Chapter 2
Introductory
Although the motor car has now been legalised in England for more than four years, there is still a great deal, if not of ignorance, at least lack of knowledge, of what a motor car is, and how it works. And this is the case with a large number of people who will in a few years time be driving their cars, and regretting that they had not bought them some years previously.
There is also an idea that it is a very complicated machine, and that to drive it successfully one must be not only a mechanical engineer, but an electrician as well. That this is not the case is proved by the large number of cars that are in daily use by men who have had no mechanical or electrical training - doctors, clergymen, actors, and others, and even ladies. But, on the other hand, the car must be well looked after, and as far as possible the owner must gradually learn what is the object and use of the various parts. No reasonable man would pay forty or fifty guineas for a horse and not procure the services of a groom or coachman to look after it, but some motor car owners have acted otherwise, and have come to grief, and the car has been blamed, whereas a little care or foresight would have prevented a breakdown.
The writer remembers in the spring of 1898 a Benz car owner calling at his house just before dusk. Something was wrong with the car; the engine was knocking terribly, one of the crankshaft bearing bolts was then found to be broken. The writer directed the unfortunate traveller to an engineer’s shop in the adjacent town, where the repairs were effected. In all probability the brass of the bearing was not properly secured before starting; if it had been, it seems unlikely that the breakdown would have happened.
There is also a great prejudice against cars, chiefly by people who have never ridden in one, and who look at them in the same way as our grandfathers regarded railways. In Smiles’s “Life of George Stephenson “ some amusing anecdotes are told of the absurd opposition to railways. The idea was abroad that the air would be poisoned by the smoke and fumes from the engines, that birds crossing a line soon after the passage of a train would drop down dead, that the great speed of twelve miles an hour would be dangerous, that the breed of horses would be extinct. And it is the same unreasoning conservatism that is shown to the motor car in the present day, the same unreasoning conservatism that allowed our artillery to go into action without quick-firing guns, or with guns not superior to those turned out by Krupp or Schneider. It is this prejudice that has allowed England to be flooded with French and German motor cars, and the sum of money that has crossed the Channel for the purchase of these cars must have been very considerable. Money lost to this country, because our legislators refused to allow motor cars to run on English roads! Had it not been for these restrictions, we might have taken the lead in self-propelled carriages, instead of leaving it to the Germans and French.
A lost trade is seldom if ever recovered. French-made cars are now to be found in most foreign countries and our colonies, and we may be sure that these makers will do all they can to keep the trade they have obtained - partly obtained through the want of foresight on the part of our House of Commons.
An objection has been raised against these cars that they are not perfect. Granted, but what machine is perfect in the first few years of its existence? It has taken more than seventy years to bring the locomotive to its present state, and there are some who tell us that the English locomotive is inferior to the American. Others say that the American engine wears out two or three years earlier than the British locomotive, but this want of finality has not checked the increase of railways in the world. Bicycles and sewing machines were very imperfect when introduced thirty years ago, but these imperfections did not prevent thousands of people using these useful inventions.
Another idea is that motor cars are very costly machines. This is certainly true of the large cars of the Daimler or Mors type, of which the prices range from £400 to £1,000 [2010 £36,000 to £90,500], but a car of the Benz type, or of the voiturette class, can be bought for £140 or £160 [2010 £12,700 or £14,500]. Of these the Benz cars are of foreign manufacture, and, as they are sold as fast as they are imported, it is not likely that there will be any considerable fall in their price till the manufacture of cars is taken up on a larger scale in England.
It is a car of this latter class (the Benz) that the writer has driven for the last three years, and, as he is continually being asked various questions about cars, he hopes that this book may be of use to some.
The writer wishes it to be clearly understood that he is not interested pecuniarily in the Benz or any motor car, but he thinks that for the money it is one of the best cars on the market, and it has been well tested in England. Doubtless there may be other small cars quite as good, but they have not yet had the long practical test on our English roads that the Benz has. It must be remembered that many machines may work all right for a short period, such as a few months, but fail altogether in the long run, or else require large outlay in repairs and renewals.
The pleasure of motor car driving is very great. It is very similar to ones early experience on bicycles. The writer remembers the pleasure he found (about twenty-eight years ago) that he could comfortably bicycle fifty to seventy miles in the day, and it is the same sort of pleasure one has in going out for a motor car run. Others have compared it with yachting, and after a few months the owner gets a sort of affection for the car, almost as if it were a living being. When running at speed, the driver sees very little of the scenery on the road, except straight ahead, for a couple of seconds inattention to steering might cause a serious accident.
The writer, after taking friends (and even those prejudiced persons who abominate cars) for rides, has generally had the remark made, “ I like it better than I expected,” or “ I did not notice the vibration,” or some remark of high praise, or “I would buy one if they were not so expensive.” or “ I would have one if I had someone to look after it and keep it in order, but I cannot afford to pay a man £1 to 25s. [2010 £90 to £113] per week to look after this car.” This is a difficulty in the country - five or six miles from a town, in the very locality where a car would be so useful for station work. To obviate this the best way would be for some engineer or cycle agent to employ a man who would go round from house to house, clean the car, and report at once to owner any repairs he might consider necessary. This method is adopted in some country towns on the Continent, and gets over one difficulty, viz., keeping the car in order, for cleaning a car after a long run in wet weather is not a very pleasant occupation. When cars are made without chains or with a central chain boxed in, the difficulties of cleaning are much less. Of course, to the mechanically inclined the adjustments and slight but regular attention required to keep the motor and working parts in order afford a pleasant hobby, and all that is wanted is a boy or “odd man” who will perform the rough work of washing and cleaning, as would be the case with any carriage whether motor propelled or horse drawn.