Fool-proof Car.

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 19827, 2 October 1936, Page 4

Fool-proof Car.

DOES EVERYTHING.

EXCEPT ANSWER BACK. SOME NOVEL FEATURES. The foolproof motor-ear is in Wellington. It does everything but answer back. A standard model with some inconspicuous special fittings, it looks almost like any other car, but that just shows hoAv one can never tell by appearances. Should the driver, for instance, go to sleep or perhaps faint at the wheel, the ignition is cut off, the brakes are applied, a bell begins to ring, a fan blows fresh air on the collapsed driver a*id a jet of reviving vapour is squirted into his face. Profess.or Leone C. Galli, an Italian who owns the car and who has designed the ingenious fittings which make all this possible, uses brandy as the reviving agent, but apparently that is not essential. One might use anything that is liquid, from water to champagne.

The professor’s idea is to promote road safety by eliminating the human factor from driving as much as possible. He has incorporated appliances into the ignition circuit of the car, all electrically operated, to provide for many of the contingencies which make for danger in motoring.

The most important feature is a large pad on a spring attached to the front right-hand door of the car, so that when the driver sits in the normal position his knee automatically and without discomfort depresses the spring, Avhich is made light enough to act without the necessity of conscious effort on his part.

The Pad at Work

It is when the knee is remo'ved from the pad by the driver shifting his position—perhaps by fainting or perhaps by intention —that, in the words of the children’s stories, the figure works. As soon as the pressure comes off the knee pad, the whole series of operations begins—the bell rings to warn other traffic that something is wrong ;in the vehicle and jilso to attract attention from those who may be able to give assistance, and the fan situated in the back of the car starts to whirl and circulate its stream of cooling air and the jet of brandy begins to play from the dashboard on to the face of the driver to revive him.

Thus absolute collapse of the driver automatically stops the car. A sleepy driver whose knee pressure on the pad weakens is awakened by 'he ringing of the bell and can continue on his way with all his senses alive again merely by restoring the pressure on the pod with his knee. A slow-acting driver, faced with a difficult situation, w r ould hardly need to act at all, because relaxation of the pressure on the pad stops the car. Of this ear, in fact, it is claimed that all the driver has to do is to take his knee from the pad and the whole thing stops.

His devices include another, working by synchronisation with the speedometer. Lights on the dashboard show when the speed rises above certain limits. On the roof are two signal arms operated in association with the speed lights on the dashboard. When the speed gets above 30 miles an hour the righthand one, coloured yellow, rises. When the speed is increased to o'ver 40 miles an hour the left-hand one, coloured green, rises. By this means approaching or following traffic is warned of the speed of the car.