Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-08
MILADY'S MOTORING
By FREDERICK C. RUSSELL

1t won't keep the clock on the dash
from running down to drive on a wind
ing road.
Women who occasionally get out an
old bonnet only to find that 1t has
somehow or other come back into style
again might bring the fact to the atten-
ton of friend husband when he is on
the verge of signing up for some fiashy
hued gig. He will doubtless argue that
color is the keynote of the times, but
plating, which is f1ashy in itself, has
brought black, blue, maroon and dark
green back into vogue again.
The other day found it necessary
to stop while an instructor took the
wheel of a new car to help woman be-
ginner pull the car up on the road from
the ditch. 1t gave me time to realize
what a mistake the instructor made in
allowing her to turn around in such a
way that the rear of the car could go
off the road. Every experienced driver
and competent observation-disclosures the
rear of the car to the center of the road,
risking the ditch with the front wheels.
Most cars are of the rear drive type, and
the trick is to keep the rear wheels on
the hard surface of the road.
Another instructor who seems to have
rather poor luck teaching people to drive
invariably puts the beginner at the
wheel as soon as they start off. This is
just like throwing Willie overheard to
teach him to swim, and just as inadvis-
able. The instructor should take the
wheel himself for 10 or Is minutes while
the woman beside him watches care
fully.
OF course you have got to have some
thing worth while initiating.
There is very useful rule to the effect
that as you enter q private garage so
shall you back out of it. All of which
means that II you enter the garage with
the front wheels headed in anything
but straight ahead line you are quite
likely to take on door on the way out.
Jim Tully, the master Of vagabondis,
warns the woman at the wheel against
offering to pick up school children who
beg rides from passing Automobiles. He
feels that a subtle harm is done these
children on the Emersonian theory that
the highest price one can pay for any
thing Is to ask for it. BY asking and
receiving these children return home
slightly demoralized, in his opinion. He
may be right.
A woman doesn't have to be mechani-
cally inclined to remember that most of
the annoying squeaks around the driving
compartment can be traced to the hood
lacings which need q little vaseliEe
smeared over them.
The gears of the modern automobile
shift SO easily service men are some
times puzzled when a woman complains
of difficulty pushing the shift lever back
into neutral, or out Of one gear in anti
cipation of meshing with another. Look
ing into just such a complaint I found
that 1t was the result OF not pressing the
clutch pedal far enough down while
trying to shift. without releasing the
engine Of course there is additional pres
sure on the faces OF the gears and con-
sequent difficulty in shifting.
If some Of the units of the automobile
were more logically named they would
stand. This Is especially true of the
''mutfier," that very important unit that
Is inserted III the exhaust pipe.
This device does 'muffie" to q certain
extent, but If 1t were 100 per cent efl-
cient 1t would simply act as an expander,
which Is its real function. When burned
gas vapor Is expelled through the ex-
haust 1t is rushing to expand. II we let
it out directly to the air, as they do in
racing cars, there would be the familiar
racket. But by providing for a slower
rate OF expansion We are able to elimi-
nate the noise. 80
Some muf1iers divert the passing
gases in various way and often force
the gases to expand through perforations
in metal discs. This cuts the noise, but
produces a certain amount of back pres
no more inefficient process than many
other things about a car When the