Evening Star Newspaper, October 24, 1926, Page 70

UTO’S USE ON BUSINESS TRIPS IS CLEARLY SHOWN A. A. A. Head Urges Use of Car for All Missions, Giting Easy Way of Maintaining Definite Pro- gram By Planning Trips in Advance. BY F. J. CARMODY. f Motor touring has grown to tre. mendous proportions in the last few ¥ears hut, except for trips of relatively Short distance, it has pleasure as its chief objective. In rare but convinc-| ing “instances it has been proved bevond doubt that the automobile is of the utmost utility In making businéss trips of any length. The factor above all others that goes to make the automobile of value to the man who wants to use it for a pleasurable business trip is careful planning. It is possible when on a long journey that is made for the pur- pose of “seeing America first” with the entire family to go at the ques- tion rather haphazardly. but when one i traveling for business, one must travel by a schedule as inflexible as| that of a small train. A 1 glance this might seem It is not, according to Ernest | Smith, general manager of the| n Automobile Assocaition, who t returned to Washington After 6.716-mile tour which took him to Salt Lake City and return in 23 days. Smith is a pioneer in the field | itomobile for business | 6-hour journey froi to San_ Francisco last 3 accompanied by Thomas P. Henry, president of the American Automobile Association, still stands as &n accomplishment at which touring enthusiasts may aim. Maintain Rigid Schedule. The story of his trip to the Utah metropolis ‘this Fall may well serve | fs a guide for the motor lover who is | interested in utilizing his car for other than strictly pleasure * purposes. Refore leaving, Mr. Smith and Elmer Jenkins, director of the American Automobile Association National ing Bureau. who accompanied mapped for themselves a rigid &chedule, one that took into deep con sideration many factors that might be overlooked by the more casual or purely picasure tour planner. Distance is the chief problem of any tourist. How far can one expect to £0 in a day? Will one be too tired to achieve the same mileage on the fol- lowing day? When and where will traflic conditions offer the greatest in- terference? Is night driving all that it is | reputed to be? Will defours throw one’s schedule into the discard? What speed limits will rise to delay one? Shall one put the car into first-class condition and give no more thought to it until the end of the journey, provided, of course, it doesn’t need @ major operation en route? What is needed in the way of comfort equip- ment? There were many other factors of lesser importance to be considered, but not one was slighted in the pro- gram. of the experionce 96-hour Washington-to- San Francisco trip last year, it was decided to drive at night as much as possible when traffic conditions are ideal for the tourist who desires to make time. In the matter of distance, day and night objectives were listed, With the latter being the greater. Maintained Speed Limits. Where there was likely to be traf- interterence the distance to be covered was curtailed. and where the high was relatively clear the ob- Jective was placed farther away. De- tours were not allowed to interfere, | because the A. A. A. officials were fully apprised of them and were able to adjust their schedule accordingly. Speed limits never retarded Mr. Smith and his companion and they never were exceeded. Before start- fng they acquainted themselves with the speed allowances and they made e by steady rather than fast and driving. As on the transcon- ntal journey, Mr. Smith and his apanion alternated in piloting the A While one drove for two hours he other rested, with the result that whether it was driving or resting that came next on one's schedule it glways found one with enthusiasm. “One of the great deficiencies on the ordinary touring tiip is inadequate equipment to assure one thorough | rest.” says Mr. Smith. “We met this| by talling with us an extra comfort. | mble mattress. This mattress was 8 | gnches thick. 31y feet wide and 7 fees | Jonz. Tt was so placed in the car that it was absolutely comfortable yezardless of road. speed or other con witi The zest is taken from many touring trips by insufficient rest. It truly one of the deadly enemles of @ successful motor journey. We guarded against it and were well re- Pald Numerous instances that show the eat advantage of night driving are Cited by Mr. Smith. In one case, riving from Cheyenne, Wyo., to the Rlack Hills in South Dakota, the pair rovered the entire distance, passing hrough only two towns and meeting ut one other car. On another part ©f the journey, from Grand Junction, (oln., to Bryce, Utah, no towns of By size were encountered. fic Proper food and sanitary drinking water are two considerations of prime §mporiance to the maker of such a EVEN out of ten who buy the Packard Six trade in lower driven but a year or two. Webuy.m used cars at a fair price and then sell them without profit. Every used car, no matter how low its price, is tour, Mr. Smith declares. On his latest jaunt it was the practice to stop but once a day for food and to assure that this was kept in proper condislon a small refrigerator was carried on the car. Celery, tomatoes and bananas were used extensively in the diet of the tourists because of their cooling properties. Precautions were taken against drinking roadside water. Soft drinks| of various kinds were used instead. These are standard everywhere, Mr. Smith points out, and it is better to use them than to take a chance on the radically differing products of | wells and streams in the country through which one is traveling. Mr. Smith and his companion re- port the roads, except for short dis- tances, excellent, and both recom- mend this season for travel to the| Pacific Coast. They traversed hard road for approximately one-third of the journey and, in the Western States, found dirt roads over which excellent time can be made during good weather. There is no dearth of service and filling station facilities noticeable anywhere along the route they cov- ered. The A. A. A. official Cadillac car is run on but one kind of motor oil, and that is carried along in 1-gal- lon cans. Gasoline, however, is picked up anywhere. The trip, however, was filled with interesting experiences. On the jour- ney to Salt Lake City the A. A. A, officials wére called upon to outdrive | a storm, one that caused considerable | damage in Kansas late in September. By steady going at the speed limit for eight hours they dodging the elemental upheaval. Another unforgetable incident to | Mr. Smith was standing atop one of the Utah peaks and looking across at the nearest railroad, to reach which required 228 miles of driving. Still another was a comfortable night spent in the rich, black and treacher- ous mud of lowa. | Mud Pulls Off Chains. | The road was so bad during that| part of the trip that the chains were pulled from the car, and it skidded over to the side of the road, where it became hopelessly stuc Seeing | the futility of trying to extricate the | machine, Mr. Smith climbed inside, rearranged his mattress on the level and settled down for a comfortable night's rest. At 7 .o'clock the next morning a heaven-sent truck manned by three husky telephone linesmen attached chains to the front of the machine, pulled it out, and Mr. Smith resumed his trek to Des Moines. This was the only untoward inci- dent of the entire journey, on which an average of slightly more than 290 miles a day was made. An idea of the rigidity of the sched- ule followed by the motor club offi- cials is 10 be found in the log book of their journey to Salt Lake City. Leaving Washington at 9 o'clock on the night of September 15, they set Wheeling, W. Va., as the objective of the first lap of their tour. They cov- ered this distance, 264 miles, without incident, reaching Wheeling at 7 o'clock the next morning. From Wheeling they started almost at once for Columbus, Ohio, reaching there at 11 f.m, putting 124 more miles behind them. Indianapolis, 176 miles away, was the next goal, and they reached the Indiana metropolis at 5 o'clock that evening. They stopped here for five hours and then headed for St. Louis. This 244-mile lap was ended at & a. the following day. and they had cov ered §08 miles of the westward trek. Runs Ahead of Schedule. Mr. Smith and Mr. Jenkins remain- ed in St. Louis until 5 o'clock on the afternoon of September 17. Then they started for Kansas City, on the other side of the State, and arrived at 3 o'clock on the morning of the 18th, covering 256 miles in 10 hours. They remained in Kansas City until 5 o'clock in the afternoon on business. Salina, 207 miles away, was their next goal, an® they covered the distance in five hours, arriving at 10 o'clock that night. j Irom Salina they went to Dodge City, lowa, reaching there at 4 am. on September 19, after 187 miles of eventless driving. On the same day they reached, La Junta, Colo., 225 miles from Dodge City, at noon. Running slightly ahead of schedule at this point, they determined to veer southward into Raton Pass, N. Mex,, which they reached at R o'clock that night. On the 20th they went to Denver, 184 miles away, arriving at R p.m. after an unhurried trip. ‘Leav- ing Denver at 3 o'clock on the follow- ing afternoon, they drove steadily through the heautiful mountain coun- try until they reached Salt Lake City, | 380 milés from Denver. They arrived at the Utah capital at midnight on September 23. A similar log book shows the returr Jjourney. by a different route, to have been made by an equally inflexible schedule. i THE SUNDAY Careless Walkers Crossing Streets Courting Dangers 1f careless motorists are “inch- ers” in the matter of waiting for the signal lights to change, pedes- trians are “footers,” on the basis of a survey just completed in New York. g At one corner, not Fifth avenue and Forty-second street, 25,000 pe- destrians crossed the street against the signal lights In one hour. The possibility for accidents under such circumstances {s very great and points to the need for edu- cating walkers, as well as drivers, to obey the signals in the interest of greater safety, traffic officials say. o et ke WILL SHOW PROGRESS IN CHILD PROTECTION Detroit Safety Congress to Exhibit Advances in Shielding Tots From Harm. Demonstrations of the lessons that are being taught children in protect- ing themselves and others from acci- dents on the streets and highways, in public places and in the home will be a feature of the fifteenth annual Satety Congress in Detroit this week, There will be a demonstration of a junior safety council meeting, with children participating, and discussions will be led by Miss Dorjs Greenwood of the Massachusetts Safety Council, Sergt. J. L. Penick of the Police De- partment at Memphis and a demo stration of safety instruction in the classroom, followed by a discussion led by Mrs. Frances H. Miner of Co- lumbia University, New York City. Three plays will be presented by children, under the auspices of the educational division of the National Safety Council, and a motion picture, entitled “St. Paul School Police,” will be shown. P Motor _touring during 1926 will eclipse all previous years, in the opin- fon of a wide number of officials, rep- resenting various lines of automotive priced cars that have been ) STAR., WASHINGTON, D. C. OCTOBEP 24, 1926—-PART 3. LONG TOUR SHOWS AUTO’S UTILITY FOR BUSINESS TRIPS The map above shows the 6,716-mile journey made by Ernest N. Smith, general manager of the American Automobile Association, and Elmer Jenkins, director of the National Touring Bureau of the A. A. A. They covered the entire distance in 23 days, with sfopovers for husiness purposes at several points en route. Salt Lake City was the particular objective of the trip. The picture at the lower right, shows the jowerful official car battling Towa mud, one of the succeeded i | gory hag stretches of road found on the tour. At the lower left, is pictured a type of desert road encountered. IMPROVED MOTOR EQUIPMENT HELD SLOW IN GAINING FAVOR Service Men and Owners Not Eager to Accept Changes. View of Accessories Manufacturer. Motorists and service men are not 80 eager to adopt improvements as one might suppose, according to Harr L. Horning, president of the Motol and Accessories Manufacturers’ Asso- ciation, who declared in an address be: fore the Indiana section of the Society of Automotive Engineers recently that engineering achievement is from one to five. years ahead of the develop- ments embodied in the cars now being offered for sale. It takes that length of time to make changes in manufacturing equipment and to educate the public and the serv- ice men to the advantages and mainy tenance of a new device sufficiently to make it commercially successful when embodied in new car, truck or coach models. There are numerous hin- drances to progress in design, but the fundamentals of engineering are being considered more intensively than ever before. Engines Discussed. Speaking of engines, Mr. Horning aid he believes the six-cylinder type is best for passenger car work, while the eight-cylinder engine is legitimate for racing cars and aircraft. For the smaller sizes of motor truck he thinks the engine will have cylinders of small bore, and that much attention will be given to proper balance and smooth running. Attempts to increase com- pression, provide clean ofl and secure better distribution of the fuel mixture to the cylinders are features of the development of engines for motdr coaches, and he believes there is a pos- sibility of the use of superchargers on these engines. The engine that works hard is the one that has long life, declared Mr. Horning, who explained this by say- ing that starting in cold weather and idling the engine or running it under ight load with partly open throttle 1 are the main causes of cylinder and bearing wear because of dilution of the lubricating oil that occurs under these conditions. Clean oil in the engine and plent: ULY HAS it been said” remarked the Boss, as he drew his measuring stick from the gasoline tank, “that ‘a good name is more to be desired than much gold.’ adage in view, we have consistently forged ahead, for every satisfied customer has been moére than glad to And with this pass the word along to his friends that honesty and in- tegrity are always to be found here. Nor is this policy one of the past, but is a basic plan for every-day action —at the Star “We do Service Station not handle questionable merchan- « dise here, preferring to handle quality, rather than quantity, orders. And yet the volume of it ia necessary, and some means thould be provided so that the cylinder ! valls will get a“ bath of fresh ol at all | imes, but especfally when starting the ogine. Great progress has been made within the last few years, he said, to- ward solving lubrication problems. High engine compressgion is an im- portant factor in the rapid acceleration of a car, but effective use of it waits upon further improvements in fuel and in engine desigre Gear ratios have an important influence on acceleration, he eaid, and aleo on the life of the vehicle and the cost of its maintenance. It {8 not necessary that engine vibra- tion should be transmitted to the frame and body of a car, according to Mr. Horning, who intimated that in- sulation from such vibration can he accomplished by some form of spring suspension of the engine. — Ohio License Tag Colors, 1927. Dark blue numerals against a light sray background is the color combi- nation chosen for Ohlo's 1927 automo- bile license tags. With a score or more of combinations suggested, of- ficials chose the blue and gray as the most harmonious and, at the same time, the most legible. cauntry. Properly Focused " Auto Lights Urged To Avoid Accidents Every Washington motorist can become a powerful agency for the prevention of accidents at this season if ‘he will undertake seri- ously the problem of keeping his lights propérly focused, according to traffic officials. Days are getting shorter and automobile lights are coming more and more into use, they point out. If accidents are to be prevented, it is held to be up to the indi- vidual car owner to pay as much attention to his headlights as he does to the gasoline supply and the ofl in the crankcase. BADGES AT GETTYSBURG NO LONGER CONFUSING Guides Wearing Designations As- signed to Centers, and May Be Recognized by Motorists. District motorists who drive through Gettysburg no longer are likely to confuse the khakl-clad, badge-wearing guides for policemen. The Pennsyl- vania highway department is con- structing parking places along the three main roads leading Into the bat- tlefield town, and guides may operate here, but at no other point. The penalty is arrest. Thousands of motorists have heen confused by the practice of these guides of pointing to their badges and signaling a halt. RURAL DRIVING IS TEST, NEW TRAFFIC VIEW HOLDS Latest School of Experts Says City Motoring Is Merely Keeping Up In Procession, But Country Demands Real Skill. BY WILLIAM ULI N. That driving in heavy trafie no longer is good experience and that it coddles modern drivers to a point where they are unable to meet driving contingencies is the firm belief of a new school of students of safety and sanity in automobile operation. Traffic, once the great automotive teacher, is now the chief obstacle to good driving. according to the new view. With powerful engines, power brakes and easy steering gears, mod- ern driving instructors maintain traf- fic driving is now the simplest of all forms of automobile manipulation. “It is simply a case of follow the leader,” to quote one of the exponents of the new theory. Out on the open road, in the tight places, and under the unusual circumstances, motorists are having their troubles. Traffic has pampered them to a point, where they no longer are resourceful. A recent check-up of drivers re- vealed the surprising fact that most of them would rather drive down Fifth avenue in New York City than negotiate an unfamiliar “square” in a small town. They admit enjoying a certain amount of comfort in being where the crowd is, for the crowd s a mere procession with little for any driver to do but start, stop and steer straight ahead. Explanation for Change. It is not so long ago, when driving instructors were throwing their stu- dents overboard into traffic when the sink-or-swim theory had many ex- ponents. Today the most advanced in- structor does not consider his student as having had more than an élement- ary grounding in driving when a suc- cessful trip through the congested parts of the city has been made. The explanation for the change in attitude toward traffic as a teacher is the radical improvements in cars with regard to ease of control. Traffic at one time meant guarding against en- gine stalling. Today the stalling en- gine is quite the exception, even where drivers forget to start in low gear. With power to start or to stop on an instant's notice, the average novice at the wheel can make a mistake or two in his driving and still have time to stop his car before running into the one ahead. And if he does bump the other car slightly he doesn't worry about it much, for he knows that bumpers will cover his mistake. It is this feeling that the car itself will meet traffic contingencies which serves to give the new driver confidence when he is driving where the crowd is thickest. Most of the serious accidents are happening where the driver finds him- self more or less alone. Hills still are a menace to the inexperfenced and grade crossings are more hazardous than ever, because the new driver knows sa little about the mechanism of his car he does not know what to od to meet an emergency situation. Falling Into Traffic Rut. Most inexperienced drivers are traveling around the congested streets of the city, imagining they are getting good practice. That it is pampering and not practice, is demonstrated clearly by the way they go to pieces when they try to turn around on a narrow road or shift down into a lower gear when the car starts running away from them on a steep decline. Most of the drivers who follow the leader on the nation’s busiest houle- vards couldn't back up a quarter of a mile over & country road if they tried all day. They would be in the ditch in no time. They imagine the: This highest type of service is made available to ‘every car owner by the establishment of one of the most completely equipped automobile ‘maintenance, repair and refinishing plants in the One of the most popular features of this huge establishment is the “Foreign Car Department,” where the owner of any make of automobile can take it for any kind of service. Thoroughly equipped for even the 1.1105t delicate work, this, department is manned by experts on all makes of automobiles, men whose efficiency is up to are being put through a good schoel- ing because of their daily excursions to congested points. but de not real- ize they are falling into the rut of traffic, a rut from which it is sur- prisingly difficultgto escape. Some of the contingencies of driv- ing have been listed for the benefit of the man who manages to get about in traffic tolerably well and who in- fers from this that he is quite com- petent. Put in the form of questions and directed to the taffic-taught driver, they are: “ Posers for Drivers. Can you get your car out of the mud without calling for outside as- sistance? Can you “double clutch” in order to shift “up” or “down” on hills? What would you do to slow dewn the speed of the car if both service and emergency brakes failed you when descending a hill? If the engine stalls on a rafiroad crossing. how can the car he driven from the tracks without getting out and without losing more than a few seconds’ time? How can vou tell whether a left turn is permitted at a crossing in a strange town when there is no other car ahead of you making such a turn? How fast must your car be travel- ing in order to pass within 200 fest a car that is traveling 36 miles an hour? How fast will your car take a curve without burning the ‘ires and risking a skid? Which way should the steering wheel he turned when the rear of the car skids around to the right” What is the best way to get out of an ice rut? How do you tell how steep a hill is, if you never have been down it be- fore? Which is the safest way to hold the steering wheel? How would you recrank the engine if the car were on a hill and the emergency brake would not hold? Traffic Is Careless’ Haven. Traffic teaches none of these safety lessons. Viewed with the critical eve of the modern safety expert, traffic is the haven of the careless, the stamp- ing ground of those who like to be- leve it is difficult just because it is noisy and smoky. If cars were tled together along some of the country's most crowded thoroughfares, the average driver wouldn’t know the difference. It is simply a case of keeping up with the procession, safe in the knowledge that if the engine should for any strange reason go dead the car be- hind would push. It is no secret that many drivers have utilized the car ahead to help them stop and the car behind to help them get out of the way when something happened. It is argued that the metropolitan trafic systems are comparatively simple, because the novice has hun- dreds of other drivers to guide him He simply imfitates. Alone In a strange town, however. he is nen- plussed. Often he hecomes panicky when a Boy Scout or a sheriff hap- pens to he directing traffic. Apparently traffic no longer is the great teacher.. On the contrary, it seems to be dulling the driver's skill and making the nation unsafe for anything other than congestion. (Covyrieht. 1928.) Deaden Noise of Wl;irling Gears. In additlon to saving lubricant, the filler and drain plugs of the transmis. sfon, if tight, will deaden the natural noises of whirling gears. 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