Milford News | 1928-09-07 | Page 8 | First Automobile Built Here Had not Spark Plug

First Automobile Built Here Had No Spark Plug Motorists nowadays know the Important Im-portant function of the spark plugs, but few realize that the first automobiles automo-biles sold in America were not equipped with them. It sounds odd, but It Is a fact. In the original one-cylinder car, according accord-ing to II. Rabezzana, research engineer, engi-neer, Ignition was accomplished by a "hot tube" which had to be preheated pre-heated by the motorist usually with a blow torch. This "hot tube" was one of the chief causes of uncertainty In pioneer motoring. It was slow In reaching the right temperature, uncertain un-certain In Its functioning and its use fraught with difficulty and danger to the owner. The first Bpark plugs Introduced were suprisingly bad, the engineer reminds re-minds us, and If one of them were used in present-day engines, It would not last a minute at wide-open throttle. In the Intervening years of automotive automo-tive progress, spark plugs, like other component parts of the automobile, have gradually developed and improved im-proved to the end that they might be dependable, trouble-free and long-lived. long-lived. As a consequence, there are spark plugs today as nearly perfect as It is possible for men and machines to make them.