Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, August 24, 1924, Page 11

BRIGHT LIGHTS Che FTEN SAFEST _ FORGARS PASSING ON HIGHINAY Old Theory of “Dimming” Giving Way in Many : Places as Result of Accidents Caused by Failure to Act in Unison. BY SPARK PLUG é ‘We will now proceed to explode a theory that is as old as the atitomo- bile itself. When headlights were first invented and some enterprising young fellow devised a way to hang them og the front end of his auto, mobile, somebody without a whal of a lot of thought, stated that to one ought to approach a fellow mo- torisp on the “highway with. bright lights, but that the arrival of an- other automobile proceeding in an opposite direction should be the signal for the flashing .and \,dim- ming of lights, and “the general misunderstanding of both drivers. How many times have you see? two motor cars approach each other, both burning bright lights. In nine cases out of ten, one of the drivers flashes to the other that dim time has arrived by dimming his own car and then turning them on bright again, Now and then both drivers reach an agreement, and pass each other with dim lights. Neither gf them can see the road but what of that, They know their lights are not shining in the other fellows eyes. ~ Now listen here. Dimming of bright Ughts on an open road ts sup- posed to be done to prevent acci- dents, It is safe to say .that the practice has been the cause of more accidents than any other highway menace. Let us take as an ex- ample two large touring cars. ‘They are approaching éach other at a dis- tance of 100 yards, on the West Yellowstone highway. Almost any- thing might happen. - The driver of car No. 1 dims: his headlights, “co: trolled as he is by age old practice: ‘The driver in car No. 2 fails to dim his headlights, and swiftly approach- es the other car with his bright lights doing overtime. ar No. 1 pUoted virtually without lights, and its driver unable to see the road because of the glare caused by the other car, tumbles over into the ditch. “Ve will not pause here to see how badly the occupants were injured. - That-is on@ case and we find it to be the hase of practically every “bright light!’ accident on the highways. One driver dims and the other does not. Now let us suppose that car No. 1 figain dims its lights, and receives the prompt reply of car No. 2 with a dimming action, Now both ma- chines are approaching each other with Hghts that were made to drive around a city in which street lamps furnish practically all of the illu- mination Is it not foolish to ex- pect them to give adequate light on a dark highway. Neither dri- ver can see his road in this situa- tion, and one or perhaps both ma- chines are found in the deep ditch the next day. ‘This situation is re- sponsible for lesa accidents than the f ‘st named, bi comes in for its of the serious thrills just. the We will now take a third example of the utter foolishness. of the light dimming habit on an open highway. Driver of car No, 1 dims lights and im doing so takes his hand from the wheel at the very moment at which both hands are thoroughly neces- sary. Driver No. 2 does not trouble to dim immediately, and Driver No, 1 again takes his hand from the wheel to flash his bright lights at the oncoming car. Driver No. 2 then removes his hand at the time at which he needs absolute control of his car, and dims his lights to suit the fancy of his light flashing ompo- nent. This causes Driver No. 1 to again reach down and dim his lights. In this operation both drivers es- pecially if any speed is being in- |dulged in have courted death any- | where from three to six Umes. Is it necessary? Now let's take an altogether dif- ferent example, which should con- clusively show the impractibility of the light dimming craze. Driver in car No. 1 approaches car No. 2 at 30 miles per hour. His bright lights are on, and the road js an open book before him. Instead of fixng his eyes on the approaching headlights of car No. 2, he allows his gaze to fall intently upon the right edge of the road, y keeps his distance from that edge. He does not let his eyes fall for one mjnute upon the headlights of the approaching car, Driver of car No. 2 allows his bright headlights to burn unrestricted. He too watches the right side of the highway and keeps his machine’ an approximate Wo feet from the ‘edge-of the: road. ‘The machines pass‘each other with five feet to spare between. Neither driver has been blinded. Each has had a élear view of the road at all injured. ‘That js ona case, and we times. The combination of both sets of bright lights has made. the vicinity as Hght as -day. It’s all in keeping your eyes off the other fellow'’s headlights. In other words, if every driver, when meeting another car on. the open highway would put the “hands oft” sign on the light switch, keep his eyes off the headlights of the approaching cat and on the edge of the highway, where his own light: will be found to be performing their lrunction adequately, there will be far less night crashes on the high- ways, not only of Wyoming, but of the whole United States. ‘The only trouble Hes in the state law, which is weak in other partic: ulars. Dimming is made manda- tory even against the will of prob- ably a majority of the drivers. Until headlights are all made to be low- ered or elevated at will, throwing a bright light on the road directly in soyNIs ouIOg *BajNINIS OY OB; -ad 0} Sjozes ONQnd Joy yo IWYSyUr 3] ,DeUTUNTp,, UsYA Ivo 94} Jo: WUO0IT have dispensed with the dimming of lights. Cadillac Buick Packard (Single Six) Anburn (Big 6) Pierce-Arrow Case Studebaker (Big 6) Cole Hupmobile—Closed Paige Jordan Davis ‘Anderson Elcar Willys-Knighs comfort positive Installed 119 E. Fi fort CARS REGULARLY EQUIPPED WITH GABRIEL SNUBBERS EADING car manufacturers are solidly behind Gabriel Snub- rs as a valuable aid to riding More than 2,000,000 cars are Gabriel equipped today. The combined testimony of makers and ownersis all in favor of Gabriels. In their endorsement you find needs them. ation to your car. Order them today. CASPER BATTERY CO. abriel Snubbers Kissel Stevens-Duryea King Lafayette Buropean Cara; Milbura Electris Morris-Oxford Riddle Hearee Star (English) Apperson Crossley Sayers Sava Micese and operating economy. assurance that your car quickly, and without alter- fth St. Phone 907 Casper Su déCOND NEWS SECTiun. ~ ‘ CASPER, WYO., SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 1924. wy Crihune It was never like this when father was a boy. He hiked to school but nowadays—well, look at the school bus recently acquired by the Union high school of Gonzales, Calif. Up- per picture shows Principal Carnes (second from right) receiving the con- gratulations of some of his students on his purchase, and lower picture shows the “initiation” ride taken by some of the favored pupils when tho bus arrived. GONZALES, Callf., Aug. 23.— and he]- School children*of this town travel deluxe” because Bert’ M. Carnes didn't. Carnes, principal of the Union high school here, cherishes recollec- tions not altogether pleasant of te- mile hikes.to the little red school house, and 10 miles home again. “That sounds very romantic song and story,” declares Carnes. “Also it is good to read in ‘Lives of Great Men.’ But when it comes to Practice, that’s another story.” tion by the Union high school! of an 38,500 bus, | believed to set a new| standard in scholastic transporta-| tion. “It makes two 18-mile trips daily, one to gather students and one to deliver them home again. Built by the Garford company on the general principles-of their motor trucks, painted a gaudy yellow for differention purposes, and hugging low to'the highway for safety’s In . both motor enthusiasts and fond par- ents, Latest result of this is the ecquisl-j sake, it is attracting attention of| overlooked. There: are manually-con+ trolled heaters. three dome three ventilators, sedan type lights, win- Special safety devices, aside from dows and latest type air shcgks. the general low lines, include elec. The engine is 55 horsepower, coun- trleally controlled doors (to prevent ter balanced, giving an easy speed of over-enthusiastic pupils from prema- ture exit), and the latest type wide miles per hour, The bus hag an oyer-ail length of “yeid. "The bus is of a general sthder- 27 feet, is 7 feet 8 inches in width, slung type, insuring a low center of, and stands 79 ravity. inches from the ground. It has a capacity of 40 per- Comfort features have not been sons, six to a seat. ROAD BUILDING TO BE BUSIEST Statistician Thinks Record Will Be Broken grams Loom BABSON PARK, Mass., Aug. —‘What will be the most active industry during 19257" The question was put today to Roger W. Babson, who promptly answered, “Road Building". The statistician’s reason for selecting this above general building, elec- trical manufacturing and several other industries which have con: siderable promise for the new year is the fact that roads must not only be “built but- must be rebuilt—they wear out. “In spite of the fact that we ex- pended $361,837,000 in 1923 on new road construction and set a record at about three and ono half times 1913," says the statistician, “pres- ent indications point to a new high mirk and an even greater volume of road Building during the next fifteen months, An analysis of the Present situation leads me to be- Heve that it willbe a most active industry during 1925. ‘Much of this road buflding just now is due to the fact that money is available for this purpose at low rates and the government aid can be enlisted to carry a large part ‘of the burden. Since 1916 the govern- ment has made ayailable the total of over half a billion dollars for this type of construction, An additional seventy-five million’ dollars has been appropriated to be apportioned to the various states for. highway. con- struction during the coming tWelve months, Some thirty-two thousand miles of such road has been com- pleted with seventeen thousand miles under construttion at this time. Some twenty-five hundred miles has been approved but is not yet in the process of building. The total system of roads which will be completed under the provisions of the Federal Highway act 6f 192 will constitute a net work of ap- proximately 175,000 miles. Less than half, of this work has been completed and the balance still to be built argues for a tremendous activity along this line. “It may seem to some of you, who live in fairly populous districts, that road building is nearly com: pleted and that we will soon havo only the work of maintaining our highways, The statistics, however, do not bear out this point. We have in our sum total of surfaced and payed roads some 430,000 miles at the present time, The entire road mileage of the country, how: ever, is reported at about 2,940,000. In our most densely populated During Next Fifteen Months; Big Pro- in Country. states a maximum of 40 per cent of the roads haye been surfaced. In many important states less than 1 per cent of the highways have been so treated. “This pending road building pro- gram we! not only employ‘a great many men at good wages but will directly benefit several important industries. A quarter of the entire cement output, for instance, goes nto road building. The record made by this industry of 137,000,000 barrels in 1923 was largely Gc> to tremendous volume used for tm» purpose. At the present rate of production it locks as though the output of coment for 1924 would total about 150,000,000 barrels. Be- tween 35,000,000 and 40,000,000 of which will be used in road building. Read building machinery will, of course, benefit by this extemded ac- tivity and other industries’ supply- ing clothes and material ;for this work will be busy on generous orders. “The insistent demand for im- Proved roads is of course the result of the 15,590,000 automobile owners in this ¢ountry. At the same time the improvement of our highways reacts to holp the sale of more auto- mobiles. "Many sound economists Proposed that road building grams be used as a dort of gen governor on business. Such pro- Je®&s being stopped during periods of general industrial activity as towrelease labor and capital for in- dustrial purposes. This would tend to decrease the demand for a tjme when shortage threatens. Conversely when business goes into @ depression and industrial plants close down it is proposed that+the governments, states, and municipali- ties undertake an extensive road building program with the {dea of furnishing employment to those out of work ‘and of stimulating general basiness. “Activity ut present,” concluded Mr. Batson, “is still below normal —the Babsonchart reflects it in the present positién at 14 per cent, and would even be lower today were it not fer our road building progran While it is too early to estimate the volume of new road censtruction for the coming yes I feel that its in- fluence will be felt in the sum total of our activity and trade and it is One of the things that will help to make 1925 a better year than 1924, provided ‘he presidential election is not thrown into congress. have pro- INDUSTRIAL IN 1925 - BABSON NOISE AND THE AUTO Noise is a curious thing. We can sit in a room with a clock and never hear it, We expect a clock to be “ticksome” and are annoyed if it is silent. We-demand our cars to be silent as the grave. Don't you think we are unreasonable? Many a sleep- less night has the engineers and production men, thinking how to strain the last vestige of noise out of the chassis. Funny enough, when one noise disappeers you hear another. Our limousines are now so quiet that the chauffeur {n'the front seat can hear the boss thinking in the rear. The good old days when you could tell what make of car was approach- ing by the noise it made are slipping by and only one car remains to re mind us of them. Cal! the Tribune for highway tn- fermi Theaters--Advance Notes On Amusement Offerings For Coming Week THE AUTOMOTIVE MELTING POT Conducted by “SPARKPLUG” Election came, flourished, and| Mr. Crosby of the’ Warne and Cros- went and the automobile business 1s|by Motor company, is in Seattle at as good as ever. No we don't get the connection either. the present time and allows as how the’ place suits ‘him fine, but he guesses he'll return to Casper before Along the streets of Casper these| long and absorb a little more of the bright and sunny days, staunch meti are heard to murmur, “It won't be long: now until snow files.” Forget it boys. Let's live only in the pres- ent. Have you submitted your candi- date for the Tribune's speedily ap- proaching béauty contest. Think {t over ye who claim to be. competent judges of female attractions. Your favorite may be crowned Queen Pe- trol’a at Tulsa later in. the fall, where the International Petroletim Exposition will. be conducted. “Sparky” drove nll three models of the Studebaker last week. Oh, boy. Read the story. “Kid” McCoy has at last gone com- pletely insane. We've been expect: ing ft for some time. ‘The poor devil was married 11 times, and Lord only knows’ how many other women entered and left. his life. The camping outfit display at Brodie Rubber Co., attracted hun- dreds of people last week, Looks as though all the potential campers haven't left Casper. Mr. Johnson of the Casper Motor Co., asks especially that everyone in Casper desirous of seeing the new Chrysler Roadster, which has been proclaimed by maby as the» most beautiful model in the entire Chrys- ler line, do so.at once while the car is on display at the showroom. Lee Doud, Walter Boos and pretty nearly the whole darn Lee Doud Motor company, left last Monday for. Thermopolis, Gebo and a few other Yyoming points, on a combination business and fishing trip. Freddie Morrow has been in charge during the past week and proved that. he has sterling qualities as an execu- tive. Asking whether or not Casper needs electric control of traffic in her downtown section is Mike won- dering whether or not Germany. could make good use of five or six billion dollars right now. “Sparky” did not enter the race for sheriff as he feared the candi- dacy of Tom Meaney. He ts now kicking himself soundly In the pants. (Extract from well known fable.) That men and women connected in any way with a newspaper should not hold office was very strongly ex- emplified in our recent primary elec- tion, We haven't heard much about that though. Try Thermopolia and Lander as a pair of likely spots for week end visits. Their invitation is of the standing variety. John Martin, formerly stenograph- er for the Lee Doud Motor company, left recently for his home in Newark, N. J. It’s the one eyed cars and the one handed drivers that help fill our hospitals. There's still plenty of rocks on the mountain road, When you put rocks behind the wheels to hold the car, why not remove them. You may remove the direct cause of a serious accident some dark night. ‘Claude Crosby deigned to let the boys hear from him a few days ago. SPARKY DROVE STUDEBAKER MODELS During the Past Week and He Pronounces Each a LEADER IN ITS CLASS READ WHAT SPARKY SAYS: “The three Studehaker models afford a driver that thrill which comes through driving a machine he knows will respond immediately—keep going and never fail. The Studebaker firmly demonstrated to me why thay are not an experiment but an catab- lished institution in the American motor world.” SEE THE STUDEBAKER AT Studebaker Sales & Service 226 S. David St. Phone 1817 old bread and butter. Through conscientious advertising and a real desire to make good in Casper, the Great Northern Motor Co., has broken all records for bus: iness volurg during the first two weeks. J. J. Thomas of the Liberty Ga- rage has a new sparkle in his eye He has just r€turned from a good old tour through all of Colorado, his home state, and he’s filled with the pep and gnthusilasm that only a good long spell in the out of doors can impart. Starting on a long trip without a spare. tire is like trying to drive all day and all night without a govda cup of black coffee; You're sure to need ‘One. There aro substitutes for black coffee’as an eye opener. L, J. Murphy, crackerjack auto- mobile salesman. has joined the merry family at the Nolan Chevrolet Co., and ‘bids fair to crack the west ern Chevrolet sale ecord before he's through. Here's luck to you Murphy. Edward Parfet is in Fort Collins where he was called by the death of his father. He is expected to re. turn to Casper on Monday. He couldn't believe his cars. His eyes dilated in horror. ‘What this man was telling him was, literally unbelievable. It shattered his faith in mankind. It made him wish he were dead instead of living in this hell_on Earth with his one Ideal de- stroyed.. Oh, it couldn't be true Again the despoller spoke the fatal words: “The Baster Rabbit ees. doesn’t lay No gas—no go. Nine rahs! A young son arrived at the home of Judd Walker only a few days ago. Judd’s still on the job at the Alemite Service Station, but the well known chest measure. ment has taken a step forward. Congratadlations, Judd. Peter Van. Osten, of the Coliseum Motor Co., {s enjoying himself for a pair of weeks or so at a 5 ous spot. The boys at the compan refused to disclose his whi Therefore they cannot known to be Tribune readers, made Yellowstone Auto Supply company, PARKING GARS ON HIGHWAYS GETS SCORING Association Board Has List of Pointers for Motorists. Parking automobiles on _ public highways {s strongly condemned as a public nuisance by the American Automobile association, according to a bulletin just released through the organization's ‘Touring and Transportation board at Washing- ton, D. C. The basis for the A. A. A. action 8 numerous complaints received from tourists who have been both inconvenienced and endangered by persons who park their cars on the main highways when they could just as well drive on to a eross road or open space, it is stated. In its bulletin the board states that It does not sympathize with tho motorist wM® thinks he would for felt a privilege if forbidden to park on highways because it contends that he is not safe in parking where there is high speed traffic and that he really would benefit by > cing compelled to park in’ safer places. Thomas P. Henry, president of the A. A. A. says that the number of accidents resulting from parking cars on heavily traveled. highways offsets any possible advantages and that {f the motorist does not appre clate the importance of parking safely, legislation must step in. to produce des'red results. “It is hoped that this appeal to the motorist, however, will obviate the necessity for adding another law to the already overcrowded - tutes,” Mr. Henry explains. “If each motorist would act upon the recommendations of the A. A. board the highways would be safer for all who use them and the nuts ance of unsafe parking would mintmized."" The following suggestions have n offered by the A, A. A. board Do not seek main highways for plo- nic purposes. Use the secondary roads where there are plenty of op- portunities for parking off the road. “In event of puncture try to get be b the car as far off the traveled po tion of the road as possible before changing the tir and in no ca stop on a curve or near the top of a hill. “Never stop opposite a-car that has parked along the road. If you now firmly imbedded in its new home (Continued on Page Four) want to ask your way stop (Continued on Page Four) your VALVE-IN- HEAD ZA, sellin ( MOTOR CARS (F- Resistrations Show there are nearly twice as many Buicks in service today as any other make of car at #1000 and above =~ an TH CASPER BUICK COMPANY 132 N. Center St. When o2tter automobiles are | Phone 2260 built, Buick will build them