Evening star., 1925-03-01
No. s7-The Neglected Emergency.


Sometimes motorist comes TO dis
| cover a lot of new points about his
| car when he is simply sitting at the
! wheel thinking about things in gem
eral. Smith was recently waiting for
a member of his household to make a
purchase in a neighborhood store,
when he happened to notice the emer-
gency brake lever and wondered why
they ever called it an emergency
brake.
He had never once used it in an emer
gency, and the chances are it would
be the last thing to enter his head
were Ne suddenly forced TO make an
abrupt halt. He might happen TO re-
sort 10 it should the foot brake fail
him, but even this might be too late
to be effective.
Coming to think about it, what
good was the emergency brake any
way? He recalled that he never used
it even when he parked the car, be-
cause time and time again he had been
advised never to rely upon the brakes,
but to leave the car in gear. On this
particular occasion, as on many 9TH
ers, he had pulled on the emergency
brake in a half-hearted way as an
extra precaution against having the
car coast away. He readily realized
the folly of this when he shifted into
pulled the brake lever back more
than two notches and that the car
was free to run wild.
Would Abolish Emergency.
BY the time he had finished specu-
lating about the value of the emer-
gency brake he was. ready to climb
to the housetops and proclaim the
abolition of this useless control, sub
stituting in it's place an additional
foot pedal.
Then he CHANGED to meet me at the
filling station.
The emergency brake took on a
new significance.
''If you want the emergency brake
to live up to its name the thing to
do is to learn to use it. Make it a
habit of dividing the braking job
between the foot brake and the emer-
gency. If you find you can't remem-
ber to do this try the eXpedient of
putting a few drops of gasoline on
your service brake bands when they
start screeching. For a few miles
after such an application the service
brake will not hold properly, so you
will be forced to rely upon the emer-
gency. You'll be killing two birds
with one stone.
Once you have acquired the habit
Of reaching for the emergency brake
when you think you have got to make
a sudden stop you are not likely to
forget about the emergency when ii
is your only salvation"
Yes. but if that's the only reason
for having an emergency brake"
Smith argued. II think it would be
a better idea to dispense with it and
install another foot pedal, so that a
driver would do the job instnctively.
1t is much more natural to push on
the floor boards when you want to
stop than to pull a lever. Even the
folks in the tonneau apply imagi-
nary brakes with their feet. Besides,
you can get better leverage with
your legs than with your arms
Value of Emergency.
Your suggestions might be worth
considering If the quick stop feature
were the only use for the emergency
brake" l replied Perhaps you have
never tried it, but the emergency
brake can be very useful when start
ing up a steep hill from dead stop.
Most drivers keep one foot on the
service brake while they let in the
clutch, SO that the machine does not
coast backward, but in that case it is
necessary to control the throttle with
the steering post lever. This is
clumsy method and usually leads to
accidental racing of the engine when