The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-22

- &-S%b from expansion of the valve stems, but the opposite evil. namely, that resu t. between the end of the stem and the tappet, ds not so frequently provided against. A simple moShod of finding whether the tappets are lifting the valves to their full height is to insert knife-blade between the end of the stem and the tappet on each of the valves while the engine Is running slow-y and noting carefully whether even the note" of the exhaust from that one cylinder. If such is the case it Is proved that the stem Is too short and that it should be lengt hened slightly by one of the several approv- ed methods, or else replaced with new valve having a longer stem
 A year ago at the show in Madison Square Garden the torpedo fore door touring car and the inside drive h- mousine were received with a furore. The exhibitor that didn't have car ed was dec ared behind the times. It was a great forward step. mak ng Fn- CT looking cars and protecting the dri- yer and the other front seat occupant made so tight that neither wind nor dust could get into them-nor air When the hot wave swept across the country last July the owners of these air-tight cars found that with their feet over the hot blast driven back from the motor, untempered by any draughts around the dash-board., ana with the breeze cut off in front by a scuttle dash and a glass screen, they were in veritable ovens, and there was no fun in motoring. The handsome the front doors were unhinged or tied open with string Anything to keep the occupants of front seat from 55oiling It to0k 5nlg fhat fbep t9 had gone too far. Fore door open cars and inside drive closed cars must be ventilated. So in the 1912 output, as exemplifed in the Garden exhibit, fore door remaips-eyerythtng has fore doors = but about every car has means of admitting air.
 Car Life Shortened by Fast Driving.
 Speed Is costly. y To reverse many well-known axioms, the saving of time is not always a saving of mon- ey. Fast travel, whether in tra ms, motor cars, or in the pace of human life, inevitably costs something. Just tIs speeds increase, so the ratio of cost runs up. It is known, for instance, that the twentieth century tran makes no money, and it Is equally certain that those who live a fast life selcom live long one. Why should 1t be different in the case of the motor car which iF run at top speed all the time?
 Driving a motor car at its h. ghest speed all the time involves an expense beyond all proportion to the pleasure obtained, and always results in short ening the life of car that would cost but little to maintain.
 Most of us know the motorist who tears through the town with wide open throttle, in gleeful realization of the fact that his machine, by being pushed to the very limit of its capa- bilities, will attain and maintain speed of a mle minute, or even more.
 It is to the everlasting credit of the automobile that the exultations of speed may be continued with compar- ative impunity for a considerab time However, he who is familiar with rail. road mechanics and knows the inter vals within which the average locomo- tive goes to the round house for re- pairs, uEderst andS that though the To- cornotive travels on an ideal road sur face which Is uninterrupted by inc ishtest inequality. every demand up vice conditions for which 1t was de- signed must result in abnormal wear and tear
 For purposes of transportation it is iis possible to consider the motor ve- hic'e apart from the road on which it travels; the one is as necessary as the other And, uItiu1ately,Sth mechan- ism of the automobile rests not on the zine, nor on the ideally conditioned steel rails of the railroacs. but on the ordinary road surface which chan ges during every second of running.
 True, the modern automobile acqui, itself nobly at it's tasks when used sensibly. But the chronic speeder, who IS apt to be disgrunt ed at what to him may seem. unreasonable wear and tear, must bear in mind that he is putting his car to severe trials every time he races it over the ever-changing road surface with every ounce of re- serve power in action
 Similar observations may be made in regard to hili climbing. The pers's- tent high gear hill climber is first cry hill on high gear, while it may be done, imposes the hardest hind of wO K not on,y on the motor, but on every other part of the car.
 Lower. gear ratios are provided for hill climbing and they should be used for it. It may be well to consider a little more carefully the amount of work done by an automobile climbing a gradient on, say, a gear ratio of three to one. This meant that one revolution of the driving vince is pro duced by three revolutions of the en- zine crankshaft With the other gear ratios, the intermediate and the low, the number of revolutions of the en- zine becomes still greater as compar- ed with the number of driving wheel
 It is not difficult to compute with exactness the distance which a car is propelled by one explosion of the en- ne, 9nQ the power consumed III nlli climbing. The circumference of y-two-dnch wheel is approximate Iy 100 inches, and in covering one mile the driving wheel revolveS 63S tines. Since the motor turns over three times as fast as the driving wheel it will re- quire 1899 revolutions of the crank sir aft. to propel the car one mile. Thus. if for instance, a car shoud d proceed at the rate of thirty miles an hour, approximately $50 engine revolutions are required. With two power strokes for each revolution, there are 2, 800 explosions per mile, and each ex- plosion lopels the car about one foot and four and a half inches.
 This estimate presumes that the car is propelled over level ground. To mount hil means simply that grade resistance IS added to the various fric- tional and other resistances. An au- tomobile weighing 2,100 pounds. climbing a hill 200 feet fRh (meas- ured verticalv.) simply performs the task of overcoming the action of gray