Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 38, Number 161, 15 May 1913 — Page 14

PAGE FOUK

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1913

SELF-STARTERS ARE VERY POPULAR HOW This New Automobile Device Forms a Topic For General Discussion.

Self-starters form the keynote of automobile talk of 1913. In the garage, among auto men and everywhere that the automobile has influence the bone of contention ' throughout the present season has been nothing more or less than selfstarters. Sixty per cent of the American pleasure care for 1913, according to a re- " liable estimate, are equipped with this latest of late motor car accessories. They are not all electric far be it from that; nor are they all the cheaper "gas" priming types. But they are of some type consummate with the selling price of the carof which they are a part. As the reliability of the self-starter as It now stands becomes better and better known the number of

manufacturers installing them upon their cars being greater year by year. Two years hence, one prominent motor car manufacturer said recently, a car not equipped with self-starter will be unsalable." At the motor car shows this season fully forty per cent, or almost half of the cars shown were equipped with the self-starter. The majority of these were of some form of the electrical starting devices, and the others were of the "gas" types. Next year, local dealers predict, the majority of cars driven In Richmond will be crankless. First Starters Impractical. It has only been in the last two seasons that the self-starter has ever been considered seriously by the American auto manufacturer. Perhaps this due In a great degree to the non-efficiency of the majority of the starters on the market up until the time that they first came Into extensive use. In the majority they consisted in the main of inefficient spring devices or belts designed to turn the motor over, and which incurred nearly as much work as cranking the motor by the ordinary method. The Wlnton, it is true, has had the air starter since 1906, but the form of starter used was so rigidly surrounded by patents that the other manufacturers did not have a look in. But in the 1912 models the selfstarter came into real and extensive use. Electrical engineers recognizing the growing need for the adoption of turned their energy toward devising turned their energy toward devising an efficient generator which would not only start the motor but would also supply power for the electric light and for the ignition systems. They worked upon this principle for years and finally last year perfected it to a point where the resultant devices were adopted by prominent motor car manufacturers. Meanwhile, the development had been going forward in another line. The Presto-Lite company of Indianapolis, and other firms had discovered the "carbon gas," let Into the cylinders and then exploded would start the motor. They developed this to a high grade of efficiency to a point where as started motors will start on first trial a thousand times In succession and have further developed it until it stands in the very front ranks of efficient starting systems. In the meantime Inventors have been busy developing the starter along the old . impractical spring and belt mejthods and were getting nowhere. Electric Starter Efficient. That the electric starter within several years will be the eventful type of automobile starter is the opinion of those who have watched closely the tread of the motor starters and their actual operation during this season. The single motor generator which by means of gearing to the fly-wheel starts the motor and when that is accomplished Immediately starts generating current tor storage In a storage battery from which point the ignition and electric lighting Is drawn, Is the most favored of the electric starters. There is, In addition to this form, the unit system in which the motor starter, the generator and magneto are separate and distinct units. There are various adaptations of these two systems but they all follow the same general plan. Another type is that in YOUNG MANAGER OP .. EAST MAIN GARAGE

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Robert Draver, manager of the Quaker City garage, is in the automobile repair business. This is a firm of mechanics. R. Draver is patentee of a gasoline engine which is giving the best of service. It is In general use on a number of farms, and in a number of garages for pumping tires. E. R. Draver has a number of patents on flour milling machinery. He is manufacturing all of these now in the Qua-

Death of the Pack Mule

"The day of the pack, mule as a means of army transport- In difficult country is 'over," remarked an engineering officer of the Ohio National Guard who had just been relieved from flood duty at Dayton, Ohio. "The work of the light cars of the Westcott Motor Car company's flying squadron during the worst periods of the flood, when bridges were out, roads Just quagmires and streams swollen and treacherous, conclusively proved to me that small but powerful and compactly built machines were the Ideal means of army transportation. 1 know now they can go any place a mule can. The heavy motor trucks could not be used when Dayton needed relief worst but that fleet of Westcott test cars with their powerful engines waded fifty miles from Richmond, Indiana into West Dayton, overcoming the worst obstacles the human mind can imagine. How they did it, with all bridges washed away and the roads oceans of mud, I cannot tell you, but they did it." Richmond, where the Westcott factory is located, was the center of relief work for Dayton and Hamilton

during the Miami JTalley floods and the first supplies, gotten into Dayton after the breaking of the levee came from "Richmond. The railroad and traction line between the two cities were paralized by bridge and track washouts and the ' relief committee realized that the only possible way to get food and clothing to the starving, euffering people of Dayton was by employing test cars to carry the suppiles. Even expert automobile men shook their heads at this suggestion but Superintendent Erman Smith of the Westcott factory organized his now famous flying squadron and within a day after the breaking of the levee had his cars in the outskirts of the inundated city. From that time on seme of the cars were kept busy transporting supplies from Richmond to Dayton, while others were used by the Dayton relief committee in that city, taking food and clothing to the various relief stations, and not one car broke down under the unusual strain it was subjected to. Richmond and the Westcott Motor Car company have won warm places in the affections of all Dayton people.

which the flywheel acts as the armature of the starting motor, as in the case of the U. S. L. starter. This latter method of electric starting has been adopted by the larger models of the Studebaker line to be found at the local show. Among those starting systems using the two former methods of starting are the "Delco" and the "Gray and Davis," two of the leading electric starters in use on 1913 cars. "The Westinghouse," system is one which was only "brought out" a few weeks ago, but which is expected to have a large place in the 1914 models. It follows the same general lines of the "Gray and Davis" system. The "gas" starter is not without its devotees. Several of the cars at this year's .local show will be equipped with this starting system, it is said. Advances Rapid. Last year the electric starters and

lighting systems were to be found on only one or two cars at the Marion

show. There were no electric systems but one and it wa3 developed to a

comparatively low standard of effi

ciency. But this year the Marion Au

tomobile show will see electric start

ers that seldom if ever fail to start on

first trial, and "gas" starters that are

equally efficient, it is said There has

been great progress in the develop

ment of the starting and lighting sys

tems during the 1913 season and there

is expected to be even greater progress during the coming season, as manufacturers learn the faults of their

systems and correct them.

AN ELUSIVE LAKE ,

Queer Antics of an Erratic Body of Water In Switzerland. In the canton of Valais, In Switzerland, at the foot of the great Aletsch glacier, lies a small body of water, Lake Marjelen, of. which the Journal Bes Voyages reports a strange fact. At irregular intervals every three or four years Lake Marjelen completely and suddenly disappears. The phenomenon always occurs during the last days of August. Without warning the lake empties itself, and the great quantity of water that it contained disappears through fissures In the rocks to swell the waters of the river Rhone. So rapidly does the lake empty itself that the water level of the Rhone rises several meters in a few hours, and the valley Is flooded. An old custom grants a new pair of shoes to the first peasant who comes to announce the disappearance of the lake to the inhabitants of the valley. AH the autumn, after the disappearance of the waters, the basin of Lake Marjelen remains dry, but during the following winter and spring it gradually fills again. Scientific men believe that the phenomenon is caused in some way by the neighboring glacier. Little by little the melting ice raises the level of the lake until at the end of three or four years the accumulated water exerts such an enormous pressure upon the sides and bottom of the lake that the basin gradually becomes as porous as a sponge. At some point or other the water begins to escape. Then it flows more rapidly until at last it

pours through the fissures on every

CONCENTRATION.

Do Only One Thing at a Time, but Do That One Thing Well. The man who makes good Is the man who can shut out of his mind all but one thing. An unsuccessful principal of a school once said that every teacher ought to be able to do three things at once. Of course he was wrong. The teacher who does one thing at a time and does it well is giving the pupil the best possible object lesson in concentration. We h.ive to learn to think clearly amid distracting noises, to go forward on a straight and narrow way without diversions and excursions that waste our time and our substance and to keep at work regardless of the "tired" feeling, the "spring" feeling and whether the fishing is good or not. When the soft breeze comes in at the window we must stiffen the moral fiber against Its allurement. We must pin our attention firmly to the turgid and dry geometry of a legal brief or the serried figures of the daybook or the busy system of a mercantile establishment and let every otber thought await its turn at the end of office hours. , You may have heard a great lawyer In action in a crowded courtroom. What was the secret f his power? It was that he would not let the jury's attention or the witness" tongue wander from the relevant facts. He kept insistently to the straight line that is the shortest distance from point to point He curtly dismissed all that was superfluous, immaterial and cal-

WELL KNOWN AS A RACE CAR DRIVER

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CLIFF BEVINGTON A Richmond automobile man who has an automobile repair room and paint shop between North Eighth and Ninth streets. Mr. Bevington is experienced in the auto business, having been actively engaged in it for the last nine years. He was formerly in business in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Bevington has driven cars through the Glldden Tour acknowledged by experts to be the severest endurance test of all times.

GLEAM OF THE EMERALD. fta Brilliant Green Light Has No Rival on Land or Sea. "Interesting," said a gem expert, "Is the word that most persons apply to an emerald. There is only one other jewel which shares this quality, and that is the opal, which at its best has also green lights, although, of course, they are entirely different from those of an emerald. The reason that makes an emerald Interesting1 apart from its beauty and value is the same that makes the woman with green eyes the most interesting of her sex. It's a light that never was on land or sea; it's a brilliant gleam that gives the accent to any sort of costume and any sort of complexion. It isn't like a sad green or a so called 'artistic green.' The emerald is the soul of life, light and beauty." The emerald has the advantage ol being one of the most becoming of gems. Light haired beauties claim it for their own, for they declare that nothing else, not even the sapphire, accentuates their delicate fairness so effectively. Brunettes are adorable in emeralds, especially the brunette'with brilliant coloring. Strangely enough, blue eyes, instead of being dimmed by the Jewel, gather fire and depth from its close neighborhood. They take on a delectable green blue gleam and seem much larger than when the emeralds are not near. As for the auburn haired beauty, it is her stone pax excellence.

Japan Imported wheat and flour, to the amount of $3,000,000 in value, from this country in 1912.

THE MAN WHO SELLS FORD CARS

ker City garage, 1518 Main street, cujated to blur the salient outlines of which place he purchased about a year the matter in controversy. Philadelago. ! phia Ledger.

FRED BETHARD Mr. Bethard, the Ford agent for Richmond and vicinity, has broken all records in the selling of automobiles. He is also agent for the Oakland. As an automobile salesman, Mr Bethard has made an enviable success.

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A STUDY of the deep sturdy sharp edges, angles and Hollows formed by tHc name N-O-N-S-K-I-D, will show yotx elearly why Firestone Non-Slcids should he on your car But, there's far more hack, of this tread than the tread itself would indicate The Firestone user knows and will tell you

(t avoiding of skid or slip; soreness, iS3CVUIiriny rejHltine from rimS on tire, that firmly grip the road that's the feeling of the Firestone user. It makes no difference in what direction a skid may start, the "nametread" presents a holding edge, angle and hollow. And what is more the sturdy body of the tire itself gives security against tread separation, blow-out or tear.

care-free reliance on tire and car is the very

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heart of motoring pleasure. To the Firestone user, Non-Skid Tires mean more than confidence against skid. Back of it all is a confidence in the supreme material and workmanship which they know are built into the tires, which make any kind of mishap impossible. A confidence in the builder himself, who has put his acknowledged tire-building mastery into them, and his name on them. r7 C JL the resiliency, the give and take n mniif ru o( h,, rough g0mg, the ab,orb. ing of jolt, the cushioning of shock is another joy of the man whose car is equipped with these extra thick tires. The Non-Skid tread, being built up on the regular body, increases the resiliency of the air. The extra resiliency of the tread makes the skid-prevention unnoticeable. No side jar or jolt is felt

TIT ---B. of car up-keep, economy of li!(BDiniDinniy ga40hne, economy of longest tire and car service, all are Firestone Non-Skid accomplishments. Economy of car up-keep by means of the extra thick, cushioning, carprotecting tread, which prevents shocks of travel injuring mechanism. Economy of gasoline, by the extra traction afforded. Wheels cannot slip or spin, every ounce of engine power is used in driving the car ahead. Economy of longest tire service by means of extra thick, tough, resilient tread.

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