Smith Automobile Company
Encyclopedia
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
was an early United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
manufacturing company which produced the Veracity, Smith, and Great Smith lines of automobiles from 1902 to 1912. They were the first automobiles made west of the Mississippi River. The company's first automobile was designed by Terry Stafford. However, lacking operating capital, he gained financing from the artificial limb manufacturing brothers Anton and Clement Smith. The company the brothers financed bore their name.
The Great Smith of 1907 was priced at US$2500 with a 318 in3 (5213 cc) (4.5×5-inch, 114×127mm) watercooled four, four-speed sliding gear transmission
Transmission (mechanics)
A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...
(three forward, one reverse), multi-disk clutch
Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device which provides for the transmission of power from one component to another...
. It featured 34×4 in (86×10 cm) spoke wheels and a 107 in (2718 mm) wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
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In 1908, a Great Smith became the first automobile to make it to the top of Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America....
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The Kansas Historical Society
Kansas Historical Society
The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas.Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kansas State Archives and Library, Kansas State Capitol...
has a red and black Great Smith on display.