AUTOMOBILE NOTES. 



Edited by J. A. Kingman. 



SPORT. 



The following entries were received for 

 the Vanderbilt Cup Race to which refer- 

 ence was made in the October issue. Since 

 then the 2 entries made by the White com- 

 pany have been withdrawn. 



FRANCE. 



Entered by H. P. and automobile. Driver. 

 Panhard & Levassor, 90, Panhard, M. Teste 

 Panhard & Levassor, 90, Panhard, G. Heath 

 Panhard & Levassor, 90. Panhard. 

 Clement-Bayard, 80, Clement, A. Clement 

 W. G. Brokaw, 90, Renault, M. G. Bernin 

 R. E. Jarrige, 90, De Dietrich, L. Regan 



GERMANY 



C. G. Dinsmore, 60, Mercedes Wernes 



S. B. Stevens, 60, Mercedes Owner 



E. R. Thomas, 60, Mercedes E. Hawley 



George Arents, Jr., 60, Mercedes, C. Mendel 

 Isadore Wormser, 6o, Mercedes. 



ITALY. 



A. G. Vanderbilt, 90, Fiat P. Sartori 



William Wallace, 90, Fiat Owner 



UNITED STATES. 



White S. M. Co., steam, White, R. T. White 

 White, S. M. Co., steam, White, Webb Jay 

 Pope Motor ■ Car Co., 60, Pope-Tol, 



A. C. Webb 

 Pope Motor Car Co., 80, Pope-tol, H. Lyttle 

 Packhard M. C. Co., 30, Packard, 



C. Schmidt 



C. A. Duer, 40, Royal Joseph Tracy 



S. & M. Simplex Frank Croker 



The race will have been won long before 

 this issue of Recreation goes to press, but 

 I predict that this big event will be won 

 by a foreign car. One reason for this is 

 that there are 13 starters in the foreign 

 class and only 5 starters in the American 

 class. A number of the foreign built racers 

 will be driven by professionals who have 

 had long experience in the long distance 

 automobile road races held abroad. This 

 is the first American affairof the kind and 

 our drivers are green at it. That is one 

 reason more American firms have not en- 

 tered. Some manufacturers who would 

 have liked to enter cars could not do so. 

 Others hesitated at the expense because 

 these big racers cost thousands of dollars 

 and incidental expenses are great. 



UTILITY. 



A newspaper has this to say about the 

 future of the automobile: 



"In a few years there will not be a street car 

 track in New York. 



"Five years ago there were no automobiles. Dur- 

 ing the last 12 months our automobile output 

 exceeded in value all the locomotives built in 

 America by $20,000,000, and the industry is 

 scarcely out of its infancy. The trolley car and 

 the draught horse will go together; there is no 



room in the crowded streets of our largest cities 

 for either." 



It is rather bold to predict the disappear- 

 ance of the trolley car from the streets of 

 the large cities in a few years, but that the 

 country trolley is doomed seems less open 

 to argument. A few years is an indefinite 

 time, and as a matter of fact the better- 

 ment of the roads makes it so. Trolley 

 cars run on smooth rails and in order to 

 reduce the cost of tires for heavy auto- 

 mobiles, the roads must always be kept 

 smooth and perfect. The idea of automo- 

 biles instead of trolleys appeals to one, for 

 the change would mean the abandonment 

 of the unsightly poles and wires, the elimi- 

 nating of steel rails and the restoration of 

 the highway to its pristine- beauty, as it 

 was in the old stage caach days. Power 

 omnibuses have begun to be used in Eng- 

 land and with such success as to cause 

 comment at several meetings of steam 

 railroad officials. In this country there is 

 at least one case where the street car rails 

 have been taken up and automobiles em- 

 ployed. The movement has begun. 



Joints are numerous, often unnecessarily 

 so, in most modern motor designs, and 

 any improvement which reduces their num- 

 ber or size is to be welcomed, provided 

 it does not involve too complicated cast- 

 ings or costly renewals. Some joints will 

 be inevitable in any design, and the princi- 

 pal materials for making them are soft 

 metals, fusible or infusible, such as lead 

 and copper ; asbestos, in the form of soft 

 or hard sheet, string, and sheet of a third 

 variety on a wire gauze base and contain- 

 ing some rubber admixture, which, though 

 used for steam pipe joints, is to be avoided 

 for most motor car purposes ; leather, rub- 

 ber, and finally the old familiar hemp and 

 red lead, mixed with an equal part of white 

 lead and made into a thick paste with lin- 

 seed oil. This is always useful when mak- 

 ing screwed unions in pipes which do not 

 have to be often disunited. 



One principle to be borne in mind when 

 making joints is that the thinner the pack- 

 ing is the better, and the thin hard blue 

 asbestos sheet is most satisfactory, especial- 

 ly where a water joint is unavoidable. For 

 this purpose the sheet should be soaked in 

 linseed oil, or smeared with tallow made 

 into a thin cream with a petrol, which en- 

 sures its rapidly penetrating the sheet. The 

 sheet may also be blackleaded on each sur- 

 face to render its removal easier when the 

 joint is to be re-made ; but with a difficult 

 joint this is better omitted. — Motor Car 

 Journal. 



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