Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/549

LEFT LIBERTY MOTORS 473 LIBERTY MOTORS bear interest at 4% per cent. The cam- paigns for all these loans were carried on with many spectacular features and the progressive interest aroused was in- dicated in the increasing number of sub- scribers. LIBERTY MOTORS, the name applied to types of internal combustion engines produced under the direction of the Unit- ed States Government during the time of the World War. There is a widely current impression that the Liberty motor was designed dur- ing a five day conference held in Wash- At the beginning of the war the Pack- ard Company offered all the results of its experimentation to the government free of charge, although it had cost the Pack- ard Company almost $400,000. In order that no one company should determine the policy of the government for the production of airplane motors, a confer- ence was called in Washington between Mr. J. G. Vincent (afterward Colonel), chief engineer of the Packard Motor Company, and Major E. J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Company, in which confer- ence the plans of the Packard Company <|gn'-~T,^ LIBERTY MOTOR ington in the early part of the war. As a matter of fact, it was a further de- velopment and refinement of a motor which had been made by the Packard Mo- tor Company of Detroit. Early in the war Mr. Henry Joy, then President of the Packard Company, became convinced that the United States would be drawn into the struggle, and he realized that this coun- try was entirely unprepared to produce a satisfactory airplane motor, so at his in- stigation the Packard Company began experimentation, and produced several preliminary models which were tested and successfully used in special motor car bodies. were studied, suggestions for improve- ments made, and finally, upon the basis of the Packard's one and one-half years of experimentation, and with the co-op- eration of almost every American motor builder and automobile manufacturer, plans for the motor were agreed upon. On the receipt of telegraphic instructions, the Packard Company began work upon its first model of the new motor, which was delivered in Washington on July 4, 1917, announced to the public, and christened the Liberty Motor. It was deemed more advisable to build the Liberty motors in the then existing shops rather than build new plants for