Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-29
AUTOMOBILES

Horseless carriages they were--a 9-days
wonder. And now they are commonplace, as
much a matter of course as silk hats on
politicians. Where a few years ago, every
body stopped to cape when an automobile
chugged past, today It takes some scheming
on the part OF its press agent to get any real
notorlety for n car. lie can rent II to gun
men for a murder, arranging with the police
man on the corner to take down the number
as the car flashes past after the shooting,
or he can paint It In futurist reds and yell
lows. but this wins at best a cheap ephemeral
fame. Another method Is to run over
pedestrians. This is effective for getting
into print, but is likely to involve trouble
some complications.
Although tho individual car may have to
scheme to get into the headlines, there Is no
difficulty for motors as a class, as ia evil
denced by the number Of magazines which
have issued special automobile numbers
already his year; among them Golfers,
scribners, Scientific American and Vogue, to
say nothing Of the magazines devoted TO
motoring, which have published sumptuous
editions de luxe in honor Of tho motor shows
being held all over the country this month.
One of the later developments OF motoring,
which has already come to be a matter Of
course. Is the woman driving her own car.
rms is the theme of an article. "The Woman
at the Wheel" by II. L.. Towle %:
What changes a dozen years have wrought
~ motoring. Men no longer buy cars for the
run OF discovering why they won't 20. but
Wholiy IN the prosaic expectation that they
VIII. Little do the beginners of today know
or the stern Joys of conquest which once
made every mile n triumph. Today a man
must drive his car to death to have any
thlhg more serious than arrest happen to
him. And. now we see women driving motor
cars for n the world as if they belonged at
Young girls, most OF them hardly out of
their teens-they meet you everywhere
garoed In buster and gauntlets, manipulating
gears and brakes with the assurance Of vet
Grams. Not always in little lady-like cars,
either. If you visited last summer a resort
blessed with good roads, whether East or
and railroad speed, with Big Sister sitting
coolly at the wheel, pauslng at the post
office on her way for a country spin. And
you wondered II the callow youth seated be-
side the competent pilot would ever have the
gumption to handle a real car himself.
An authoritative article on tendencies and
Developments OF the 1915 car appears in the
Scientific American, written by a mechanical
engineer, S. p. McMinn. THE Car of 1915"
(2):
Not the least important of the develop
ments of the past year has been the com
merciali2lng of the S-cylinder motor. Or
should we say, popularizing, for the motor of
this type has long been successfully used
by our brothers across the sea. We now
have two American 8-cylinder motors, one
selling for just under $4,000 and the other
selling for less than $500. Shall we have
more? II seems more than likely.
From the S-cylinder II is but a step to
the motor with ~ cylinders. So far. only
one foreign maker has attained success with
this type OF motor, and here again 1t Is
characteristic that already several we'll
known American makers are experimenting
with motors of this kind, The light-by-com-
parison 6-cylinder car continues to hold its
own. AS a matter OF cold fact, the still
lIghter-by comparison. small. hlgh-speed, A.
greater strides in the year, and by comparl-
son, than has the 6. Another significant
feature Is the increase in the number Of cars
which sell at or near to the $1,000 mark.
The outward appearance of the car OF 1915
has not changed very much. Yet there is n
subtle something which almost involuntarily
brings to mind and expression the saying,
"Clean as n hounds tooth" The term
STREAM line" by the way, has become a COM
mon one, yet there are not many among the
ranks of motorists who know it's significance.
II means briefly that the designer has taken
advantage of the entering wedge principle
and has at least in part converted wind re-
sistance to his own uses. In other words, he
represented by displaced atmosphere by
training the eddy currents to help push the
car along.