The Automobile in 1909.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 7, 1 May 1909, Page 239

The Automobile in 1909.

If added proof were needed of the constantly increasing popularity of motoring, it would be afforded by the increasing prominence given to the automobile in most of the large English and American newspapers and magazines. In France, for the moment, the aeroplane tends to push the motor somewhat into the background; but over the Channel and over the water this tendency is not notable. Despite grumblers and alarmists, the automobile is more popular than ever in England and America, and the steadily growing vogue of light motors must tend to make it more popular still. The fact is that the great manufacturers are beginning to foster their industry on scientific lines. It is especially noteworthy .lust now that rapid progress is being made towards complete standardization and interchangeability of parts. In the average automobile for 1909, the interests of the purchaser are considered as they never have been considered hitherto. For the bringing about of this highly desirable state of things, the greatest credit must go to America. Up till now. simplicity and cheapness have often enough been dearly bought. Many of the cheap and "simple" machines have been dear at any price, and a more expensive motor has often been a more economical investment. But that time is over. Several hundred thousand American citizens now own automobiles. They have become familiar with their machines, expert in matters relative to the requirements of the motorist. Their demand is for simplicity and cheapness — with reliability. That is the demand the great American manufacturers have to meet. They are meeting it. Really excellent motors are now offered at prices undreamt of two or three years ago. More than half of the cars shown at recent big exhibitions have been listed at £300 and less ; many of them at very much less. The typical moderate-priced machine in the United States is driven by a fourcylinder engine of from 20 to 30 horsepower, and weighs from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds. Tires are 3y 2 inches on the front and 4 inches on the rear wheels ; 34 inches in diameter; wheel-base from 100 to 11.5 inches. Magneto ignition, with battery ignition in reserve; water cooled cylinders; forced feed lubrication ; direct shaft drive, with three speeds ahead and one reverse; sliding gear transmission; pressed-steel riveted frame; good leather-covered cone clutch; seating capacity for four people. This is an excellent specification for a cheap auto , and this is what the American motorists are demanding and getting.

The latest machines of this type are notable for the change in the chassis. Manufacturers are using the drop frame, thus bringing the frame and gear nearer the ground, with the advantage of reducing the angle in the driving shaft at the universal joint. It is likely that the use of the fullell;ptie spring will become the standard practice of the future. The appearance of the car-bodies is being greath improved: greater simplicity, more refinement. The b'-cylmder engine has not fulfilled its earlier promise of popularity. It reduces vibration, and is preferable for hilly work ; but the public prefers the 4-cylinder type, and in the ultimate result the public rules. Roller-bearings are pushing out ball bearings, especial]y for the front wheels. The belt-drive for fans is being abandoned m favour of the gear-drive. " The most marked tendency in engines is towards the lengthening of the stroke. There is much to be said in favour of th ; s tendency. It reduces shock and vibration, saves wear, and makes possible a general reduction of weight. In the motorist's interest, reduction of weight is a great thing. It prolongs the life of the machine, and keeps down running expenses. The ponderous machine of excessively high power is disappearing. During the past year, light cars of moderate power have covered long distance courses at speeds little below those of the most powerful racing machines. A few miles extra speed in a day (with its accompaniment of greatly increased expense) is of absolutely no benefit to the average motorist. Any good, light machine will go at a higher speed on roads than the authorities will permit. The decrease in weight has produced a great increase in the duration of tires Probably for that reason, there have been no special novelt ; es in tyres introduced during this last year or so. The sliding-gear transmission, with three speeds ahead and one reverse, continues to be the prevailing type, although the friction disc transmission is also exhibited and is attracting attention. Mention should be made m this connection of the hydraulic drive, for in this ingenious device is found the most striking and radical departure of the year from the commonly accepted standard practice. Although it is at present adapted mainly for heavy and relatively slow-moving vehicles, it possesses corresponding ridvantages in its application to high-speed vehicles, for which its great flexibility, absence of shock, and minimum amount of wear, give promise of ultimate popularity The cone clutch still remains the most popular. Some of the finest mechanical work on the automobile i«? yhown in the live rear axle construction, which is generally of the

floating type. Great attention has been paid to the housings, which have been made more rigid. In some cases, they have been made in two pressed steel, coned halves, with the resulting advantages of complete inclosure of the parts and unusual rigidity. The direct shaft drive is almost universal m the standard American machine. Much attention has been given to the improvement of the brakes, the tendency being to lessen the number of brakes on a car and improve their quality. Some vehicles show two sets on the rear wheels and others one set. The diameter of the drum has been increased, and the faces have been widened, with the resulting advantage of greater power and longer life in service. Asbestos and cork are being largely introduced, although many machines still adhere to the straight metal contact. Unquestionably, the low-price car, costing less than £200, has come to stay. If we include the comparatively new and in-creasingly-popular buggy type of machine, it is safe to say that a large proportion of the space at recent American exhibitions was taken up by automobiles of this class, costing from £100 to £190. The £100 machines are, of course, of plain appearance. They are driven generally by 2cylinder engines, of the opposed horizontal type. But perhaps the "biggest show for the money was presented by the runabouts costing from £160 to £200. These machines contain all the essential elements of the elaborate, high-powered, high-priced machines, since they embody pressed-steel frames, -A-cy Under, water-cooled engines, magneto ignition, direct shaft drive, etc. Moreover, the record of the past year shows that, because of their light weight, they are remarkably economical in fuel and particularly in repairs to tires. One of the finest sections of the Grand Central Palace exhibition was that devoted to heavy commercial vehicles, such as trucks and drays, delivery vans and waggons, buses and sight-seeing cars. The character of the work, both in the chassis, driving mechanism, and bodies was fully up to that of the high-class automobiles. The comprehensive character of this section is shown by the fact that one western firm alone had eight separate exhibits, including a iy 2 ton chassis, a 1 1 /} ton truck, a 12-pas-senger Pullman, a 1 ton wire-work delivery truck, a 16-passenger sight-seeing car, a 5-ton chassis, an ambulance car, and a delivery van which covered 2000 miles in the Glidden tour without making any adjustment. The best manufacturers of to-day make a point of accurately duplicating parts. The utmost precision is observed in casting, forging, boring, grinding, and threading to exact standards, so that a gear will operate as well in one set as in another, and valves

and their steins and operating camshafts will fit in any one of a thousand different engines of the same size and design. All this, of course, is greatly to the advantage of the purchaser. The standardization of certain parts and fittings began more than live years ago. Various big manufacturers agreed as to standards in tyre-lugs, rims, lamp-brackets, and various other particulars. This work has been carried on since 1904 by the oldest and most reputable of the American motorcar builders. Among the important results obtained have been the adoption of standards for screws and nuts, reducing the former multiplicity of sizes and threads te a minimum, based on the United States standard, to which carriage bolts conform. Since every hardware store and machine and carriage shop carries carriage bolts in stock, the man whose car is built to conform to this standard has no trouble in replacing a lost or broken bolt wherever he may be. The spark plug has also just recently been standardized, and the engines of some thirty or more prominent makes of motor cars will hereafter be bored and threaded to receive plugs of y§ inch diameter, with straight thread of eighteen pitch. S tee's and other metals purchased as raw materials must now conform to certain chemical and physical standards; and as these standards are very high, the user of a machine built from such metals is assured of a high factor of safety, provided the design is good throughout. In the long run, standardization and iuterchangeability of parts will have the effect of giving us a higher grade of motor car at a lower price, but this is dependent in considerable degree upon the production of one model in great numbers and the elimination of extensive annual changes in design that necessitate the making of costly jigs, gages, and special machinery. Meantime, nothing retards the progress of the automobile industry. Despite the financial depression in America, the demand for automobiles increased steadily. Business done in 1903 amounted to less than eight million dollars; in 1907 it was well over a hundred millions. There is over two hundred millions of capital invested, and the industry gives constant employment to 110,000 people. This is in the United States alone. In that country there are over 250 firms manufacturing automobiles, and during 1908 these firms sold over 52,000 cars. Over 320,000 ears are now in use in the various states ; 64,500 in the State of New York alone. It will give a better idea of the magnitude of the industry when we point out that in California, with a comparatively small population, 19,375 cars are registered. If ears were owned in any such proportion iv New Zealand, there would ho an enormous growth of the motor industry And this same movement in the direction of light ears, of moderate price and power, must have its effect in New Zealand. The demand for the lighter and cheaper vehicle is proportionately as great in England as in America. The motor-car indeed, is steadily being brought within the reach of all reasonably comfortable households. Anyone even slightly familiar with the properties of iron and stcol, knows that a steel casting which when new appears to be as strong as a forging, and which makes as good a showing under ordinary tests, nevertheless weakens and becomes brittle when subjected to repeated vibration and

shocks. So well is the phenomenon of "fatigue" now recognised that steel eastings are used nowhere in any but the cheaper and lowest-powered automobiles, and even in them rarely save for parts not subjected to shock. In 1901 automobile constructors thought ihat they had done their whole duty if they used steel forgings instead of castings. To-day we know better. There are more kinds of steel than there are kinds of cigars. Any kind of steel is good for something — if it be only for ballast — but not many kinds are good enough for the severe conditions of automobile usage. The proportionate difference that exists between castings and forgings is found also between forgings of ordinary steel and forgings of some high-grade alloy steels. A shaft of common machinery steel, which if pulled asunder in a testing machine would stretch a fifth, or a quarter of its length before letting go, if used in an automobile transmission or axle will in time crystallise and break, wth a brittle pipe-stem fracture, under stresses which, when it was new, would not even have "sprung" it. So it has come to pass that nickel steel, chromenickel steel, and chrome-vanadium steel have ousted the ordinary variety for all the more important parts of the best automobiles. All of these steels are much stronger than the ordinary simple steels, and possess in varying degree the property of resistance to the abnormal shocks of accident. Later investigation, however, has proved that these stronger and shock-resisting compound steels must be rigidly classified, as not only is it very important that the steel for such purposes should be strong and should resist a simple shock, but also that it should resist in the highest degree possible the development of that potential brittleness which is induced in all steels by prolonged subjection to repeated shock and impacts. In this respect vanadium steels have shown superiority to all others, at least as far as laboratory tests can demonstrate. The ordinary nickel steel, unless properly heat treated, unfortunately possesses the power of developing this potential brittleness almost as fast as the ordinary carbon steels that have been used in the past, hence its demonstrated superiority does not show up as great as simple physical tests would lead us to suppose. Abnormal shock due to accident may wreck the car, but it will be by twisting and bending, rarefy indeed by direct fracture. The effect of collision at high speed is to crumple the framework, springs, and axles like paper; but if the wreck is not too complete they can be heated and straightened as if nothing had happened. The force required to bend such steel is almost unbelievable to one who has known only the common prudes Even transmission gears, hard .nul relatively brittle though they are, can hardly be broken with a sledge hammer. The same betterment has affected every vital part of the modern automobile. Gears that used to be made of bronze or soft steel are now made of alloy steel. Instead of axles which rarely outlasted the shortest-lived car, we now find J-beam forgings which survive ditchings and upsets, the blows of cross gullies seen too late and taken at high speed — 'anything indeed, which the passengers themselves may reasonably hope to survive without injury. With the occasional exception of the crankshaft, which still resists the efforts of builders to make it entirely unbreakable, because it is subject to a great many other con-

siderations than its component metal, there is hardly a part of the modern automobile which, given proper design and workmanship, can be excused for failing in service or legitimately wearing out. To the man who buys a high-grade car of current model, these facts convey merely the comforting reflection that he is getting good value for his money, and that there is a substantial reason for the seemingly high price of a good machine. But to him who purchases a second-hand car which has seen two or three seasons' use they mean something more important. So recent has been the general adoption and intelligent treatment of alloy steels, that the car is very likely to develop breakages quite unknown to its younger days. Every motorist has known ears which, while of good design generally, had certain parts which persisted in giving trouble. In such a case it is a mistake to get rid of the car as useless, since almost invariably the offending parts can be corrected at much less expense than would be involved in the sacrifice of the car. If a part works loose, it is because of poor design or fitting. If it breaks, the remedy may be found in substituting a new part of stronger material, if it is inconvenient to increase the dimensions. When a rubbing part wears out quickly the chances are that it is insufficiently lubricated or imperfectly protected from dirt. At present automobiles wear out at a great many points — slowly at some, rapidly at a few. But means are constantly being found to reduce the wear, and to render the parts easy of repair or replacement when worn. More than that, the multitudinous small joints and bearings, whose replacement is difficult and whose life is apt to fix the useful life of the car, are by degrees being made virtually non-wearing. What wear occurs is limited more and more to the essential elements of motor and transmission, and renewal of these keeps the car in practically new condition. A few years from now we shall have cars which run almost indefinitely with only periodic overhauMng and ordinal daily filling and cleming.