The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-05-29
\TIRRIN'
The DOPE
FIGURING THE TIME
By VEDDER GARD

lJ with which average LINZ
for the speeding cars has peeh
computed. This year there VIII DE
additional cause for astonlshlneilI'
because the scorers are keeping
right up with the flashing cars III
the matter of speed. The cars are
so fast and so evenly matched
that it is necessary to carry the
average miles an hour to three
decimal places.
chester S. Kicker, director OF
timing and scoring, and Odls a.
Porter. chief timer, have used the
following means OF computing
sneed of airplane races and have
introduced it for the first time at
the Indianapolis Speedway TINS
year.
S. j. Williams, local representa-
tive of the Monroe Calculating
Machine, was checked with
stop watch as he punched the
KEYS to compute the time and
average speed on Lockhart
Recommending lap in the eilmi-
nation trials and the entire
operation took only ~ 20
seconds.
In the first operation at the
qualifying trials the machine SUD
tracts the time at the start of the
lap from the time at the finish OF
the Ian as recorded on the tape or
the timing device. This is done
as follows by system devised by
Williams.
The Lockhart record-breahng
lap will be taken as an example.
It must be understood that a
chronomoter is ticking off the
seconds, minutes and hours.
On the Tape
The figures, to the hundretn
part of a second, appear on the
tape of the electrical apparatus IN
charge of Porter as the cars jlggle
the wire place just below the sur
face of the bricks in narrow
crack extending across the track.
On the day of the race the
chrOnomOter will start ticking
off the time from zero as the
cars fash over the wire on the
first mile of the 500.
AS it happened, the chronomo-
ter read 1:29:55.25 when Lockhart
started his spectacular perform
ance. That means, of course
/ hour, 29 minutes, 55.25 seconds.
Now, some of the rest of this is
rather technical and was explained
by Kicker and Williams. If you
are mathematically inclined it will
be easily understood. If not, you
don't have to puzzle over it. How
ever, it is interesting and good for
a little brain exercise, sort of
cross-figure puzzle.
Some Figures
The time 1:29:55.25 is subtracted
from zero. In the calculating ma
chine this shows as 9998:70:44.75,
or the compliment of 1:29:55.25.
When the car next passed the time
was recorded on the tape at
I1:31:13.1S. Adding this to the sum
in the machine gave the elapsed
time as 1878.
The machine, however, is IN
hundred units so that correc-
ton is needed for a sixty-secOnd
conversion land forty must be
subtracted from the number of
seconds shown. The time there
fore reads i: 81 minus 1923,
or 1:1793-that is, 1 minute,
1893 seconds for 21a-mile lap.
The next step is figuring the
average speed an hour. This is
done by dividing a constant for
the lap-9, 000-by the total num-
Der of seconds elasped, which in
this case was 1913. When 7793
is divided into 5000 the answer is
115.4SS miles an hour-the fast
est time ever made on the local
course.
All that in % 2-5 seconds! VIII
liams' brain and fingers must work
almost as fast as the super-charg-
ers on the racing cars.
Up In The Booth
When the time and averages
are flashed to the thousands on
Monday there will not be many
who give thought to the men
who are keeping the records of
the roaring cars. All that is just
taken for granted.
But up there in the little booth
will be human marvels Of speed
and efficiency not one whit less
remarkable than the mechanical
creations on the track below.