Evening Star Newspaper, January 9, 1921, Page 51

SEES EVOLUTION OF GASOLINE FROM MENACE TO MOTOR FUEL Writer Describes Stages of Development and Cites Methods of Inducing Engine ‘ “Action” Cold Mornings. Not so very long ago—in the days | of the Puritans, I think it was— tomatoes were called love apple Peqple considered them dangerous to human health and ris to young people’s morals, and the succulent veretable was thrown away. where it insisted on growing, says Ernest Coler in an article in the current se of Motor 1 Today. rural citizens. who, for all 7 know, may be straight-line de- scendants of those straight-laced Pil- grims, hurry to the city, buy all the tomatoes they can lay their hands on. and sell them in the country to passing motorists eager to buy their bies and things “right off the thus cheating the middieman it as it were. fa out of his pr A similar en place with gasoline. Years be- Mr. Rockefeller began to call it Ppet names, such as “socoay,” the flud was somewhat of a pro . After of Ker: it had been distilled | and other oils, in wi it danger on account of its inflamma- bility, few people found much use for § it gnybody who had 6 or 7 cents conll buy a whole gallon of it, and ferryhoat captains stood in such awe of xplosive terror that the early motorist had to drain the fuel tank of his one or two cylinder speed wagon hefore the intrepid navigators would consent to paddle him across | the creek. But, while love apples are today as luscious as they were in the days of prim Priseilla, gasoline, once So anx- fous to explode on the slightest Pprovocation. has had its fangs pulled until it bears to its formidable an- cestor about the relation that near- beer has to Bass' ale: in other words, the fire water that goes into your fuel tank nowadays has grown cir- cumspect and hesitant about deli erihg its kick. and on cold December mornings it has to be coaxed and . wheedled and bulldozed and talked to before it will show even signs of life. ! “Opening apter” of Story. And thereby hangs our tale, with an opening chapter like this: A bit- ter-cold morning. Temperature about 15 below. A railroad train bearing an important persfonage—such as a sharp-tongued mother-in-law—is due at 8:15. The trusted chauffeur, alias pater familias. digs his way to the reformed cow barn, now called garage, to enlist the co-operation of a thor- oughly _chilled. acutely dissatisfied and mulish automobile engine. . arter emits a growling. ding or seraping noi 10" what kind of a self-starter it hap- pens to be. By and by the garage be- gins to smell keroseny and the gyra- tions of the starter become more feeble. Then they quit and by the time father has spent ten minutes or so belaboring tae engine from in front. via the starting crank handle. the w language stronger. What ails the pesky th Nothing very wonderfu ture. She's cold. Even in the balmy days when gaso-, line was gasoline of 12 degrees spe cific gravity winter starting had its} difficulties. In the year of grace 1921 when gasoline is exactly what people call it, first-aid and sundry restora-| tives often are needed before the pa-| tient will even breatie. ! Later the 8:15 arrives, as it always| does. and a thoroughly chilled. acute- 1y dissatisfied mother-in- on the scene and the breakfast con- have grown Tempera- | SVersation, Instead of busying itself ! r : tiiemoras 9 " upon sitting down to his breal with the latest scandal of the old | B WRON Lo 08 (5" Switen on, and O | when he reached his garage @ bit home town. turns about the ave of the modern automobile to low tem peratures. “T can't see any reason for it." sa the wife. "1 remember distinctly the agent was mest emphatic about that that—what did he call i even the poorest gasoline.” Has Faith in Dealer's Word. .., q,iq that puts folks to sleep it “Ram’'s horn,” corrects the lord of s the household—“hot spot and ram’s hoen! The agent didn't lie to me, either. No automobile agent ever lies. The trouble with these devices is ;d T wish some people would get it ifto their non-mechanical heads—that | they're very much like savings banks | or fireless cookers: You can't get anything out of them until long after y you've put something in. Right now that thing out there has abo#t the coldest hotspot you ever saw and it Wwill take more than the hot-air ca- pacity of an automobile salesman to make 'er go." “Well,” retorted the lady. “if you %xnow so much about it why don’t You go and heat that thing, what- ever it is? Do you want poor mother “to spend all her visiting time in the Youse, while that car stands in the barn—in the g ge, I mean—just be- canse it is cold ol “Down south, where I come from.” #aifl the husband, “they have a cute with balky mules. You see. when a mule has made up his mind rot to start, he is a sort of favored first cousin to a very cold carburetor. So they build a litile fire under his leship; that always docs the trick me to try that on our automo- i Are you trying to kid me? You know that before we put that machine into it all you could say of oyr garage was that it was a first- class, self-respecting _barn. —There may be steam-heated barns, but mot In these parts, and there isn't enough heating [ @ hrick.” “Wil there you are!” This triumph- : from the wife. “Why don’t you hot brick on that—whatever you call the thing that needs heating? CBriek hot brick. Why not? When ¥ou were a little bov on the farm, where they probably didn’t have jani- tor service and steam heat, how did your mother manage to warm your bed on cold January nights? Wasn't} it a hot rock or a brick? And if your mother could keep you alive with a hot brick, why wouldn't a_hot brick put the breath of life into that engine of yours—provided that's what ails 417 " The fact that you will have to make several trips from the house to! the barn—I mean the garage—each #ime loaded with a couple of hot Yricks. might be a good thing for you. It might even improve the poor opin- 46n Doc Smith has of your liver.” Sees “0Old irl” Is Right, Thus primed With feminine logic, Mr. Man betook himself to the cella ostensibly to have a 100k at the f mace, but in reality to conceal discomfiture. “Durned if the old girl isn't right, ~<ter all” he mused. “Mental lazi- _ that's what it is. Now that I $ome s think of it, there are all Kinds of things with which a fellow #=uld warm up his cold engine. For msTa—2, there is the hot-water ket- Ue. What would be the matter With drawing off the radiator water and alcohol mixture and filling her in- pards with piping hot water? I could ven load up that patent foot-warm- er and put it under the hood: the thing certainly gives a lot of heat. ©f course, there is ether: a few drops of it used to start our first ear in o Yime. Oh, and by cracky! what's he matter with electricity? I'm glad Mary didn't think of that, too. A lamp bulb gives off a respecta- eat—anybody who ever tried to is » transmogrification has : e—atcording | iffs of gasoline as well as pa's| noticeably ! 5 lhave a tendency to reassure timid « appears | stabling the car for the day, shutting ?—oh, Yes: vantage of eas s ‘s horn that burns | B apa | tmg help i needed. and as long as the organization is scheduled for Wednes- apparatus out there to warm! sunscrew a lighted bulb knows that Why wouldn't that work? And. oh by “Jupiter! There is the electri iron! Fool that 1 was! The barn s ‘an clectric light socket. That electric iron put near the carburetor should make things nice and com- fortable. Ul try it, anyway.” And so it happened that when Inncheon was over and father lifted the hood of the faithful boat, a pleas- {ant warmth greeted him. and when | he put his foot on the starter button, { which had failed to produce any the day. there was an instant re- | sponse.” A little later the car turned {its nose toward the country road, Wwhere traffic had worn a lane in the § thousands of mo- | torists lose their patience and dig- {nity and much of their chance of ! oing to heaven when cold weather ;and low-grade gasoline conspire. to j make things hot for them, as it were. waste time and labor on a sluggish, ; cold motor. or who, like a physician, simply must be ready to start out at | a moment's notice, the obvious solu- tion of the problem is heating—either | | the orthodox method of warming the | { garage by means of steam heat ori | stove, or the equally effective scheme |of warming the s radiator with a heater especially designed for thep purpos: i Fears Largely Unfounded. | Whatever misgivings the maotorists! {may have regarding the fire danger linvolved in the proximity of a flame- |heated radiator warmer or kerosene |stove are largely unfounded. In the: { case of most devices of this character the flame is guarded by a wire screen similar to that employed in the miner's safety’ lamp. whieh makes it impos- |sible for the flame to ignite stray | gasoline vapors with which it may {come in contact. | But even the old-fashioned coal or i wood stove offers practically no dan- si the draft created by the fire acts as a ventilator in drawing all vapors from the floor of the garage and sending them up and out of the chimney. If heating means such as these are not available, then the motorist has i recourse to a number of make-shifis, any one of which, if properly applied. will make it unnecessary for the owner to spend the day moping at {home when he is inclined to take the ! family for a spin through the crisp. | health-giving winter air. Leaving out | of consideration the hot-water kettle. | he use of which would make it necessary to draw off the non-freez- ing radiator solution every time a| |'start was attempted. a handy and ex- | ceedingly efficient carburetor and in- | take heater is found in the electrical- |1y heated flatiron found in many city | { households. Connected to a conven- lient docket in the garage, and laid| ! where it will do the most good, ®i| iron of thix sort applies itself very { capably to the job of warming, things | iunder the hood. A point that may| souls is that the heating flatirons usu- | elly are completely inclosed, thus making it impossible for explosive or inflammable vapors to come in con- tact with them. Adopts Ingenfous Method. One motorist. who adopted the elec- tric iron method of preparing his car- buretor for action in the morning achieved the acme of convenience by placing the iron in position after the current off by means of a switch located in is residence. In the morn- ater the carburetor was ready for him and started the motor without the slightest trouble ‘But the great winter standby of the motorist is ether. Possessing the ad- portabili! the ether bottle offers ifs aid wherever start- {i=nition current holds out a “shot” of | { general'y puts instant life into a motor that otherwise hasn't the faint- est inclination to work. In many cars i the carburetor is so located and con- structed that the float bowl cover imay be taken off without difficulty jand in a moment. If a shut-off cock | be provided, by means of which the flow of fuel to the bowl may be stopped temporarily. a quick and easy start may be had by adding a small quantity of ether to the gasoline that is in the float. Where it becomes nec- essary to introduce the ether through engine pet cocks or priming cups a | priming mixture of half ether and half benzine is found very useful. And there also are motorists who obtain very satisfactory results from adding about three ounces of ether to each five gallons of gasoline in the main tank. The combination gives a good start as well as much better running Guring cold weather. It is not ad- of ether when warmer weather makes I it- possible to dispense with the ex- pedient. > 3 But_even where no electricity is available, where there “is neither ether hottle nor hot brick. some sort of shift can be made with pieces of cloth weuag ont in very hot water 2nd wrapped around the intake mani- 1d and carburetor float bowl. The idea is really not so much to jmpart considerable heat to these parts as to raise the temperature of the metal sufficiently above the temperature of the fuel that the latter will not con- dense. It should be remembered in this connection that the vaporization of the fuel itselt abstracts much heat from the intake piping, as is seen particularly in winter, when carburetor tubes are often covered with ice in #pite of the fact that they are located in close proximity of the ! hot engine. “Feootwarmer” May Be Used. { Many motorists are equipped with | footwarmers, consisting of a cloth- i covered metal container in which a previously heated brick of carbona- ceous material glows for hours, giv- ing off considerable heat in the |process. Here and there one may see one of these heaters placed be- hind the radiator, on top of motors and close to the carburetor for the purpose of keeping these parts at a temperature well above that of the outside air. While devices such as xcitement in the works earlier in | For the motorist who dislikes to | Visable, however, to continue the anL UNLESS YOU ARE CAREFUL AT GRADE CROSSINGS YOU'LL WAKE UP SOME FINE DAY IN THE R & Fos AUTOMOBILE SHOW- WEEK IS CROWDED Many Important’ Meetings Will Be Held in New York | in Next Few Days. During the New York automobile ! show week, which began yesterday, | there will be many important busi- ness meetings and banquets. The | National Automobile Chamber of Com- | merce is active in this respect, and will begin its sessions with a meeting | of its foreign trade committee at headquarters, 366 Madison avenue, Tuesday, at 10 a.m., while the pat-| ents committee of the organization i will meet at the same hour. At 10:30 am. the N. A. C. highways commit- tee will hold a session, and at 2:30 p.m. the N. A. C. C. truck committee | will meet. In the evening the annual | banquet of the N. A. C. C. will take | place at the Commodore, and inter- | esting speakers will address the gath- ering. The N. A. C. C. directors will hold their meeting et headquarters Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock. Automotive Engineers. Meetings that will be of decided im- | portance to the automobile industry | will be held during the week by the Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., in the Engineering Society building, ! 29 West 39th street. These will be- | gin Tuesday, when there will be a standards meeting that will occupy both the morning and afternoon. At this, there will be a discussion of the revisions of and additions to prevail- ing S. A. E. standards and recom- mended practices, which will be re- | ported by the divisions and standards committee. In the evening there | will be an aeronautic session. i THE SUNDAY STAR, THE DRIVER OF THIS CAR DISREGARDED EVERY SAFETY PRECAUTION. ROAD GATES AND HIS CAR WAS STRUCK BY ‘A LOCOMOTIVE. (Cortesy Henry L. Dougherty & Co., New York city.) will be heard and officers will be elected. There will be addresses by !Dromlnent executives of the automo- tive industry. After lunch Tuesday there will be a body engineering session, an aero- nautic session and a chassis session. At the first named the genesis of a closer co-operation between engineers engaged in this automotive work will be discussed, consideration will be igiven to tendency in design, con- struction and methods of production and standardization and reduction of body weight will be encouraged. At the chassis session there will be discussion on increasing the ef- ficiency of the automotive chassis to conserve fuel. Study has been given to mechanical losses, advisability of smaller engines and higher axle ra- tios, the reduction of sprung and un- sprung weight, and they will be dis- cussed. The possibility of the use of European types of small cars in America will also be considered. ‘Wednesday night, in the grand ball- room on the main floor of the Hotel Astor, the annual S. A. E. carnival will take place. This is the annual Ireunion of the society, where mem- bers, wives and sweethearts dance and make merry. Fuel and highway questions will oc- cupy the engineers Thursday. Fuel will come first. There will be dis- cussion of eflicient utilization of pres- ent high endpoint gasoline In inter- Inal combustion engines; analysis of valuable research. in.the phenomena of combustion and detonation and the employment of increased cempression |pressure with the knock eliminated. After lunch the engineers will resume consideration of the subject. At the later meeting there will be discus- sion of combustion and flame propa- gation: distribution problems; the pe- troleum refiner's viewpoint: extent and effect of crankcase dilution, and the session will close with’ a sym- posium of the views of the leading authorities present. At the highway session the follow- ing questions will be discussed: The effect of heavy automobile traffic on highway surface; the study of subsoil and its relation to surface durability, a meeting to develop co-operative con- tact with the civil! engineer who The annual business meeting of the day at 10 am. Committee reports these offer little or no danger when employed in the daytime and in the open. they are less to be recom- mended during the night. in a_closed garage, where there is but limited | circulation of the air and wWhere there is. at least, a remote possibility for vapors to come in contact with the glowing matertal in the heater. In the infantile days of the auto- mobile,“some fifteen years 0. the careful motorist " generally laid his mount up for the winter, resurrecting it when the first buds began to show on the trees. Today hardly anybody thinks of discontinuing the use of his car just because it is cold. Heating devices of manifold uses, and the mo- torist's greater famillarity with mo- tor and carburetor pecullarities, keep traffic_cops, motor cycle policemen, country constables and other folks as | busy about Christmas time as they are in May. Above all, it Is well to remember that even the most ornery engine | cannot keep up its obstinacy forever, and that there are as many ways of warming a frost-bitten carburetor as there are of cooking the proverbial goose. greater comfort and builds and maintains the roadbeds. The meetng of the society will be brought to a close with the S. A. E. IRST you are pleased with the beauty of the Hupmobile Sedan, and the com- pleteness of the fittings that make for convenience. ‘Then you become enthusiastic over the fine quality of its performance, and, later on, its economy an its daily service. STERRETT & d the faithfulness of FLEMING, Inc. DISTRIBUTORS Champlain St. at Kalorama Road (Below 18th) Phone North 5050 Hupmobile J: dinner in the Hotel Astor Thursday evening. Automotive Service Association. One of the biggest gatherings of NUARY 9, 1921—P vy PARTIALLY Mid-Street Parking Hackers Cut About Obliterating. Enta BY THEODORE P. NOY The Police Department and the Com- missioners of the District of Columbia have at last taken steps to remove the serious traffic danger spot created gy allowing public hackers to park in front | of the Willard Hotel. i The parking space for hackers in the [ middie of Pennsylvania avenue between 14th and 15th streets has been cut ap- proximately in half by means of “no parking” signs and stanchions with chains attached: As pointed out exclusively in The Star in numerous articles from time to ! time, the traffic_conditions at this point have been steadily growing worse, and up to the time of the change. they con-| stituted a real menace. | " In the past hackers were parked di- rectly in front of the Willard. An one coming out of the hotel, if he even | so much as glanced at the assembled line of hackers, would find himself besieged | by a horn-blowing, calling, chattering | crowd of taxi-drivers, many of whom darted out from the middle of the street ant he appeared, regardless of the private driver who might happen | to be in the block, and who was driving along the street perfectly within his s did not happen once a week or! once a day, but fifty times a day, until | it had gotten so that the private citiz | would go arpund the block rather than| RUNNING AT A HIGH SPEED, HE CRASHED THROUGH THE RAIL- % s point. REMEMBER THE WIFE AND KIDDIES. It st tioush Soe o Rouin Besides the headlong dashes from the middle of the street to the curb, a practice which was indulged in by most of the hackers on the stand. there was constant jockaying lba!;k wil at 2 in. |and forth for position. ne o e Ver apke place at 2 p.m. and the din- | {0, 0 would dash into the parking The Rubber Asociation of America [Sl)ac! just ahead of a street car. In nual meeting and dinner at the Com- | modore Wednesday. The meeting the week will be that of the Automo- |has selected tomorrow for their an- |his hurry to get in he would find him- tive Service Association of New York, nual meeting and banquet. The meet- i self at the wrong angle. He would} an organization devoted to the inter- |ing will be held at the Yale Club at |drive forwardeinto the street to back | est of service executives. 1 sion will be held tomorrow, when the |dorf Astoria at 7 p.m. second annual convention will be held Their ses- 2:30 p.m. and the banquet at the Wal- |in again thereby blocking all traffic S . hnd causing near heart-failure to The Automobile Dealers' Associa- |any one who happened to be driving in the grand ballroom of the Commo- | tion of New York city will keep an | “rront of the hotel. dore. The convention opens at 10 a.m. |oPen house all week at their head- and all the local service stations of [quarters Broadway and 6ist street. the United States have been invited Responses indicate an at- tendance of close to 500. After an address by Harry R. Cob- leigh, secretary of the servce commit- tee of the National Automobile Cham- ber of Commerce, sion will be devoted to reports from Secretaries and delegates from serv- ice associations as to activities dur- . ing the past year, and open discus- | love and affection to the garage, ob- sions on association work. ! ment will then be taken for luncheon | 0f American Motorist. and the afternoon meeting will begin | this true of the to attend. at 2 o'clock. An interesting program of addresses | Who knows the first elements of suc- | the street is not the place for hack- will occupy the afternoon half of the | cessful Adjourn- The sensation of having an automo- bile shoot out at you at an lmersec-l tion of streetsr is not particularly pleasant, but you are expecting it in the majority of cases and it does not| WOULD BAN LOAFERS. cause you any undue alarm. But tol Loafers used to hang out in livery | grive by a line of cars parked in the | the morning ses- | Stables in the days when the horse|middle of the street and have one or was king; now the tribe of sun-|several dart out into the roadway dodgers is inclined to transfer its|Without the slightest warning or sig- nal, and not paying the slightest at- serves a writer in the current isspe | tention to you, is ineed a terrifying Especially is | Situation, and ‘one that should have | town or |been stopped a long time ago. In the writer's opinion. the center of small suburban establishment. The man business management Wwill | ers, who are constantly on the move. convention. Among the speakers will | Promptly forbid this from the very | There is too much danger to the pub- be Alfred Reeves, general manager of | Start. He need not waste any po-|Jic, and the public should be protected the National Automobile' Chamber of |liteness in impressing upon the do- | very i Si - Commerce: Ray Chapman, exeeative | nothings that It is their absence only | ooy iiame gimons P1e in these trou editor, Class Company;: | Which is_desired. Charles M. Brown, New York branch | laconically recognized and guarded manager of the Oakland Company, |2gSainst by a sign seen in an up- All of this was | “gviiy “hacking cars parked in the middle of the street, even a move- and Joseph C. Gorey, president of Jo. | to-date garage on the road to the |ment of but ten feet is liable to cause seph C. Gorey & Co. _The Motor and Accessory Manufac- turers' Assocation will hold their an » Hassler Penna. Co. 817 N. Broad St., Philadelphia White mountains. The sign read: “If {2 collision.” How many times have you have nothing to do, don't come | you, Mr. Motorist, been passing an here to do it. |other car on the streef and had a Announcihg_' “Hasslers” for the Dodge Car! 'OU can now obtain Hassler Shock Absorbers for all models of Dodge Brothers Cars. The new “Hassler” embodies all the char- acteristic Hassler principles of design and construction—possessing all the advantages and attractiveness that caused one million car owners to buy Hasslers in the past. With a set of Hasslers on your Dodge; you will have luxurious comfort, even while driving over roads that once seemed rough. Long trips will no longer fatigue the driver. Thesoft, resilientactionof Hassler Shock Absorb- ers will give increased tire mileage, and willmaterially reducedepreciation. A set of Hasslers consists of two front and two rear absorbers as shown in illustration. They ase installed quickly and easily without changing any part of car. They are neat and smart in appearance— and decidedly unobtrusive. Most Dodge dealers have.them. As factory distributors for this territory we carry, at all times, a com- plete stock of Hassler Shock Absorbers. If your particular dealer can- not supply you—phone or write us. Factory Distributors LocaliDistritmtors 617 New York Ave. N.W, Phone Franklin, 3111 * Sho l:icw .A:k:::fl: - With TRAFFIC CHANGE AT WILLARD ERASES MENACE Public in Hal/—-Need for - re Spa.:e IS Seen. Space for harker sudlienly start moving eou from the center and just graze tas side of your car. the restricted space that \e now allotted the hackers, conditions at this point are undoubtediy 50 per cent improved. The other 50 per cent could be obtained by eliminating the nter parking for hackers altoxether _There is still the jockeying for po- sition to consider, and, lim ited space. there will h of i the number of hackers has . reased in the slizhtest and 1 times a mad scramble ¢ p ailab 2 The cutting down of s nter of the street also increases oitering.” : 'd 1o public when 1 lise for hours around round the speed of two miles looking for “f hackers. in the past, ha been able to find room on t large stand. and now. with the stand army ce in the st the law. rington’s able insnector, is st to stamp it out ction of parking space #s+ moSt_certainly a step in the right direction and the department is to be congratulated on ing taken it It is sincerely hoped that further steps can be takem. which will he a real cure for the hacker trafic evil, | which has been causing Washing- tonians consternation and indigna- tion for some time past. ST SHUTTERS 5% installed any make radiator. Ford: Wittstatt's Auto, Radiator and Fender fg. Works—Two places, 319 13th n.w., 14211} P st. n.w. Yellow Fronts. # Freeze.proof Radiators for BATTERY Ignition and Starter SERVICE All makes of batteries re- charged, repaired and rebuilt Ignition, starter and _generatos repairs. Pires, tubes and acces- wories. - Federal Battery Service, Inc. 1314 9th St. N.W, Phone North 9349 2800 Sherman Ave. (Cor. Girard) Phone Columbia 5137 A-B-C Motor Company