The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-25
Interesting Experime
Made in Kansas.
One Machine Was Wrecked In
Railway Collision.
new STATE OFFICIAL AT WORK
Clarence Jordan Now Secretary
Kansas Auto Association.
Gossip of General Interest to
Pop-POp Enthuiasts.

Interesting experiments occurred in
Kansas recently which made 1t posi-
BILE for an automobile firm to compile
unique data regarding the resistance
to shock embodied in the materials
which go to make up modern auto
mobile. The experiments were made
possible through the courtesy of two
transcontinental railroads
The laboratory where the experiment
was performed is a railroad intersec-
ton at an obscure point in Kansas.
The equipment featured two through
freight trains, one on each of the IL
tersecting tracks.
The experiment took place one au-
tumn night. when both trains tried to
use the intersection at once, one ram
ming the other squarely in the middle
AT the exact point of the collision was
a car carrying a shipment of new Stu
debaker automobiles.
Backed by a force of thousands of
tons, the charging locomotive cut its
way completely through this car. As
1t entered, it picked up a Studebaker
six" turned it part way round, used
it as a battering ram against the fur
Their side Of the car and tossed it so
feet into a cornfield
In due time the wrecking crews ar
rived and the damaged automobile was
shipped back to Detroit.
Body and Tenders Annihilated.
Superficially 1t looked a total wreck.
Its body, running boards and tenders
were crumpled and torn. Its radiator
was in pieces. Three wheels were de-
molished clear down to the hubs. The
new tires were cut and jagged. Inc
frame was so bent that the axles rest
ed at widely varying angles
Under the direction of the engineers
the car was stripped to the vital parts
inSDSC
ton was amazing. The rear axle ana
transmission unit was still perfectly
true and the pressed steel housing
showed not even a dent the orlVe
shaft was bent and twisted at tho
point of first impact, but did not even
crack The same was the case or the
pressed steel torsion arm. Even the
frame. bent, buckled and battered,
was still intact, cross members and All
while the motor and its internal mech
anism remained good as new The
wheel was gone, but the steering gear
was otherwise complete. Three of the
demountable rims were unchanged,
the other was lost.
When the engineers had figured out
impacts and stresses and compared the
results with the twisted but still int
grail steel before them, they agreed
that automobile abuse had reached its
limit but had fallen far short of alb
soIute destruction. Without the inter-
vention of fire. they confidently de-
clare, no accident within human COZ
ception can compass the ruin of a mod
ern motor car.
Today and Yesterday.
"Quess 1 must have started some
Elmer Apperson. manufacturer of APP
person Jack Rabbit motor cars. the
other day. as he looked over some
photographs of the Hagenback-Wal-
- n nj
Rabbit car leading the parade. 81
won't go so far as to say that the
present Jack Rabbit which carries
the Observation-Disclosures managers and
heads is the main attraction. though
1t does head the parade; nor does it
excite quite as much interest as the
big elephant, the man-eating tiger
(hear him growD or the pink lady
who loops-the-loop hanging by her
teeth to rear axle of an automobile.
AUTOS are too plentiful and too
well known these days to excite any
comment other than admiration or. if
complete in every detail. But you
can put it down as a fact that the
Apperson Jack Rabbit 1 exhibited
with the old Robinson & Franklin
salary-was the whole show In cir
Gus parlance we had the rest of the
acts backed off the boards.
I'VE lead the parade just ahead of
every minute he'd grab the rear axle
and stop the show. I'd like to see any
team of elephants do it now"
Clarence Jordan, who began his
work as secretary of the Kansas State
Automobile association last Monday,
has already visited Lawrence, Wa
mego, Westmoreland and Havensville
in the interests of the organization,
and expects to make an extended trip
in the southwestern portion of the
state next week.
A new auto club has been formed
at Lincoln with twenty members.
Several Topeka motorists have
Joined the Topeka Motor club in the
last few days.
Motorcycle Gossip.
c. w. Waughop of St. Louis one of
the newly elected directors of the Fed
Grafton of American Motorcyclists and
also director of the South Central dis
trict of the federation, is making an
extensive motorcycle tour of the coun-
try Already he has travelled IL GOO
miles, visiting practically all of the i'm
portant cities east of the Rockies.
Fred w. Diehl of Piedmont. Cal.