One of the earliest examples of a propeller driven vehicle, the auger, was developed by Jacob Morath, a Swiss native who moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1868. Morat's machine was developed for agricultural work, mainly for plowing. The augers were designed with cutting edges that would cut the ground when moving.
Jacob Morat's car drawing, 1886
Then there was the project of James and Ira Peavy from Maine. Their machine was designed to carry logs, but the long and stiff structure made it difficult to operate on the rough winter roads for which it was designed. Peavy's machine was not manufactured for commercial use.
Fordson on augers.
And so in the 1920s, Armstead Snow Motor developed the first auger vehicle that people were using for real. A Fordson tractor was used by ASM engineers and technicians to transform it into a "screw vehicle". The resulting car was used in the Truckee, California area to transport mail. She was so unusual in itself, as well as in movement, that she was called "Snow Devil" by the locals.
A still from a promotional film. The Armstead Snow Motor auger pulls logs.
I must say that advertising at that time did not call such machines. A promotional film demonstrating the capabilities of the "Snow Devil" was filmed (see the end of the article). A Chevrolet car was also lit up there, also converted into an Armstead Snow Motor. The film clearly shows that the auger behaves well in the snow. The steering was carried out due to the fact that each cylinder received power from a separate clutch, which, depending on the position of the steering mechanism, is turned on and off.
* Snow devil * carries mail.
Promotional video:
In January 1926, Time magazine wrote: “… The machine has already proven its usefulness in deep snow, previously unpassable. One such machine did a job that previously required three. Orders for it have already been received from Canada, Norway, Sweden and Alaska. Hudson Bay has ordered a supply to maintain communication with its northernmost fur trading stations. A number of prominent car manufacturers such as Hudson, Dodge and Chevrolet have also taken an interest in this technology, especially in terms of adapting snowblower equipment to their regular models…"
The Armstead Snow Motor, the only auger in existence, is in the collection of the Hayes Vintage Truck Museum in Woodland, California. They say that this particular car was used to deliver mail from Truckee to North Lake Tahoe.
