Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1909 — WHAT THE MECHANICIAN DOES. [ARTICLE]

WHAT THE MECHANICIAN DOES.

A dirty, grimy individual climbed out of one of the racing cars at the automobile contests after having ridden for hours at the rate of a mile a minute. He picked up a newspaper and sat down to read it. Presently he folded it up and rose with the remark: “They never mention the mechanician, do they?” The public hears much of the drivers, with nerves of steel, etc., but it is only on rare occasions that the doings of the mechanician are recorded. A few were heard from last week but it was only because their names were on the death roll. Their risks are just as great as those of the driver, their duties just as strenuous and their pay one-tenth as large. The mechanician is the man who sits beside the driver of the racing car, keeps an eye on the gasoline

and water, supplies, manipulates the oil pump, advises his driver of the positions of rivals, watches the track, notes the wear on the tires, makes such changes as are needed while the car is running, and does a hundred and two other things that count. He is the fellow that leans far to the inside to reduce the resistance from the wind and to make his weight figure in maintaining the car’s equilibrium while he uses hands and feet, eyes and ears. The mechanician risks his life sixty times to the minute in the big races, and must have just as much nerve and daring as the driver. The driver with almost superhuman skill and endurance holds the wheel that guides the machine and the mechanician keeps the car in condition to respond to the wheel. Their positions relatively resemble those of engineer and fireman on a steam engine. The driver gets the glory, but the mechanician keeps the car alive- The auto racing people make it a point to advertise the fabulous salaries paid to their dare-devil drivers, but rarely mention those paid to the mechanicians. One mechanician in th,e recent speedway race meeting worked in eleven races, Including all three of the long-distance races. Twice he finished first and once he was second. But to do this the overworked machine had to be almost held together with human muscle. There were tires to changes and oil, gasoline and water supplies to be secured. In one race the bolts on the gasoline tank had loosened to such an extent that it was necessary for the mechanician to lean over and hold the tank on with his left hand for sixty miles while the ground shot by at the rate of hundred feet to the second. He lived through it all to receive as his reward the sum of s3o.—lndianapolis News.