i3» 



RECREATION. 



and, although steam vehicles have not 

 been so popular for the last few sea- 

 sons as gasolene automobiles have 

 been, yet as a motive power, steam 

 has so many excellent advantages that 

 it is safe to say it will always be used 

 to some extent in pleasure cars. 



The average man is apt to look on 

 the steam machine as a miniature loco- 

 motive, and to feel that he must be 

 an engineer in order to run it. This 

 is an error. The operation of a steam 

 car is a simple matter. There are no 

 complications attending the changing 

 of speed, going up or down hill, as in 

 the case of a gasolene car; the boiler 

 requires no attention except to keep it 

 properly supplied with water. Liquid 

 fuel is almost entirely automatic in its 

 use. You pour so much gasolene in 

 the tank, and the gasolene feed takes 

 care of itself. Steam cars were uni- 

 versally popular in this country before 

 gasolene cars began to be developed 

 into good reliable machines, a develop- 

 ment which has been extremely rapid. 

 For the last 2 years and up to the 

 present time the gasolene machine has 

 enjoyed a great popularity. 



The gasolene type of automobile 

 possesses many distinct advantages, 

 and its remarkable improvement in 

 the last few years is certainly gratify- 

 ing. Many people had thought gaso- 

 lene cars could never be made so that 

 they would not vibrate unpleasantly 

 or make unnecessary noise. Many 

 people thought that for these and other 

 reasons the gas engine was not best 

 suited for the automobile ; that the 

 smell from the exhaust ; the racking 

 effect produced by the vibration ; the 

 difficulty of gearing up the inelastic 

 motor with the driving wheels, were 

 all problems too great to solve, and 

 that the electric or the steam runabout 

 would be the car of the future. 



The development of the gasolene 

 motor has been remarkably rapid. The 

 employment of a number of cylinders 

 instead of one, increases the flexibility 

 of the motor; reduces the vibration; 

 makes the engine easier to start; and 

 reduces the risk of breakdown. In 



other words a machine with 4 cylin- 

 ders has not only aesthetic advantages 

 over the single cylinder motor, but is 

 much more reliable. 



Great improvements have been 

 made on single and double cylinder 

 engines used in light cars, and it 

 should be remembered that the in- 

 crease in the number of cylinders 

 means some increase in complication; 

 but in a general way it is believed that 

 the future of the gasolene engine for 

 automobiles lies in the 4 cylinder 

 motor. 



Whether a man buys a steam auto- 

 mobile, or a gasolene, or an electric, he 

 should purchase wisely. I have been 

 connected with the industry since its 

 beginning in this country, and have 

 had occasion to see how a great many 

 people buy automobiles. A few words 

 of advice, therefore, may well be set 

 down here. 



In the first place do not wait until 

 you are ready to use a machine before 

 ordering it. This is a frequent mis- 

 take. 



Do not make up your mind about 

 the motive power until you have in- 

 vestigated all. If you have been fa- 

 miliar with steam apparatus all your 

 life and want a cheap car, a steam 

 runabout is to be recommended, es- 

 pecially if you live in the country and 

 do not want to make long trips. If 

 the desire for touring, even in a run- 

 about, is strong, a gasolene machine 

 would be more suitable, for some of 

 the small single cylinder or double 

 cylinder runabouts are well suited for 

 long distance running, being very 

 economical in the use of gasolene, and 

 requiring few or no stops to take 

 water. 



The gasolene car will use less fuel 

 than a steam car, but the latter does 

 not have any electrical equipment to be 

 maintained, and in a sense, batteries, 

 spark coils, and induction coils may 

 be considered as fuel, for they have 

 nothing to do with the running of the 

 car. They are only put on the car to 

 make electricity for the spark which 

 fires the charge of mixed gasolene and 



