Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1913 — HAS COWCATCHER FOR AUTOS [ARTICLE]

HAS COWCATCHER FOR AUTOS

Instead of Catching Animals It Rescues Persons While Traveling at High Speed. London. —An Inventive genius has been giving demonstrations in Regent’s park with a contrivance, fitted to the front of an automobile, which appears to be an elaboration of the cowcatcher on locomotives, but with the essential difference that it is intended to safeguard the unwary pedestrian, no matter if he happens to get in the way of a car traveling at 20 miles an hour, a The apparatus consists of a bar between the front wheels, covering the entire front of the car, and as soon as this strikes a pedestrian it springs back and a scissors shaped jaw grasps the person struck, under the knees, forces him to sit down in a net, and holds him until released. A member of the Motor club thus describes what he saw of the test: "I was walking along the path with a chauffeur, when the man suddenly left me and started to run across the road. A short distance away a motor car was coming along the road at a speed of at least 20 miles an hour. The car dashed straight into the man, but, instead of knocking him senseless, picked him up and carried him ten or fifteen yards until the car stopped. I ran forward, and when I reached the man he was sitting in the apparatus laughing, without a single scratch. “The only persons near, besides those interested in the demonstration, were two women, who screamed when they saw the man hit. Their surprise when they saw him released from the automatic fender and laughing at the incident may be imagined.”