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Washington, D.C., 1922. "Tank truck with plow clearing snow." Who'll be first to ID the street? National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.
A row of similar Mack AC Bulldogs appeared previously on Shorpy in this 1924 photo of a Piggly Wiggly delivery fleet.
State of the art then, but looks kinda puny today, most pickups have bigger blades. But it certainly took a strong constitution to run the truck and handle a plow that was lifted with hand hoist.
The mesh side hood is the earliest hood 1916-? The hood sides were replaced by louvers well before 1920. The rounded radiator is the hallmark of the 3 speed truck. The later 4 speed truck had a squared style radiator.
Dave, one clue to the location might lie in adjacent National Photo images, but I'm not finding the photo above in the LOC collection under the given caption (or anything resembling it). Can you help a brother out with some additional clues?
[You can search the LOC by their image number, which is included in the Shorpy jpeg filename. That appears in your browser address bar if you "view image." Sometimes it's easier if you search the specific collection, in this case that of the National Photo Company. -tterrace]
This shot is on the north side of the Avenue, opposite the State, War, and Navy Building, in the block west of Lafayette Square. The house with the shutters behind the truck is Blair House.
With the Blair House behind the tank truck. The more famous house on this block is on the other side of the street!
The driver, who has just decelerated as evidenced by the slack in the chain, would surely agree, assuming he was familiar with the other truck makes. The Mack AC had the radiator right by the driver's feet, making it (relatively) comfy in winter.
The downside was going up a mountain grade in warm weather. It would get so hot in the cab that drivers frequently resorted to standing on the running board, according to Harrison Scott's Ridge Route book.
Always wondered where that expression came from...now I know.
Thanks, Shorpy!
Holloway was a fire apparatus manufacturer. This is a Mack AC "Bulldog". With that enormous rear sprocket, top speed must have been around 15-20 MPH. The operator probably put it in high gear, set the throttle at a high idle and plowed snow all day long. In first gear it would, likely, climb up the side of a building. What a magnificent beast
That's a chain drive Mack, an iconic American truck. The spotlight makes it look sort of "cycloptic".
Note that the top of the chain, under tension as the truck travels forward, is tight whereas the bottom of the chain, returning to the larger axle sprocket, is loose.
When I was a boy in the early 1960's, one, and only one, neighbor was still receiving deliveries of coal for home heating. The coal dealer was still delivering in a chain-drive Mack truck whose body would rise on a sort of "scissors lift" to dump the coal by gravity. There would be a tremendous roar as the coal went down the chute into a basement coal bin.
I've often thought of how that chain drive Mack coal truck, which must have been about 35 years old, was still earning money for its owner. Makes me wonder how many of today's trucks will still be returning on their investment in 35 years, or whether they will have been permanently disabled by irreparable electronics.
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