Evening star., 1924-11-23
BY FREDERICK c. RUSSELL.

Occasionally car owner observes
something that starts him thinking
along new lines and is perhaps en-
couraEed to make a radical change in
his method of caring for his car. A
lot of presumably good advice 10 Of
fered the motorist, but now and again
he stumbles over the fact that If it
were not all subject to revision we
would now be somewhere near that
promised land where cars will grow
en- bushes and tires run on forever.
Motorists get into such rut of
doing things in prescribed order that
they are not at all likely to be con-
scious of any errors in method. A
radical idea offered by some motor
crank" therefore, will sometimes
serve to give the average motorist a
new point Of orientation.
For instance, how do you pump up
your tires? Stop at the filling sta
tion, unscrew the dust caps and hook
tho hose to each tire valve in turn:
Test for the desired pressure. screw
on the caps and go your way?
Story Illustrates Point.
That's the way it's usually done. to
he sure. But listen to this true story
Of how a certain car owner did the
job in the presence Of the writer.
This fellow did not pump in air
until he had first lacked up the wheel
holding the respective tire. 1t was q
very queer process. indeed, and not a
few people touched their foreheads
In the manner usually; reserved for
anecdotes regarding Columbus before
he satisfied the world that the earth
is not nat. The man at the filling
station said he was glad he had sue
ceeded in getting the fellow to use
one Of the less conspicuous pump
outlets, as these eccentricities would
have caused congestion. But beyond
that he was not interested. 1t was
just plain case of a motor crank"
publicly demonstrating particularly
foolish brand Of nonsense.
What difference does it make
whether a tire is standing on the
ground or suspended when the air
nresure is read, or when new air is
being added? Why go to all this
trouble? Did the poor fellow really
think it was necessary to go through
all this rismarole? Did he not see
That he was the only one who ever
did such thing?
His Method Of Reaxontnx.
Few who observed the process
could fail. 10 raise these points, but
IL they did no one else took the trou-
BILE to hear the answers. / was soon
alone with this queer specimen of
car owner and accordingly soon ac-
auainted with the facts. He was GO
ing to all this trouble as a precaution
against leaky valves, and this was
his method OF reasoning:
Ii a tire is normally pressing
against the tire valve with a force
OF 60 pounds per square inch. it
stands to reason that this pressure
will be actually greater If space al
lowed for air Is contracted through
making that tire support fourth Of
the weight OF the car. Thus IL you
should let air out OF a tire while 1t
Ia resting on the ground and sup
porting fourth of the Ger the valve
will be actusted with a greater force,
wearing it's frail rubber section un-
necessarily. thus encouraging Nat
tires through valve leaks. He in
sisted that there was enough wear
on the valve rubber when hooking on
the pump hose and allowing high
pressure air to rush in without
slamming the valve the other way
with excessive internal pressure.
Held Immaterfal Matter.
Whether he was right or wrong is
entirely beside the point, for it was
= very small matter he was seeking
to correct in any case, and no busy
motorist would be justified in taking
his time to save valve insides or the
trouble he might have through the
premature destruction of one. But
It showed that he was thinking.
Conventional advice on matters of
car care was not being accepted by
him without proof of their merit. He
was out to get ahead in his motor
ing by experimenting. And, above
slI, he didn't care what other people
thought about 1t.
Which calls to mind the fact that
thousands of car owners are sendins
their cars to the washstand and hav-
ing them ruined because it is q ira
ditfon Of car ownership to keep
car In good order by having 1t