The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1913-08-03
AUTO LIKE CHILD;
HAVE To COAX It
What Milk and Broth Are to
Babe, Oil and Gasoline
Are to Machine
Motorists Must Study Tenn
permanent of Their Cars to
Receive Best Results

all your trials and tribulations did i
ever occur to you, Mr.. Motorist, tina
perhaps your car might not be en-
tireiy to blame? A watchful eye will
readily find that an automobile might
be possessed of a personality or indi-
viduality of its own, and that it might
demand to be humored in some of its
crochets. This might sound a trifle
fancifuI on first utterance but how
true it is will be vouched for by any
veteran in the automobile business.
Racers more than any one else realize
the extent of this peculiar trait in
machine temperament. And not one of
them would consent to pilot a car in a
race unless he had a chance to put 1t
first through its PAGES, feel its pulse,
learn its likes and dislikes and how
best to humor it.
When Bob Burman, the crowned
speed king of America, was made a
most enticing offer to drive a new car
in the recent international sweepstake
race at Indianapolis he accepted only
on condition that he be allowed months
of preparation. He demanded that he
be allowed to take the car entirely
apart, study it in detail and learn what
every individual part wanted by actual
test.
It would, indeed, be well IL every
individual owner and driver would tear
a leaf from his notebook and get per-
sonally and intimately acquainted with
the temperament Of the machine they
use to carry them on their travels.
Just as q general proposition we are
all prone to think and say. that the
automobile is in the infantile stage.
but without realizing the full truth
of such a statement. The motor car,
in inexperienced hands, is an infant,
and 1t must be humored, coaxed and
studied as such. The food, j. e.. gaso-
line and oil, on which one car will
thrive. will mean practically death and
dissolution to another from the same
factory and looking enough like ii to
be a twin. To one infants stomach a
certain variety of food is meat and
sustenance; to another infant the same
diet is practically poison. 1t is the
same with the motor car. if the owner
desires to preserve its life and useful
ness.
LIKE INFANT
What milk and broth are to the
growing babe, oil and gasoline are TO
the motor car, and the carburetor is
the mechanical equivalent of the in
fants stomach. A mixture which is
suitable in the summer will not do at
all in the winter or in wet and raw
weather. And, again, there are such
things as starving or overlooking the
mechanical stomach as well as the
human one
THE VOICE OF PROTEST
And both have somewhat similar
ways of voicing their protests against
abuse. The infant whimpers or cries.
The motor wheezes, or knocks or kicks.
Given too little food it sulks and talks
-, @o;c IoY criu fno mol
its stomach rebels and vomits out
clouds of i'll smelling smoke. If there
is an overdose of oil in the cylinders
it makes the same sort of a protest,
and also splits out a carbon grit which
quickly destroys the spark plugs, which
are really the lungs of the engine, the
things which give it breath and life.
Parsimony in the use of oil means that
the bearings will go dry and wear out,
even as lack of exercise makes the
child stiff and incapable.
Such SMILES could be carried out in
definitely, but it is not necessary to do
so. The main fact to be realized is that
the man or woman who invests in a car
and desires to make it faithful and
dependable servant and friend, must
realize that IL is not a mere mass of
nodded metal, but something to be
studied, nursed and humored.
SOME VALUABLE DoN'Ts
Don't be satisfied after investing in a
car to simply take the book of run
ming instructions furnished by the
selling company and intended to cover
every car of that particular type and
model turned out by the factory. Don t
be content to simply know that this
or some other adjustment of the car
buretor should produce such and such
results.
Don't figure that correspondence
or chauffeur school course has learned
you all that is to be mastered or that
the proper handling Of a car is to be
governed by the rule of three; that IL
a certain lever is pulled or certain
button turned or pressed certain re-
suits must follow The set rule may
work out satisfactorily, but more often
1T will not.
To achieve best results you must
study that car as you would hui
man person or a well loved animal
pet. Not study 1t for minute or one
hour, but every minute of every hour
of every day; in fact, as long as 1t
remains in your charge and you de-
sire it to intelligently serve your pur-
pose Your education will never be
completed along this line, but you will
learn much, and not the least part
Will be a broad spirit of tolerance.
LEARN ALL SIGNS
You will learn that at the first sign
of ba1kiness on the part of the en-
CINE 1t is not only useless but foolish
to lose your temper and hur1 hard
words or even something more, solid
at the offender. Remember that al
though you are possessed of power
full and willing servant, the latter can
grow tired from long journeying as
well as can a thing of flesh and blood.
Remember that you would not YOUR
self think Of travelling scores OF miles.
or even of asking horse, or other
beast of burden, to do it in limited
time, and without rest. Either, or al,
may start out blithe, gay and willing
in the morning, yet grow peevish and
contrary before the long journey is
over.
AUTOS LIKE ANIMALS
How few men would think of start
ing a high bred, mettlesome horse,
champing on the bit and eager to be
off, by giving 1t a singing lash with
the whip. And yet how many men
do practically the same thing to their
motor cars by throwing on the power
and starting off on the high speed?
How few men would ask the thor
full gal1op, and vet how many are
If their motor car falls to pull them
up the steepest of road inclines on the
high speed? This is not a fanciful
comparison. Tt is reality; and the
motor car will no more stand for such
abuse than will the thoroughbred
horse, at the same time remaining
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