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The original Divco milk truck resulted from an electric prototype built by George Bacon, chief engineer of Detroit Electric Car Co. Built in 1922 it had four driver positions, front, rear, and from the running boards on both sides. Three years later a separate company, Detroit Industrial Vehicle Co. was set up to market a gasoline-engine version. This went onto the market in 1926 as the "Divco", powered by a 4-cylinder Continental engine with Warner 4-speed transmission. In 1937 the Divco was completely redesigned with a welded all-steel van body and a snub-nosed hood which was used with virtually no change up to the end of production. A huge new plant was built on Hoover Road near Detroit to manufacture the first snub-noses which appeared in service in 1939. The doors were of the folding, semi-automatic type, and the power unit was still a 4-cylinder Continental. In 1940 the first insulated and refrigerated unit was built. But production was stopped so the plant could be used for war materials during WWII. After the war, the 1946 Divcos were basically similar to pre-war, and came in two wheelbases, the 100-3/4 inch Model UM and 127 inch model ULM. GVW were 9000 and 12,000 lbs. and engines were 4- and 6-cylinder Continentals. In the early postwar years production briefly reached 7000 annually, more than double the best pre-war figures. In 1954 refrigerated vans were offered as a regular production option, and the forward-control Dividend series made its debut in 1956. Continental 4- and 6-cylinder and Hercules 6-cylinder engines were standard in the 1950s, while in the 1960s 6-cylinder ohv Nash engines were used in addition, and there was also the option of a Detroit-Diesel 3-53N 3-cylinder 2-stroke diesel. This information is paraphrased from the Automotive Encyclopedia: |