THE WOMAN AT THE WHEEL 



By Herbert Ladd Towle 



ILLUSTRATIONS BY S. WERNER, AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 



HAT changes a 

 dozen years have 

 wrought in mo- 

 toring ! Men no 

 longer buy cars 

 for the fun of dis- 

 covering why they 

 won't go, but 

 wholly in the pro- 

 saic expectation 

 that they will. 

 Little do the be- 

 ginners of to-day 

 know of the stern 



1 J J ovs of conquest 



which once made every mile a triumph ! 

 To-day a man must drive his car to death 

 to have anything more serious than ar- 

 rest happen to him. And now we see 

 women driving motor-cars for all the world 

 as if they belonged at the wheel ! 



Young girls, most of them, hardly out 

 of their teens they meet you everywhere, 

 garbed in duster and gauntlets, manipu- 

 lating gears and brakes with the assurance 

 of veterans. Not always in little lady- 

 like cars, either. If you visited last sum- 

 mer a resort blessed with good roads, 

 whether East or West, you saw " sixes" of 

 patrician fame and railroad speed, with 

 Big Sister sitting coolly at the wheel, 

 pausing at the post-office on their way for 

 a country spin. And you wondered if the 

 callow youth seated beside the competent 

 pilot would ever have the gumption to 

 handle a real car himself ! 



An amazing change, even from the 

 view-point of only three years ago ! Have 

 the women suddenly gained courage, or 

 have motor-cars altogether lost their for- 

 midable mien ? 



Something of both, no doubt, but es- 

 pecially something of the latter. Cars 

 are being perfected, not merely in delicacy 

 of control, but in the total elimination of 

 certain demands for strength and skill. 

 Engine-starters now next to universal, 

 214 



save on the lightest cars are the most 

 notable instance. You no longer whirl a 

 crank or dexterously "snap her over"; 

 you merely press a foot-plunger and an 

 electric (or sometimes pneumatic) motor 

 spins the engine merrily till the explosions 

 start. A storage-battery furnishes cur- 

 rent for both starter and lamps and a 

 little dynamo mounted on the engine 

 keeps the battery charged. It isn't a toy, 

 that starting-motor; some kinds are pow- 

 erful enough to propel the whole car while 

 briskly turning the engine ! 



Cranking-up is not the only task that 

 the woman driver may now avoid. Gear- 

 shifting, in the larger cars, demands real 

 strength as well as knack. Some progress 

 has been made of late in developing elec- 

 tric gear-shifts, operated by buttons on 

 the wheel. You press the proper button 

 at leisure; then at the right moment you 

 unclutch for the briefest instant and the 

 gears shift automatically. 



A control feature that requires no 

 strength but lots of "knowing how" is 

 the spark advance. Many persons who 

 handle the wheel well, but have only a 

 vague idea of what is under the hood, 

 never acquire that difficult art. A " spark 

 knock" means nothing to them; they are 

 deaf alike to the piteous pleadings of their 

 cylinders and to the rumblings that tell of 

 late ignition and a heated engine. For 

 these chronic amateurs the automatic 

 spark advance, to be found on a number 

 of cars this year, is an unalloyed boon ; and 

 even to the seasoned driver it is a benefit, 

 as meaning one less control to think about. 



The tire problem, it must be admit- 

 ted, remains in an unsatisfactory state. 

 Power-pumps there are, but simply get- 

 ting the tire on and off is no light task. 

 With practice a woman can manage a 

 small tire, say up to 32x33^ inches. 

 Some can handle larger ones; but, as a 

 rule, if even a medium-sized tire goes flat 

 a woman must have masculine help, and 



