Stearns-Knight Chassis Parts

Stearns and Stearns-Knight manufactured their own chassis and drivelines.  They had a foundry and did their own casting.  As such I can imagine that they kept a metal inventory for that purpose.  In 1928-29 the production of H & J cars was not speedy nor in high volume.  They were motoring along on borrowed time and without excess cash flow.  As you can imagine this frustrated the relationship they had with their suppliers.  

So in light of that we can speculate as to why they would cast a side mount iron out of brass!  They must have had an abundance of brass on hand at the moment and not enough ingots of steel.  All the other side mounts I've seen are steel or iron castings.  

Its an interesting conversation piece.