The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1928-01-28
PROGRESS
RECITED
BY @. w. CHURCHILL
General Sales Manager Buick Motor
Company


Company
Among the many mechanical SER
wants which help to different1ate
our mode of living from that Of our
ancestors, few present such strik-
ing Illustrations Of development in
response to human need as does the
modern motor car.
Who does not recall the day
when the family automobile was
lacked up on blocks out in the barn
at the first hint Of frost? Tires
were Debated, radiators drained and
exposed metal parts smeared thiclly
with grease to guard against rust
during the long months OF in
activity. Garages offered special
rates for all-winter storage, and
the owner who ventured out after
the first heavy snowfall did so with
q trepidation which was all too
often justified before he reached
home.
In the North, the cold itself reared
the strongest barriers against the
winter use of cars. Chill and damp
were injurious to the varnish once
used on metal bodies. Engines were
not reliable at low temperatures.
Starting, fabrication and carburetion
were hard problems in cold weather.
And even If engines had been cold
proof, the old-fashioned two-wheel
brakes and high-pressure tires were
a combination affording little con-
troll over the cars movements on
icy streets.
Closed Too Costly
Add to these facts the prevalence
OF open cars, production of which,
up to 1925, greatly exceeded that
of closed models, and you have the
principal factors in the situation as
it used to be. Closed cars were too
costly for general use, so the aver.
age Northerner would have walked
for comforts sake, even had his
car been mechanically independent
Of the weather.
In the South, restrictions were
just as limiting, though not identi-
cal. Mud was the obstacle here
clinging, sticky ooze which seeming
ly had no bottom. For road building,
like many other branches of indus
try, was neither extensive nor scien-
tific. Oat fields doomed as large. in
the national economy, as oil fields,
and the magnificent highways of
today were undreamed Of. Nowhere
in the United States was the year
round use of motor cars practicable.
Few contrasts between past and
present are more vivid than the
one afforded by winter street scenes
Of 20, or even 10, years ago, and of
today. The thousands who now
glide comfortably to work in heated
fnly al uHf I'M
way over the ice afoot, or in
scarcely greater comfort, guided
buggies over the creaking snow.
Children coasted in the streets and
hitched on behind bobsleighs. Look
ing back, 1t is hard to conceive of
the two worlds as the same. so
striking is the Transformation motor
cars have wrought.
No Longer Seasonal
The change has come slowly.
Only as it demonstrated its capac-
ity to speed UP industry, promote
social intercourse, and tighten the
worlds work in countless other
ways, did the automobile find itself
in demand. The very adaptability
to service which made it indis-
pensable in summer created an
equally urgent winter need. Today
it is uncomfortable that the motor
cars usefulness could ever have
been merely seasonal. We prob
ably derive greater actual benefit
in winter than in summer.
What are the changes. fathered
by the need for year.round trans
portation. which have so expanded
the automobiles field of utility?
One of the earliest, of course. was
the electric starter. The crank,
once permanently installed at the
front, has long since been relegated
to the tool.kit along with the jack
and other emergency apparatus
Development in carburetors and
naantfolds has given US engines