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Show lYESTERDJtY'S CAR IS QUEER IK Designed Originally After the Horse Carriage, Changes Came Slowly Behold the fiery chariots of yester j das the ehugglnp,, clanking motor c .i r-- thai pioneered thc-lr way through otherwise quiet streets, and on raro loccasinns ventured Into country lanes in defiance .dike of possible merhan leal mfshaps and certain unpopularity among the landed genii j ii was onlj recently thai we -topped repeating the story of Uncle Hlratn 'and Aunt Nancy and the team of colt?. The spirited animals tried to face about In their harness when one oi these throbbing demon? ap-I ap-I Broached them on the road and uni Nancy was for jumping out Of the. wagon. The conscientious motorist 'took his life nnd the colts' bridles In ids hands hjt Uncle Hiram yelled, '1 kin hold cm. mistei , J OU hold Nancy.'' es. sir. it seems only yesterday jbut It wasn't, for yesterday Hiram and Nancy drove to lown In au eight cylinder car, it's the fifth one they ihave owned and they're goins to scrap i! for a 1921 model, i: they can find a dealer who can promise ! delivery with any degree oi assurance. assur-ance. "WHAT'LL BE NEXT?" Nothing impresses the thinkei iujre than the question. "What will It b. bext?" when he ruminates on the con ditions which used to be. When grandfather used the candle' to obtain ob-tain his light; when a message could only be transferred by a rider horseback; horse-back; when navel was snail like in iis speed; and when ihe only informal infor-mal ion which reached the community came months after rhr event had taken place The impressive pari of this act of ruminating is the comparison com-parison with modern devices for the same purposes: The telephone, the train the airplane, Ihe nevvspaprr, and last, but not least, the automobile. automo-bile. In no field has more progress been made than in the Held of automotive engineering. From the few weak attempts, at-tempts, about twenty years ago. to commercialize .in intrusted pi ce of mechanism to ihe perfect kings or tho road, which snort over the high ways today, il takes a stretch of imagination The first models were never designed from a standpoint of beauty and the engines were thrown together with just the idea of get ting the car to move. Now the engines en-gines are models of mechanical per fection They propel a regular pull-man pull-man car over the roads with noiseless noise-less satisfaction DESIGN CHANGES Looking over the long series of changes v. hich have characterized automobile au-tomobile body design, one uncon sclously wonders from what source the designers drew their Ideas. Did they slavishly imitate the efforts of the old "arrlagc builders? Were they moved entirely by consideration of utility, or were they inspired bv the jctcslre to create ..omefhing of perma ' ncnt beauty in keeping with the I spirit ot the automobile'' It Is probable that all three meth- ! ods win- followed to some extent by i old and modern body draftsmen, al- I though a survey of some of the awk-ward awk-ward efforts of ihe ca-lier r-chool cer It alnlj shows email inspiration, Kven': the first of Ihe "freaks" which marln their appearance in the late '90s fol lowed somo recognized carriage style hi the development of their seating arrangements. UGLY LINES DISAPPEAR Probably the buckboard and the fcide-bar bugy were the models these coacfrwork artists worked from. Neither was a good source of style, and in i lo ir adaption to horseless : .ehicle.s it would seem that all their bad traits were retained and their ;ood ones discarded. As later and more refined models put in an appearance, bodp lines were modified to fit passenger room needs, 'but to a" largo extent current carriage car-riage styles were the basis of body cJeijgn. Unfortunately, motor car utility and coach art were not a congenial con-genial pair when mated in this way, which la id he regretted because of , coachbullding is a fine and ancient art. many of whose designers achieved world renown through mas i erpieces iSomc ugly features just now begin ning to disappear were the offspring of the unhappv union Foi example, the old designers never gave much consideration to the hood over the engine. This was a separate unit, ;like the horse, and was generally left Ian inharmoniuos break at the dash 'to take care of itself. The result was which destroyed all chauce of achieving achiev-ing the appearance, of a graceful unit ' whicfc should characterize an automobile. auto-mobile. I FINE DESIGNS It is true that a large share of the responsibility for such discords 1 in motor fashions was due to the practice of having body design in the hands of engineers who designed the 'rest of the ear These worthy men, excellent mechanics as ihey were, were almost totally ignorant of the artistic piinciples which must under-! under-! iie every work of beauty and were 'practically forced to adapt carriage! ; styles to their needs with naturally (unhappy results Of late the pendulum has started to j swing back Most body builders and I those, few car maufacturers who build I their own bodies spare no expense! (in employing the highest talent for j their designing staffs Much 1m-piovement 1m-piovement has. of course, been made, jbut there is still great room for development. de-velopment. The automobile iB a new kind of transportation. It is opening a new phase of civilization just as the rail roads did, and It should have a characteristic char-acteristic appearance as distinct from any other transportation medium as the railroad train or the ocean liner. Designers know this and are strlv ; ing in that direction, so we may look for important style changes in the inear future. L |
