The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-07
EARLY MOTOR
 CAR RACES
Twelve Miles An Hour Con- sidered Foolhardy Driving
 Now "A Miles An Hour

The grand prize motor races set the Old-timers talking of past speed events. Even "A miles an hour doesn't startle anyone nowadays; it breaks no rec ords. But when the first speed eon- test was held on Memorial Day, 1896, for prizes offered by John Brisben Walker, there were loud protests be- cause it encouraged foolhardy driv- CTS to risk their own lives and those of the public in the highways by tear ing over the roads from New York to Irvington- and back again, at F miles an hour. And when, as it turned out one or two of the cars coasted on the sleeper hills and were estimated to have touched p miles, there was ain audible gasp.
 The Cosmopolitan race, as this event was called, was the second "horseless carriage contest held in America, the first one having taken place at Chica- go the previous November. It was in- tended to be general contest, and when it was announced that 30 of the credit points would be awarded for speed such criticism followed that the management modified the conditions. The objection raised by one motor concern then is amusing to-day, in the light of the development of different types of cars since. It was that 'tak- ing into account the large number of points to be credited for speed, we look upon the race as being designed for electric rather than for vapor motor vehicles
 The result was, finally, to create the distinction that is still made: 'tto hold races on race tracks, decide them on the ground of speed, call long-dis- tance competitions road-contests, and decide them on the ground of durab1l- ity and general utility
 There were only. six starters in the Cosmopolitan race, and four of these were "Duryea wagons"-the original form of the present day Stevens-D Dur yea motor cars. One of these, driven by J. Frank Duryea, it's inventor, and the man who has developed the high ly perfected car of to-day, came in winner in seven hours and 13 minutes, having made a half-hour stop at IT, vington. Another Duryea finished an hour later, thereby taking second place. One of the touches of what seems not like unconscious humor is in a paragraph in that pioneer among less Age, which discussing the condi- tions of the Cosmopolitan race and pointing the way for future contests, maintained that the course should be heightened to 150 or 200 miles, con- cluding:
 Great precautions should be taken to prevent accidents en route. Towns along the line should be appraised in advance of the approach of each ve- hicle so that the streets may be clear, and the danger of running over sight seers or colliding with other vehicles reduced to a minimum"
 The Duryea wagons which took all the prize money in the Cosmopolitan contest were notifications and inn provements of the one in which J. Frank Duryea had won at Chicago, six months before. This was the first practical gasoline car designed in this country, and had some novel features that were a distinct advance over the foreign cars of its day, notably in the particular of steering and control. It had a four-hOrse-power motor in the box of the body; a water-cooling system; peculiar devices'' for mix ing air with the gasoline in proper proportions-the Duryea carburetor has always been specially efficient; brake worked by a button at the front cor ner of the seat; so as to give abso- lute control even at a speed of 12 miles; three normal speeds'' forward three, six, and ten miles an hour (with maximum of sixteen)-and one reverse; and a wonderful lever which wholly controlled the carriage, the lateral movement steering it and the vertical motion starting and stop ping, changing speed and reversing.
 Up to ten miles an hour the chan ges in speed were made by means of gears, without the speed of the motor being changed. Beyond that, how ever, up to twenty miles, which was the carriages limit, the speed of the motor had to be increased in order to