OCR Text |
Show First Automotile Built Here Had No Spark Plug Motorists nowadays know the important im-portant function of the spark plugs, but lew 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 H. Rabezzana, research engineer, engi-neer, ignition was accomplished by a "hot tube" which had to be pre- i heated by the motorist usually with I a blow torch. This "hot tube" was one of the chief eaus-cs of uncertainty j 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 spark plugs Introduced were suprisingly bad. the engineer re- 1 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 ns it is possible for men and machines to make them. |