Landships II

I have references to four lorry manufacturers called Atlas.  One is British, the others are American. 

GN Georgano lists these:

Atlas; US; Atlas Engine Works; Steam vehicles 1875 to 1881

Atlas; US; Knox Motor truck Co; Atlas Motor Co. Springfield Mass. 1907 to 1912 Light goods, Goods vehicles and taxis

Atlas; GB; Martins Motors Ltd; Atlas Works North Finchley; Goods vehicles from 1910

Atlas; US; Martin Carriage Works, Martin Parry Corp., Atlas Truck Corp. York Pa.; Light goods and goods 1917 to 1925.

Light goods are vehicles with load capacity under 1 ton.

Dennis Miller gives further details but the dates do not match exactly and the firms are not as described by Georgano.  I have shortened the entries:

Atlas / USA/ 1905 - 1913; 
The Knox Motor Truck Co., Springfield Mass. was an offshoot of the Knox Automobile Co. and marketed trucks under the Knox brand name.  To avoid confusion, the trucks were re-named Atlas.  First was a Type A 2 tonner of 24hp.  Second was a Type B 3 tonner and in 1907 a Type C 30cwt and a Type D passenger model appeared.

Atlas / GB/1910
A 3 ton bus or lorry chassis 30hp 4cyl petrol built by Martins Motors ltd North London.

Atlas / USA / 1912
The Atlas Motor Car Co of Springfield Mass. briefly built a 2 ton delivery van.

Atlas / USA/ 1920 to 1923
Developed from a range of light delivery vehicles built by its predecessor the Martin truck & Body Co York Pa., the Buda engined Atlas 1 tonner was built by the Martin Parry Corp.  Later, in 1920, this firm was reorganised as the Atlas Motor Truck Co and released a new 2 tonner in 1922 to replace the earlier Atlas.

BH Vanderveen makes a number of references to Knox and Knox-Martin tractor units for semi-trailers.  He illustrates both 3 wheeled and 4 wheeled models.  He makes no reference to Atlas, Martin or Martin-Parry.

None of this really answers your question but it looks as if the Knox, Martin and Martin-Parry connection might warrant further research.  Frustratingly, I could find no reference to any of these company names in the few American trade directories available to me.

Best of luck with your research.

Gordon McLaughlin