The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-04-03
Automobile News

| Applicants for cKrauffeurs' licenses
in New Orleans. will have to undergo
a physical examination in the future.
! Special attention will be given vision.
| No license will be issued to a person
| who is color blind.
The Columbus (Ohio) Automobile
| Club has employed a detective bureau
to take care Of all thefts of cars or
contents from club members with out
| any cost excepting necessary trans
portation charges when the detec-
tives are called out of the city.
The Iowa Supreme Court has held
that under the Iowa laws an insur-
ance company cannot write insurance
against personal injury damage cases
growing out Of automobile accidents.
The insurance department held that
such insurance was not covered by
the laws, while the attorney-general
held that it was against public policy.
The United States Government has
been asked to take an interest in the
big pathf1ndin tour which the Indi-
ana Automobile Manufacturers Assoc
citation is prom citing for the proposed
trans Continental stone automobile
road. Permission has been request
ed to send a company of infantry on
the tour. the soldiers to ride in a
feet of five motor trucks. as dem
onseS1&ton Of the possibilities of this
method of transportation for the ar
my.
clear space in the windshield in all
weathers has appeared in Europe.
Last fall a device appeared in which
a fan was set in the glass and, rotated
by the engine, blew rain and snow
away. The new device is q modifica-
ton of the same idea. A disc OF
glass is held in three bearings set In
the glass of the Windshield, and is ro-
tated by means of q friction wheel
driven from the motor. At about 800
r. D. M, the disc remains perfectly
clear In rain or snow, everything that
falls on it being w1aiFled off by CEN
trifuga1 force.
All garages to be built in Boston IN
the future must first have the appro-
val of the fire commissioner as to the
site chosen for them before they can
be erected, according to an announce
ment made by Mayor FntSgera1d. In
the past, a permit from the building
required. although permits for the
storage of gasoline were subject to the
fire commissioner.
The use of frarneless glass windows
on closed bodies is growing rapidly
in favor. At the last Importers Sa-
lon, held in New York, there were
twenty-five bodies having frameless
glass, while sixteen had windows with
wooden frames. There are. however,
two very noticeable drawbacks con-
nected with the newer method. One
Of these is the increased liability of
breaking the glass, and the other is
the letting in of water when it rains
or when the car is washed. The let
ting in of water is not due to a mis-
take or fault, but is the acconpani-
.nent of one of the methods used in
operating the glass.
If an automobile is leased for a
pleasure ride, and the chauffeur mere
Iy obeys the instruction of the lessee
as to the route to be taken, the own
err Of the car is responsible for any
damage which might be caused by the
chauffeur's negligence. This is the de-
cision of the Supreme Court of Wis
consin, in the case of Gerretson vs. a
garage company, in which the lessee
of the car sued the garage owner for
damages, because he was injured In
an accident caused by the careless
ness of the chauffeur. The court
held that in such a case the driver is
the servant of the garage owner, and
not of the lessee of the car.
Many a town, on being left off the
route of the main road has be-
walled it's luck and left the matter
there. Not so with Wfnona, MINI,
however. If any tourists over the in
terstate highway in the Northwest
miss being apprised of the existence
of Winona, it will be because they are
blind. When the route of the road
was laid out south of the town the
citizens promptly got busy, and now
large signs have been erected at the
points where it is necessary to leave
the interstate road to go to Wtnona.
Besides giving the road directions the
signs state that all the roads into and
out of Winona from the highway are
concrete State roads in good condition.
All motorists are familiar with that
feeling of uneaainess which is expert
enced when driving toward a blind
corner. There is always present the
looming out of the hidden approach
too late to avoid collision. In this
connection the extensive use of rear
view mirrors on automobiles must Of
ten have suggested to drivers the pos
sibility of using a larger fixed refec-
tor at the dangerous street corners. to
show the approaching vehicle. But,
strangely enough, very little has been
done in the way of actual experiment
with such a device. The success,
however, attending the adoption of
these mirrors in the few places
the available information of great in
terest to road users.
The Mystery of the Drowned Au-
tomobf1e" has at last been cleared, af-
ter the Chicago police had given up
the problem. Last August tour
ing car was seen to plunge off an
open drawbridge into the Chicago
River, late in the evening. The po-
lice raised the car and dragged the
river for bodies, but nary a body or
clew did they find. Official and un-
official detectives worked the case
with success, and the matter was
finally dropped. Recently the rnys-
terry was dissipated, and by none 9TH
er than the owner of the car, who, in
the flesh-and not at all wet, bedrag-
gIed or damaged-told the police all