Evening Star Newspaper, February 26, 1928, Page 58

' EDISON EXTENDS UEST FOR RUBBER .cpenee <nd 1o Thorough Analysis of Florida Plants Shows More Cacti Species. Thomas A. Edison is going to great Jengths to ascertain if the natural veg- etation of Florida contains rubber. ac- cording to officials of the New York Botanical Garden. where he undertook his early investigations and which is co-operating in his experiments in Florida. In an effort to develop a do- mestic rubber-growing industry entirely within the United *States. Mr. Edison 45 making a thorough study of plant life in Florida, aided by Dr. John K. Small. head curator of the museums and herbarium of the New York Bo- tanical Garden. Dr. Small reports that cacti, orchids, air plants and ferns are among the plants which are being died. ‘“‘Rubber is already being cultivated in the Southwestern part of the United States, and chemists are continuing their efforts to produce it synthetically. More Plants Found. If the question whether or not cacti contain rubber is answered in the af- firmative by Mr. Edison, who is analyz- ing their tissues. much rubber may be held in the recessss of Florida. as the tactus flora of the State is very exten- sive, says the report received at the garden from Dr. Simall e The garden’s scientific work in Flor- 1da during the last decade has brought 10 light a vast cactus growth not before known to exist, it was explained. The known cactus flora bsen increased 800 per cent. thus o] g the way to cultivation on a large scale should the present quest disc nee of rubber. These seem to show that this compar: ely large cactus flora is only a remnant of a once larger and more varied one which grew on 8 more or less desert tableland when Florida was much more clevated above the sea. 5 The Florida air plants which are be- ing investigated aré popularly known as “wild pines.” These are typicaliy tropical plants, and. like otheér groups of tropical growths occurring within the continental United States, Florida is their center of distribution. Twelve out of the sixteen kinds in the South- eastern United States are confined to Florida. . Orchid Growth Unique. The orchid growth of Florida is unique in the United States. About 100 kinds of terrestrial occur within the bounds of the Penin- sula State. In the southern part tree orchids are often a conspicuous feature in the hardwood forests. Florida was said by the garden cials to be a prolific fernery. The fern flora of Florida is called phenomenal “As showing how thorough Mr. Edi son’s investigations are. even these somewhat unpromising plants are being analyzed for their rubber content.” said D’L Mmfi;hlm!in.&. Howe, acting director of the in th Nathaniel L. Britton. the flora of Porto Rico. who is studying and tree orchids, offi- | § THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. FEBRUARY 26, 1928—PART Z COSTLY REPAIR BILLS TEACH OWNER TO TAKE CARE OF CAR convenience Awal(en MO- torist to Folly of Neglect—Book Aids in Learning Auto. BY W. R. McCALLUM. | Some wisscracker came home cov- | | ered with grease, looking like an an- | gry lon, with a remark that an auto- | mobile is something ltke a woman, “it isn't the first cost, it's the upkeep. He may have known a lot about the | fair sex, but he @i4n't know so much | about motor car. If he did. he, wouldn't have bsen heavily laden with | areas> and he wouldn't have had the | bad taste to compare the comparatively | logical and consistent woman to the va- | garies and whims of an automobile that | has suffered for lack of care. His taste | was bad, but his cara for a plece of | machinery which cost him a couple of | thousand dollars was worse. Not natu- | rally an ill-tempered person, he thought | it would run forever without much care | beyond an infrequent greasir and suffered the penalty for his presump- | tion when the gas buggy quit on hin on a cold ccuntry road He hadn't taken the trouble to find out what made the carburetor carbu- | rete, or what made the ignition ignite, | if some one had mentioned breaker | nts to him he would have thouzht had something to do with the wild s. A differential might have sed thoughts of freight rates, and ckle bolt might have meant but a spring binder. So wt his buzz on stopped out in the cold dark he could think of tc do was poke around in its innards and hove he jiagled the right “what vou call ‘em” to meke it start. Natwally t didn't. wherefore the remark about uvkeep and the impliad inconsistency Had he taken the littl t of trouble to look through his instruction book and some nice afternoon raise his shinv new hood to find out what the i rds looked like and made the bugey buzz he wouldn't have been so badlv off. But a spark plug sounded like a funny pa- per strip to him and disiributor micht have meant a wholesale grocer. He was just a business man trying to get along in the world. too busy to find out what made his motor cag run, and believing that the little god of luck be- longed to him—pronto and exclusively. Luck Passed Him By. Some sunny S v looked out of his bedroom window and saw his neighbors out in the back vard. tinkering with whatever was under the hoods of their cars. “Not for rim.” “No. &ir, 1 bought a good car. Anyhow the boys at the shop will let me know 1if anvthing goes wrong and’I guess if anything happens somebody'll come along and help me out.” So he lin- gered along the primrose path of motor | negligence. not caring encugh or being | too busy to find out what made the machinery buzz—until the day when | the engine quit. far out on a cold, wet i road, with thoughts of a warm dinner | coursing through his head as he tin- | kered with damp coils and 2 choked | | carubretor. The next Sunday—thoroughly warn- &d by his unpleasant experience—he set | a sha thing [-bom. With the brand-new and un-| fingered instruction bodk clutched in| | his clean hands. he gingerly lifted the | That funny-looking thing over there must be the carburetor. But what does do? Turn to page 13. “Oh, 3 that mixes the gasoline and air which feeds the engine.” “But how do they mix, and what is the proportion, and what happens when the thingamabob gets clogged These questions stabbed at him from all angles as he wrestled with a prob- lem that had boen rather remote be- fore. lead from?" Master Intricacies, “That funny contraption must be the vacuum tank, but what is its function? And that queer looking thing with a couple of wires leading to it. Let's sce, i That must b the He realized then that there were lots of things he didn't know about " his motor car, and that the smooth running thing up front had a lot of gadgats about it that meant something or they wouldn't be there. So he set himself to find out wbout ! them all. It took weeks and months, but being a man of determination he did a thorough job. And now i his car stops far out on the road he it must be either ignition or gas, and where to look and how to check for | failures in either or both. The first thing he learned was that the carburetor is practically foolproof | in so far as its adjustment is con- cerned. It may—and does—get clog- zed up once in while: either the vacuum tenk, particularly if it has tun out of gas. He learned to shisld his high tension coil with a rubber casing cut from an old piece of inner tube, so he wouldn't have his encine g0 dead out in a driving rain. And he iearned that there i3 considerable art in driving to relieve strain on running ar, transmission and engine. But most, of all he found a certain self- satisiaction In knowing that he wasn't 2 total loss if something went wrong. | and that if he was stranded he could | usually find the trouble and fix it Trouble Found By Tests. Trouble hunting, he learncd, is a process of elimination both by reason ! and by test. He found that usually some preliminary indication is given by the engme if the gas line is at fault, while he found that ignition troubles stop the car suddenly and with little warn He found that troubles in the pow plant of his speed wagon may be di- vided roughly into several classes' en- gine stops suddenly while running smoothly: enginc fails to start: engine misses. or does not develop full power. Suppose, he asked himself. that the car has been running along at a geod clip and suddenly quits. What can he do? First, he would think of the two big essentials—Ignition or gas. Then compression loss might figure i 1t somewhere, but not often. He tound that all the cylinders would not b2 apt to lose compression at the same iime, s0 he decided to go back to the funca- as it the mixture? Perhaps. there gas in the tank? Yes. feed system working all right? absence of DI.| himeelf to find out what it was all | mentals. Was Yes. “And wherz does that coiled pipe | knows | t or: Was the | Switzerland has one automobile for | every 75 persons. hood and poked around in the vitals | Did the carburetor pop before the en- of the car. gine guit? Yes. Then he was sure, or on with admiration. Andon the highways . . . that and something more! * % A veritable brute for power. A hurricane for speed. Lithe- ness, drive and balance. A flashing change of pace. Smoothness, silence, comfort even when the throttle’s opened wide. * x SmallwondertheAll-Amer- ican Six is winning all Amer- ical It will win you when you take the whecl—and drive! Sweeping to the crests of American mountains. Speed- ing swiftly over the network of American roads. Gliding smoothly through the tan- gled traffic of great American cities. That’s how the All- American Six is winning America’s respect. * * * Sport * Viewed in a showroom orat the curb it’s a big, supremely beautiful car with body by Fisher. . .smarter, more lux- wrious than any other of its price. Something tolook up- elude Available on all body types ... 6 wire wheels with tires special front fenders with tire wells .. . two apecial tire and locking rin, collapsible trunk rar $100 extra on open cars . on closed curn . . . 6 disc wheels with same equipment §75 on open cara—$85 on closed models, L. P. STEUART, Inc. Service—1444 P Street N.W. ASSOCIATED DEALERS PADGETT-JOYCE MOTOR CO, BHERIFVY MOTOR CO, 712 K Street KK, 627 K Street NW BoA N SERAVICE (O AKDY HEMINGTON MOTOR (0, Taure), Md Va Wemington, Var® YoMt MOTOR (0 AN Falle Chureh, Va ‘\Irl“ ’ E SPECIAL SPORT EQUIPMENT 1 75 Downtown Salesroom 14th and Rhode Island Ave. N.W. J. L. JERMAN 2921 M Street NW. WD WOOLKIEID Gaithershurg, Md 4 M GLE Damuseus, Md e Warsent BLYTRE Laubiim, CC RAFFER 2 i Laesburg, CENTHAL GA ' AL RICAN PRODUCT CENERAL MOTORS 2-Door $§ Sedan Landau (‘nupo.........’lo45 reasonably so, that the trouble was somewhere in the feed line or that lack of gas was the cause. If it didn't pop, he found he would have to go further. Perhaps the ignition falled. Was the switch open, or the switch key in and turned? Yes, Bhould the battery be dead? No. s Then he thought back on a previous stoppage of the car and what the me- chanic had told him was the tronble. Yes, his high tension wire had jumped out of the socket. Was that the cause of the present stoppage? It might be. But it wasn't. So he had to look fur- ther. He got out the Instruction book and traced the way the current runs throngh the wire from the distributor to the spark plug and then gives a spark by jumping across the gap of the | plug to the grounded part. So he took one of the plugs out of the engine and laid it on the cylinder block, tutning | over the engine by hand. If it didn't | spark. he wasn't getting the julce | through it, and the trouble muct be | either in the distributor or in a wire | between it and the high tension coil. If it sparked in snappy fashion, h2 judged the cause of the stoppage was \Trm\m\'hrrc in the mixture or the gas i line. | Experience Was Costly, He found how to adjust the breaker | points in the distributor and how to clean the carbon contact points so that clean contact would result. And he learned by expensive experience that | spark plugs with too much of a eap pitted his breaker points. That cost | him real money, for breaker points are made of platinum, as he found out +when the mechanic rendered his biil. He found out that a carburetor has risibilities, and that if tickled it won't laugh, but may tell a queer tale—of a clogged gas line or a leaking vacuum or bad strainers. or what not. He found out all these quéer sounding things having to do with the engine, {0 he as well as the engine, wasn't stalled when something went wrong. nd he also found that riding the ch meant something to his pocket- book when his mechanic told him his clutch facings burnt out. He learned that even though it looked quite dashing to throw her into first and spin the rear wheels for a roaring start, it wasn't so good for the rear end, and that such a stunt as that cost him gobs of moncy—not immedi- | ately, but ecventually. Rear end fobs. he found, mount into considerable cash Many other things he.learned about the care of a motor car, and quite proud he was to take care of it when | it went wrong. He learned that lye isn't so good as a radiator cleaning | compound when he spilled some of the | solution on his hood, and that it ate | hose connections down to a frazzle. He found that when driving at high speed it didn't help his tires if he cut coraers at speed, and that a couple of thou- sand miles might be added to his rub- ber if he took proper care of the in- | flation of his tires. Upkeen Kept Down. A funny whistling sound under the hood puzzled him for a couple of days. until he traced it down to generator brushes lacking oil. Just a drop of a light oil fixed that. He found that a | well greased steering wheel loses fits effectiveness {f the front tires lack air. Somcthing went wrong with the windshield wiper. operated from the vacuum in the inlet manifold, and his engine s'opped. That also stopped him for a while until he reasoned it out and found that too much air getting into the vacuum interfered with the operation of the butterfly valve. By tickling the tickler on the carburetor, he found that it flooded and raw g spurted up around the connecticns. Water in the gas puzzled him for a bit until he had his tank drained and dried | out. finding Iots of sediment and pieces of cotton which has worked out of the 1045 ...1075 Roadster. Cabriolet . Laridan Sedain... o001 265 Newe Serias Pontiac Siv, §745 to 9875, prices at factory. Dellvered pi minimum handli charges, Uptown Salesroom 3113 14th Street N.W. . 1. KING MOTOR CO, 514 M Street N.E. MoTOR Co. PENCE Mt HAGE b Plata, M. LAND SIX BATTLEFORAUTO SALES FOREGAST 1928 Campaign Begun, With Favorable Business Pros- pect, Cram Declares. The battle for sales in the auto- mobile industry 18 on and early indica- tions are that the 1928 results will be very favorable, according to B. H. Cram, president of Cram's Automotive Re- ports, Ine. Of course, there is always a possie bility of an unforeseen adverse develop- ment, but, at the moment, there is nothing that suggests this taking place. The closing week of January and the first week of February discloscd a marked sales improvement i practically every section of the country, and in a number of finstances, the automobile business done in the first month of this year exceeded by a substantial margin that which was done in the opening thirty days of 1927. This first return is significant, and certainly tends to strengthen the opti- mistic predictions of a record year that have been making rounds in industry circles since the opening days of the New York show. Favorable Factors Noted. Several favorable factors have been responsible for the upward swing that has characterized automotive business during the past couple of weeks. most important among them have been the generally improved weather condi- tions, the clearing away of uncertainty that_marked the 60 days prior to the the gasoline supply tanks lining of He learned where he bought his fuel. how to prime a cold engine on a cold | morning. either through the pet vocks or by pouring raw gas into the spark plug holes. Oh, he learned many tricks | likely that little will be done in the im- | tires. about his car. and what & proud man he was to display his knowledge before his friends. That lesson out on the cold wet road had its effect and now he knows his spark plugs. The upkecp, he found also, wasn't so bad when he did the little tricks about a car any one | or no more reduction if profits are to definitely will establish it as part of| should know about. . . Antomobile bumpers will _achleve their full measure of utility only when they are standardized as to dimensions in accordance with the specifications recently set forth by the division of simplified practice of the United States Department of Commerce, in the opin- fon of Rudolph Jose, veteran automobile dealer, who long has been interested in me(v]nrlmu efforts to make this device useful. Standardization of Auto Bumpers Urged to Achieve Full Usefulness from damage in minor collisions. Still, in the face of its remarkable possibil- itles in this respect, the bumper has fallen short of meeting the need. This faflure is not to be lald to the bumper itself, but the lack of uniformity in its use. On one car it was high from the ground: on still another it was low. The result was that when two cars came BEARINGS AFFECTED 'BY HiGH PRESSURE Wear From Piston’s Weight Also Causes Breakdowns in Engines. Bearing pressure and wear from the together the bumpers proved agents of | v;:zht of the piston and connecting | 1 damage instead of protection. of an engine being started and stopped twice with every revolution of the motor is the chief cause of bearings going bad, and not the force of the ex- posion in a cylinder, engineers of a Delving back into bumper history. Mr. Jose points out that the device | came into somewhat general use as far back as 1904, when car buyers, deciding “Standardization of bumper heights ! and general dimensions then was agi- | tated by the Society of Automotive En- | gineers. Standard specifications were | The | that the front of their machines looked too bare, began to attach crude cross members in front of the fenders. Fac- tories were not manufacturing bumpers in those days, says Mr. Jose. 50 the car | buyer usually went to the nearby black- | smith to have the unit made. The early bumpers, of which there were many in Washington, were made of any | metal that the blacksmith had handy. and In addition to being of varlous shapes and sizes, were crudely attached | to the front of the car. | “Plain utility brought the bumper | into widespread use in 1919.” he savs. | Traffic congestion made it evident that | fenders and other front and rear units | natfonal show, the quality products that | are being offered at’attractive prices and the stimulus that has been pro- vided by the local shows throughout the | country. I On the other hand. sales would un- | doubtedly have been even stronger | were it not for the inability of some dealer organizations to give immediate | delivery of their cars, and the fect th~ | | downard trend in prices that started | | early in January and carried over | into the Chicago show last week has | apparently brought about a public be- | | lief that more price revisions are to | eome, and. accordingly, it is wise to ! wait. Present Outlook. The former situation, with the exce Ition of Ford. has now been pref | well cleared away, and it is more than mediate future with price. There are. | of course, one or two exceptions where | readjustments in prices would be in| order. However, on the whole, the | decided upon after considerable detailed study. promulgated by the Department of | prominent mof This standard now has been | car manufactory in Indians have ascertained. Many attempts have bsen made in Commerce as the desirable one for | various ways to correct the wear and uniformity in the manner of using the bumper. It sets forth that front bump- ers shall be 18 Inches from the ground and rear bumpers 19 inches. Bumpers for both ends of the car of 56 Inches tread shall have an overall dimension of 60 Inches.” The next step is up Lo 1~ manufac- turer. and he undoubtedly will do his part in bringing order out of the exist- iz chaos, Mr. Jose declares. Real uniformity. however, will depend the device was necessary to protect the | upon what is done by the owners of the | 18.000.000 or 19,000,000 cars now in service. The bumpers of these cars | are set in all conceivable fashions, Mr. | Jose declares. The owner of a car of this kind will not have to buy a new but he could hel tished by the Government. he believi == S Ll TIRE INSPECTION. Mauufacturer Says Motorist Should Set One Day Apart. There {5 a great deal of merit in the advice offered by a large accessory motorist should set aside a specific day on which, every week, to inspect the It is but a few minutes' task, but in no other way can the car owner be assured that the pressure In the tires Is always correct. Making this | thrust on the bearin, | troduction of the First attemptz to lighten pistons and thus relieve bear- ing pressure were e with the in- luminum piaton Alumir.um weighs one-third as much as stecl or cast {ron and was believed to b~ the iceal material. But the rub came when the engineers found that under the intense heat gen-rated Iin the multiple explosions within & cylinder the slummnum pistons expanded toc rapidly Pistons made of aluminum which fit when ths motor was cold stuck to the cylinder walls when the { motor became hot. If they were made smaller to allow for the rapid expansion they clattered against the cylinder walls while the enginé was heating up. 80 they conceived the 1& of the temperature of any known manufactur- | ing metal, and its use in the piston pre- vents the aluminum from expanding to | any ncticeable degree. The small ex- | pansion which exists is provided for by | & slit in the skirt of the piston and by greeve near the rings. . Connecting rods .of this ear are of duraluminum. an aluminum alloy stronger than steel and weighing about | one-third less. The life of motor bear- ings is affected by heat generated by | manufacturer to the effect that the Dressurs on them and the forced heat of lrhe cylinder explosion, engineers ¢l Not only does the duraluminum con- necting rod lighten the loal on the ! bearing but it provides a high heat | conductivity for the cooling and pro- | tection of the bearings. Heat ac- {cumulating at the bearing is transmit- industry is at the moment offering its | a part of the weekly visit to the filling | ted up this rod to the piston, where it is | products at prices that will stand little | station for gasoline and ofl & few times | dissipated ' be sustained. . one's regular car-care routine. the cylinder walls surrounded by exhaust. that are wmw tely water and through the 8 THB SENIOR PERFORMANCE as different as the car ifself Were greater beauty their only advantage, the new engineering principlesof Dodge Brothers Victory Six would still be epochal and revolutionary. Were greater safety The Victory's only advantage, it would still command the gratitude of a life-loving world. Were greater economy its paramount feature, the fact would still remain that The Victory has made possible 21 gallon at 25 miles per hour FOR A SIX. But these are incidental to the basic Victory achievement. You must DRIVE the car to know about that! You must take a corner faster than you ought, a cobble pave- ment faster than you thought, before The Victory secret begins to reveal itself. And you must unleash the full, sustained speed of the car before the idea takes full hold! . Victory design is unlike that of any other vebicle in the world — and Victory performance is equally radical and remarkable. To examine the one and experience the other will prove an eveat that we urge you not to postpone. T miles per SEMMES MOTOR COMPANY RAPR EMMES, Presiden Dupont Circle - "™ 613 G St. N.W. i ght Phone, Main 1943 Main 6660— Associate. Dealers Va. Edward B. 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