The American Automobile Industry in World War Two
An American Auto Industry Heritage Tribute by David D Jackson

Overview      Lansing Michigan in World War Two   The U.S. Auto Industry at the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944    The U.S. Auto Industry and the B-29 Bomber   U.S. Auto Industry Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   The Complete listing of All Army-Navy "E" Award Winners   Sherman Tanks of the American Auto Industry   Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry    M26 Pershing Tanks of the American Auto Industry   M36 Tank Destroyers of the American Auto Industry   Serial Numbers for WWII Tanks built by the American Auto Industry   Surviving LCVP Landing Craft    WWII Landing Craft Hull Numbers   Airborne Extra-Light Jeep Photos  The American Auto Industry vs. the German V-1 in WWII   American Auto Industry-Built Anti-Aircraft Guns in WWII   VT Proximity Manufacturers of WWII   World War One Era Motor Vehicles   National Museum of Military Vehicles  
Revisions   Links

 Automobile and Body Manufacturers:  American Bantam Car Company   Briggs Manufacturing Company   Checker Car Company   Chrysler Corporation   Crosley Corporation   Ford Motor Car Company   General Motors Corporation   Graham-Paige Motors Corporation   Hudson
Motor Car Company   Murray Corporation of America   Nash-Kelvinator   Packard Motor Car Company      Studebaker    Willys-Overland Motors

General Motors Divisions:  AC Spark Plug   Aeroproducts   Allison   Brown-Lipe-Chapin   Buick   Cadillac   Chevrolet   Cleveland Diesel   Delco Appliance   Delco Products   Delco Radio   Delco-Remy   Detroit Diesel   Detroit Transmission   Electro-Motive   Fisher Body   Frigidaire   GM Proving Grounds   GM of Canada   GMC   GMI   Guide Lamp   Harrison Radiator   Hyatt Bearings   Inland   Moraine Products   New Departure   Oldsmobile   Packard Electric   Pontiac   Saginaw Malleable Iron   Saginaw Steering Gear   Southern California Division   Rochester Products   Ternstedt Manufacturing Division   United Motors Service   Vauxhall Motors

 Indiana Companies:  Bailey Products Corporation   Chrysler Kokomo Plant   Continental Steel Corporation  Converto Manufacturing    Cummins Engine Company   Diamond Chain and Manufacturing Company   Delta Electric Company   Durham Manufacturing Company   Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation   Haynes Stellite Company   Hercules Body Company   Horton Manufacturing Company   Howe Fire Apparatus   J.D. Adams Company   Kokomo Spring Company   Magnavox  
Muncie Gear Works   Pierce Governor Company   Portland Forge and Foundry   Reliance Manufacturing Company   Republic Aviation Corporation - Indiana Division   Ross Gear and Tool Company   S.F. Bowser & Co.   Sherrill Research Corporation   Tokheim Oil Tank and Pump Company   Warner Gear   Wayne Pump Company   Wayne Works

Commercial Truck and Fire Apparatus Manufacturers:  American LaFrance   Autocar  
Biederman Motors Corporation   Brockway Motor Company   Detroit General   Diamond T   Duplex Truck Company   Federal Motor Truck   Four Wheel Drive Auto Company(FWD)   International Harvester   John Bean   Mack Truck   Marmon-Herrington Company   Michigan Power Shovel Company   Oshkosh Motor Truck Corporation   Pacific Car and Foundry   "Quick-Way" Truck Shovel Company   Reo Motor Car Company  Seagrave Fire Apparatus   Sterling Motor Truck Company    Ward LaFrance Truck Corporation   White Motor Company

Aviation Companies:  Abrams Instrument Corporation   Hughes Aircraft Company   Kellett Aviation Corporation   Laister-Kauffman Aircraft Corporation   Naval Aircraft Factory   P-V Engineering Forum, Inc.    Rudolf Wurlitzer Company-DeKalb Division  Schweizer Aircraft Corporation   Sikorsky Division of United Aircraft Corporation   St. Louis Aircraft Corporation   Timm Aircraft Corporation

Other World War Two Manufacturers: 
Air King Products   Allis-Chalmers   American Car and Foundry   American Locomotive   American Stove Company   Annapolis Yacht Yard  
Andover Motors Company   B.F. Goodrich   Baker War Industries   Baldwin Locomotive Works   Blood Brothers Machine Company   Boyertown Auto Body Works   Briggs & Stratton   Caterpillar   Cheney Bigelow Wire Works   Centrifugal Fusing   Chris-Craft   Clark Equipment Company   Cleaver-Brooks Company   Cleveland Tractor Company   Continental Motors   Cushman Motor Works   Crocker-Wheeler   Dail Steel Products   Detroit Wax Paper Company   Detrola   Engineering & Research Corporation   Farrand Optical Company   Federal Telephone and Radio Corp.   Firestone Tire and Rubber Company   Fruehauf Trailer Company   Fuller Manufacturing   Galvin Manufacturing   Gemmer Manufacturing Company   General Railway Signal Company   Gibson Guitar   Gibson Refrigerator Company   Goodyear   Hall-Scott   Hanson Clutch and Machinery Company   Harley-Davidson   Harris-Seybold-Potter   Herreshoff Manufacturing Company   Higgins Industries    Highway Trailer   Hill Diesel Company   Holland Hitch Company   Homelite Company   Horace E. Dodge Boat and Plane Corporation   Huffman Manufacturing   Indian Motorcycle   Ingersoll Steel and Disk   John Deere   Johnson Automatics Manufacturing Company   Kimberly-Clark   Kohler Company   Kold-Hold Company   Landers, Frary & Clark  Lima Locomotive Works   Lundberg Screw Products   MacKenzie Muffler Company   Massey-Harris   Matthews Company   McCord Radiator & Mfg. Company   Metal Mouldings Corporation   Miller Printing Machinery Company   Morse Instrument Company   Motor Products Corporation   Motor Wheel Corporation   National Cash Resgister Company   Novo Engine Company   O'Keefe & Merritt Company   Olofsson Tool and Die Company   Oneida Ltd   Otis Elevator   Owens Yacht   Pressed Steel Car Company   Queen City Manufacturing Company   R.G. LeTourneau   R.L. Drake Company   St. Clair Rubber Company   Samson United Corporation   Shakespeare Company   Sight Feed Generator Company   Simplex Manufacturing Company   Steel Products Engineering Company   St. Louis Car Company   Twin Disc Company   Victor Adding Machine Company   Vilter Manufacturing Company   Wells-Gardner   W.L. Maxson Corporation   W.W. Boes Company   Westfield Manufacturing Company   York-Hoover Body Company   Youngstown Steel Door Company  
   

 Kokomo Spring Company During World War Two
Kokomo, IN

1910-2019

This page added 4-22-2023.

An article in the Kokomo Tribune dated September 27, 2010, noted that the Kokomo Spring Company had been sold to Peterson Spring Company.  The article went on to state that Peterson was going to move the jobs and the equipment of this 100 year old company in Kokomo to several of its other eleven plants in the United States and Canada.  This was to be accomplished by the end 2010 which would take 25 jobs away from the City of Kokomo.  However, Google Maps information shown below indicates that the former Kokomo Spring Company still had a presence in Kokomo as late as 2019.

The address of the Kokomo Spring Company factory was given in the article as 500 East Wheeler Street.

Kokomo Spring Company World War Two Products:  Surprisingly, this small company had two major contracts totaling $134,000 during World War Two.  This small company that had employment between 15 and 25 employees was able to make its contribution to help win World War Two by manufacturing an estimated 462,000 tent wire slips.  These are tensioning springs used with 3/8 inch rope to keep a constant tension on ropes for large tents used by the American military during World War Two.  While a small piece, the wire slips were an important part of a larger system that kept tents upright during their use.

Table 1 - Kokomo Spring Company's Major World War Two Contracts
The information below comes from the "Alphabetical Listing of Major War Supply Contracts, June 1940 through September 1945."  This was published by the Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Statistics Division. 
Product - Customer Contract Number Contract Amount Contract Awarded Date Completion Date
Tent Slips - Army Quartermaster Corps 431-QM-7843 $57,000 4-1942 7-1942
Wire Tent Slips - Army Quartermaster Corps 12036-QM-11184 $77,000 12-1944 5-1945
Total   $134,000    

It should be noted that the major contracts listed in Table 1 are for contracts greater than $50,000.  Most likely, the Kokomo Spring Company had other military contracts for less than this amount.  As the manufacture of springs takes special equipment, most likely it continued to supply its normal peacetime customers with springs for their military products. 


This is a World War Two tent slip made from galvanized wire.  Most likely, the Kokomo Spring Company obtained its supply of galvanized wire from the nearby Continental Spring Company, which specialized in this product. 

One can do a rough estimate of the number of tent slips the Kokomo Spring Company made on its two major contracts.  One dollar in 2023 is the equivalent of 0.06 dollar in 1944, when the last major contract was awarded to the Kokomo Spring Company.  Currently, original World War Two tent slips are selling for $4.95 each.  Reproductions are selling for $4.75 each.  If we use the $4.75 current value and assume that the World War Two cost to make this was similar, this would equal $0.29 each in 1944. 

This calculates out to 462,068 tent slips. 


The production of the tent slips was from this U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps engineering drawing dated May 4, 1926. 


This diagram of a hospital war tent shows a wire slip as part of the required components to keep the wires taut. 

M1 and M1A1 Wreckers 6x6:  The Kokomo Spring Company provided engine mounting springs for the M1 and M1A1 wrecker trucks of World War Two.  Ward LaFrance and Kenworth built 5,765 M1 and M1A1 wreckers equipped four each of springs made by the Kokomo Spring Company. 


This is a Ward LaFrance Series 2 M1 heavy wrecker.  Author's photo.


This is an M1A1 Ward LaFrance heavy wrecker.  Author's photo.

Below are the pages from the Ordnance Supply Catalog, showing the Kokomo Spring Company components (KSD) used on the M1/M1A1 series wreckers.


Note that the address given for the Kokomo Spring Company is 529 Firemen Avenue in Kokomo, IN.  This is incorrect.  It should be 529 E. Firmin Street. 

Kokomo Spring Company Factory Location:  All of the images below are courtesy of Google Maps.


This satellite view shows the location of the factory at 500 East Wheeler Street.  The image shows that Kling's Computers is the current tenant in a portion of the former spring plant. 


This Google Maps street view is dated July 2019 and shows that the Kokomo Spring Company may still be present at this location.  It appears that all of the equipment was not moved to other locations by the end of 2010, as originally planned.  There is a pickup truck with an attached trailer among several other vehicles in the parking lot.  While there is nothing on the trailer, it is staged in such a way that it could could very well be ready to have equipment loaded onto it.  It could be that the Kokomo Spring Company was finally vacating the premises.


I drove by this factory in early March 2023.  The Kokomo Spring Company sign was no longer on the building.  I would have noted this, as I was wondering at the time which company had used this plant during World War Two.  Now I know.  The small office building in blue trim is the location of Kling's Computers.  Their sign was there in March 2023.


This is a view of the plant looking west down Wheeler Street. 


This structure at the corner of East Wheeler and South LaFountain Streets appears to be the original plant at this location.


This is looking at the west side of the factory that faces South LaFountain Street.


This is 529 East Firmin Street in Kokomo, IN.  Employment advertisements in the local Kokomo newspaper during and after World War Two directed the applicants to come to this location.  While this looks like a house, a closer examination shows two stories with lots of windows.  It appears this was built as the office and headquarters for the factory which was to the east of this building. 


There are remnants of was appears to be a wooden signpost in front of the building.  It may have well said that this was the office for the Kokomo Spring Company.

 

 

 

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