Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-25
SAYS AMERICAN AUTO
STEEL GOOD AS ANY
Some Foreign Ores Better, but Raw
Material Made from Them Is
Readily Attained in the
United States

Every known steel used for COM
mercial purposes is just as available in
the United States as anywhere else in
A. L "A. NJ.
Norway and Sweden have unusually
pure ores, but the raw materials made
Trom> them are just as readily OBJ
tanned here as elsewhere.
mere IS no mystery about them;
they are just pure and good. When
our fine steelmakers want good raw
material they get it whether it be from
Sweden, Spain, Africa, Cuba or Lake
superior. Our steelmakers are just as
well trained as any and can make the
best of steel.
They do not always make the high
est grades of Steel because the de-
mand does not always exist
Here, then, lies the real reason why
early automobile product in the United
States was not of high-grade material.
IL was not demanded. On the con-
trary, by some it was pooh-poohed; the
advocate of fine steels was laughed at.
why buy, 15-cent steel when steel
could be had for 2 cents?'' with our
design any old steel will do" was
sometimes heard. Our earliest makers
with exceptions, of course) did not
nave time to think about what kind
OF steel they might use. They were
too busy making something that would
go and keep on going.
Pendulum Swings Back
Now all is different; the pendulum
has swung the other way, and some
are buying 15-cent steel and putting it
where 1t does no more good than
2-cent steel. Popular opinion demands
1T and it is advertised MANY. how
ever, have at all times kept pace with
the art and began to use high-grade.
hlgh-pr1ced steels as far back as 1900
Where such steels were called for.
Steels were tried and fully proven.
Expert knowledge was used conserva-
lively and there was no violent swing
or the pendulum from the worst to the
finest, from one extreme to the other.
NO advertising was done. A trade
secret could not have been guarded
more closely. Good cars We're built
The secret of the use of steel is to put
the right steel in the right place."
Inc hlghest-priced imported steel
suitable for horseshoe nails would not
do for an automobile spring as we'll as
the lowest-priced, lowest-grade BESSIE
mer steel made, or for another extreme
the best chrome-tungsten tool steel at
90 cents pound would not make as
good rtvets as ordinary steel at 2
cents.
Best Is Not Always Best
1t is not always best to use the very
best, the ideal steel for a purpose.
The ver!- best sometimes is difficult TO
handle commercially. eBtter results
may in some cases be obtained by
using a slightly less ideally desirable
steel. This brings up the Importance
of handling steel. Much skill has al
ways been expended in handling tool
steel; it has always been regarded as
most important
Not so with structural steel, and vet
just as much is to be gained by hand
ling it so as to procure a strong, tough
material, capable of sustaining shock.
vibration and the banging it gets in an
automobile.
The makers of guns, armorplate, pro-
peller shafts for torpedo boats, have
for many years practiced with much
skill the suitable treatment of struc-
tural steel; but these people and their
engineers did not, generally speaking,
start the manufacture of automobiles
so this skill was not fully used by the
automobile builder.
Some engineers went from the one
industry to the other, carrying this
valuable knowledge. These men helped
to produce the high-grade cars made
in this country, which have been every
bit as good as any cars in the world,
as far as materials and wear are con-
cerned.
All steels were available, and in the
United States the right steel was Sc
lected for a purpose. 1t was properly
handled and treated from start to fin
ish, the result being a perfectly bal
anced car as far as wear was con-
cerned. No more could have been
in q GhnUT1 hxy fhn yxynx
some imported cars have disintegrated
after about two years use.
In other words, the materials are
available everywhere, the knowledge
Of how to use them is not. That is