AUTOMOBILE 



513 



AUTOMOBILE 



suit the most fastidious tastes. Only a few years 

 ago it was the fashion, among those who 

 could afford it, to buy only French, German or 

 English-made automobiles. To-day the United 



THE IDEA EXISTED IN 1797 

 Trevithlck's road locomotive, the first self- 

 propelled vehicle ever constructed. 



States is not only making automobiles equal 

 to those in any other country, but is actually 

 exporting over $30,000,000 worth of automobiles 

 a year. 



The Chassis and Body. An automobile con- 

 sists of two main parts, the chassis and the 

 body. Chassis is a French word, pronounced 

 sha' see, and originally meant the mounting or 

 stationary part of a cannon in a fortress. It is 

 tin foundation for all the parts which are 

 movable and arc used to raise or turn tin- pun. 

 In an automobile the chassis comprises the 

 frame, wheels, springs, motor, and tin- m.rhan- 



by which power is transmitted from tin- 

 i to tin wheels in fact everything essen- 

 tial to the operation of the machine. Somc- 



s the engine and transmission are not m- 

 Hudrd in the term. All the rest of the M- 

 turr, winch merely provides accommodation for 

 passengers or goods, is called the body. 

 body and chassis are entirely distinct, and it , 

 possible to transfer a single body from one 

 chassis to another, and also to use several bodies 



33 



at different times on the same chassis. The 

 process may be compared to a man changing 

 his clothes. Not every automobile body, of 

 course, will fit any chassis, any more than every 

 suit will fit any man. Manufacturers usually 

 standardize the chassis, and make the body in a 

 variety of styles to suit the individual tastes 

 and needs of buyers. 



Styles and Uses of Automobiles. The word 

 automobile was created to meet a sudden 

 demand for some term which would describe a 

 "horseless carriage." There has been, recently, 

 a tendenc}' to substitute other terms, such as 

 motor car, either motor or car alone, and motor 

 vehicle. The British, in fact, have never used 

 the word automobile, but have adopted the 

 term motor car. The use of automobiles for 

 business purposes has also led to the use of 

 the term motor truck for the larger and heavier 

 vehicles. As the word automobile, moreover, 

 is really a French adjective, there is good 

 reason for substituting a noun such as car, 

 truck, or vehicle. 



The yariety of purposes for which automo- 

 biles are now used has led to the creation of 

 three distinct types of cars, each of which is 

 described in detail below. 



1. Pleasure Vehicles. All the earliest auto- 

 mobiles were pleasure vehicles solely. They 

 resembled closely the single-seated buggy or 

 runabout, and the power was provided by a 

 noisy one-cylinder engine. The next step was 

 :i two-seated conveyance, seating four persons, 

 and resembling the surrey. From this two- 

 seated style, the present standard touring car 

 has been developed. The speed of automobiles 

 risked the safety of passengers on the open 

 rear seat, and made necessary better protection 

 from wind, ruin, mml and dust. For these 

 ns the rear of the car was soon given a 

 rounded shape, much like that of a cup or 

 bowl. Thr In ndi. srrmn a resemblance to a 

 kind, called this part the tonncau, meaning 

 literally hogshead. The name remains, but 

 the exaggerated, bulging curves have long 

 since disappeared. Later, as sheet steel and 

 aluminum bodies were gradually substituted for 

 wood, the designers began to construct more 

 artistic models, following what are known as 

 This expression is borrowed from 

 shipbuilders; it means that the general effect is 

 one of length; the form tapers towards thr 

 front, or hood, to lessen air resistance. The 

 length of automobiles has been gradually in- 

 creased, wluli- th.- width and the height from 

 the ground have been decreased. 



