New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-28
WELL, START
SOMETHING!
No Easy Job if It's Your
Motor These Cold
Days
To the Automobile Editor Of Thu
Tribune.

To the Automobile Editor of The
Tribune.
Sir: Have you little hot air furnace
in your car? You need one these frosty
mornings, unless you want your engine
TO act as though it had an acute attack
of bronchitis for half or three-quarters
of an hour. Maybe you'll also need to
get out the tea kettle and some more
extras to get started in proper shape.
A lot of men are borrowing their
wives washcloths TO help start the cars
nowadays. Great help, too.
There is not bit of foolishnoss
about this. as the man who has car
will appreciate If he has tried TO start
it with the temperature down at the
freezing point and wind blowing :hat
would carry off the engine heat so fast
the metal would remain cold. Probably
most other folks have noticed what
lot Of cars are suffering and coughing
and splitting and popping, as though
all kinds Of trouble were going on IN
side, and the experienced ear can de
tect many a six-cylinder hitting only
on two Of the cylinders, while as many
fivvers are chug-chugging away like
one of the old one-lungers of ancient
auto days. Not only is this for the
start. but for blocks and even miles.
One chauffeur declared that he could
not get his car running right until the
meter showed about twenty-five miles
run.
Now to a novice, the new owner, the
first inclination would be TO cuss the
manufacturer and the engine. II isn't
the fault of the engine at all. II is be-
cause 1.-THE gasolene doesn't gas" How
ever, there is a solution of the prob
lem. at least enough of remedy 20
make life a little happier for the
owner.
This condition Of gas has been absent
for several years. In the early days OF
automobile construction, before the
manufacturers were able TO devise .
carburetor for vaporizing gasolene un
der all conditions, we had this same
trouble as soon as the weather turned
cold. Persistent experiments produced
a carburetor which overcame the trou
BILE. Then, almost as soon as car
buretor was developed which would
vaporize the gasolene under adverse
conditions. somehow the volatility Of
the gssolene was found to have de-
creased.
You will remember the contest be-
tween armor plate and big guns-as
soon as an impenetrable armor plate
was invented some genius would go
ahead and find powder or gun or
projectile which would shatter the i'm
penetrable plate. Then the armor fac
tory would try to find something to
outwit the gunmaker. That is the way
with carbureter and gasolene. 1t is
time for the carbureter maker TO de-
wise scheme TO volatilize the heavy
gasolene now supplied under all condi-
tons. particularly in cold weather.
1t is true that the gasolene now sold
has a greater heat producing quality,
if only we can get it properly mixed
and volatilized. 1t may be that the
tasolene producers have been, by put
ting heavier gasolene on the market, OF
a real service to auto men, once we
have learned TO utilize it economically
and efficiently. They may have had in
mind the higher power, but they. have
given us a gas which is very hard to
vaporize on frosty morning. Sometime
soon, probably, the carbureter men will
catch up and give us a vaporizer which
will handle it. Until they do, We will
have TO look for means of overcoming
the difficulties now experienced, and 1T
is largely a question of warming up
the air.
In changing gasolene from liquid to va
Dor considerable heat must be supplied.
When the atmospheric temperature IS
too low, there is not sufficient heat in 1t
to vaporize the gasolene sprayed into
the carbureter. When the engine is
warm the process of vaporization goes
on from the needle valve to the mo-
ment of ignition, but if the engine be
cold the process is retarded more or
less. and under some conditions it is
possible for thoroughly vaporized gasO-
lene TO be again condensed. The man
who does not understand is inclined to
say uncomplimentary things about the
engine and talk about "fireproof gaso-
lene." The only trouble is that the
temperature is so low that we must
heat the air before we send it into the
/ carbureter. Practically all the car
bureter manufacturers put out "stove"
TO heat the air supply, which is at
tached around the exhaust pipe, so that
/ the hot air surrounding the pipe is
conveyed 10 the carbureter, which
warns the air entering the intake, thus
/ supplying the heat necessary to effect
vaporization This "stove" or gas
warmer is what the chauffeurs arc be-
/ ginning TO call "hot air furnace"
The process of vaporization absorbs
| a large amount of heat. To raise the
/ temperature of the liquid one degree
/ takes a certain amount of heat. The
amount required a degree remains the
| same until the point OF vapOrization
/ is reached when 200 times this amount
/ is required TO effect vapo rization. The