The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-03-27
Automobile News

 tive stopping becomes necessary. The same holds true of the overloaded truck. It should therefore be made the business of State and, municipal authorities to forbid overlooking of freight automobiles they forbid course is the more desirable, as large percentage of truck owners ov- erload.
 Within the last few months there has been an enormous increase in the volume of the export business in the used car market in Havana, Cuba. The popularity of American-made ears Is not appreciated by those who are ignorant of the remarkable frequen- cy of shipments of used cars in that part of the world. The Latin-Amer1- can countries are not slow to take advantage of improved facilities. es- pecially when these facilities can be secured at a discount.
 The experience of another autonno- bile city suggests that Detroit bar bers may raise their rates for shay ing men from autom obi1e factories, particularly those working in grind ing departments. The emery and similar abrasives thrown off from grinding wheels in the form of fine dust settle in a mans beard to play sad havoc with razor blades, and in one town at least the barbers have raised the price to pay for the ire quent honing that Is necessary.
 Demounta ble rim publicity in Eng land has reached the moving-picture stage, and the whole island is seeing by this means how easy it is to change tires with a certain make of rim. The pictures show a pursuit of motor ban dits, in which the police car has it's tires punctured by bullets, but is soon on the way again, thanks to the rim. Later the bandits have. puncture, and being unable to change in time due, of course, to the absence of the rim in question-are captured One escapes by swimming across a lake. The part of the latter was taken by the manager of the rim company, and the picture was made in winter, so the company certainly was in earnest about it.
 The scughing sound which is some times emitted by wire wheels, and which resembles that which comes from a ships mast that bends in a strong breeze, is due to the elasticity of the rim which causes the spokes to rub where they touch one another By greasing the spokes at the inter sections the sound is reduced or ob- Viated.
 Paris now arises at. fl o'clock. France having adopted the 24-hour Gay after the example of Italy, If America follows the lead, the A. M and the F. M. are not hereafter to be confounded with a university degree and the postmaster, railway time tables and score cards for 24-hour races will be simplif1ed and the nick of time' will be promoted from the 11th to the 22d hour.
 A most noticeable tendency in the automobile practice of the. past few years has been the constant effort oi- rected towards improving the ap-
 pearance of the car as a whole The automobile of to-day presents much more pleasing effect than It's prede- cessors of only a year or two ago. Per haps the chief contributory cause for this improvement has been the atten- ton paid to continuous lines in the design of the body, and in addition the elimination or concealment as far as possible of external parts, such
 as gear change levers.
 An indication of the position of the front wheels is quite handy when starting from the curb. When the wheels are directed straight ahead. place two marks on the steering wheel diametrfcaIIy opposite each other so that a line through them is at right angles to the sides of the car. The marks may take the form of a piece of tape, a nick, or piece of brass or white metal may be inserted in the wood of the wheel. As an exact
  will go, a similar mark may be plac- ed in the forward part of the rim, equidistant from the two first marks A new portable type of complete wireless telegraph station has been recently exhibited to the Government officials in Washington. The outfit which includes two telescopic towers, Is carried on large autmobile truck. It has living quarters for twelve men. The two towers can be raised to an altitude of 200 feet by the same motor which propels the automobile truck. At night illumination is sup piled by a small electric plant operat- ed by the truck motor. The signal officers of the army are studying the wireless autotruck, and in the event it stands the tests several may be pur- chased -for-tne army.
 After a small campaign in favor of an automobile tax varying with the horsepower, the motorists of Kansas apparently abandoned the plan, with the result that the bill providing for this change was killed. Following this came much discussion, and the house drafted a bill providing for a tax of $5 on all automobiles and s3 on motorcycles. This w&s passed with a. rush, with the provision that all money so collected must be returned the county in which 1t is obtained, for road improvements. Besides the S5 tax, automobile owners must pay for their license plates and 8 nominal fee for collection charges.
 The English car. which recently es- tabl1shed a new worlds record on the Brooklands track by travelling 103 miles 1,470 yards in one hour has since that date been the center of motoring interest because of the phe- nomenaI speed and the small power of the car. The car is a four cy1in- der, 1o1.5 by 40 miIlimeters bore and Stxeke. In inches these measure ments are 4 by 5.51. This motor has a most enViab power curve, which is practically g straight line from 25 horsepower to 12O. It generates 20 horsepower at 500 revolutions per | minute, and 12O horsepower at 5000 revolutions per minute. This is an ideal motor performance in that when