Windshield

“ The above seems incredible, now that we have passed through the various stages of motor car improvements and motor clothes creations. The rapid development of the automobile, with its windshields, limousine tops, shock absorbers, perfected engines and springs, has brought us to the point where no more preparation is needed for a thousand-mile run across country with an average speed of thirty miles an hour, than if we were boarding a train. ”

“ When Gypsies get to riding in autos—and six-cylinder, 40 up-to-date ones, too—I'll join the first tribe that comes along."
"I declare, Tommy!" laughed his sister, "you are getting to be a 'speed fiend.' Ruth and I will be scared to drive with you."
"It's great to go fast," exclaimed Master Tom. "Here's a straight piece of road ahead, girls. Hold on!"
As he spoke, he manipulated the levers and the car leaped ahead. Ruth's startled "Oh!" was left a quarter of a mile behind. The girls clung to the hand-holds, and Tom crouched behind the windshield and "let her out." ”

“ The car, with its exhaust wide open, for your Italian driver delights in noise, roared down the grade at express-train speed, took the hairpin curve at the bottom on two wheels, to be brought to an abrupt halt with an agonized squealing of brakes, our further progress being barred by a six-inch tree-trunk which had been lowered across the road like a barrier at an old-time country toll-gate. ”

“ The car is a short caboose, fashioned like a small, ill-shaped back kitchen, and it has no more wheels than a one-horse wagon, which gives it an uneasy and suggestive way on the track. A brakeman sits with his head swung out at a window. The conductor sits with his watch in his hand. Nobody has any business there at all. The engineer is doing his best to make a distant station, and get upon the side-track before the Express wants the road. ”

“ Are there any states in which a road is placed in which no injury is done by a Carriage passing over it, take the case of a hard frost for instance?—No perceptible injury is done in that case. If the road is so hard that the wheel makes no mark upon it.—But where the road is at all soft, and when the wheel sinks into that road it must tend to destroy the road, if it be merely in mud on the surface of the road, it is making a cistern to hold a puddle of water. ”

“ There was the touring car, a hundred yards ahead, standing in the middle of the road, hood up, and the big man peering into the engine. There was room to pass, and I wondered what the man at the wheel in the runabout would do. Would the little car rattle past with its damaged fender? It would be only human nature to sing out some sort of a taunt: "Thought you were in a hurry!" ”

“ The drawing by which the specification is illustrated shows the frame of an ordinary street car provided with a door which is supported upon and moves back and forth upon suitable pulleys and ways, which, it is said, may be arranged in any desired manner. Passing through the bar from which the hand-straps are suspoended, and which is made hollow, is a rod or rock-shaft which has a lever or crank upon its front end within easy reach of the driver. ”

“ You rush on so near to the house, indeed, that the car seems in imminent danger of colliding with the front door, when suddenly the wheels bite the road, you feel the pull of centrifugal force, and the car swings away at right angles, leaving an end view of the ancient dwelling behind you, so that when you turn for a final glance you see the long slant of the roof at the rear, going down within six or eight feet of the ground. ”

“ There is room for an engineer and valet in front and four passengers inside, though for long-distance travelling it is much more comfortable with only two passengers. The driver is protected from wind, rain, and snow by a glass in front, which may be raised if necessary, and by two side curtains. These front glasses have the disadvantage that they may become obscured by heavy rain, frost, or dust, and for this reason, under certain conditions of weather, they must be constantly rubbed over from the outside, as it is essential that the driver should be able to see distinctly. ”

“ Like the rest of the car, the roof is of steel, braced and riveted to defy the greatest possible strains. The ends and vestibules are now built on, piece by piece, until the skeleton of the car is complete. The vestibules are particularly imposing, for on each side, framing the side doors through which the passengers enter the car, are giant beams of steel so built into the construction of the frame that only under most extraordinary circumstances could the force of a collision crush the vestibule or the car behind it. ”

“ All employees are prohibited from going between cars or between car and engine for any purpose or in front of any moving car to fix couplers while same are in motion.
52. Enginemen must keep the headlights of their engines in good order, and when running after dark, or when storms, fogs or other causes render it necessary, they must be lighted. When trains are waiting on side tracks, clear of main track, or on the end of double track, headlights of engines must be covered. ”

“ We had not proceeded very far up the road when the car turned into a long winding driveway of gravel, bordered on either side by well kept lawns and trim trees. We could see that much through the windows of the car when the rain would cease its furious whirling against the glass for a moment. Soon we came to a stop under a wide sheltering porte-cochere, and the driver got down and opened the door ceremoniously. ”

“ In the engine, as in the car, the object and the effect of the transverse slot, allowing a slight lateral motion, and of the divergent pendent links, by means of which the weight of the engine or car itself helps to keep it upon the track, and to secure steadiness and safety by lessening the friction against the rails and the danger of being thrown off the track. ”

“ We found the roads in most places worthy of the name “highways”; but on the steepest grades, where the outside of the road shelves off into space, with a drop of hundreds of feet, there are no walls or fences, not even railings, to prevent accidents. In the main, the roads are sufficiently wide to allow two cars to pass; in some places, however, the smaller car must back down to a siding to allow the Government cars, which have the right of way on the inside of the road, to pass. ”

“ To-day a side-car body is made of metal or wood, has a side door, springs in the upholstery, windscreen, hood, etc., just like a miniature car, and the wheel is sometimes sprung on car lines. The passenger is therefore quite as comfortable as if in a motor car and quite as well protected from the wind and rain. ”

“ En route we encountered a perfectly horrible stretch of road—great, mucky ruts that almost stalled the car—and in the midst of it an oil well, or the flaring industry of driving one. There was a great towering well frame in the air, a plunger, a forge, an engine, and various flaring torches set about and men working. ”

“ I climb upon the upright ironwork of the platform and stand upon the wheel of the hand-brake. This has taken up the moment of grace and I hear the shacks strike the steps on either side. I don't stop to look. I raise my arms overhead until my hands rest against the down-curving ends of the roofs of the two cars. One hand, of course, is on the curved roof of one car, the other hand on the curved roof of the other car. ”

“ If our wagons had been an inch or two nearer the outside corner of the road, or the man in the automobile a shade less skillful, he could not possibly have escaped. His automobile would have been smashed, and he would have gone over the edge of the precipice. ”

“ A committee of the National Highway Traffic Association, 1922, recommends “that on all curves of more than three degrees the pavement and inner-half of the earth shoulder should be banked. This superelevation should vary from 0 for a 3-degree curve to 1 inch per foot of width for curves of 20 degrees or sharper.”
Clear Vision. —Clear vision is another thing that should be insisted upon as a means for safety. Weeds, brush and trees are all too frequently allowed to obscure the sight. With ordinary brakes on smooth roads from 100 to 150 feet is needed to stop a car moving at 30 miles per hour. ”

“ The progress of the little street car under notice was leisurely and deliberate, sometimes it would wait obligingly for a woman, half a block away, who hurried puffing, and fluttering, and waving, to reach the street corner, and when she had clambered aboard, the driver would slowly unwind his brake, cluck to his horse, the rope traces would strain and the car would bowl along. ”

“ Engines must not be permitted to stand nearer than 100 feet to a street or highway crossing, or under any bridge, when it can be avoided, nor in the vicinity of waiting-rooms, offices, or near cars occupied by passengers, where the noise or smoke will disturb occupants. ”

“ The windows of the railway carriages are crowded with the faces of boys and girls, all of them weeping with the helpless abandonment of sheer despair. The engine whistles. There is a rush to the carriage windows. Faces and hands are thrust out of them. ”

“ It is clear that our new vehicle, the internal combustion engine, will compel us to new roads, just as the vehicular traffic for passengers at the beginning of the seventeenth century compelled the creation of the turnpike. ”

“ When you have an accident caused by a window falling examine it immediately and, if the catches are all right, show the injured person or, if a child, the man or woman in whose charge it is traveling, that is was not the fault of the window catch, and at the same time call the attention of some intelligent passenger and of your brakeman to the matter and have them try the window catch, and send in their names and addresses with your report. ”

“ And when the road is covered with snow, travelers who meet must turn to the right of the traveled part of the road as it then appears, regardless of what would be the traveled part when the snow is gone. After passing the rear of the forward vehicle an automobilist must exercise reasonable care in turning back toward the right into the center of the highway, and if he turns too soon he may be liable for damages caused by striking or frightening the horses. ”

“ When switching is being done over highway or street railway crossings by yard or trainmen, a man must be stationed at that crossing to act as flagman.
10. Cars must not be moved over highway crossings or in front of passenger stations detached from engine, other than at terminals, where express authority has been given so to do by the division superintendent. Cars containing passengers must not be switched unless coupled to the engine and air-brake in use. ”

“ They'll have to get inside the car to fix that dynamite, you know, and get it ready to set off, and if Jack and I are right behind them, I don't see why we can't lock them inside the car. Then, if the gate is open, we can start the car rolling down the grade, and it will run right outside of the yard and down toward the freight yard. If we really catch them we'll have plenty of time to give the alarm, and they can be taken right out of the car. ”

“ The superstructure of the car, overlaid with plates of copper-gilt, and surmounted by a metal umbrella with gay streamers and ribbons, sways until it almost overturns as the groaning wheels bump over the uneven pavement of the city, or sink deep into the soft soil of the roadway outside, but willing hands cling manfully to the guide ropes, and this accident is averted. ”

“ He will be the more readily convinced of this when the young man with the broad shoulders and sun-browned face and wide sombrero in the seat in front raises the car-window, and begins to shoot splinters out of the passing telegraph poles with the melancholy and listless air of one who is performing a casual divertisement. ”

“ From time to time a strange vehicle drew near to the place where they stood,—such a vehicle as the lady at the window, in spite of a considerable acquaintance with human inventions, had never seen before: a huge, low omnibus, painted in brilliant colors, and decorated apparently with jangling bells, attached to a species of groove in the pavement, through which it was dragged, with a great deal of rumbling, bouncing and scratching, by a couple of remarkably small horses. ”

“ Because the guy in front slammed on his air-brakes and the big van came to a stop with a howl of tires on concrete. The guy behind did not even slow down. He closed in on us like an avalanche. I took a fast look around and fought the wheel of my car to turn aside, but he whaled into my tail and we went sliding forward. I was riding my brakes but the mass of that moving van was so great that my tires just wore flats on the pavement-side. ”

“ Also, the car being swamped, it is odds that a man shall save his fare, since no conductor may fight his way a quarter through his passengers before Bow Bridge, where the vehicle is emptied at a rush. ”

“ In passing such a light the eyes should be kept on the road and shielded, if possible, from the glare of the other machine. The precaution of driving slowly under such circumstances goes without saying.
Unlighted Vehicles. —Unlighted, horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, and animals driven or walking in the street frequently give the automobile driver palpitation of the heart. ”

“ Our statutes provide that when persons meet each other on a bridge or road, travelling with carriages or other vehicles, each person shall seasonably drive his carriage or other vehicle to the right of the middle of the travelled part of such bridge or road, so that their respective carriages or other vehicles may pass each other without interference ”