Jonz (automobile)

The early vehicles were built at the Jonz factory at Seventh and Doane Streets in Beatrice, Nebraska[1] and were later produced in New Albany, Indiana.

Integral ribs and fins on the internal piston surfaces were designed to cool the motor through the movement of exterior air and fuel mixing inside the combustion cylinder.

Advertising for the motor described a "vapor-cooled engine ... it has no valves, no cams, no gears, no push-rods, no rollers, no rocker arms, no pumps, no radiator, and no water."

[2] Jones further refined his engine in 1909, increasing the heat radiation capacity by adding large exterior fins and using highly heat-conductive copper and other materials.

By the non-use of water and simplicity in the construction of their motor, which eliminates 1000 parts of the ordinary 4-cylinder car thereby reducing 350 pounds of dead weight off your car, lessening the cost of motive power to one cent per mile, cost of maintenance eighty per cent.

Jones immediately proceeded to build a green Jonz with red trim for the Chicago Auto Show.

Two Jonz touring cars were seized to satisfy $550 in claims against the company made by Beatrice, Nebraska architect R.W.

[15] Founded in Kansas CIty, Missouri in 1908, the American Automobile Manufacturing Company acquired the Jonz Automobile Company of Beatrice, Nebraska and moved its offices to Louisville, Kentucky,[16] and its production across the Ohio River in Indiana, setting up its entire manufacturing operation, including machine shops and equipment in the idle New Albany Woolen Mills factory.

[17] The factory buildings were two and three stories in height, located on a six-acre tract on Vincennes Street in New Albany.

Large advertisements were placed in “Popular Mechanics” in April 1911 advertising the sale of American Automobile Co. stock, stating it required additional capital to fulfill existing orders for $450,000 worth of Jonz cars, now renamed the “American” automobile.

[19] Promising huge potential profits, the company sold $900,000 worth of stock (equivalent to $29,430,000 in 2023)[20] and produced a limited number of cars which were marketed as "The Jonz," named after the patented "Jonz 'Tranquil Motor'" developed by the three Jones brothers in Kansas.

[25] As of 2017, the only known example of a Jonz automobile may be seen at the Classic Car Collection in Kearney, Nebraska, 3600 East HWY 30, Suite B, telephone (308) 234-1964.