The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-25
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c. c. Nixon of the Nixon garage has added to his list of automobiles the Mitchell and "R, c. H." cars which
 have only recently come into particu-
 lar attention in the south. MT. Nixon
 said yesterday that during his many years of automobile work he had never seen such wonderful achievements in
 an autmobile at the low price that the kcars are being offered.
 Tt indicates to my mind" said NIT, Nixon relative to the modest prices
 asked for the cars, that the manu- facturers are working for the patron l age of the man of small or modest
 means. They will, the chances are.
 pursue the same general policy of
 widespread usage as does the Birming-
 ham Railway, Light and Power com pany. That concern Is reducing prices on commodities sold do so in the
 belief that the added use of the com modity will make up for the small decrease in the initial charges. As
 time passes the use of automobiles will not be confined to the wealthy few
 but I firmly believe men making as little as s15o0 or scOO0 per year will be using cars of the good cheap make"
 Mr Nixon, who is one of the pioneer automobile men of this section, has
 with him as demonstrator Edward Pa- l tillo. who has been in the automobile business many years. During the sum-
 iner they expect to push in every way
 the newly added cars to the long lists
 ras..
 Safety first" is a slogan that is be-
 ing instilled into the minds of novice
 drivers by the school for training them,
 operated at Five Points by the High ] land garage. of which l.. E. Whitehead
 Is president. | The safety of the pedestrians, safety l for the occupant of the cars and the
 safety of the rolling stock are the three
 prime requisites for successful driving
 according to the viewpoint being given the young mon aspiring to drive cars.
 Not only should drivers desire safe
 ty first, said MT. Whitehead, for their own personal well being but for that of innocent people to whom they might
 bring great grief and sorrow by reck- | upon the personal side of the situation
 there is absolutely no excuse for any driver to overlook this fact. Every owner in the city should instruct their drivers that not only does their lb- erty depend upon their calm driving but their positions and their physical we'll being as we'll If the owners of this city would all this morning walk out to the front of the house and talk five minutes right off the reel to the drivers about safety first this speed mania that many. think possess tho drivers would end at once. If the drivers were given to understand that lrecklessness means discharge they would soon stop it."
 1 The attention of the automobile world I has been directed for some time to the pioneering a path in Cadillac ear from
 Los Angeles to Mexico City. As the
 country traversed is wild and uncivlized
 and has never before been covered by a motor car the trip has created unusual interest. The complete story of the ad-
 venture has not yet been recorded, for telegraphic communication has been diff l fcult and the venturesome pair of men have been some times lost to the world l for several days at time. Motordom | is. therefore, waiting with keen interest | the outcome of the trip and the report of the safe arrival of the car at Mexico l City.
 In the meantime some meager reports have come through and 1t has been learned that the car has negotiated sue cessfully about 200 miles of the rough est. most difficult going that has ever been achieved by motor car.
 On several occasions the sand was so bad canvas had to be stretched on the road and once the care made only five miles in seven hours. Near Caliacan, Mexico, the travellers had to make their own roads and it took them three days to cover 100 miles.
 In series of experiments which have been made recently, an advantage which has not been fully realized heretofore by automobilists has been proved for the ilex- ible attachment of the mechanism of a motor car to the frame.
 This form of construction was originally devised by J. Frank Duryea. The ad- vantages with which three point support has always been credited are that it pre- serves the alignment of the driving me- chansm, no matter how the chassis may be thrown out of level by road ineqaali- ties and thus save wear and tear on the whole car. including the tires, and makes riding easier sf
 It seems. fron-t the Investigations, that ease of riding is more affected by the method of attaching the engine and it's connections to the frame than has been realized. It Is easy to see that with rigid attachment, if the car lurches because one side of the running gear is suddenly raised higher than the other in rough going the lurch is aggravated by the weight of the engine, which is thrown violently in the direction fin which the car tips. With flexible attachment, while the engine moves with the .chasis, of course. 1t swings in it's three point support almost
 with the motion of hammock, so that stress and jolting are avoided and as it swings back when the car rights, the weight of the engine helps preserve the