize that it was probably built by this level of technology. Your antiques, up until the early 1940s, were largely built by time-honored coach building hand craftsmanship techniques…quite akin to the horse drawn buggy makers of old…wood framing with superb joinery skinned in nailed on sheet metal.

I ask myself…given this level of standardization and conformity, what cars will emerge as future collecta-bles and what will the criteria be to achieve such status. The revelation occurred at Cars and Coffee a couple of weeks ago as I spoke to a group of avid “cult” followers and drivers of the Tesla. I see lots of enthusiasm. So, I’m “putting my money” on Elon

Musk’s Tesla S because of the radi-cal approach that was taken in the design and execution of the vehicle as a future collectable. Many of the technologies I just spoke of were employed in the design. The only question in my mind…with the ad-vanced technology and computeriza-tion which upgrades itself via 4G network feeds, who will be able to keep these cars functional when this becomes obsolescent? The pending software technology is exciting…an excerpt from Tesla’s site… ”Autopilot.”

Autopilot combines a forward looking camera, radar, and 360 degree sonar sensors with real time traffic updates to automatically drive Model S on the open road and in dense stop and go traffic. Changing lanes becomes as simple as a tap of the turn signal. When you arrive at your destination, Model S will both detect a parking spot and automatically park itself. Standard equipment safety features are con-stantly monitoring stop signs, traffic signals and pedestrians, as well as for unintentional lane changes. Autopilot features are progressively enabled over time with software up-dates. The current software version is 6.2, adding automatic emergency brak-ing and blind spot warning. “Bells and Whistles?” Maybe? See you at our next big event…”Cars with Class…The Father’s Day Show” at the Museum of Transportation. We are prepping the registration form and it should be in the mail soon. I promise to work on some tours and events for the coming months…been “slammed” with a few projects and lots of work of late, but perhaps some good news…I’m em-barking on the restoration of my 1970 VW Beetle…I’ve got some help and am

starting to get enthusiastic once again.”

—-Larry

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Left: Dyke electric Runabout driven by A. L. Dyke Right: Dyke electric Stanhope with A. L. Dyke (left) and a member of the St. Louis Electric Auto-mobile Company.

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Two Doctors Have Success with Dyke

Autos

On October 16, 1901, Dr. Olmsted writes as follows: "Dear Sir: Hav-ing used the No.1 Automobile which I purchased from you, through Mr. Bartoo, for six weeks, I feel that I am in a position to ex-press myself as to its success. I have given it very severe trials over all kinds of roads, through fields of freshly ploughed ground, up heavy grades, and in every in-stance it has done its work faith-fully and well. Yours is the first machine in this section of the country to meet the requirements, and I predict a great future for the "Dyke" in this community. I make all my professional calls, in fact go everywhere and anywhere I wish, and at less expense for power than formerly for horse feed. Wishing you every success which your honorable methods of doing business deserve, I am, Very truly yours, E. D. Olmsted." The other doctor was Dr. H. H. Bardwell of Flint. It may be of in-terest to know that out of all of the millions of automobiles made at Flint, that the first two were made by professional men, both outstanding figures in their pro-fession, and clever mechanical geniuses - one a doctor and the other a judge. Dr. H. H. Bardwell built a gasoline automobile and Judge Charles Wisner, as far as I could learn, built a steam automobile. Which one was really first I could not

definitely state, but I do have reasons for believing that the first gasoline automobile built in Flint, Michigan, was made up from a Dyke No.2 Outfit (Outfit with our two-cylinder horizon-tal twin type engine). Dr. Bard-well sent a picture and wrote to me on May 4th, 1901, as follows

"The Outfit No.2, which I got from you last January, is running right along and works like a charm—no mishaps whatsoever, and I am well pleased. H. H. Bardwell, M.D., Office 107 First Street, Residence 715 Harrison, Flint, Michigan, May 4,1901."

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Time marched on and the White House fleet changed. Further information from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library indicates: “White House garage records show that on May 28, 1951, Serial #2250-2001 was replaced with a 1951 Packard limousine (Motor #J-604239).” By March 31 of 1952, only one Packard was listed in the White House fleet. From November 4 of 1952 to April 1 of 1953, the inventory shows that the only Packard was simply listed as a “sedan.” It is possible a Packard execu-tive was involved in the deliv-ery of his company’s product, as would be the case with Lin-colns (which will be mentioned later in this article).

One in St. Louis?

In the early 1980s word casual-ly circulated in the St. Louis, Missouri, area, that there was a Packard long-wheelbase Cus-tom Eight in collector hands. The car was similar to those used in the White House. This writer chose to get to the heart of the matter and see the car.

Initially, it was landlocked amid a dozen or more collector cars, practically centered in a metal building constructed by a motor enthusiast named Jim Reizer in St. Clair County, Illi-nois, just east of St. Louis. Jim knew about the car since it was sold. How? His father was an auto body repair expert at the Berry Motor Car Compa-ny, regional distributer (that’s how Packard often spelled it) for Packard up and down the Mississippi River from Mem-phis to Keokuk, Iowa. That distributer supplied Packards to about 70 dealers from 1923 to the end of the 1953 model run. George M. Berry also sold di-rect through part of his opera-tion. That made him a dealer, too (considered a subsidiary of the main). The factory privi-leged Berry as one of the top five most influential distribut-ers/dealers which is reflected in the fact that his business was among the final five to be phased out in favor of a factory-direct zone system. Earle C. Anthony, powerhouse distribut-er/dealer in California (and a Packard board member) was also among those final five. When the St. Louis Custom sold, it made a splash in local news and even nationally via Packard News, the factory-issued publication for dealers and distributers (sic, Packard’s preferred spelling). Fred Berk-ley, Berry’s vice president, made the sale to the City of St. Louis for use by Mayor Joseph Darst. Darst had been a powerhouse in Missouri politics and helped keep Truman in the White House when the 1948 election was held.

<<< From Page One

Steelman instructed the White House garage to ready the cars and return them within an hour as the President had demanded. On the plus side, Truman took consolation in the generous mood of the Ford Company which field-ed about 35 Lincoln and Mercury cars for his inauguration. Thus, Lincolns were OK in Truman’s outline of Presidential etiquette. Packards were fine, too. Initially two 22nd Series Packard Custom Eight sedans were stabled for White House use as required. Several more were ordered later. According to researchers at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library in Missouri, the Truman White House had “a rental agree-ment with the Packard Motor Car Company as early as December 1946 that called for Packard to provide a seven passenger limou-sine for an annual charge of $500. This original car was Serial #16502393. During the last six months of 1946, the White House also rented a second car, Serial #16502011. These cars were re-placed by new 1948 models, serial #2250-2001 (Motor #G602304) and Serial #2250-2002 (Motor #G602523).”

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Checking records of the county of the City of St. Louis re-vealed a $4,500 (or so) budget for the purchase of an automo-bile for the mayor. According to Packard News, this was the first car purchased exclusively for the mayor’s use. It would outpace the man and become the exquisite black chariot for his successor, St. Louis Mayor Raymond R. Tucker. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat captioned one view of the car the day after it was delivered. It showed Mayor Darst with Comptroller Milton S. Carpen-ter and Treasurer John J. Dwyer holding open the left rear door to the back seat. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch captioned a photo of the deliv-ery by stating “the machine replaces an 8-year-old car that will revert to the Police De-partment from which it was obtained.” We may conclude that the 1949 Packard was ex-pected to provide at least as many years of future service. Numbers can be interesting revealers. In early 1950 Harry Truman’s White House struck

a deal with the folks at Lincoln to provide nine Henney-converted enclosed limousines plus a single Dietrich limousine convertible (later, under Eisen-hower, a protective Plexiglas “bubbletop” would be added to that open parade car which later was to carry John F. Kennedy to his inauguration). Each of those 1950 Lincolns extended sedans were based on the Cosmopolitan chassis and stretched from the

standard 125 to 145 inches, three inches shorter than the Packard. Each Lincoln was made for the comfort and safety of Truman and dignitaries.

Back to Washington, D.C.

The anti-GM “policy” held in June of 1949 when the White House placed an order for five more Packard Custom Eights to increase the Presidential fleet. It was at that same time that Darst’s City Hall office accept-ed the 148-inch wheelbased Custom for His Honor’s use. The timing makes a reporter wonder: was that St. Louis-bound car at all influenced by (or tagged along with) the order placed by the President’s Of-fice?

There were tensions mounting over the political fallout relating to post-World War Two treaties such as the division of Korea into separate countries, north and south. There also was mounting discontent in the terri-tory of Puerto Rico. In June of 1950 war broke out in the Kore-an peninsula, and on November

first of that year there would be an attack by Puerto Rican would-be assassins who near-ly succeeded in forcing entry into the Blair House being used by the President while the Presidential Mansion across the street received a nearly complete internal and structural rebuild. According to then-Secret Ser-vice Agent James J. Rowley’s recollections, “We were go-ing out to St. Louis in a few days…,” and as he met with Secret Service officials in Washington, D.C., they re-ceived news of the Blair House shooting. Security measures increased. The President was not allowed to even cross the street from Blair to the White House. He had to be driven in an ap-proved vehicle. Researchers indicated that a temporary roadway was even placed outside the Presidential of-

fice. On the 1950 Lincolns that were ordered, it took two cars to make one, according to Thomas A. McPherson, pro-fessional car historian. A two-door and a four-door were used for a single result. Ar-mor and bullet-proof glass were added by Hess & Eisen-hardt in Cincinnati, Ohio. The additions resulted in an extra ton to bring overall weight of those Lincolns to 6,135 pounds, McPherson explains. Interestingly, the Lincoln name was deleted for White House use. Benson Ford was on hand for the de-livery. Given his earlier dis-dain, it gives pause to wonder if President Truman ever knew those Lincolns carried GM’s Hydra-Matic transmis-sion…. Continues >>>

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All the extra work on a limited order plus protective construction pushed the price of each Lincoln beyond $30,000! Still, when the Packard order was placed in 1949, the cars were seen more as luxury chariots than protective armament and prices were much more ame-nable. The Packards ordered as 22nd Se-ries 1949 versions would have had the number “-9-“ embossed on the firewall identification plate as is the case with the Darst survivor, which is numbered 2251-9-2114 (the 114th long wheelbase car in the run, 1948 through early 1949). As with the entire run, bodies were provided by Briggs unless further conversion was needed for very special orders (this writer knows of two such conversions, both open-front town cars and neither was ordered for White House use).

Strategically Placed Calvin Beauregard was on the staff that cared for and maintained the Lincoln limousines. He con-cluded that several Packards in 1948 and 1949 were considered “follow-up cars” that carried Se-cret Service men riding behind the Presidential limousine. But more striking is the placement of cars for Presidential service. James J. Rowley formerly of the White House Secret Service re-called that Presidential cars usual-ly were driven to a destination before the President arrived. Tru-man did not have the luxury of air transport for his Presidential cars. The air transport of cars came in the 1950s. “That came about through Bill McAvoy, who was vice president and represented Pan Am Airlines.... He had taken a group of Congressmen down to

to the Antarctic and while he was waiting at the airport he sees two big cargo planes, and off come some buses for the Congressmen to be driven around in. He came home and wrote a letter to me. It was during President Eisen-hower’s time. He said, ‘Hey, you could use these for your cars whenever you travel abroad.’ So I got in touch with Bill Draper—he was the President’s pilot and Air Force Aide—and I told him what happened. He said, ‘We’ll set up arrangements over at Andrews (Air Force Base.’ And that’s what they did.” Research by Lincoln expert Tim Howley indicates that an additional nine Lincoln closed limousines were made for Ford executives around the country. Final conversion was done by Henney of Free-port, Illinois, a well respected maker of professional cars.

Harry Truman was a Missouri-an. His transportation posed no difficulty in the Kansas City area near his home in what practically became “suburban” Independence. And in St. Lou-is, a recently converted Demo-cratic stronghold with the elec-tion of Mayor Darst, it would seem logical that Mr. Truman needed transportation befitting his position. Given the fact that Scott Air Force Base in Illinois was about an easterly high-speed half-hour drive from downtown St. Louis, it made sense that some “under stand-ing” existed between the White House and the St. Louis Mayor’s Office, and between the two fellow Missourians who headed each one. In effect, though purchased by the City of St. Louis, the Mayor’s 1949 Packard was obliged to provide Presidential service when Tru-man was in or near that metrop-olis. <<< Read Part II in the June Lamp

President Harry S Truman’s plane, Independence landed 16 minutes early on No-vember 4, 1950, as the Scott Air Force Base band scurried into formation to wel-come the Chief Executive. Notice Mayor Darst’s 1949 Packard just left of the plane’s exit. The plane was a DC-6 designated by the military as VC-118, indicat-ing it was the Presidential transport with a custom interior comprising 12 beds and 25 seats. The plane survives at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Later, on November 6, Truman once more borrowed the Packard and headed to the Naval Air Station at Lambert Field for his flight to the Kansas City area in order to vote in the November 7th election.

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The Little Can that Could

Submitted by karl522@sbcglobal.net

During World War II the United States exported for battle more tons of petroleum products than all other war matériel combined. The mainstay of the enormous oil and gasoline transportation network were the oceangoing tankers, pipe-lines, railroad tank cars, and trucks. But for combat vehicles on the move, another link was crucial – smaller containers that could be carried and poured by hand and moved around a bat-tle zone by trucks. Hitler knew this. He perceived early on that the weakest link in his plans was fuel supply. He ordered his staff to design a fuel container that would mini-mize gasoline losses un-der combat conditions. As a result the German army had thousands of jerrycans as they came to be called, stored and ready when hostilities began in 1939. The jerrycan had been devel-oped under the strictest secre-cy. It was flat-sided and rectan-gular in shape, consisting of two halves welded together. It had three handles, enabling one man to carry two cans and pass one to another man in bucket-brigade fashion. Its ca-pacity was approximately five U.S. gallons; its weight filled, forty-five pounds. Thanks to an air chamber at the top, it would float on water if dropped overboard or from a plane. Its short spout was secured with a snap closure that could be propped open for pouring, making unnecessary any funnel or opener. A gasket made the mouth leakproof. An air-breathing tube from the spout to the air space kept the pouring smooth. And most important, the can's inside was

lined with an impervious plastic material developed for the in-sides of steel beer barrels. This enabled the jerrycan to be used alternately for gasoline and water. In 1939, this secret weapon be-gan a roundabout odyssey into American hands. An American engineer named Paul Pleiss persuaded a German colleague to join him on a trip overland to India. The two bought an auto-mobile chassis and built a body for it. As they prepared, they realized they had no provi-sion for emergency water. The German engineer knew of and had access to thousands of jer-rycans. He simply took three and mounted them on the un-derside of the car. The two were halfway across India when Field Marshal Goering sent a plane to take the German engi-neer back home. Before depart-ing, the engineer gave Pleiss complete specifications for the jerrycan's manufacture. Pleiss continued on alone to Calcutta. Then he put the car in storage and returned to Philadelphia. Back in the United States, Pleiss told military officials about the container, but he could stir no interest. So he eventually had the complete vehicle sent to him, via Turkey and the Cape of Good Hope. It arrived in New York in the summer of 1940 with the three jerrycans intact. Pleiss immediately sent one of his cans to Washington. The War Department looked at it but unwisely decided that an updated version of their cylin-drical ten-gallon can with two screw closures was adequate. It required a wrench and a funnel for pouring. That one jerrycan in the Army's possession was later poorly redesigned; the only features retained were the size, shape, and handles. The welded

circumferential joint was re-placed with rolled seams. Both a wrench and a funnel were re-quired for its use. Petroleum engineers know it is unsafe to store gasoline in a container with rolled seams. This ersatz can did not win wide acceptance. The British first encountered the jerrycan during the German in-vasion of Norway, in1940. Later that year Pleiss was asked by British officers if he knew an-ything about the can's design and manufacture. He ordered the second of his three jerrycans flown to London. Steps were taken to manufacture exact duplicates of it. In September 1942, two quality-control officers posted to Amer-ican refineries in the Mideast ran smack into the problems being created by ignoring the jerrycan. Passing through Cairo two weeks before the start of the Battle of El Alamein, we learned that the British wanted no part of a planned U.S. Navy can. The only container worth having was the jerrycan, even though their only supply was those captured in battle. My colleague and I learned quickly about the jerrycan's ad-vantages and the Allied can's costly disadvantages, and we sent a cable to naval offi-cials in Washington. We added that a detailed report of a 40 percent loss of fuel would fol-low. It worked. A cable came back immediately request-ing confirmation. Fuel-handling depots at the rear of Montgomery's army were indeed appalling. Fuel arrived from the sea in fifty-five-gallon steel drums with rolled seams and friction-sealed metallic mouths. Many leaked. Fuel was Concluded on Page 10 >>>

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A Tribute to Walt Kleinhans By Clark Deeken

I'll miss Walt. When I first met Walt (some twenty years ago.) he introduced himself by saying he knew my grand-father (Alex Deeken, Sr.) and did we still have the Model T Ford. He went on to say he remembered seeing the T sitting on Bates and Gravois, on his way home from school (which would have been about the late 1930's) We would walk that way just to look at that old car and hoped it would be still be there. One day an older man came out of the real estate office and asked us what we were doing. When we told him we thought his old car was neat he offered to ride us around the block in it. That was a big thrill Walt said he never forgot. Since then, whenever I've seen Walt, he's always been happy and a smile on his face and we would talk about how each of us were doing and old cars. I called Walt in January to tell him Alex had passed away. I was surprised to hear he was in the nursing home, but he sure sounded good, and talked about getting better. Little did I think at that time he would be gone this quick. I'll miss you, Walt. Thanks for your memories.

Cars Needed for Parade

Our HCCM Board meetings moved to the Overland Com-munity Center beginning Monday, May 11th. We were greeted by the Overland City Council, which was also meet-ing that evening, officially welcoming us to the city. One of two city sponsored parades will be on Saturday, June 6th. The Overland Block Party Parade will travel about 2 miles through the main streets of the city. THEY NEED ONE MORE CONVERTI-BLE AND SEVERAL NICE CARS FOR THIS EVENT. As HCCM has already discussed, they are counting on our club to help them out. I will send the information for the parade to anyone who can help us. --Larry Hassel

Alex III, Walt Kleinhans and Alex Deeken in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in 2011 with the HCCM.

<<< Concluded from page 9

transferred to the infamous five-gallon "petrol tin." This was a square can of tin plate. It was hardly useful for gasoline. In the hot desert sun, it tended to swell up, burst at the seams, and leak. Since a funnel was needed for pouring, spillage was also a prob-lem. Allied soldiers in Africa knew that the only gasoline container worth having was German. The tins leaked out perhaps a third of the fuel they carried. Because of this, General Wavell's troops in 1940, and General Auchinleck’s battle with Rommel in 1941 were endangered. By 1942, General Montgomery, helped by captured jerrycans, provided adequate supplies. The British historian Desmond Young later confirmed the great importance of oil cans in the early African part of the war. "Whoever sent our troops into desert warfare with the [five-gallon] petrol tin has much to answer for. General Auchinleck es-timates that this 'flimsy and ill constructed container' led to the loss of thirty percent of petrol. To calculate the number of men who were killed or went into captivity because of shortage of pet-rol at some crucial moment, would be quite impossible." After my colleague and I made our report, a new five-gallon con-tainer under consideration in Washington was canceled. Mean-while the British were finally gearing up for mass production. Two million British jerrycans were sent to North Africa in early 1943, and by early 1944 they were being manufactured in the Middle East. Millions were ready by D-Day and by V-E Day there were some twenty-one million. President Roosevelt observed, "Without these cans it would have been impossible for our armies to cut their way across France."

The Brass Lamp

Activities Calendar

The Brass Lamp is a monthly publication of The Horseless Carriage Club of Missouri ©2015 All Rights Reserved. Material from this

newsletter may be reprinted or shared by our club members with proper citation and written consent from the editor.

The Publication of the Horseless Carriage

Club of Missouri, Inc.

May 2015

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The Brass Lamp

Club Events Calendar

May 15 7:30 General Meeting, Logan June 19 6:30 Strawberry festival— Intro new members, Logan June 21 Father’s Day Car Show July 17 7:30 General meeting, Logan August 16 Picnic—11 AM Schroeder Park September 18 7:30 General Meeting, Logan October 16 6:30 White Elephants, Logan November 20 6:30 Chili Cook-off, Logan

Information in this calendar is summarized. See flyers for events —go to www.midwestswapmeets.com

SWAP MEETS 2015 CAR SHOWS, ETC. June 5-6 Kansas City Swap, K.C. Speedway June 21 Father’s Day Show, Mus. of Transport June 26 K of C Swap, Westphalia MO Aug 21-23 Ozarks Club Swap Springfield MO Fairgds September 13 Wheels In Motion September 20 Car Show & Swap Meet, Casino Lot September 26 Brass & Nickel Show, Mus. Transport September 26 British Car Show, Creve Coeur Lake Park September 27 Oktoberfest Show, St. Charles MO

The Great Race Classic Car Event is coming to down-town Kirkwood on Saturday, June 20. The start is scheduled for 9 a.m. from the Kirkwood Train Sta-tion. More details will be coming soon. In case you missed it, the 2014 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty TV show can now be watched anytime on the internet. The show was a huge success, but now that the airings on televi-sion are complete it has been posted on the internet. Two crews filmed every step of the way for the 104 teams from Maine to Florida, and what they captured made for a compelling show. Go to the link from www.greatrace.com.

For Sale Maxwell parts: engine, transmission, front ax-le, fenders. Also 1958 T-Bird field car/parts.

John Price 314-865-4838

www.hccmo.com (314) 991-HONK

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Image of a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biaritz taken at this year's Easter

Concours d'Elegance by Larry Hassel