Evening Star Newspaper, January 6, 1924, Page 50

THE ' SUNDAY ST WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY 1924_PART 3. - OTORS .and Automobile. Likely Source Of New, Startling Surprise Instrumental in Effecting Widespread Social and Economic Revolution—Now in Process of Revolutionizing Itself. BY WILLIAM ULLMAN. Always & subject of intense interest to young and old, the automobile has Just been discovered to be In process of turning & new and rather startling surprise. It has been instrumental in effecting a widespread social and economic revolution in America, and mow it is commencing to revolutionize itself. “The changes wrought by the mod- ern motor car are a matter of common knowledge,” says a prominent automo- tive engineer, “but the present season is indicating the fact that the automo- bile does not even spare itself. The motor cars for 1924 show many out- standing changes, and the automobile itself is chiefly responsible.” Thesa changes are of particular in- terest to the motorist, because he has followed the development of the auto- mobile_carefully and can appreclate what these changes mean to him and t0 ail who are affected by motor trans- portation. 1t is pointed out. for example. that the trend toward the closed car s due, mot to any unusual public demand for coziness and protection from weather, but to what the automobile ftself has Been able to do to closed-car factory production. Without the automobile and the popularity of motoring which it created, closed bodies would still be beyond the reach of the average person and would, therefore, not be enjoying the present vogue. Process of Development. Tt is the Increasing valuo of the au- tomobile in daily social and business MNfe that has made all-season, all- weather motoring & . The de- mand for closed models has developed, 28 a matter of course. Strange as it may seem, the melf- starter was not adopted because of any! desire on the part of the public for ingenious mechanical devices. 01d- timers well remember how the average chauffeur was reluctant to adopt the mew idea in starting the engine be- cause he “enjoyed” cranking the enr| by hand. What brought the self- starter into popularity was the auto mobile itself. It made itself so indis- pensabie that people found hand erank- ing interfering with the effectiveness ©of_their motoring. Conventions and customs are shown to have been upset by the introduc- iion of the automobile into the mod- ern scheme of things, but it does not { even spare its own conventions. It isn't very long ago that one looked with pity upon the man who dared smoke a clgar within & stor.e’s throw of an automobile. Yet today it is safe to smoke a clgar sitting in the tront compartment of a closed car which may mean smoking within three feet of vacuum tank and car- WBuretor. Aute Worked Problem. Much of this increased safety Is due { means that cars can be o to less volatile gas, but gas is still an outstanding hazard and one must ! look to.the automobile itself for an gear supremacy, explanation of, the passing of the convention, “No smoking allowed.” The facts reveal great improve- ment in the piping of fuel as one of the real reasons for the possibility of reducing the fire hazard. The car- huretion on some of the early cars was 80 bad that the exhaust fume carried enough unburned gas to blqw up a car. The automobils has even changed its seating capacity! Time was when the family with a flve-passenger car felt that fortune had not smiled gen- uinely because it could not display it- self in a seven-passenger machine. There was much talk about the self- ishness of the people who selected roadsters and coupes. But_the automobile has made ftself €0 indispensable that it is fast be- coming a one-man proposition. There is soon to be a car for every one who needs personal transportation, with the result that extra seats will be for emergency use only. The passing of the soven-passenger model as & con- vention is being accomplished by the automobile as easily as it is chang- ing our idea of time and space. Changes Own Customs. Motordom hears a great deal about the changes the motor car has made in dress, habits, vacationing, society, health and business, but the changes it has made in its own customs are perhaps more interesting because they serve to suggest the many ad- ditional changes which the world may expect in its custom: The matter of traffic best fllustrates this point. Here is the automobile making itself so numerous and o useful that it commences to stumble over itself in developing & perplexing gort of congestion. Here is the po- lice force of the country flabber- gasted over the situation and the easy-going public plainly told that its custom of having the right of way o all vehicles s ruthlessiy shattered. In a situation of this sort one would expect action from those who are af- fected by such a radical change in conventionalities. But the nature of the automobile, and those who design it, seems to be to step into the breach in matters of this sort and offer. its own solution for its own problems. Virtually cvery car offered for shows improvement in brakes, decei eration in some instances being In. creased 50 per cent or more. This rated at higher speed with increased safet; enabling more cars to pass a given crossing per hour. Thus, in effect, the automobile is revolutionising traffic, and may even reach a int where all of the customary features ' of trafic congestion will be largely eliminated. 014 Clothes Discarded. Onb is justified In entertaining such a prediction. It was not long ago that a motoring custom was to wear one's oldeat clothes and prepare for dust in wholesale quantitics. Today the motorist wears his or her best raiment, selding finding it even nec- essary fo soll the hands. When you examine the facts closely it is at once Lo THE GLADSOME RETURN FROM THE LONG TOUR, DURING WHICH, ~ - apparcnt that the automobile has motoring customs its own popularity. It could not be popular unless these customs were done away with. Many of the things car owners are today—things which the auto- mobile now demands—will soon go by shattered many simply through doln the boards. Tire changes less be among those customs slated | for the discard, while it is even pre- dicted that the automobll v rage. or few, will si the automobile’ ity to shatter custo: It you don't belfe fort; twenty-five. (Oopyright, 1924.) s hence will not require These changes, whether many ply be the result of characteristic abil- it just remind urself the next time you are driving miles an hour over & concrete o that it was only yésterday when you thought you were speeding at for starting the engine 1 doubt- ot ' Fow C¢H suggestion. g should take his foot o creases the compression. the maximum discharge, when the MAKING STARTER WORK., Taking Foot Off Gives Englne" Chance for Quick Spin. Many hints are offered to motorists| minutes or so before thinking to weather. but it might mean more to the driver to know the reason behind He is told, for instance, that if the engine does not start right away he the starter button an instant and try again. why? The answer i{s that a better start can always be had if the engine is given a quick spin, as this in- The heavy wire from battery to starter offers when switching off the lights will make the morning ride a lot more comfortable. TURN HEATER ON. 1f the heater is turned “on” before ving the car at night the maghine will warm up much quicker in the since the driver will not 1f running the engine ten ONE USE FOR SPARES. If the spare wheels on sport mod- els were sot at right angles to the body and mounted on axles they might come in handy for folks who run for some time, and that is the way it is usually left at night. Just|have difficulty keeping the conven- a second consumed in turning it ontional four wheels on terra firma. | morntn find him in cold|turn on the heater. The heater is fre!lunuy turned off, or at least part way off, after the car has been But and thus starter {s used intermit- tently it more nearly approximates band cranking. =] ° 7. NPT L O Lo L O L OT O SO T O /LD As Distributors We extend you a cordial invitation to visit the new Chandler headquarters. You will find on display the 1924 CHANDLER containing the finest power plant assembly ever placed in a motor cav, tha PIKES PEAK MOTOR TRAFFIC TRANSMISSION With its nationally established high the Pikes Peak Motor provides a range of performance unsur. passed by any car costing up to $3000. And the Traffic Transmission (used only in the Chandler) completely . eliml nates the evils of the old-fashioned shift, permitting the least experienced driver to change speeds instantly and with~ out clashing, We and now ltiuwfiod you to the We take special pride in thecomplete- ness of our sexvice facilities and our service And it is our dispoeal and Faves aothing to bk pressns Chamiles v service, which, in general satisfaction, be desired. The Traffic Transmission is built complete at the Chandler plant under Campbell patents. JUSTICE MOTOR CO. Frank N. Justi 1515 14th President t. N.W. Territory Rights Open for Dealers—Are You Making the Most Out of Your Money? LER CHAN THE CHANDLER MOTOR CAR COMPANY - CLEVBLAND Annual Auto Show at New York Eclipsing All Records This Year National Guard Armory Transformed in Few Weeks Into Fairyland for Great Exhibition That O i)ened Last Week. On the largest single expanse of floor space in the world, an area of approxi- mately four and a half acres without an obstructing pillar or post, the twenty-fourth annual national automo- bile Show opened at 2 o'clock yesterday aftérnoon in the 288th Field Artillery Armory, on Kingsbridge road at Je- rome avenue, the Bronx, New York city. The setting for the display is more elaborate than was ever before attempted by the National Automobile | Chamber of Commerce, and is worked out with a degree of attention to detail, symmetry and color that achieves an artistio triumph. Due to the combination of almost limitless space and a one-floor display, the national automobile show of 1934 is beyond question the finest Industrial spectacle ever presented anywhere. Vis- itors by the thousands spent hours Yes- terday on the long balconies admiring the colorful panorama presented by the masses of statuary that form the dis- iay courts, the background of paint- ngs, the panelled ceiling, the sunbursts of light that fall from 130 great chande- liers, and the hundreds of glitterin motor cars that are after all the real center of attractioh. No End to It AlL Much has been written and talked about of the magnitude of the vast drill hall in the Bronx, but it is a place that cannot be visualized. There seems no end to it. Just once around the outer exhibition from ‘start to finish can feel assured they have enjoved sufficient ex- ercise for one day. it Is truly an in- closure of magnificent distances; a per- fect theater for the presentation of the newest products of the third industry of the manufacturing world. New York has seen many eve-filling spectacles in and out of doors in re- cent years, but it has never been anything like the one that is pre- sented in the big armory in the Bronx. More than a million dollars’ worth of ocars and accessories are shown in what at first glance would appear to be a wonderful art gal- lery, filled with statues and almost surrounded by paintings. Two of the paintings—allegorical pictures that depict the conptrast between ancient nd modern forms of transportation in the old and new world—are among the largest ever made. They are 60 by 40 feet, and are hung on opposite ends of the immense drill hall. Yet their size is not particularly im- pressive in this vast place because the symmetry of the decorative scheme requires that the bottom of turing facilities, the technical and ex- perimental resources and the trained man power which have produced a uniformly good automobile economi- cal in price and in operation. ‘2‘Bm Buick’s record has con- sistently demonstrated that the Buick chassis is so designed and coordinated and built of quality materials, that Buick performs equally efficiently on all roads and under all conditions. 3 Because body types ual thewide variety of Bulck always meets the individ- of Buick buyers— and in convénience, comfort, appoint- ments and appearance have estab- lished astandard for quality andstyle. 4 Because is available out the life Buick authorized service in every locality throughe of the car. each painting be fitty feet from the floor. That only thres wegks wers ve- quired in the tremendus amount of detall and construction work neces- sary to transform the armory from its almost depressive somberness of ordinary times to the palatial scene of light and beauty that was pre sented when the automobils show opened yesterday, is a tribute to the genius of . A. Miles, the veteran manager of the national show. As the @rill hall stood when it was turned over to Mr. Miles, it was simply & great space, dominatad by the frowning muzzles of the twenty four 156 mm. guns that are the par- ticular pride of the 158th Fleld Ar- tillery. Even thess monster imple- ments of war—eight of which played their parts in the & Mihiel offensive and the culminating drive of the world war through the forests of the Argonne—appeared lost on the edges of the great floor. Thees guns are now parked on the west terrace of the armory under strict military guard, where they constitute & eide- show to the bigger attraction in the drill hall. Seventy-four Makes of Onrs. Seventy-four different makes of cars, of which seven are taxicabs In the ‘section devoted to that tvpe of car, are on display. In all thers are nearly 500 complets motor cars in the twenty-fourth annual show. In addition there are about 280 exhibit- ors of accessories and parts. In the value of the exhibits it is immeas | urably ‘the most importa ositi: promenades ie a fairly lengthy stroll for | oF Tin Ming In. the Mistory of the ta he city dweller; thoss who take in the | of its kind in the history of thes in- dustry. 1t is only a short span of vears but a long time in progress te the inaugural motor car show in Madison Square Garden in 1800, when sixty-six ploneers in the then infant industry displayed their horseless carriages to a reluctant, if not de- risive, public. The current automobile show {s. as a matter of fact, the first almost since the beginning of the century that the industry has really had all the room it requires for a complets display. It outgrew the maln floor of the Garden after the first year or two, and overflowed Into the upper spaces of that structure. Soon ft im- pressed into service also a nearby armory of not inconsiderable area but even this falled to meet the de- mands for space. When Grand Cen- tral Palace was buflt it was hoped that the national auto show prob lem had been solved, but even four floors there proved inadequate. The armory used this year is the last re- sort, as it is fmprobable that anything larger will be available for a long time_to come. It is interesting to ! (Continued on Tenth Page.) LLE T IR EEE VAT e N ‘'When better automobiles are built | Buick. will build them * BUICK MOTOR < 14th and L EMERSON & ORME 1620 .M _Street N.W. Phone Frankiin 3860 FLETCHER MOTOR CO. Alexandria, Vn,' STANLEY H. HORNER 1015 14th St. N.W. Phone Main 5206 C.C. WATERS & SON u.lgnm. Md. COMPANY, WASHINGTON BRANCH OREM MOTOR CO. Waldorf, Md. ROSSLYN MOTOR CO. Rosslyn, Va.