The New York herald., 1921-12-25

Somewhere on your car-probably under
the floorboard where It can be conveniently
forgotten ard neglected--is little boxlike
device, which does tremendous service ana
an unbelievable amount of hard work Tor
you; and all 1t asks In return for this work
is that you feed 1t. that you keep 1t clean'
and that you give 1t a drink once week.
refer to your storage battery.
There probably has been no other inven-
mobiles can be ascribed so much as to the
storage battery. The weakest woman can
now crank the largest car. and can 90 II !.
while the road Is muddy without soiling her
shoes or gown. At the same time. there
is no part of the automobile so little under
stood and so much neglected as IT is. =.
1t must be kept charged. If you take some
OF the current out of your battery by using
your starting motor or your nghts, YOU y
must put the current back again In order 70
have some the next time you want 10 use
the starter tho lights. In other woros,
IL you discharge the battery. you must agali
charge 1t The generator on your car ooes
this recharging automatically. but there are
times when the battery Is discharged ias'er
than the generator can recharge II; ., 49,
In order that you can Judge whether or
not you are usirg the current from the
battery quicker than you. are sending ~ ~
back again. you must understand what ,' -
meant by the ampere-hour, the name py
which the size of the battery Is known
Batteries are said to be OF 90, ~, loo &C,
ampere-hour capacity BY this Is meant t,,1s tnat
charged. can have drawn from 1t 60 amperes
for one hour, or one ampere Tor sixty hours ..
six amperes for ten hours, $50 amperes Tor
one-third OF an hour &C., the amperes flow
ing, multiplied by the hours OF flowing' oeihs
the ampere-hourS. 4,
When your starting motor is cranking the
engine 1t Is taking in the neighborhood OF
$50 amperes, and In many cases much more.
Thus a 60-ampere-hour battery. when tuiiy
charged, would be completely discharged In
twenty minutes IL the starter were used con-
tinually for this time. The generator, when
the car Is travelling about fifteen miles an
so that 1t would take ten hours to COM
pletely charge a 60-ampere-hour battery.
Please note from the above that IL taxes
thirty minutes of engine running to replace
the current taken from the battery by tne
starter in one minute. At night the lisnts
will take nearly all the current made py the
generator, so there will be no charging OF
From the above you can SEQ that the
battery on car which Is driver Tor =. a
very short distance, and whose self-starter
Is often used. may be discharged mucn
faster than 1t can be recharged again. 80
II you find your battery runs down otten ,on
and must be taken to charging station.
before condemning the battery and thus
doing an injustice TO the. manufacturer
thereof ,h ask coyDdiion yoIrsef ~ y rnpns 1e
Many misunderstandings occur petween
owners and charging station owner about
the charge for the rental of batteries used
while the owners is being charged.
sample of these disputes is follows:
man brought a battery to service
station to be charged, and rented q battery
in its place. Three days afterward he de-
cided to have his car overhauled and re-
painted, and without returning the rented
battery and getting his own. put his car
out of commission. More than a month
afterward he called for his battery. and
when he received a bill at 10 cents day
for the rental of the battery became very
indignant, claiming that he should not be
charged for more than three days, the time
his car was In service.
When you consider that the battery man
has invested large sums OF money In bat
teries of many different shapes and sizes,
and when you consider that the life OF a
battery Is only In the neighborhood OF
fifteen months-when In use or lying idle
you will see that this rental services has
been established more for the convenience
of the customers than for profits. The
man mentioned above failed to consider that
the battery man was without the service
of the battery while the car was being
painted, and may even have had to buy
another of that particular shape and size
to supply other customers.
I believe that owners have now become
educated to the great Importance OF giving
their car a drink; that Is, OF filling with
distilled water about once week. IL Is
extremely important that this be done II
the battery is to enjoy long life-
No part OF the car demands cleanliness
SO much as the storage battery. IL the
smallest particle OF mineral matter gets into