, 1923-07-01

l., four-Wneel brakes have be
iast rev months, and a few scattering
cars have been equipped with them
out these were just cases of lacking
on an extra accessory. They were
not ouilt in-not a fundamental part
OF the design of the chassis itself.
engineers maintain
that n set of brakes that is merely
lacked onto n chassis that was
not designed to receive them, can
show only Indifferent efficiency and
little TO the actual effectiveness
or It's braking power.
1t is the same Ole story MS that
OF the self-starter." says Captain E..
V. Ri~ckenbacker. Owners used TO
buy them and attach them externally.
Sometimes it worked.
Not until engineers de<ssned a
self starter into the very motor itself
did we achieve maximum efficiency
or an adequate degree of satisfaction.
BY the way. We claim that the
making of 4,wheel brakes an integral
part of the design of the chassis ia
the most important Improvement made
in motor car since the advent of the
self starter. II is the most practical
solution TO the propsem OF l~essening
accidents. which are the direct out.
come of increased traffic and ever.
increasing congestion.
Last year when l visited h Paris
Automobile show. l saw 81 different
makes of cars equipped with brakes
on all four wheels.
Three years prior to that, when
we laid the first R~ickenbacker chassis
on tho drawing board. we included
brakes on all four wheels.
II had just returned from Europe
and, after driving cars SO equipped.
1 was even then convinced that the
public would soon force manufac.
turers to adopt this extra safety
factor.
However. the American manufac
turer is always more interested In
the elimination than in the addition
of parts. and competition is so keen
that he hesitates to adopt anything
that will increase the price.
"As a matter of fact. the large per.
centage of American cars are bought
on n price basis rather than on h
grounds OF performance. This puts
a premium on the elimination of some
things the buyer has not yet learned
to prize, but which the manufacturer
himself knows should be Incorporated
in the product.
1T called for a good deal of courage
on our part to take n position so far
in advance of the rank and file of
manufacturers, especially as we are
a young concern with only about
10. 900 cars on the road at the present
time.
However. we nave from the very
first. set ourselves the policy of adopt.
ing anything we felt certain in our
minds was right and desirable.
II am confident today that the next
few months will not only Justify our
| application OF 4-wneel brakes. but will
show a wild scramble on the part OF
other manufacturers TO incorporate
this signal Improvement in their
chassis.
"Once a driver learns the many ad.
vantages of II, he will insist that his
car possess this feature.
THE question naturally arises.
why was It not adopted before" and
the answer to that is. that the prob
lem was not so simple OF solution as
might appear to the average layman.
1.-THE addition of two brakes to the
| front wheels does not. by any means,
| constitute a workable wheel brake
| system.
"It is not merely a matter OF adding
two to two. but OF multiplying W o
| by two many times.
THAT brakes on al wheels are de-
sirable is best proven by the fact
that a Pullman car has a brake on
every wheel-six pairs which act on
twelve wheels. This is n familiar ap-
| piicatlon of the principle which we
are now applying to the automobile
utilization of every point of contact
| of the wheel with the road.
''The average person imagines that
II you would only make the two
brakes twice as large they would be
twice as effective.
"On the contrary, on n properly de-
| signed car the englreer has put the
maximum Of friction area to cvmpen'
safe for the weight OF that particular
car.
one square inch more would re-
duce the efficiency Just as much as
one SQUARE inch less would do.
"All your brakes can do Is stop
the two wheels-the amount OF fric.
tIon these two tires exert on the road
is tho limit of your braking capacity
"But when we came to apply brakes
20 tho front wheels we encountered
several new problems.
First. tho brakes must v In