South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-03-04
MOTOR UTILITY IS
AGAIN P ROVEN
Studebaker Helps Relieve the
Shortage in New England
During Garfield Days."

There is an old adage that says
something about necessity being
the mothe- OF invention"-and ce--
tainly whoever coined that apt
| phrase knew what he was talking
about. At least that is what the good
people OF one hustling little Massa-
chussetts city believes today, and
! they have reason TO be thankful
that a paramount necessity OF the
moment, when their homes were
without fUel and the mercury con-
/ tinUed TO drop lower and lower ia
/ the bulb, caused a versatile auto
mobile man TO evolve a method Of
putting an edge on hundreds Of
axes during a five-day wood chop
ping campaign.
! When the coal shortage became
so acute that National Fuel Ad-
ministrator Garfield issued has
! drastic fiye-day Industrial shut
/ down order, the Norton Grinding
/ Co. Of Worcester announced that
| 700 of their employees would go in
TO the company's woodlot and chop
| enough wood 10 keep Worcester
warm until the situation could be
relieved By the coal men.
When the manager of the Wor-
| cester branch of the Studebaker
corporation read of this generous
! contribution TO the relief of a sit
uation already assuming alarming
| proportions, he. too, felt a keen de
sire TO cooperate. That 200 busy
+, wOodchOppers would have many an
]
of their fve-day campaign brought
TO the Studebaker manager reali-
zatiOn that there was where he
could be of invaluable service.
Loading a double headed grinder
| on a Studebaker service car. a hurry
up trip was made to the scene OF
| operations. The question of power
for the operation of the big grinder
/ was settled when the automo bile
man suggested the use of a six
! cylinder horsepower motor then
! under the hood of a rakish Stude-
baker sport model in the retail
salesrooms. After dissem bling the
| Studebaker motor from its chassis.
it was hung suspended from chain
pulleys while experienced me-
chanics armed with electric drills,
hand saws and hammers, formed
hard pine TINT ers into sturdy
cradle to support this temporary
power plant
Mounted on a new One-ton truck
from the Studebaker warehouse.
with heavy leather belts stretched
from the hywheel to the pulleys IF
the grinder. test was completed
and the operator stepped on the
starter button. And then TO the en-
! gineers of the Norton Co. came the
| greatest problem of all. The Stude-
baker motor lazily resting on Its
rough cradle. developed from 1,SO9
to 2,20O revolutions per minute.
turning the 12-inch stone wheels at
the terrific speed of II .O0O revolu-
tons all too fast to properly grind
any axe.
BY the application Of counter
shafts the speed was reduced to 3
zoe revolutions per minute, insuring
the safety of the men who volun-
teered TO pile up the sticks.
The first day Of the Studebakers
axe grinding stunt it is estimated.
by officials in charge. that over A.
600 keen edges were put on the 700
axes that were constantly raining
blow after blow on tree and log.
And, each morning of the five-day
forced vacation, the StUdebaker axe
grinding truck rolled down the
streets OF Worcester. through the
deep-crusted snow. out over the top
of the Norton hills and into the
woods. without a skip or any sem
blance of baking the Studebaker
kept steadily at its task of helping
out the fuel situation and at the
same time put few more chops
in the cords of Kaiser Bits hopes
for victory.