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Show hFiRST LIBERTY - MOTOR TRUCK iS . READVFOR USE All the Genius in Industry Combined to Produce a Machine for Use of the r American Army. WILL NOT BE PUT ON THE MARKET 35,000 of the Standardized Trucks to Be Turned Out rJn First Half of 1918; r Secrecy Observed. 1,1 MA, Ohio, Oct. S. The first Liberty ' motor truck for the United States army, product of the greatest motor truck designers de-signers of the country and the combined renins of twelve motor truck plants and sixty-two automobile parts factories, was completed here today at a local manufacturing manufac-turing plant. The , standardized machine, of which 35,000 copies will be turned out in the ( first half t 10 IS for the army, is said to represent the perfection of automobile truck development. Its motor power is derived from the new I Jberty motor recently re-cently perfected at Washington by war department experts. The first Liberty motor truck was '.-built in the greatest secrecy to protect it ' from enemy eyes. A building without windows and lighted only by skylights housed the truck during the three -weeks of its. construction. Plant Closely Guarded. The plant was closely guarded by armed j men night and day. As an added precaution, a second truck was assembled in" an eastern city. As each part was completed here, a duplicate dupli-cate . was dispatched to a northern New York town, where mechanics assembled a second ma:.hJne. Similar precautions surrounded parts manufactured in the sixty-odd factories I "which contributed, to t lie machine. As - each part was completed it- was dispatched dis-patched to Lima in charge of an army representative, who kept factory officials informed of his progress by telegraph. Xo one company knows the complete design de-sign of which other companies made other J-i parts. r The completed truck is eaid lo be the tjijLongest, compared to the load It is de-( de-( Vignc-d to carry, ever turned out in this ' country. Kvery part has been enormously strengthened to . cope with the rough iVisafre of war. it carries -more than 1000 I pounds of dead weight more than do com mercial trucks of corresponding capacity. The truck will be used only for the army and will not be placed on the market, mar-ket, 'government officials say. For Army Use Only. Because of its increased weight, it m said the truck Is unsulted for normal iisc, lwcau.o of llie large amount of gasoline gaso-line and oil required for its operation. ! Also it Is Paid t hat the factories. whlr-h have given free use of their patents for 'trie design, stipulated that the new truck was to be' for government ufp only. In outward design the machine represents repre-sents no radical departure from the usual armr motor truck. However, every part has been so standardized that when the first order of 25,uno trucks are delivered to the army, it is said, they could all be torn down, the parts mixed indiscriminately indiscrimi-nately and 3 ;i.O r0 complete trucks reassembled. re-assembled. All parts are interchangeable, which 1h expected to give added efficiency ef-ficiency at the front. |