Davidson-Cadillac armored car
Encyclopedia
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
chassis by Royal Page Davidson
Royal Page Davidson
Royal Page Davidson was an American educator and inventor.- Early life :Davidson was born in Somerville, New Jersey on October 9, 1870. His early basic education was in a country public school.- Mid life :...
and the cadets of the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy
Northwestern Military and Naval Academy
Northwestern Military Academy was a high school in Linn, Wisconsin which was founded by Harlan Page Davidson. Originally located in Highland Park, Illinois, the school was relocated to the town of Linn, Wisconsin on the south shore of Geneva Lake near the city of Lake Geneva in 1915 and was...
in Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
. This military vehicle is the first true fully armored vehicle made in the United States because it was built specifically just for that purpose and was not a conversion of an automobile or truck.
Description
The Davidson car was armor clad around the entire vehicle. It had radiator doors that would open for access and the rear part had an open top, where a machine-gun was mounted just behind the driver.History
Royal P. Davidson in 1915 commanded a special fleet of eight military vehicles on a convoy from Chicago to San Francisco to evaluate their performance. The vehicles he designed for military use were built by Cadillac. The column included a reconnaissance scout vehicle with instruments for observation, two wireless radio communications vehicles, field cooking vehicle complete with fireless cookers, a hospital vehicle with operating tables and an X-ray machineX-ray machine
An X-ray generator is a device used to generate X-rays. These devices are commonly used by radiographers to acquire an x-ray image of the inside of an object but they are also used in sterilization or fluorescence....
, a balloon destroyer, a quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
's car and the first fully armored military vehicle. War Department personnel representing the government went with the convoy to give reports on the performance of the vehicles. Some of the vehicles had rapid fire machine-guns and searchlights. Five were eight-cylinder vehicles. The Davidson-Cadillac fully armored military vehicle was capable of 70 mph when the roads allowed. It was America's first military fully armored vehicle.
The reconnaissance scout vehicle was equipped with military rifles, map tables, instruments for making maps on the spot, a dictating machine, instruments for observation for seeing behind walls, altitude indicators, and range and elevation finders. The radio wireless communication vehicles came with telescope masts mounted on the running board. They came with generators to generate the normal current of 110 volts. One of these radio vehicles came with a rapid fire Colt automatic machine gun. It also had a powerful electric searchlight with a helograph shutter. The vehicles with the field kitchen and hospital were mounted on an eight-cylinder chassis of a 145 inch wheelbase. Cooking was done using an electric cooker that did not produce any visible fire. The armored vehicle came with bullet-proof steel. It had loopholes for firing out with rifles. It also had a rapid fire Colt automatic machine gun. It came with winch equipment so it could be pulled out of mud. The balloon destroyer vehicle came with a machine gun making it the first American anti-aircraft vehicle.
Davidson had these military vehicles built to convince the government that a mechanized army was the way to go. Davidson and some of his school cadets drove the fully armored vehicle along with seven other support vehicles for 34 days from the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in the Chicago area to the Panama Pacific Exposition being held in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
in 1915. The first military convoy across the country received much publicity from many newspapers nationwide. The military vehicles were shipped back by train to the Academy in Highland Park
Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
when the exposition was over instead of being driven back, since Davidson achieved his goal of demonstrating to the United States Army and the government that a mechanized army was the technology of the future. Davidson's Automobile Corps convoy of the 8 specially designed military vehicles were driven by the cadets of the Northwestern Military Academy as an escort for the Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American Independence, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formerly placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House , the bell was commissioned from the London firm of Lester and Pack in 1752, and was cast with the lettering "Proclaim LIBERTY...
to the Panama Pacific Exposition on the Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
in 1915. This was the last time the Liberty Bell traveled from its home for any exposition.
Sources
- American men of mark (1917), A Thousand American Men of Mark Today
- Chilton company (1975), Automotive Industries, Item notes: v.77 1937 Jul-Dec
- Clemens, Al J., The American Military Armored Car, A.J. Clemens, 1969
- Delta Upsilon fraternity (1902), The Delta Upsilon Decennial Catalogue [1903]
- Hunnicutt, R.P., Armored Car: A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicle, Presido Press (2002), ISBN 0-8914177-7-X
- Kane, Joseph Nathan, Famous First Facts - A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries and Inventions in the United States, The H. W. Wilson Company (1950)
- Marquis-Who's Who (1950), Who was who in America. 1943-1950, New Providence, New Jersey
- Marquis-Who's Who (1967), Who was who in America: A Companion Biographical Reference Work to Who's who in America
- Quaife, Milo Milton, Wisconsin: Its History and Its People 1634-1924, Volume 4, S.J. Clarke Publishing Company (1924)
- Randall, Frank Alfred, Randall and Allied Families, Raveret-Weber printing company (1943)
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- Tucker, Spencer, Tanks: An Illustrated History of Their Impact, ISBN 1-5760799-5-3
- Willcox, Cornélis De Witt, The International Military Digest Annual: A Review of the Current Literature of Military Science for 1915-1918, Cumulative Digest Corporation (1916)