Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-10
MAGNETIC GEAR
SHIFT BIG HIT
Premier. Represented by Penn
Mar Auto Co., Equipped With
Push Button System


The magnetic push button gear
shift, introduced as regular equip
ment on the Premier at the auto
show is step forward in the direc-
ton of woman's motor car emanci-
patton. 1t puts her on a par with man
In still another field to which she
should long ago have had free ac-
cess.
Premier's magnetic gear shift oper-
tons, placed within easy reach right
under the drivers thumb.
No gear shift lever is used. The
floor board is as clear as the floor
board of any electric. and those who
have operated the gear shaft agree
that it is quite as handy and makes
the motor car quite as easy to control
as is any electric ever built.
This gear shift, built by the worlds
greatest makers of electrical controll-
ing apparatus, is guaranteed both by
the Cutler-Hammer company. of Mil
waukee, and by the Premier Motor
corporation, of Indianapolis. to be de-
pendable and trustworthy under all
motoring conditions. It has been test
ed so long, it is said, that there can
be no possible doubt as to its abso-
lutte efficiency.
According to those who have driven
the Premier, the advantages of the
automatic gear shift are twofold.
First, 1t Is great convenience, doing
entirely away with the labor of hand
shifting, and secondly, 1t adds greatly
to the mechanical efficiency of the
motor car itself.
1t is not necessary to argue that it
is great convenience to be rid of
hand gear shifting, in as much as
thousands of persons have been deter
red from driving gasoline motor cars
entirely through dread of the hand
gear shift lever. Women in a deplor-
able number of cases have chosen
electric cars because they feared that
they could not learn what appeared
to them to be the intricate and COM
plicated mechanism of the "H'' slot
With the installation of a depend
able push button gear shift, the gaso-
line motor car becomes quite as easily
operated as the best electric, and its
advantages in power and fuel range
are obvious. From q standpoint of the
actual mechanical effect of the gear
shift upon the car itself, one has
only to apply the knowledge which
he has already gained from operating
conventional types of motor cars to
arrive at his own conclusions.
First, imagine a car that shifts
gears in one-fifth of a second-that
is the actual time required in shift
ing PremierS gears. In other words
the operation is instantaneous to all
intent and purposes. This means that
in shifting the gears absolutely no
time whatever is lost, there is no
slowing down, and there is no let up
in the motor cars momentum.
A practical demonstration of this
characteristic is to line the Premier up
on a crowded crossing with conven-
tonal cars and see it leap forward
when the traffic policeman gives the
go ahead" signal. Premier will be
through its gears and In high before
the average car can get into first.
On q hard hill climb this ability to
Hash through the gears is a tremen-
dous advantage.
Let us suppose that you are in
high and that ahead of you is a hard
pull that will necessitate your going
back into second. With the convention
al car this would mean that you would
have to slow down in order to make
your engine speed synchronize with
the speed of the car. In Premier no
matter what the discrepancy in the
two speeds may be, you go from high
intp second in one-flfth of a second
when the grade or the increased mo-
mentum of the automobile calls for
a return to your high gear. Every
one knows how fatal it is to come to
a dead stop in mud or deep snow.
1t sometimes means the total loss of
traction. Under such circumstances the
rear wheels of the car are likely to
spin fruitleSSly.