There’s quite possibly a fascinating treatise to be written on the implications of a mobile banking facility: the use of technology, in this case the automobile, to overcome a societal need; or perhaps the fluidity and expansion of commerce in the early decades of the 20th Century. However, these do nothing to make the idea of a bank on wheels less stupid, especially in an age when vehicles were notoriously unreliable. Bernie Weis had the story on David H. Bellamore’s ultimately unsuccessful idea in SIA #81, June 1984.
By the way, a quick search on Google Patents turns up the original patent mentioned in the story (1,027,978), the improved version of his mobile bank (1,182,885), and the armored radiator patent mentioned toward the end (1,182,886), though only the latter appears to have been assigned to Standard Ordnance. It also appears as though Bellamore had a few ideas for pressed steel wheels that he later patented (1,410,986, 1,422,408, and 1,558,458).