The sun., 1919-10-19
WHEN THE BATTERY
DOESN'T BAT EN- OUT
There Is a Remedy for the
Troubles That May
Come.
BY H. CLIFFORD BRoKAw,


Technical Director West Side Y. II. C. A.
Automobile Schools, Neto York City
When the battery does not function
properly the automobile Is quite AS much
handicapped-as the White Sox, for\ in
stance. Neither Is in the champ class
There are a lot of drivers having
trouble with the battery" these days
The battery does not seem to bat"
and flood of Inquiries Is coming in
asking why the lights act queer or the
horn refuses to toot or the self-starter
will not start.
The chief trouble in most of the cases
reported SO far Is that the drivers have
failed to take into account the change
OF season and shorter days. With the
end OF the daylight saving season there
will be a lot more having trouble from
this same cause. Not all of the COM
plants have had this as a basis. for
we have had some new trouble causes
in recent days.
In general, however the troubles
enumerated come from starved bat
terry. The fact is that it is much more
difficult to keep n battery charged at
this time of the year than during the
long days, when there is less running
after dark. You know gas and electric
bills in the home are keeping pace
with the high cost of living for a month
| or so. The sun sets earlier and lights
! are turned on earlier II one obeys the
, law.
One fellow reported that hA lights
were acting up. They would burn ale
! right for little while after starting
the car then would dim or quit. Some
| times the DINNERS would work and
sometimes not. The garage man tried
TO remedy this and put the DINNERS
out of commission altogether. A battery
expert was consulted and pronounced
the battery to be in good worinkg order.
but he could not explain why the lights
would not work. not being a wiring
| expert, &c.
| Then the horn began to balk and
would not do business until the car had
been running an hour or more. The
owner was business friend and casu-
ally mentioned his troubles when we
met. A few questions developed the fact
| that the driver was employed most of
the day and did his driving chiefly at
night, though he made long week end
! trips, but ran late into the night on
Saturdays and Sundays. During the
week he was knocking about town, max
ing many stops, necesstating much use
Of the self-starter and continuous use
of lights though the car was standing
much OF the time.
| or course this at once suggested that
the battery was being starved and could
no more do its full best than man
under similar conditions. Tests OF the
wiring by the owner disclosed no trouble
| and SO l advised that the battery be
removed and fully charged at n ser
vice station. 1t ended the troubles at
once few days later my friend en-
! tered the school to find out something
about his car.
| This was case where the generator
| did not have a chance to keep the bat
4 terry charged. for the discharge was at
a high rate and the recharging at
| ow rate Even the self-starter helped
| empty the battery more than ii had
earlier in the season, for the frosty eve
ninGs made starting harder and con-
| sumed more current So that my friend
was using an excessive amount Of cur
rent running slow, burning lights and
starting often. while the observance OF
| speed regulations made the generation
less than usual.
Some generators have an adjustment
for cool weather SO that they will pro-
| duce more current to Offset the in
| creased use, and where there is this
| adjustment 1t should be regulated at this
| season. If there is no adjustment the
battery should be charged occasionally
| from outside.
Another feature not ordinarily taken
! into consideration is that the storage
battery does not function as efficiently
| in cool weather. Where there is self