The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-07-08
Motoring Notes,
Good Roads News,
and I rade Matters

What becomes Of all the old auto
mobiles?
This is a problem that owners and
dealers alike have been called upon
TO explain many time and there have
been great variety OF answeres.
The Maxwell Briscoe- Motor COM
pany has obtained sworn testimony ON
the subject and declares that the old
cars are still running--or able to 40
so. .-.----
In offering gold medals to all Max
we'll owners. who have driven $4,000
miles. the company received thous-
ands of applications covering almost
every Maxwell that has been built.
Many applicants failed to comply with
the rules. but their affidayits showed
that cars which were thought to be
out OF service are still running the
same as ever.
When the 90, tt8 Maxwell cars are
subjected to the same rule of pro-
portion as was applied to the statistics
in the club afiidavits, the answer was
found TO coincide very closely with
the official records Of New York State,
showing 81 percent of the I-year-old
Maxwells still In use.
Great interest has been aroused In
this country, as Well as abroad. in
the recent opening, in the fashionable
West-End OF London, OF the perma-
nent motor museum founded by the
English automobile journal Motor
1t is intended that in time the mus
cum shall be a treasure-house of his
tor!cal motor-oars, motorcycles ana
accessories; and a good start in this
direction has already been made.
The wonderful progress of the au-
tomobile industry could not be bet
tel illustrated than II Is in this Brit
lsh ollection--unless someone should
find a similar American museum. az
enthusiasts have suggested should be
done. Such an. American collection
might indeed. put the British eX-
hibit in second place. For the most
notable relic the Londoners have is
the Blue Belle" steamer. which Is
hardly "a ,notor-car ut all in the mod
ern sense; and a French car. OF 1891,
is the oldest specimen of the present
day type of omobile-spoken of
by English writer's as the oldest in
the world" though there is said to
be in the Smithsonian institutions
collection in Washington an Amerl-
can car dating back to the same
year.
II the plan proposed for estab-
fishing an American motor museum
comes to fruition, the United States
will be able to make. from the work
of its own inventors, a. good show
ing of antiquities as London's. which
are drawn from all over the world.
And 1t Is safe to say that the stages
Of progress in automobile building can
be even more Interestingly illustrated
by American cars than by foreign.
The American motor-car, from the
first workable gasoline, which j.
Frank Duryea brought out In 1891,
has, It is fair TO say, progressed fas-
ter than the European. No other
industry. in this country Of astonish
ing industrial achievements, even,
has had any such startling progress,
as motor-car building. Nor has Il By
any means been matter Of simply
going on from the work Of foreign
inventors. The American motor-car
is in many respects a distinct crea-
tion---the unit power-pant and three.
point support, for instance, (hoth
buryeu inyent!ons) have had their in
fiuence on the continental designers,
Aud almost from the day OF the
"Duryea Wagon American cars have
completed sharpely with the Euro
pean ones in their own countries,
TIL now there IS an export business
which makes the foreign builders
decidedly uncomfortable
II the motorcycle were human II