They Sing of the Automobile and Motor-Truck 



Seeing him sitting here 

 at the right so peace- 

 fully, you would not 

 picture Ray Harroun 

 in goggles on a Van- 

 derbilt racer; but that 

 was where he got 

 his start. There was 

 nothing in the world 

 so natural to a racing 

 driver as something to 

 smooth bumps and to 

 act as a cushion when 

 you hit a competitor 

 going only a hundred 

 miles an hour when 

 you are doing a hun- 

 dred and twenty. The 

 idea came to him when 

 he was fiddling with 

 two little steel springs 

 and watching them in- 

 teracting on each 

 other. It's a bumper 

 that lifted him from 

 the realms of the cir- 

 cular track to an office 

 desk at so many thou- 

 sands per week that 

 we blush to speak of it 



The story of L. H. Perlman and his demount- 

 able rims (regular equipment — no extra 

 charge) would be meat for a short-story 

 writer. The picture shows him looking over 

 the wheel that rolled him through the patent 

 office and the courts; but the check for three 

 million dollars which was the first payment 

 made the Perlman Rim Corporation is framed 

 in another room. Perlman was first a printer 

 and then a tinkerer with automobiles and 

 tires, and he did hate to put on new 

 ones ! He put together a wedge and a screw 

 and secured patents on the combination 



At left: You see this man's work 

 (Edward Hartford) on the back of 

 every high priced car and even on the 

 front. His papers — the same ones 

 which put him on this page — are 

 his because he applied the shock- 

 absorber to the automobile and 

 made even delicate debutantes will- 

 ing to ride in broughams. He pro- 

 ceeded with caution by first buying 

 the Truffault patents which had to 

 do with bicycles and then applying 

 them to the automobile, and then 

 taking out more patents. But 

 even then he had to fight his way 

 through the courts to establish his 

 claims. You see by the picture that 

 be can afford a nice watch chain 



359 



Mosler (below) went 

 into partnership with 

 an inventor from Man- 

 istee, Michigan, before 

 he had much use for 

 the initials A. R., which 

 he now always uses. 

 The patent (the Can- 

 field patent) concerned 

 a spark plug with an 

 air-gap between the 

 insulation and the in- 

 sulating shell. The 

 fortunate inventor died 

 happy leaving his part- 

 ner with a duty and a 

 fortune looming before 

 him as his particular 

 Nirvana. And how 

 Mosler did fight! The 

 case dragged for years, 

 as is our happy Ameri- 

 can custom, but Mos- 

 ler won. Have you 

 wondered who all those 

 limousine owners in 

 New York city are — 

 those men who go to 

 work at three in the 

 afternoon and quit at 

 three-thirty? They 

 are A. R. Mosler, his 

 sons, uncles, nephews 

 and other relatives 



