The Dickinson press., 1917-02-03
MOTOR NEWS
By the MOtOrist

9 by the MOtOrlSC "
3 o o o o o o 90 o o @ o 0 8
A representative of the United
| States Tire Company, with headquart-
! ers at Fargo, was calling on the Dick
inson dealers this week.
H, A. Deidrich laid aside his bust
ness cares at the Dickinson Motor Car
Company's garage Tuesday morning
and boarded No. 4 for Chicago, where
he will take in the sights at the
national automobile show for a few
days. On his return he will stop in
the Twin Cities and look the motor
bunch over for a few days.
Keep posted on your car. Subscribe
for some good automobile trade
journal and read what others have to
say on the subject. You'll find that
these trade journals contain a great
deal of information that the wise
motorist will not overlook. Your
garage man will recommend a first
| class motor magazine which you will
find very entertaining and instructive.
Today (Friday) is ground hog day
and, according to the old adage, if the
ground hog sees his shadow today
he will crawl back in his hole and stay
there for six weeks more-which
means six weeks more of winter. For
| the sake of spring business the auto
mobile trade unites in the hope that
His Hogship will sleep peacefully
throughout the day, in which hope The
Motorist heartily joins.
Litch & Son have just recently in
stalled a new Gardner air compressor
outfit which seems to be just about
as perfect an equipment of this kind
as it is possible to purchase. It is
driven by a one-half horse power
motor, which is built in the compress
sor and automatically stops and starts
according to the pressure needed.
The large tank has a capacity of $500
cubic inches of air, or 125 pounds to
the cubic inch. This machine will be
set near the front window of their
business room and a line of hose run
to the sidewalk on the outside.
While our "tin Lizzies" and real
automobiles are locked up in the
| garages throughout the northwest
owing to the heavy blanket of snow,
motorists can take some consolation
| (if you can call it that) in reading the
newspaper reports of the Winnipeg to
| st. Paul dog derby which are now oc-
cupying a prominent place on the
sporting page. W. wouldn't mind
taking the trip behind the steering
Wheel of almost any standard make
of "wheel-boat" in good weather but
We'll let the fellows who seem to
Joy the sport drive those "dog power"
cars across the snow drifts at the
average speed of four miles per hour.
TIl.a.a Loo h11r cNroa 10 IL IF nio1/
inson automobile dealers having a
| show this season but after some little
discussion it has been decided to post
pone any action of this kind until a
more favorable or opportune time.
Dickinson dealers are just as wide
awake and energetic as any dealers
anywhere on the globe, but owing to
the limited number that the expense
of a show would necessarily fall upon
it is thought best to clay off" on the
proposition at this time. The local
association plans to have an outing or
some kind of a picnic during the
coming summer and at that time
plans will be discussed whereby it is
hoped the financial end of a show
next season can be taken care Of in
good shape.
Business at the local Willard serv-
ice station has been so rushing this
winter that w. F. Dauber, who is in
charge of the station, has made some
necessary repairs to the business
room in order to accommodate the
increased volume of business. New
shelving and storage room has been
provided and racks have been built to
provide room for the large number of
batteries placed in his care during the
winter months. A great many bat
teries will be rebuilt and charged
ready for the cars as soon as spring |
opens up. Although the service sta
ton here has only been opened up
about eight months, Mr.. Dauber's
business ranks higher in proportion
to the number Of cars in his terri
tory than any similar station in this
section of the state.
The local Willard expert says:
Generally speaking, all winter
troubles of storage batteries come
from taking current out faster than
the generator can put it back. During
this season there is a particularly
heavy drain on the battery for power
to crank cold engines and supply light
for early evenings and early morning
driving. At the same time the short
distances driven give tho generator
little chance to change the battery.
The first step in the prevention Of
trouble is to make frequent tests of
the battery with a hydrometer syringe
and if the owner sees that the read
ings are falling below 1.275 to take
the battery out Immediately and have
it charged at the service station.
This keeping of the battery fully
charged not only insures the motor
list power enough for all his needs,
but is also insuring him against the
battery's freezing, for although a dis
charged battery will freeze at 20 de-
grees above zero, a fully charged bat
terry may be said to be n~cn-freezing.
The motorist Of course, should help
his battery by printing the engine in
the morning and using economy in
the use of his lights. Cranking the
engine is the hardest work that the
battery must do and in winter when
the engine is stiff and carburetion diff
ficult, the job is particularly difficult.
1t is also very important that the
clutch should be thrown out while the
RI : IL ~l-.L.. --J11 D.. T-.--1 = |