Cannon (Kalamazoo)

Cannon was the automobile badge of Burtt Manufacturing Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Frank Burtt and Warren B. Cannon organized the company in 1902 amid the city's first wave of automobile experimentation. Vehicle production is documented from 1903, so the corporate formation date is not misrepresented as a completed-car model year. Some local accounts report cooperation with Michigan Buggy Company through the early period, consistent with the carriage-derived construction and the difficulty small manufacturers faced sourcing bodies and components, but the cars retained the Cannon identity. The 1903–05 range contained two straightforward families. A 7 hp single-cylinder Runabout used a 72-inch/183 cm wheelbase. A larger 15 hp twin-cylinder Tonneau rode on about 85 inches/215 cm. For 1906 Burtt built a larger factory and replaced both with modernized side-entrance tonneaus. Model 2 was the imposing flagship: four cylinders, 50 hp, a 120-inch/305 cm wheelbase and a displacement reported in general references as reaching about 6.5 litres. Model 3 was the smaller 24 hp twin-cylinder alternative on approximately 104 inches/264 cm. Exact bore, stroke, transmission, cooling, seating, price and production totals are unavailable and are not inferred. Automobile manufacture ended during 1906 despite the factory expansion. Burtt continued as an engineering concern, manufacturing clutches and stationary/internal-combustion engines sold under the Kalamazoo name. Contemporary industrial histories document vertical 2 and 5 hp Kalamazoo engines, later horizontal designs and claims of thousands sold; those standalone engines are products, not Cannon car models. Sources disagree whether Burtt failed around 1912 or simply disappears after 1914, but neither date extends the Cannon automobile marque beyond 1906. Four model rows account for all published complete-car families. Cannon is disambiguated from Great Wall/GWM Cannon pickups, Cannon Ball names, weapons makers, Cannon electrical companies, the Kalamazoo Manufacturing Company and unrelated Cannon automotive concerns.

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