Arizona republican., 1918-08-18
SOME POINTERS ON
 BATTERIES GIVEN
 ID AID MOTORISTS

If anybody looks at the outside of your battery and tries to tell you what's going on inside you're safe in setting him down as a faker," says F. L. GieloW. chief electrician for West ern Machinery company, local repre- sentatives for Willard Storage bat teries.
 Not long ago patron of one of these battery fortune tellers drove up and told me that his plates were all gone and that he needed new bat tery. I could have sold him one, too he was that certain
 Tt seems that the son of one of his neighbors had looked at the battery and made a wild guess
 After I inspected the battery I found that it was a clear case of undercharg- ing caused by a loose connection. l added distilled water, charged the bat tery and had it ready a couple of days later in good condition for service.
 Another man who thought he was Sherlock Holmes on batteries fell down because he formed his conclu- sion from performance instead of facts inside the battery. This fellow thought his plates were short circuited-that the insulation had failed. The real trouble was that he had let his ma chine lie idle. and had failed to keep the charge up, so that the plates were so hard that long charge was neces- sary.
 "The only way to be safe from these diagnosis sharps is to disregard their opinions entirely. If you suspect there IS any trouble the best thing to do is to go straight to an expert who knows how to make the few simple. necessary battery tests
 Starving Starting Battery
 One of the coldest forms of storage batteries continues Mir Gielow, was composed of two sheets of lead with a strip of flannel between. all rolled up like jelly roll and stuck on end in a bath of battery solution.
 Battery builders of those days did not have any lead oxide to use in mak ing the plates so what the early ex- perlmenters and builders did was to connect two plates in d direct-current circuit and let the battery charge un- Ill It made one of the plates a positive and the other a negative.
 The first battery of this style was used Tn lecture given by a French scientist, Plante, who created a great sensation because he was able to keep little arc light going for a few min utes with the current developed Ii was remarkable thing. but as an au- lomoblle battery such a device as this would not have been worth the trouble Of attaching to the car.
 One of the weak points about this early battery was. the fact that it had n T.
 pieces of lead with one insulator. and when this lnsulator broke down. as it dld Tn very short time, the battery would not operat"
 It was from this beginning that the art of battery building grew to it's present state From that single strip of flannel between the two rolled nm plates. the wonderful threaded rubber insulation that is so widely used today has developed There have been a great many steps of improvement between the two eXtremities. but the whole his tory of starting batteries from the first Plante battery, insulated with flannel to the latest one. insulated with threaded rubber. has covered a remark ably short time
 Electric Starting History
 Nearly every car owner knows that MT T. A. Willard had a great deal to do with the starting battery, but only a few know of the part he took in making electric starting and lighting practical for automobiles.
 Long before electric lighting was seriously considered. Mir. Willard had perfected battery for lighting rail- way coaches and was familiar with every detail of the system. This was in the days when all motor cars were autos" and had to be wound up"- when acetylene lights were the best to be had and the spark came from set of dry batteries.
 Electricity had one big job on the automobile that it didn't have on the Pullman-that was starting. As start ing. even with the most economical mo- tor took considerable current, the bat tery had to be kept well charged
 One of Mr. Willard's biggest jobs in automobile starting and lighting was to make d generator that would keep