FOR BETTKlt Cliors 111 



and sets to learning- them. The gasoline engine has come to he 

 looked upon as a necessity, and all men are now desirous of 

 learning, along with the fundamental principles of the machine, 

 the more intricate details. 



Toda}' most farmers have learned that a gasoline engine is an 

 automatic machine when properly handled, but that if it is not 

 handled very carefully, it will behave worse than the proverbial 

 mule. If the farmer himself does not know that a four cycle 

 engine requires a suction stroke, a compression stroke, an 

 expansion stroke, and an exhaust or clearance stroke, before the 

 cycle of gases is complete, his son is quite apt to, so what is the 

 difference — it is all in the family. This same son knows that the 

 charge which is drawn into the engine must be of the proper 

 mixture, he knows that the charge must be compressed to the 

 proper number of pounds per square inch or it will not explode. 

 He knows that ignition must take place a certain distance 

 before the piston reaches dead center in order to get the proper 

 power from the charge, and he knows that the burnt charge 

 must be removed from the cylinder before a new charge is taken 

 in. These four fundamentals of a gasoline engine he knows, 

 and he also knows that if any one of these is off, the engine will 

 not run. 



;Not Dangerous — Sonie say that gasoline engines are danger- 

 ous because they will explode. This is an erroneous idea. 

 Gasoline engines do explode, or at least should explode about 

 150-300 times per minute, and there has been far more trouble 

 caused because they do not explode than because they do explode. 

 Gasoline itself will not explode. If jou do not believe it, fill 

 a bottle full of the liquid and hold a match to it. You do not 

 need to scringe or blink; it will do nothing but slowly burn, 

 throwing off a yellowish blue flame. It is not the gasoline 

 which explodes and does harm, but it is the gasoline vapors 

 which have escaped into the open air that explode. Take a pint 

 fruit jar and drop about ten drops of gasoline into it. Stir the 

 air up within the jar, then turn the jar over and hold a match 

 to the mouth. A small explosion occurs — and this is what 

 happens every time a charge of gas explodes in the engine, and 

 also every time gasoline vapors are ignited in a room. Roughly 

 it takes 1,700 to 2,000 times its own volume of air mixed with 

 gasoline to make it explode. Try exploding the charge of gaso- 

 line vapor in the fruit jar once more, but this time put in 

 about twenty-five drops of gasoline instead of ten. Some men 

 act upon the principle that if a little is a good thing, more is 

 better. If we got a small explosion with ten drops of gasoline, 

 we ought to get a large explosion with twenty-five drops. Ignite 

 the charge and see. It doesn't explode — simply burns with a 

 slow flame as long as the jar is turned over. Set the jar up 



