AUTOMOBILE NOTES. 



Edited by J. A. Kingman. 



AUTOMOBILE BODIES. 



Numerous styles of bodies are used on 

 automobiles, but the tonneau is by far the 

 most popular. The name is French for tub, 

 and the tonneau body in its original form 

 came to us from France. For years the ton- 

 neau body consisted of a front seat and a 

 rear seat, the former sometimes in the form 

 of a plain seat, straight across, accommo- 

 dating 2 or 3 passengers at a pinch, but 

 more often, and of late almost entirely, in 

 the form of 2 separate, or bucket-shaped, 

 seats. This arrangement has the advantage 

 of holding each passenger firmly in place 

 and prevents the occupant of the front left 

 seat from sliding into and interfering with 

 the driver when going at high speed over 

 lumpy roads. Of course, the driver almost 

 invariably sits at the right of the car. It 

 it rare for the wheel or tiller to lie at the 

 left. 



The rear seats of the tonneau have been 

 made more comfortable of late years. At 

 first the tonneau was a tiny and uncomfor- 

 table affair, seating 2 grown persons with 

 difficulty. The sides of a tonneau are built 

 high, so that articles carried therein, such 

 as suit cases, wraps and the like, will 

 not spill out ; and in some large cars the 

 tonneau is roomy enough to contain 5 per- 

 sons. Ordinarily, however, the' tonneau 

 seats 3. 



This coming season the universally pop- 

 ular tonneau will have double side-door en- 

 trances instead of the single rear entrance 

 employed so many years. The advantages 

 of the side entrances are fairly obvious ; 

 there are 2 entrances and exits instead of 

 one ; the car may be driven to either curb 

 so that the passengers may enter or leave it 

 without dismounting into the road; and it 

 gives a more comfortable rear seat, with 

 better facilities for carrying tools, supplies 

 and the like. One objection is that the 

 framework must be longer in order to ac- 

 commodate the longer body, and this makes 

 a longer car; in most cases longer than is 

 necessary or convenient. What the design- 

 ers are busy over now, is the working out of 

 a design which shall combine the side en- 

 trance tonneau with a moderately short 

 wheel base. A car with a long wheel base 

 takes up. a good deal of room, is not any too 

 easy to manage when entering or leaving a 

 garage or automobile storage station, and 

 has other drawbacks. 



Tops and closed bodies grow more pop- 

 ular every year. In the early days people 

 were more or less indifferent about bodies 

 and the comforts thereof as long as 



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the machine would run. Now that great 

 reliability has come, people are more closely 

 considering their own comfort. The Cape 

 cart hood will be popular during the com- 

 ing summer. It is made of waterproof 

 cloth, in appearance is something like an 

 extension buggy top, and can be used for 

 a dust shield or sun shade, as well as a 

 means of protection against rain. The 

 heavy canopy, supported on metal uprights 

 and having a folding glass front, I look to 

 see almost entirely displaced this season by 

 the Cape cart hood. The latter is much 

 lighter and cheaper and just as effective 

 The glass front is not much advantage in 

 rainy weather, for it fogs, and then the 

 operator can not see through it. Moreover, 

 it makes great wind resistance when low- 

 ered in place. 



HOW TO START THE CAR. 



There is a right as well as a wrong way 

 of starting a gasoline car. Who has not 

 watched or experienced the wrong way and 

 wondered why a driver with any pretensions 

 to skill should follow it? The engine is 

 started and the occupants of the car brace 

 themselves for the shock that they know is 

 coming. The clutch is thrown in and the 

 car plunges forward abruptly ; it almost 

 seems as if the sudden and tremendous ap- 

 plication of power had lifted it off the 

 ground. The passengers are forced back 

 into their seats and then brought forward 

 as the car picks up its speed. The process 

 is a good imitation of that of a trolley car 

 in a congested street when the motorman 

 plays with the power, alternately applying 

 and shutting it off, tilting the passengers 

 back and forth as if they were manikins. 



A driver who knows his business never 

 starts in this way, any more than a locomo- 

 tive engineer does. He introduces his 

 clutch gradually, permitting only part of 

 the power to be transmitted at first, thus 

 starting the car without the suspicion of a 

 jerk. It gathers way, slowly at first, but 

 before many yards have been traversed the 

 clutch is forced home and the full power of 

 the engine is being transmitted to the gear- 

 ing. 



The saving in wear and tear of engine, 

 gears, frame, springs, wheels and tires by 

 this method of starting is enormous. — Mo- 

 tor World. 



LIBELOUS SENSATION REPORTS. 

 Any one outside the ranks of automo- 

 bilists reading the daily papers might easily 

 get the impression that users of automobiles 



