Chapter 5

Motor Car Driving

No doubt this somewhat lengthy description may seem rather alarming to the man who wants to buy a car, but in reality it is not so.

To be a fairly expert car driver requires time; attention must be given to the various parts. The simplest way to examine a car thoroughly is to crawl under it and lie on one’s back. There are, naturally, objections to this method. The right way is to make a pit similar to those used for examining locomotives which are to be seen at most terminal railway stations, but it is absolutely necessary to have stout rails, of wood preferably, to run the car on, and protected with a strong wooden flange on the side next the pit. The writer’s pit is 7ft. long - one end being cut in steps - and 3ft. deep; the rails are 10ft. long, and 4 1/2in. by 2in., with a flange of 1 1/2 in. wood firmly secured on the inner side, and standing up 2 1/2in. It is hardly necessary to add that the pit must be either fenced round or provided with a stout cover, otherwise a broken leg may be the result of falling into it in the dark.

The chief causes of failure or stoppage on the road are - the belts slipping and refusing to drive; this results from not keeping the belts at the proper tension, but sometimes on a long run, especially in wet weather, a belt may require tightening on the road. This has only happened three or four times to the writer in more than 5,000 miles, but a small quantity of resin dusted on a slipping belt will often cause it to grip. It is usually the slow speed belt that gives trouble. In the modern cars fitted with the third speed or Crypto gear for hill-climbing, the fast speed belt does the driving when the Crypto is used, and the trouble with belts should probably be much less.

The failure of the coil. This need not happen if the platinum contact points are kept clean, and occasionally any roughness rubbed down with emery paper or a watchmaker’s file.

Loss of power may result from a leaky joint, such as the packing round the porcelain tube of the electrical igniter. A lather of soap and water applied with a brush or piece of waste will show where a leak is, but care must be taken that any joint made with asbestos card be not wetted, as water injures the asbestos card.

Breakage or disconnection of one of the wires, or contact between the wire leading to the igniter and some part of the frame or metal of the car.

Stoppage of the supply of petrol to the carburetter by the failure of action of the float and valve inside the carburetter. Sometimes the air inlet valve will stick. A little petrol squirted round the stem will generally put this right; a small syringe (costing one shilling, with the nozzle of a plumber’s blowpipe soldered into the end in place of the fine holes) is very useful for this and for washing out bearings.

The exhaust valve will sometimes require grinding in; directions to do this will generally be found in the handbook issued by those who sell the cars.

The writer, in running more than 5,000 miles, considers he has been fairly free from breakdowns. The longest time he was delayed on the road was by one of the original tyres coming off. An hour and a half’s work tying it on with some sash lines bought in the village close at hand enabled the run home of fourteen miles to be accomplished very easily.

On another occasion one of the wires from the accumulator to the coil broke inside the insulation, so that there was nothing external to show that a break had occurred. This made the coil to work intermittently, and for some days caused extreme annoyance. The lesson to be learned from this is that it is possible to have too stout insulation on the primary wire, and that a strand of several wires is better than a single one. During the three years that the car has been in use, the runs or trips on which delays have occurred have been very few. The speed on good roads, but with patches of hilly country, has been found to average ten and a half or eleven miles per hour, allowing for slowing through towns and villages, and in the open country running as near the legal limit of twelve miles per hour as possible.

It must be remembered that many unexpected things (not connected with the car) may cause delays, and reduce the average speed - a restive horse, some interested countryman who wishes to know all he can about the car. Motor car drivers should remember that it is often policy to spend a few minutes explaining the working of the car to an enquiring stranger. A crowd not only of boys, but of grown people, will sometimes gather round in villages where cars are not frequently seen, and a few words on the construction of the car and a sight of the machinery generally seem to give pleasure and satisfaction to the onlookers.

On the other hand, the motor car driver must sometimes expect to be abused, and even sworn at by carters and others. If motor cars are under stringent regulations as to speed, lights, etc., it seems only fair that those who drive horses should be under some restriction also.

The pernicious system of leaving horses unattended outside shops or publichouses should not be permitted, unless the wheels be scotched and the horse secured by a rein to a sunken ring in the pavement, which is frequently done in America.

It is very annoying to have to stop one’s car and shout or blow the horn to call up a carter, who doubtless may he enjoying his beer in a publichouse, to hold his horse while the car passes by. The writer’s car on one occasion was the cause of an unattended horse with a load of hay running away, and he at once wrote to the man’s employers as follows: “ Had your carter not been drinking in the ......... publichouse your horse would not have run away,” and he has strong reasons to believe that the carter received a severe reprimand.

There is something extremely pleasant in feeling that in a motor car you are not hurting any living creature by pushing the pace, or that you have to rest an animal after running fifteen or twenty miles. Another great advantage is that the car, unlike a horse, will not shy, for a horse is a strange animal, and the most experienced driver cannot tell what the creature may do.

If a car be kept in order, and care be taken in driving, a motor car is safer than a horse-drawn carriage.

The other side of the question must be looked at also. The Benz cars would, in the writer’s opinion, be better with a little more power. This is obtained in the modern cars by the use of the slow speed or Crypto gear, but at the expense of speed. The speed with the Crypto gear is very slow; and in the writers opinion it would be best to adopt a large cylinder, say 5 in. or 5 1/2in., and abandon the use of the Crypto. It is only fair to say that Messrs. Benz manufacture a five horse-power car and cars with double cylinders.

The cost of running may be taken as follows: Petrol costs 1s. 2d. per gallon; a gallon runs the car twenty to twenty-five miles, according to the state of the roads and hills. This comes to five-eighths of a penny per mile; oil and grease may be taken at one-eighth penny per mile - equal to 3/4d. per mile. It is rather difficult to get at the wear and tear, but if a good modern car be purchased, and it runs 3,000 to 4,000 miles per year, wear and repairs, such as new chains, belts, etc., ought not to cost more than £20 per year.

[2010 note - the prices quoted in 1902 equate to approximately, in 2010 terms, petrol, £1.16 per litre, 28p per mile, £1808 per year. ]

One great advantage of a car over a horse is that when not in use it costs nothing, whereas with a horse the cost of food is nearly as great when standing in the stable as when in work, besides a horse, even if not required for work, must be exercised and groomed.

Messrs. Benz make larger cars than the one just described with one and also with two cylinders. Fig. 16 shows a five horse-power Benz; the construction is very similar to the smaller cars, but several improvements have been introduced. The exhaust valve is operated direct without the intervention of levers and a bell crank. It has three speeds forward and reverse.

The principal dimensions are as follows: Cylinder. 5 3/16in. diameter, 5 1/2 in. stroke; diameter of fly-wheel, 1ft  9 3/4in.; driving wheels, 3ft. 3in., with 1 1/2in. solid india-rubber tyres; steering wheels, 2ft. 5in., with 1 1/4in. tyres; wheelbase, 5ft. 2in.

A very similar car is the Marshall, made by Messrs Marshall, Belsize Works, Clayton, Manchester.

Another car somewhat similar to the Benz is the Orient Express, made abroad, and imported into this country. The belts do not run on fast and loose pulleys, but are tightened by jockey pulleys, the belts all running loose. The jockey pulley runs on a long spindle, so that it can tighten any of the four belts by being shifted above the particular belt and then depressed, and tightening the belt causes that belt to drive. As the belts are not crossed as in the Benz, the engine runs the reverse way; it is therefore difficult to start by turning the fly-wheel, which would have to be pushed, not pulled, round. To get over this difficulty a large handle, shaped like a big clock key, is provided; this is passed through the spokes of one of the wheels on to the end of the crankshaft, and the engine is thus turned. The ignition is by an electric spark produced by a magneto machine of the Martini or Simms-Bosch type. This is described in the chapter on “Electric Ignition.”