2.Burgeoning

Commercial traffic became central to the sudden surge of expansion and development of throughout the city and the state. Many carriage and wagon companies switched from trains to trucks over to delivery vehicles or trucks. Every manufacturer and business aspired to have a fleet of transportation vehicles to deliver their product no matter how small .

In 1904 Clarence Spicer began to manufacture his invention called the universal joint in Plainfield. This is a crucial part of automobiles and trucks. The next year he incorporated the company and as a result built up important business supplying such companies as International Motors, Mack Truck, American Motor Car, Stevens-Durayea, and others with joints and axles. In 1917 Mr. Spicer and a team of engineers were called to Washington DC to design the “Liberty” a truck with standardized parts that was used by the military throughout World War I.

The transition from trolley to bus was gradual. Public Service operated trolley lines in Plainfield including the Netherwood, Arlington and Fourth Street Lines. In 1924 they were discontinued and in 1925 buses were substituted. Somerset Bus Company started the Newark, Plainfield, Somerville line owned by NJ Transit today.

By the late 1930s cars had almost replaced trains, but then World War II began. Car manufacturers switched much of their manufacturing capacity towards making tanks and airplanes. During World War II train travel doubled. Mack truck continued to build commercial trucks, buses, fire engines, and military vehicles. Wartime needs coupled with massive postwar building booms of the 1920s and 1950s supported the company and its Plainfield headquarters for many decades.

In 1946 Somerset purchased 14 Aerocoach buses for their New York City service called the Blue Star Route. In 1947 there was an All-Service Vehicle “bus/trolley" which went from Plainfield to Newark. It had electric lines but no tracks. During World War II Somerset used smaller Ford buses while bus production was shut down. After the war they went to larger twin coaches used until 1960.

After the depression, Plainfield was ready for an engine of social and economic change. But few foresaw such an immediate reversal. The Second World War jump started Plainfield’s economy. Companies throughout the United States switched to a wartime effort and began to thrive. Transportation manufacturers and their employees became a vibrant political force. The threatened march on Washington by 100,000 Pullman car workers was the impetus for an anti-discrimination ruling promising equal opportunity and pay to blacks and women in defense and government jobs. Also at this time, New Jersey’s population increased dramatically. Unemployment dropped in our state from 19% in 1938 to 1% ten years later. With this focused force America was advertised as the greatest factory in the world, building “a ship every day and an airplane every five minutes.” Mack Truck tripled its workforce to produce jeeps, armored cars, tanks and munitions to send overseas. In four years Mack supplied the Allied Forces with 35,000 vehicles.

Wartime needs again provided for inventions that would prolong and change the lives of many Americans. During the war a black inventor, Fred Jones, received a patent in 1939 for his “air conditioning” for vehicles. He and his partner Joe Numero were approached by the military to develop their Thermo King to be added to World War II trucks and airplanes in order to get food and blood plasma to the troops. After the war commercial vehicles began using this method to transport many foods across the country on railway cars and trucks.