Evening Star Newspaper, May 5, 1929, Page 61

b THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D, MY 5 1929—PART 4. In the Motor World BY G. ADAMS HOWARD. OR years automobile manu- facturers, traffic experts, city planners, garage own- ers and the general public have been predicting all| sorts of figures on the automobile saturation point in this country, | and just oy steadily as these sat- | uration pcint predictions have | arisen so have the figures on the output of motor cars from the| factories and so have the cars| themselves come to find their al- | lotted space on the streets and roads of the country, along with their older brethren which are| cheerily or wheezily, 2s the case may be, chugging along. | Resigned to Fate. | Aided by the ever-rising tide of | prosperity in the country and the | ever-falling price of motor cars and the ever-easing conditions under which machines might be bought, the cities of the country have come to be resigned to the fate of absorbing more and more automobiles every year. Wash- ington, by reason of the general caliber of its population, which is largely of the white-collar class, has taken more than its propor- tionate share of this absorption process, and in the opinion of the city’s traffic experts, who have grown weary of predictions on the saturation point, that millen- nium-like era is still as far away as ever. “It seems as though that time when the production and ultimate consumption of automobiles will balance nicely with the automobile discards and let us set down some nice hard and fast traffic rules to stand for all time will never come,” Assistant Director of Traf- fic M. O. Eldridge said yesterday. “And so,” he continued, “it is ever a changing situation we have to face—one that seldom can be anticipated and one which can present as many knotty problems for us to iron out as any problem I know of.” Mr. Eldridge was showing the figures of the Traffic Bureau for permit applications and issues for the month of April, which set a new high record for all time, but which will last as such for only about a month, with more auto- mobiles being made, bought and used on the city streets. Licenses Applied For. Last month, according to the Traffic Bureau figures, 5,008 per- sons made application for permis- sion to drive automobiles on the streets of the Capital. Permits for 3,665 of these persons were approved, and the great majority of them went out to drive their new cars about the streets and add to the already congested traffic situation. These figures show that during the month of April more than 140 persons each day ‘were added to the list of licensed drivers. The rate is maintaining a pretty | steady pace around that figure | for the entire Spring, and what | the result will be no one can accu- rately tell, the traffic experts be- | lieve. . Of the 5006 applicants 1341 were refused permits. Most of these refusals were because of in- sufficient knowledge on the part of applicants with regard to the city's traffic regulations. Ninety per cent of these will be back again in the next two or three weeks and will get their permits, and the same carry-over will be taken from May into June, and so on. Very few applicants fail en- tirely to get permits. Probably not more than 100 out of the to- tal of 5006 who applied last month will fail in their final tests. This few who will fail will not get their licenses for other reasons than that they cannot learn the regulations. There will be some very old people, some who are physically unfit for driving cars, some who simply cannot learn to operate a machine, and some whose records the Traffic Bureau fails to find satisfactory. This steady absorption of motor vehicles in the city is presenting another and a mighty large prob- GAS N. OYLE. HOW DO |\ sion for arterial flows of traffic and a myriad of other problems will come before the men who handle these matters for ironing out. Mr. Eldridge says it will be no small task. There is some balm, but slight, | in Mr. Eldridge’s permit figures. A total of 49 permits were revoked during the month for various se- rious offenses against the traffic regulations. | Eight hit-and-run drivers had | their licenses revoked. Permits were taken away from 12 persons convicted of driving cars while drunk. Speeders gave up 9 per- mits; those with generally bad ! records in traffic matters gave up | 7. Two persons using learners' | permits to drive around town | after the 10-day period had their | right to drive taken away from | them, and one revocation was re- | ported for each of the following |offenses: Physical defect, ob- pired permit. Two lost their per- mits for getting involved in traffic fatalities. April also brought an increase {in the number of deaths from traffic causes, 10 persons being | killed by automobiles in the Dis- | trict, against six for the same period last year. Autos and Radios. Development of the radio as it has been especially adapted to the automobile was demonstrated to a large number of automobile men in New York this week. The new radio for cars is mounted behind the dashboard, balanced and sprung so that all vibration from the machine is absorbed before it can reach the radio set. The aerial is a copper wire net- ting, concealed in the top of the car, and the loud speaker is mounted above the windshield. For a long vacation trip the de- vice would prove an interesting diversion, but automobile men about Washington are skeptical about its advisability for cars which are constantly used about town. They point to the opinion ex- pressed recently by Traffic Direc- tor W. H. Harland—that radios in cars would tend to take the mind of the driver off the job of pilot- ing his machine in heavy traffic and thereby cause some accidents. USED-CAR PROBLEM AS MENACE DENIED | *rramic regulation and control sys- tems in many communities need to be put on the ‘go’ basis instead of the ‘stop’ basis,” sald Alfred Reeves, gen- eral manager, National Automobile | Chamber of Commerce, at the United | States Chamber of Commerce session | on traffifc relief here last week. “There | is too much tendency to forbid instead | of finding out a satisfactory way of getting results. Progressive or ‘wave’ | lights have speeded up traffic in Chi- | cago safely. At - intersections where | traffic is not heavy, signal lights are seldom needed. Where there is heavy | crosswise traffic there should be over- passes. Uniform regulations are im- portant to the efficient movement of traffic ic. “Every city should have some one executive or commission responsible for traffic, aided in communities of 100,000 or more by the constant researches of a traffic manager. Chambers of com- merce are the most concerned in thls{ entire problem and should take active | part in it. Very often a citizens' com- | mittee on traffic can have a highly con- structive value. Parking Affects Business. “In most communities the hazards of parking have been overemphasized. Parking for a reasonable time must be permitted in most sections of any city it motor transportation is to retain its convenience and utility. The number of cars parked in a retail area at any one time may not include large por- tion of customers of stores before which they are parking, but during the day that trade is considerable. “An absolute no parking prohibition would kil retail business in most cities. Half-hour parking should be the mini- mum in most places. “City zoning should give broader per- mission for garages. The old style Stimulates Annual Market for New Machines, Automotive Sales- men Are Told. If every car owner kept his automo- bilée until its retirement from service there would be only about 12,000,000 cars in use today and annual sales would run about 2,000,000 cars a year— less than half of what the automotive industry is doing today. This statement was made by W. S. Isherwood, general sales manager of a spark plug company, in an address at a meenn'h of automotive salesmen in Flint, “These estimates are really optimistic under such an assumption,” Mr. Isher- wood said, “because very act of re- ducing production would raise the price level of cars generally, and this, in turn, would further limit sales. “The used car problem is frequently spoken of as & menace, but it is in many respects a highly construvtice force. It makes motor cars available to persons who could not afford new cars even at the lowest new car prices. This adds vitality to the industry because it in- creases the general usage of automo- biles. The used car stimulates the an- nual market for new cars through pro- viding the owner with a market for his old car. “The practice of trading in used |cars furnishes each car dealer with a wider assortment of merchandise, which broadens the range of his customer con- tacts and provides the opportunity for educating his used car customers into | new car buyers as they graduate into a higher economic buying position. “If we had only 12,000,000 cars in use it would be economically out of the question to maintain such highly de- veloped and widespread services as now lem, Assisiant Director Eldridge | exist with regard to service stations, tire says. in the Government improve- ment of the section south of | stations, gasoline distribution, etc. “Furthermore, such a drastic reduction taining permit by fraud, using ex- | /in volume would curtail time financing | operations and bring about higher | firancing charges, which would tend | toward a still further reduction in sales.” Pennsylvania avenue. Street Widening. At first glance it would seein that the widening of the streets | which will traverse the Mall tri- angle section would go a great| way toward solving some of the| traffic problems when most of the | Government’s activities are cen-| tered there. But the question now | comes up as to just how much room there is for street widening. In planning the Government development of the triangle it is agreed by all concerned that proper consideration must be made for the automobile. It is a foregone conclusion that the au- tomobile has come to Washington to stay, and they are face to face with the problem of taking care of the traffic question when it is twice as big as it is today. Basement parking space being provided for in many of the large governmental and private build- ings going up around town will go a long way toward solving %the peskiest problem of the traffic en- gineers—downtown parking. But when all the cars brought by Government workers try to get BRITISH HORSEPOWER TAX IRKS DESIGNERS It is somewhat difficult to present a correct idea of the development of the automobile in Europe, said Sir Herbert Austin, a prominent British automobile manufacturer, at a recent dinner meet- ing of the Metropolitan section of the Society of Automotive Engineers. It is a subject that irks the designers in England, who have been trying to get rid of the restrictions of the English method of automobile taxation so that they can follow America in the effort to develop foreign trade. ‘The British method of motor-car tax- ation, based on the bore of the engine cylinders, was formerly satisfactory, said Sir Herbert, but it has led to an engine design in which the stroke has been lengthened repeatedly and the bore made smaller. This introduced diffi- | culties in connection with torsional vibration of the crankshaft, small water spaces, small valves, and other pro- blems. Many of the associations which | are interested, together with manufac- turers and individual users of cars, peti- tioned the government to change the into the Mall triangle at the same time in the morning and out at the same time in the afternoon, what then? Rerouting of street cars, provi- incidence of the tax and put it on fucl. | ‘They were very successful in getting the | fuel tax imposed, but, unfortunately, Parliament forgot to take off the horse- | power tax. Rural Education Is By Network Of 40‘875 SC}IOO]. Bussesluenmre Gives Commission Power The motor bus has virtually revolu- tionized rural education and more than 1,251,000 school children depend upon 40,875 school busses for transportation 1o school every day, according to pre- liminary figures from Bus Facts, an- nual publication of the national motor bus division of the American Automo- bile Association. The A. A. A. bus division points out Revolutionized thelr doors since 1920 to be replaced | by at least 7,000 consolidated schools | which are equal to the best in the country.” At the same time, says the publica- | tion, this school transportation system | has been increased until today it is | estimated, that 360,000,000 rides are pro- vided the students at an annual cost of | well over’$27,256,738. The Southeastern srea, ,comprising that a total of 15930 schools now use | 12 States, has the largest number of busses, which cover 410,370 miles of | busses—14,199, and at the same time the Toute daily and comprise 44 per cent | greatest route mileage and the largest of the total motor busses used through- | number of schools served, 150,894 and out _the country. | 5,638, respectively. The cost of this “The motor bus has been a dominant | service in the Southeast was $7,843,896 factor in bringing about the consolida- | for the 1927-28 school year. tion of rural schools, which has result- | However, the Northeastern area. serv- ed in & much higher type of educational | ing 1,000 less schools, with a shorter center,” says Bus Facts. “Approximate- | route eage and a_smaller number of Jy 35,000 one-room fchools have closed | busses, spent $9,004,709 for the service, By THORNTON FISHER. == OH,\S THE capiToL OPEN oN MONDANS? WHERE DOES ONE 8UY (" WERE AWFULLY CURIOUS TO "J KMOW WHEN THE MONUMENT™ WAS COMPLETED- WONT You, TELLLS? ONE'S TICKETS}) tis (Why BERTRAND, WHAT IS THE MATTERS ARE YoU SO =\ PEEVISH TRAFFIG PROGRESS URGED BY REEVES Says Regulation Should Be Put on “Go” Instead of “Stop” System. | As a matter of fact, these two factors | of modern life are both vital to prog- AUTO LUBRICATION MOST VITAL Petroleum—Oiling of Car Engines Not Such a Complicated Proposition. BY H. CLIFFORD BROKAW. Automobile Technical Adviser. Some folks say this is a mechanical age. Others refer to oil as a product which affects the destinies of nations. ‘nuisance’ garages have been replaced by modern handsome buildings. “Today storage of cars is being pro- vided in many cities, such as Detroit, by parking lots at very low cost. such as the Kent Automatic Electric Garage in New York. “Broader highways, by-pass roads | and e separations are among the ultimate remedies. City planning and zoning will contribute more when mer- chants také a more definite interest. Regional Planning. “The value of a regional plan is to tie together the street programs of the va- rious suburbs and other jurisdictions in a_metropolis area. Voluntary action alone is not likely to get results. A n{lnonl organization should have both official and unofficial indorsement. In Cleveland all the official bodies have agreed to support the regional program. and it is going forward successfully. In New York the regional plan organi- zation is voluntary. Though made up of capable people, its program has gone slowly because of lack of legislative and other official systems. “To base city street program primarily on a so-called trade area basis is a mis- take. In a metropolis program it is sensible to locate the roads according/ to the most efficient pattern because trade will hold up along the line of the highways. The problem is to connect the suburbs, provide by-pass roads| arourid a congestion and tie up State highway systems. “From that point of view the question | of passes benefitting property usually has to be determined in each special circumstance. It is not wise to recom- mend a specific rule on this point.” BOULEVARD BILL AFFECTS ONLY DESIGNATED ROADS ! to Name Streets as Through Thoroughfares. Special Dispatch to The Star. BALTIMORE, May 4.—The boulevard bill passed by the recent Legislature is in effect only on roads where signs have been placed and will not be ef. fective on roads which have been desig- nated and as yet not been properly marked, according to G. Clinton Uhl, Elhnlrm.n of the State Roads Commis- | sion. | Mr. Uhl said he wished to correct the impression that the law was ef- fective as soon as the bill was passed. The measure gives the State Roads Commission and the police commission- er of Baltimore City power to name which roads or strects will be through thoroughfares, with vehicles having the right of way over vehicles entering the :x:ulevlrdl rom less traveled streets or | the tires cracked and the car will still | Large | parking garages are on the increase, | ress. For every machine has to_run with & minimum of friction. That means oil is essential. This is pre- | eminently true of the automobile. | Lubrication is one element the engine | of a motor car cannot do without. The body may be wrecked, the fenders bent, travel—if the engine has oil. | People who have small children and | anxiously note how rapidly the soles of their shoes wear thin as they go scraping their feet along the bare pave- ment can appreciate the losses which are likely to grow out of a lack of lubrication. ‘Those people who have had the misfortune, however, to slip on a plece of banana peel have had brought forcibly to their attention how lubrication facilitates one’s movements. In the case of the children there is considerable friction. In the case of the banana peel the friction is reduced to the minimum, and this is the sort of thing which happens in the auto- mobile engine when the oil is applied. If the parts of such an engine were all made perfect and fitted together properly and the engine started, with- | out lubrication there would be so much | friction that the parts would very| quickly wear out. In fact, if the engine could be started at all it would be wrecked in a short time unless lubri- cation were introduced. Not so Complicated. ‘The lubrication of the modern auto- mobile engine is not as complicated as it might appear to many drivers who have no mechanical turn o t This picture says: Change spark plugs every 10,000 miles Worn-out spark plugs cause hard starting, slow pick-up, poor idling, loss of power. ! All spark plugs deteriorate intime and need to be changed. Aftera season’s driving or 10,000 miles put in a new set of AC's. That will insure easy starting, fast pick-up, brilliant performance. See your dealer today and insist | upon AC Spark Plugs. i AC SparRk PrLuc COMPANY | Frint, Michigan © 1929, AC Spark Plug Company Distributors i Southern Wholesalers, Inc. |/ 1519-21 L St. N.W. H Decatur 180 is easily enough understood for the average person to confidently under- take to be familiar with the principles involved. This is worth while so that a driver may be able to know that the ‘S MILES MINIIMUM TO PERFORMANCE OF MACHINE| SPEED ON BRIDGE Mechanical Age Utterly Dependent on| Drivers Must Step on Gas in Crossing New' James River Structure. By the Associated Press. NORFOLK, Va.—Motorists touring | the FIRST FRONT-DRIVE AUTO " CHILD OF EX-FORD ENGINEER IModel of "Ruxton.“ Shown in Los Angeles, ‘ Claimed to Take Corners at 40 Miles an Hour. | Special Dispatch to The Star. Disadvantages in the types so far DETROIT, Mich., May 4—This week |developed are that they have been heavy there has been much taik of front-drive | to steer. Construction requires four models, following the first showing of universal joints instead of two, and this a car of this type on the Pacific Coast. | necessitates more involved front-axle |1t 1s known as the “Ruxton” and has construction, and consequently the car | been exhibited in Los Angeles. is more expensive to build. It is the product of a new company. 8 Era Motors, Inc. of New York City, and e |the design is credited to C. Harold | The question of how far airplane usc | wills, former Ford chief engineer, and | will cut into service given rgy motor William Muller, a racing driver. The | cars has brought an answer from | car is said to have been built in Phila- | prof. John S. Worley of the trans- delphia and is a straight 8 with a | portation faculty at the University of body by Budd. In Los Angeles it was | Michigan. Prof. Worley believes the sald the car had been lent to the man- | airplanes will never compete seri- agement of a department.store “for dis- | ously with the automobile for distances play purposes only.” The president of the company, A. M Andrews, New York banker, was said to be in Los Angeles to attend the show- ing. New York information was to the effect that nine persons, described as | “nationally known,” were associated in the company, for which offices had been opened at 17 East Forty-fifth street. It was sald that all the stock had been subscribed and that none would be of- | fered for public sale. | Pictures of the car show it to be | mounted on a chassis with extremely |low road clearance, within one step of |the ground. Detailed specifications | have not been issued yet. Front Drive Not New. Front drive is not new to the indus- try. Fourteen or fifteen years ago the chassis principle became known through races in which Barney Oldfield drove |the old “Christie,” and a model of this | make has until recent years been in the service of the Detroit Fire Department, }: beén( seemingly impossible to wear out. Modern progress in the front-wheel drive has been made in the annual 500~ mile races on the Indianapolis Spee way and in other speed contests on board and dirt tracks throughout the country. Its chief proponent has been Harry Miller, Los Angeles builder of racing cars, whose designs in the 91 inch displacement class have scored vic- tories in some instances, but not in‘the 500-mile event itself. For passenger car work a builder in Indiana has been developing a front- drive model, which was to have been shown_early this year, but was with- held. It is now reported that this model is scheduled for introduction later this year. Experimental models are said to be able to make road turns at 40 and 45 miles an hour. As contrasted with the conventional | passenger car type of rear-wheel drive, | the front-wheelers pull the car forward | rather than push it. Therein lies the front-drive .advantage, according to those who favor it. With the propulsion in front the car has less tendency to skid. Its ability to hold the road on sharp turns may be likened to a man crawling over a slippery surface. He can proceed with less danger of slip- ping or falling than one who walks upright. | up to 500 miles, provided cars contin | the present trend toward greate: | speeds. | Bullding speeds of 80 to 100 miles an hour into the $1,000 to $2,000 class, | Prof. Worley argues, together with | the 'development of super-roads that | will avoid congested centers of popula- | tion and link cities in a straight line, | will allow the motor car to retain an | advantage. If such a road were in existence be- | tween Detroit and Chicago, he reasons, | two travelers might start at a given moment, one going by land and the other by air, with the man in the mo- | tor car winning the race to the heart | of Chicago. | Speed Favors Auto. | . Prof. Worley bases his contention | thus: * The ideal condition of travel | calls for continuous passage from place | of departure to destination without in- terruption, with minimum lapse of | time from beginning to the end of a | trip. There also must be comfort and safety in a vehicle which can be parked almost instantly at or immedi- ately adjacent to the destination, be- sides being immediately available for | use between local points in a town or neighborhood and ready for departure to another destination 50 or more miles away. Such a vehicle must be usable under all weather conditions and must be reasonable in price, with low cost operation and repairs. Prof. Worley points out that airplane travel, as now organized, requires an average of 30 to 40 minutes to reach airports from the centers of eities. Figuring this in and allowing 100 miles an hour as the average for aircraft passenger travel, with 80 miles an hour for the cars of the future over widened roads, the plane would make the trip in the shorter time, but the choice, Prof. Worley contends, would remain with the car. Even though, as some engineers promise, future landing fields may ‘be located on the tops of buildings, plane travel would require time for the dis- tance between the passenger's home and the downtown airport, and this time could be used for travel by auto- mobile either way without pause. (Copyright, 1929. by North American News- paper Alllance.) engine is belng adequately lubricated | historic Virginia peninsula this and what is likely to be the trouble in | Summer must “step on it” when they case ' something having to do With | cross the new James River Bridge con- lubrication goes wrong. Exports of U. S. Automobile Products In the first place, the instruction book issued by the manufacturer of an | automobile which goes alang with each car that is sold gives the best instruc- necting Norfolk with Newport News. Drivers who are idle along the 5%- mile stretch of concrete bridge-roadway face arrest by officers who patrol the Increase 400 Per By the Assoclated Press. Cent in Last 6 Years tions in regard to engine lubrication. bridge on motor cycles. The “sky is the These should be studied and followed |limit.” they say, but 35 miles an hour cars produced in the United States and American shipments of automotive| 26 per cent of the truck output found carefully. These books will tell what should be done at the end of a certain number of miles. Consequently, if the owner of the car will keep track of his mileage and be sure to present his car to some rellable service station for lubrication at the proper intervals of mileage, he is likely to have no difficulty from the standpoint of engine lubri- cation. ‘The usual method of avoiding engine friction is to carry a certain amount of oil in the compartment in the bottom of the crankcase called the sump. There is a pump located in the bottom of the sump which operates whenever the en- gine is running. The oil passes through a screen into the pump, which forces it through proper pipes to the crank shaft. The crank shaft is hollow and is drilled so as to permit the oil entering it to be forced throughout its length. Thus oil under pressure is supplied to each crank shift and connecting rod bearing. (Continued on Seventh Page.) into_each bearing | is the minimum speed. | _The high minimum speed rule will be | enforced to relieve Summer traffic con- gestion, when long lines of cars seek to take the short cut across the James River at Hampton Roads. The bridge, recently completed at a cost of $7,000,- 000, was opened to traffic for the first time this season. ‘The motorist who speeds along the ribbon of concrete from Norfolk to New- | port News feels more like a navigator than a chauffeur. He is almost out of sight of land when | near the center of the 5!2-mile dge. | On foggy days the motorist can drive for miles with only water in sight. ‘The new bridge is the longest and the | straightest in the world. connecting two | sections of Virginia which abound in | historical lore. . California has the most automobiles k| in proportion to population, with one | car for every two and seven-eighths Dersons. products have increased more than 400 per cent within the last six years, opening an enormous foreign market which has made possible price reduc- tions at home and abroad. American motor manufacturers ship- ped $552,097,974 worth of their products abroad last year, export statistics as- sembled by the Department of Com- merce show. ‘This total is more than 400 per cent larger than the “tremendous business’ enjoyed by the motor industry in 1922, when $104,505,518 worth of its products were shipped abroad. ‘The export shipments last year were 29 per cent higher than 1927, when units valued at $404,699,605 were sent abroad. In 1922 manufacturers set a new high mark by exporting 66,791 units. This foreign market has grown steadily until last year's shipment was 368,328 cars valued at 416 times the record shipment of 1922. Almost 10 per cent of all passenger their ultimate destination in foreign markets throughout the world last year. ‘The average monthly export valua- tion during the year was $43,508.164, as compared with $33,724,967 in 1927. Canada received the largest share of the passenger cars produced for for- eign markets, while Australia retained l:‘uc leading position in the truck mar- et. Exports of passenger cars to Canada totaled 42,253 units with a value of $33,444,917, almost 10,000 more auto- mobiles than were sent to the Dominion in 1927. P_ Argentine increased its sales from 34,245 in 1927 to 39,734 cars, while notable increases in the imports of American automobiles by Sweden, Mex- ico, New Zealand, Japan and Frante helped to swell the grand total. Automobile freight carried by rail lines in the past year amounted to more than 3,500,000 carloads. UANIAGY thrill of a zooming fake-qfi' Rl e AIRPLANE FEEL of the NEW FRANKLIN SENSATIONAL In second gear you flash along as quietly as in high—even to 55 miles an hour. Then a short, quick shift, without a sound. But that’s just the beginning of the many delightful thrills you receive while driving the new Franklin. Try it! 2180 The One-Thirty ‘Traditional Franklin quality. S comy $2180 £, o, b, factory, High n— 2485 NEW LOW PRICES power- leat transmission. Se $2485 £, o, b. factory. r 2775 The One-Thirty-Seven 7 types—unuse- aily crmadives Newlaa. uries. S8-inch treed. Seden —$12715 L. o. b, factory. FRANKLIN MOTOR CAR CO. HARRY W. 'SALESROOM—1517 CONN. AVE. N.W. BURR SERVICE—1909 M ST. N.W. S 3