The San Francisco call., 1909-03-14
Fast lime BY Motor Car on Roads around Bay
STEARNS CARS TO
Be CONTFNDERS
Reliance Auto Company VIII
Enter Machines in All
Contests

ne stearns cars viii be a factor in
the automobile contests this season
Charles Suoles. the eSpert driver r.ao
handles the Stearns. with Barney Old
Ie-u mas LETT the factory headed for tt,e
coast He comes west as the lnerbsnfs
cal expert OF the company for an Of
tne coast, and while not keeping track
ol the cars viii spend his time driv-
lns the Suearns in ali kinds of events
lhis VIII mean that he viii drive from,
san Diego 10 the end Of Washington
and as far east as Denver.
AAe Reliance automobile company re-
port the sale OF a 5000 horsepower
TOY tonneau TO a. n. Loclridee. the
American representative of the Krppp
gun works This was one Of the hard
est sales made by the company. as
Lockridge is familiar with steels and
demanded thorough test Of the metals
used in The Stearns.
The sale was not made until after
ne had investigated many other makes
Ever since motor cars have been
shipped 10 the north Pacific ceast. par
ticulariy II II
sbovt-ircr,,r5 Portland, owners
the Batteries continuonss OF ss' tro9b- tTe,ufu
age batteries. These would run down
and become practically useless. some
Lnles when the car had not been
oilNen more than $50 miles So seri-
Gus ola the matter become at one time
mat several COmpanfss adopted the eN-
northern Pacific coast points without
natterles and having them supplied on
~ alltta- OF the Shipment at its des-
-aALel- battefA experts ana motor
car experts tried without success TO
determine the cause of this rapid de-
lerOraton. In the meantime mag
r1n
used altogether as a source of ignition.
recently representative of the
l-lelce-ArroW motor car company OF
b4ualO was In Portland and deter
mined 70 have a try at the problem
l1e spent several hours ia STUDYING
proba bic causes. but did not come near
a solution until one afternoon when he
was walking along a new street, and
noNcep little girl playing IN the
sand Size had small magnet. and
when she placed this near the surface
of the sand pile number Of the grains
would adhere. The Pierce-ArroW man
Immediately equipped himself with
the sand and dust that had sifted IN
on the top Of the batteries. A few ex-
perlmenIs were ali that We're neces-
rarA 10 snow lim that il contained a
nigh percentage Of iron sufficient TO
establish a short circuit between the
poles Not only that, but the fine sand
ma eost nstd made us way into the
acie solution and lmpregnatec It to
such an extent as TO render the best
storage batteries useless after they
had been IN commission but a short
tlnle- A remedy was soon found for
this. and ir is probable that owners
along the northern Pacific coast who
have had trouble since the earliest
days Of motoring viii now be able 10
secure as much service from their
batteries as motorists IN localities
where sand is just plain sand
NOTES or THE AUTO
The Pioneer automobile company re-
ports the following sales: r. A Pierce, !
Don MaTinO Sacramento, Chalmers-De-
rroit touring cars. r. A Smithson :
Fresno. Chalmers-D Detroit; 3 n Phil
lips. Sacramento. OldsmObile; Joseph
Duncan. Oakland, Thomas; r. II. vii
son, 4reka. Thomas. and James Pres
tier mers-Detroit Another large
shipment Of Thomas cars was re-
ceiNed yesterday by the company. The
lot consisted OF seven OF the famous
$50 touring cars and runabOUts and
four OF the New York 10 Paris type
touring cars.
A Pullman automobile was sold a few
DAYS ago by the Prank o. RenstrOm
company, 20 c @. +. Erbs Of Tehana
county. Delivery viii be made within
q few days Erbs while in the east
recently. visited the automobile show
tn New York and was so much i'm
pressed with the Pullman that he de-
ciQed 10 purchase one Of these ma
chimes as soon as he returned to Cali
fornia- ErDs VIII remain in San Fran
cisco for a short time. as he states that
on account Of the heavy storms we
have had during the last month the