Los Angeles herald., 1906-02-12
ELECTRICS FIND
POPULAR FAVOR
NolSELESS CARS APPEAL TO
WOMEN
Aluminium Bodies Experimental With
to Reduce Weight of Machines.
New Signal Device Sounds
Like CaIIiope

Electricity, by common consent, is at
present the least available of the three
modes of propulsion for rough-and-
ready purposes. But the electric
vehicle holds place of it's own in
which it has and can have no competi-
ton. 1t is the dainty, noiseless, odor-
less car for light city use on good roads,
where charging stations are numerous.
Safe, simple, clean and easy of control,
it appeals to women for calling, shop
ping and boulevard and park driving.
For long distance runs and rough
work over bad roads in bad weather,
the electric vehicle is not claimed, even
by it's makers, to be the best. But 1t is
significant that many unprecedented au-
tomobile experts believe that electricity
ultimately will take first place for all
uses. One writer terms it the dark
horse of traction" Its peculiar place
in the auto world at present is indi-
Gated by the fact that men who MAIN
tain more than one machine usually
have an electric vehicle in the collec-
ton for the uses pointed out.
Having accepted gasoline, steam and
electricity as the motive powers, the
makers have devoted recent efforts to
perfecting the methods of generating
and applying these powers. Their eff
forts have followed the lines leading
to simplicity of construction, operation
and control. The automobile makers
believe that the general lines on which
cars now are being made are to be the
permanent lines and that from now on
1t is q question of increasing the SIM
plicity reliability, speed and power and
at the same time decreasing the cost.
In order to decrease the weight of
the automobile there has been much
experimenting during the winter with
aluminium bodies and the results have
been so satisfactory that several
makers have adopted the aluminium
body. This effort to reduce the weight
in parts which do not contribute to
power or speed has been the outgrowth
of the desire to increase power and
speed without increasing the total
weight of the machine. For, talk as
much as they may about the gradual
depreciation OF the speed element in
autoinG, the agent will tell you that
few people buy automobiles to whom
speed is not prime consideration. The
buyer may be staid gentleman Of
business, totally without the scorching
instinct. but when he buys an auto he
wants one in which he knows he can
travel at a prodiglously rapid rate "lf
he wants to-" Therefore the makers
are still seeking speed.
Will the Price Come Down?
If there is one question which is
being asked more than any other at the
auto show 1t is this:
"WilI the price Of the automobile ever
be down to the point where we, who
cannot afford the original outlay and
current cost of maintenance of auto
mobiles at present, can afford to own
one? If So when is that happy time
to be?"
Like a good many other questions
that the Outside" public is asking,
the question is not easy to answer.
Your automobile salesman does not
dare allow himself to be too enthus-
iastic over any material reduction in
the cost of autos in the near future,
for to do so would be to place pre-
MUM on delay In buying. And be-
sides, he could not answer the question
IL he wanted to.
TO the man, and even more to the
woman. who never tried to operate a
motor car the seeming multiplicity of
levers wheels and cranlSs is forbidding,
and the statesmen have found it one Of
their hardest tasks TO convince the