AUTOMOBILE 



516 



AUTOMOBILE 



open, the possibility of frizzing the water in 

 the boiler in cold \\vatlun-, ami in all 08866 the 

 length of time required to generate steam 

 when the engine was cold. 



Gasoline or Intirnal-Combuxtion Enyincs. 

 All of the pioneers who tried to construct a 

 self-propelled vehicle, from the days of Sir 

 Isaac Newton almost to the end of the nine- 

 teenth century, used steam as a motive power. 

 In 1872 George B. Selden of Rochester, N. Y., 

 applied to the Unittd Stales for a patent to 

 cover a new idea, the application of an internal- 

 combustion engine to a self-propelled vehicle. 

 The patent was not granted until 1895, and 

 by that time there were other inventors using 



HOW GEARS ARE SHIFTED 



As the car gains speed and less power is re- 

 quired to drive it, the gear lever is shifted from 

 low, or first speed, to the second, or interme- 

 diate speed position. Then gear f is moved out 

 of mesh with gear d to the position shown in 

 the illustration, while gear g is moved into mesh 

 with gear c. The power is then transmitted, on 

 hiuh. or third speed, through gears a, b, c, 

 and <j. 



the same idea. Among them were Charles B. 

 Duryea, sometimes called the father of the 

 American automobile, Elwood Haynes, Alex- 

 ander Wmton, Frank B. Stearns, R. E. Olds 

 and Henry Ford. Ford began to build his first 

 machine in 1894, and finished it two years 

 now his factory turns out finished cars 

 at the rate of more than 1,500 a day. 



In the automobiles built by these and other 

 men the propelling force is derived from an 

 internal-combustion engine (which see). Va- 

 rious fuels have been tried at one time or 

 another, but gasoline is the only one now in 

 general use (see GASOLINE). Though the in- 



Represents 

 power 



Represents 

 no power 



DIAGRAM SHOWING LOSS OF POWER 



A great many people find it puzzling to under- 

 stand why continuous power can only be ob- 

 tained from an engine of six cylinders or more. 

 If the following simple explanation be followed 

 carefully the reason will become evident, for, 

 stripped of its technicalities, the subject is com- 

 paratively simple. 



It should be remembered that the only part of 

 an automobile which produces power is the en- 

 gine not the fly-wheel, carburetor or magneto. 

 It is true that the first stores up energy, but it 

 can produce none. Let the operations of a single 

 cylinder engine be considered first, for multiple 

 cylinder engines consist simply of a number of 

 separate and similar cylinders, the power from 

 which is applied in sequence and at different 

 angles to the crank shaft. 



In the single cylinder engine, four strokes of 

 the piston (two strokes toward the crank shaft 

 and two strokes in the opposite direction) are 

 required to complete each "cycle." A cycle is 

 simply one complete series of operations. Each 

 cycle requires two complete revolutions of the 

 crank shaft. 



The four strokes found in the single cylinder 

 engine are : 



First. First half revolution of the crank shaft ; 

 piston travels toward the crank shaft ; ^as is 

 drawn into the cylinder. This is the suction 

 stroke. 



Second. Second half revolution of the crank 

 shaft ; piston travels back ; gas is compressed in 

 the cylinder. This is the compression stroke. 



Third. Third half revolution of the crank 

 shaft; piston travels toward the crank shaft; 

 combustion and expansion of gas in the cylin- 

 der ; this is the power stroke. 



Fourth. Fourth half revolution of the crank 

 shaft ; piston travels back ; burned gas is ex- 

 pelled from the cylinder. This is the exhaust 

 stroke. 



These four strokes are continuously repeated in 

 rotation as long as the motor runs. However, 

 there is one important point to be remembered ; 

 namely, power is not produced in any cylinder 

 throughout all of the power stroke, but, approxi- 

 mately, through only four-fifths of it. It is evi- 

 dent then, even to the casual observer, that it is 

 utterly impossible for the single or two-cylinder 

 engine to deliver continuous power, as each cylin- 

 der delivers power through less than one-fourth 

 of the cycle. Many think, however, that the four- 

 cylinder will give continuous power, and it would 

 if it were not for this fact, that in not quite all 

 this so-called power stroke is power available. 

 As a consequence, to obtain continuous power 

 the six-cylinder engine has been developed. lOn- 

 gines of eight and twelve cylinders are also sold. 

 but they do not develop continuous power more 

 effectively than the six-cylinder. However, they 

 add to the horse power of the engine. 



All this is much more easily grasped by in- 

 spection of the second diagram. It will thus be 

 seen why that small fraction of the power stroke 

 which is not available for power shuts out the 

 four-cycle engine from being an absolutely con- 

 tinuous power producer. 



creasing cost of gasoline has led to the manu- 

 facture of possible substitutes, none of these 

 has yet taken its place. In a gasoline engine 

 the liquid gasoline is forced through a car- 

 buretor (which see), which turns it into a 

 fine spray and mixes it with air. This mixture 



