Is it Safe to Buy?

Progress, Volume I, Issue 5, 1 March 1906, Page 106

Is it Safe to Buy ?

Many believe that ere long some startling improvements may be introduced that will render the car of to-day obsolete. Anyhow, they affirm, a great drop in values will be experienced. Such opinions, however, are utterly fallacious. So satisfactory a stage of development in the motor car has been reached that sudden changes in construe-

tion cannot be expected. Generally the building of cars is now proceeding on well-recognised lines. Only after prolonged experiments are suggested improvements accepted, and their adoption in vehicles is gradual. In fact, at no stage of automobile history has a sudden depreciation m values been experienced, and it is the remotest of possibilities to-day.

Not for a moment, however, must it be imagined that a stage of finality has been reached ; nothing of the kind. But prospective purchasers can banish all fears that a car will ever be rendered out of date before it is many months old by some unexpected and drastic change. There is no reason to doubt that the development of the car is now proceeding on thoroughly sound principles. With modern cars the trials which so frequently beset the unlucky motorist of three or four years ago seldom occur.

One reason for this immunity from trouble is that makers generally have now thoroughly mastered the art of balancing the motor, the benefits of which are most to be noticed in the four-cylinder type. The net result has given a steady- running and flexible engine, which only requires a properly graded carburetter to ensure its working as responsively to the throttle as a steam engine. Another cause of trouble — ignition faults — has been well-nigh removed by the perfecting of many minor details in the electrical outfit which in the early days were of inferior make, and not warranted to stand vibration or rough usage. The perfected system now adopted for insulating the wires is one very pertinent to the success of modern ignition. Great strides, too, have also been made in another important item of the electrical outfit — the commutator. Improved carburetters, cam, and cam shafts, and a better selection of material for special purposes have contributed their share to the common end of the designer — a reliable and durable machine. Development is also taking place in the clutch and the sliding change-speed gear, but the process of evolution is necessarily slow. Perfection or finality has not been reached, but will, if ever, only be attained by a gradual and natural development.

Quite an up-to-date workshop is to be seen at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne. It is presided over byMr. W. Osborne, who is ever on the lookout for novelties. These are keenly appreciated by Mr. Bland Holt, who is a keen advocate of them. An original conception whereby a stage effect is improved, or has eliminated from it the element of chance, finds instant favour with the lessee of the Royal.

An ill-conditioned farmer with a team of walking horses on a narrow road had prevented a motorist

from passing him over a space of five or six miles. At last the farmer let the car by. But this promptly stopped short in front of the waggon. To the farmer's shouts to get out of the way the motorist politely said " Sorry not to oblige you, the car has broken down." The farmer swore a half hour and perspired another half hour to remove the obstacle m front of his horses. When the motorist thought the yokel sufficiently punished he released his brakes and soon sped out of sight.