Robert Duke didn’t know what to call the contraption in which he drives daily from Bakerton to Shepherdstown, and neither did the state road commission after they received a description.
Duke assembled the machine himself from parts which he picked up at junk yards. The front axle and the steering wheel came from one old automobile, the vacuum tank from another. The frame was made from iron girders which were taken from the old Harpers Ferry bridge which crashed in the 1936 flood.
The springs were once a part of a radio wind charger, and the drive chain tighter was taken from a cream separator. The motor– which Duke claims speeds the contraption along at about 50 miles an hour– formerly was part of a motorcycle until it was discharged as useless.
The exhaust pipe once was a part of a vacuum cleaner.
What kind of license was required, Duke asked the road commission.
Finally, the commission came up with an answer – a motorcycle license would suffice.
