Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-07
NEW SYSTEM FOR
TIMING AUTOS
TO COME NEXT
SPLIT-SECOND WATCHES NOT
FAST ENOUGH
New Device Will Accurately Give Most
Minute Fraction of Time, and
Not a Particle of Time
Can Be Missed

Most important in connection with
the establishment of speed records is
the development of suitable and ac-
curate methods of timing. With the
building of motor speedways and the
continued lowering of the old figures
for various distances, the method Of
timing by hand and eye has become
obsolete where closest accuracy Is de.
sired. However skilled the timer and
however accurate his chronometer
there is bound to be a certain varia-
tion in the interval between the instant
at which the operator receives the
mental impression that the car has
crossed the tape and the instant at
which his finger presses the catch on
his instrument. This variation results
in inaccuracies which long have made
it seem impossible to catch the time Of
a car or even a horse in less than one
fifth of a second. Records taken in
fifths, however, are not sufficiently
close for the purposes of the modern
automobile, and hence the adaptation of
the chronograph to this use in the new
est forms of speed recording apparatus.
More or less automatic speed re-
cording devices have been used in
automobile racing practice for some
little time, notably at the Brooklands
motordrome, in England, and in con-
nection with a number of hill climbing
and straightaway contests and trials in
this country. But the first permanent
installation of the sort to be made in
this country, so far as known, was
that set up at the Indianapolis speed
way by the Warner instrument COM
pany of Beloit, Wis, and used at the
time of the inaugural meeting in Au-
Iar OF G
tions have been used at Lowell, Mass,
and Riverhead, N. Y, road races, and
have aroused a deal of curiosity con-
cerning their mode of operation.
The Warner timing device, which
supplies an autographic record correct
to tenths of a second is alerely sci
entihc adaptation of the chronograph-
an instrument long known and used in
physical laboratories. 1t consists of
drum which is made to revolve by
clockwork at known and uniform
speed, one complete revolution being
made every minute The autograph
sheet which is clamped on the surface
of the drum is ruled off in vertical lines,
one for every five seconds. A pen
presses against the paper and travels
across it from top to bottom in such
way that it traces a spiral line upon
the paper, the number of horizontal
lines, counting from top to bottom, in
dicating the number of minutes that
the apparatus has been in motion.
Every ten minutes elapsed is indi-
cated by a wide space between the
lines.
By means Of an electric connection
the pen is DETECTED at the end of every
second, thus forming a little V-shaped
notch in the line, and the coincidence
of every fifth notch with one of the
vertical lines on the printed sheet
shows that the drum is revolving at
its proper speed, and thus furnishes a
check upon the accuracy of the record.
BY a second electrical connection pro-
vision is made for a prolonged defiec-
ton of the pen every time car crosses
the tape, contact being secured auto
matically by the depression of a wire
stretched across the track some four
inches above the ground.
Thus, when the apparatus is in use,
the performance of each car will be
denoted by two of the long notches on
the record, and the number of lines
and notches between them will meas
ure the exact time required for it to
cover the distance. The distance, of
course, is determined by the number
of laps covered, or by the relative po-
sition of the two wires, on straight
away trials.
In practice two men are required to
work the system. One of them holds
the telegraph key which connects the
timing apparatus with the wire and 1t
is his duty to call the name and num-
her of the car, and its time. which he
reads from the automatic record, to the
other, who writes it down upon the
form sheet, subtracting starting ana
finishing times to get the elapsed fig
ure, which obviously is not shown by
the automatic record. AS soon as
car has passed the key is released, so
that any accidental depression of the
tape does not mar the record sheet.
Where it is necessary to register the
times of cars at distant points all that
is required is another operator sta
toned at that point with another key,
who also is in telephone communica-
ton with the main timing station. AS
a car approaches he calls it's number
to the first operator and presses his
key to get the autograph on his record
ing drum, afterward releasing it until
it is again required for another car
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