Bourne Magnetic Truck Company history

The Bourne Magnetic Truck Company was a short-lived, US commercial vehicles from the 1910s.  The brand name was Bourne.

History 

 The company was founded in 1915 at Philadelphia. Bourne it shared the facilities with the Biddle Motor Car Company, that manufacturerd luxury class automobiles.

Regular production began at the Bourne Magnetic Truck Company in late 1916 with the two-tonne (1815 kg) Bourne VM at $ 3150. A Bourne VX with 3.5 sht (3175 kg) payload and a list price of US $ 3850, - followed soon after. As early as 1916, the company noted the delivery of 150 trucks to a single customer.

Outstanding feature of the two trucks produced was their electromagnetic transmission (“The Aladdin, the motor-power transmission"). A vehicle with an ignition drive does not have to be switched or coupled. The Bourne fought with the same problems as corresponding passenger cars: The system was easy to use and worked well with proper maintenance and satisfactory. But it also increased the cost of production and thus the selling price and it was very complex to wait. In a commercial vehicle, its benefits were even less significant than in luxury-class passenger cars such as the Owen Magnetic and the economy plays an even greater role. The prices had to be increased to US $ 3500, - respectively US $ 4200. 

The principle corresponds to that of the diesel-electric drive: an internal combustion engine produces power that is passed on to a power generator. This feeds an electric motor that drives the rear wheels. The mechanism requires neither transmission nor clutch and has no direct connection between the engine and rear wheels. Instead of the flywheel, a generator and a horseshoe-shaped magnet are attached to the rear end of the crankshaft. At the front end of the cardan shaft sits an electric motor with an armature in the fast-rotating magnet. The generated by the generator and transmitted via the armature of the electric motor provides the energy for rotating the propeller shaft and thus the rear wheels. The speed is regulated by a lever next to the steering wheel. For the Bourne Magnetic Truck Company, the benefits of the variable speed gearbox were stepless, low-noise power transmission, easier vehicle operation, reduced operating costs, longer life and the additional function of the generator as an electric starter. As for the Owen Magnetic, Bourne VM and VX have also been drivetrain components from General Electric. In the Bourne, the power in the rear axle was transmitted by means of a worm gear. 

The Bourne was apart from its drive a conventionally constructed truck. The look is similar to the Liberty Truck. The two versions were of identical four-cylinder engines of the Hercules Gas Engine Company. Bourne noted that it was an engine designed specifically for trucks. As a supplier of water coolers could Rome-Turney Radiator Company of Rome (New York). The radiator was almost rectangular, ribbed at the top and stood in front of the arched hood above. The company also wanted to make its own chassis by using chrome vanadium steel. The leaf springs came from specialists Mather Spring Company in Ohio; Bourne had developed his own attachment without bolts. The vehicles had left-hand drive, wood artillery wheels, solid rubber tires and semi-open cabs, a solid roof but no side walls.

After the end of the First World War, the commercial vehicle market in Europe and the United States was in transition. The manufacturers returned to peace production but at the same time a large number of surpluses, well-maintained lorries came to the market.

The move to New York City took place in 1918. The end of production in 1919.