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Show MODERN GARS ARE HUCHJMPROVED Many Little Details of 20 Years Ago Have Been Done Away With. Interesting remlulact-nces of automobiles auto-mobiles and automoblllng 20 jt.rs ago are narrated by Ii. V. de Oui-churd, Oui-churd, a pioneer in il.c automobile industry, in-dustry, and head of the AO Spark 1'lug company, which round out its twentieth anniversary this month. "Today the motorls'. steps into Ills car, turns on the Ignition uuci U comfortably com-fortably and confidently away on his journey," Mr. de Guk-hard aiii. "Twenty years ago this same motorist, motor-ist, perhaps, used a tea kettle full of hot water to prime tits machine, pouring pour-ing some of the hot water into the rn vtiiitor and some of It over H.e carburetor. car-buretor. Then he would bend over and crank the car; If adroit at this cperatlon, he would escape a broken arm. Cai of Headlights. "There were the headlights that hud to be filled with oil In the real early days; a little later, carbide lights were Introduced. With this method the motorist mo-torist found It necessary to see tiiat the tank was supplied with water and carbide. "Riding over a rough road, and there certainly were plenty of them, the carbide lights would suddenly flare up like Vesuvius and then as quickly fude away. Following the carbides came the acetylene pressure tank, which was quite an improvement. It will be remembered thnt all of these lamps bad to be lighted with a match. I "There were no garages along the roadways 20 years ago and few pas-sersby pas-sersby to render help, so In case of a punctured tire the motorist would begin work on changing the offending bolted on, lug or clincher type fabric tire. Inflating the tire was done by hand pump. There was no such thing as carry an inflated spare tire In the early days. And changing a flat tire then often meant half a day's work, a pair of badly skinned bands and anything any-thing but a sweet disposition. Introduce Shock Absorbers. "Shotk absorbers were unheard of In the early days. This didn't make motoring over the bumpy roads any better. Windshield wipers were another an-other unknown appliance, but they weren't needed anyway because wvery-body wvery-body Jacked their cars up in the garages ga-rages and kept them there because road conditions made it Impossible to use them. "While there was no such thing as a spark plug 80 odd years ago, In the days of sprockets and skepticism the accept . means of firing the fuel mixture mix-ture was a fearful contrivance known as a 'hot tube.' ' "Equipped with a blow torch the motorist would proceed to heat up the tube. If he couldn't get the tube hot enough, the engine remained dead. If the tube became overheated bam. backfire, bandages. "Whe- it looked as though that hardy band of pioneer motorists was destined for extinction, the fiendish 'hot tube' was discarded In favor of spark plugs. Spark Plugs Improved. "he first spark plugs were nothing to enthuse about They were bought by the peck and thrown away by the bushel. But In the Intervening years of automobile progress, spark plugs like other component parts of the automobile auto-mobile have been gradually developed and Improved until they are as nearly perfect as It Is possible to make them. "Today Improved engine design eliminates necessity of the tea kettle full of hot water; better tires have reduced greatly necessity for changing. chang-ing. Improved roads and cars rake winter driving as popular as at any season, an.l certainly more appreciated. appreciat-ed. On any well traveled road the motorist mo-torist is able as a rule to get service when necessary. "Cars are being driven longer today because of engineering development, and better driving conditions and because be-cause of :he protective devices on the car such as oil filters, air cleaners, crgnkcase ventilation, gasoline strain ers, balloon tires, shock absorbers, lacquers and paints. Instrument board Indicators, etc. Again, another factor In the long life and econonic operation opera-tion of today's automobile is the owner's own-er's knowledge of the Importance of keoptn; the car serviced regularly." |