Biddle-Murray

John D. Black, Edward C. Maher and Ralph McShaw founded Biddle-Murray Manufacturing Company at Oak Park, Illinois, in 1905. The company built vehicles under the Biddle-Murray name, including several passenger automobiles whose individual model names and specifications have not survived. Its one comprehensively documented product was a three-ton gasoline truck described in a contemporary March 1907 trade journal. The truck used a water-cooled four-cylinder engine rated 50 hp at only 900 rpm, a four-forward-speed transmission, an oil-running multi-plate clutch within the flywheel and a propeller shaft feeding chain drive at the rear axle. Under-seat radiators, three independent braking surfaces and steering-column ignition and throttle controls reflected serious commercial engineering, while maximum speed was approximately 15 mph. The business failed and production ended in March 1907. The knowledge-graph description calling it a 1907–1920 truck manufacturer is an accidental reuse of General Vehicle Company's chronology and is contradicted by company-specific references. Biddle-Murray also has no relationship to the luxury Biddle Motor Car Company founded in Philadelphia in 1915. The catalog retains one collective Passenger Car record because several cars are established but unnamed, plus the fully specified 3-Ton Truck.

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