Nash wasn’t first

Continuing snippets from Curt McConnell’s book Great Cars of the Great Plains.

One of his five featured cars is the Spaulding, built in Grinnell. Like most early automakers, Spaulding was a carriagemaker first, and wisely returned to carriages and furniture after his car faded out. His car wasn’t technically interesting like the Great Smith; it was mostly assembled from available parts. But it did have one unique feature.

The 1914 Spaulding had an air compressor like Winton and Pierce. Unlike them, the Spaulding made wider use of the compressor. It acted as a fuel pump, pushing the gas from the tank up to the carburetor. And it inflated an air mattress that fitted over the fold-down seats to serve as a bed.

The Spaulding Sleeper also included a Sterno stove mounted on the runningboard for complete camping.