Page images

21 SD

A F1

nating-current magneto. The alternat- all subsequent ones; and the time of its ing-current magneto is also used with ultimate complete destruction is hastened the jump spark on a number of foreign by the excessive discharge rate. If the cars.

battery has been allowed to discharge Batteries possess the advantage over after the voltage has reached a certain other forms of current generators, that minimum indicated by the makers of the their maximum strength can be used for battery, generally about one and eightstarting the engine, but the disadvantage, tenths volts per cell, sulphating and its that, after the engine is running, they consequent troubles result. Owing to the

nature of automobile work, this last abuse is probably responsible for the bad reputation that storage batteries have acquired with those experienced with them. The storage battery should be both charged and discharged through ammeters; and the discharge should be watched with a voltmeter, not to mention tests with hydrometer for specific grav

ity, etc. It is not practicable to observe INDUCTION COIL FOR IGNITION PURPOSES.

these precautions for ignition purposes.

The dynamo system for ignition, with grow weaker rapidly, until they are exhausted. Some kinds can be recharged

the speed-governing pulley, is theoreti

cally a very fine ignition system; and, if to advantage; others must be replaced

operated by one familiar with caring for with a new battery when exhausted. The first cost of batteries is low, and their

electrical apparatus, it is really a very care is fairly well understood by the av

satisfactory method. This system, how

ever, possesses two very great disadvanerage operator. The fact that it is impossible to determine in any practicable

tages: first, the dynamo generates a di

rect current of low voltage, necessitating way just when a battery will become ex

close care and attention to be given the hausted, and the cost of maintenance, are

dynamo; second, the dynamo must run probably its most objectionable features.

atea constant speed, necessitating the use The dry battery, which is used most extensively, is reliable and cleanly, but of

of a speed-governing device, which, for short life, making it expensive to maintain. It will regain part of its original strength, if allowed to rest after being exhausted; but, when once exhausted, a new battery should be considered a necessity of the near future.

The storage battery, in connection with the dynamo or direct-current magneto, forms an ignition system which is almost ideal theoretically, but ofttimes impracticable. The storage battery is of great strength and is reliable until exhausted,

JUMP SPark Coil. providing proper care is taken of it; but unless it is given more attention than is the service required, has not proven algenerally given such a small part of an together reliable. The dynamo system automobile, it will prove a failure. For will sometimes work perfectly for a very instance, if it be charged above a certain long time, and then fail at a time most maximum rate, it will not receive a nor- disastrous to its operator, without any mal charge, and will therefore become apparent reason for its stubbornness. exhausted earlier than it would naturally T he combination of a comparatively do. If it be discharged above a certain high-voltage direct-current magneto with maximum rate, the battery will not only a reliable battery for starting purposes, fall short on its present charge, but on forms a very satisfactory ignition system,



even in unskilled hands; but it possesses the disadvantage that it is sometimes impossible to find room for such a system. Then, too, the batteries must be attended to occasionally, and the apparatus should be overhauled each season.

The writer is decidedly prejudiced in favor of ignition by means of the alternating-current magneto. The alternating-current magneto, from an electrical standpoint, is the simplest electrical generator made. For ignition purposes, it al

for every revolution of the armature. The above, it is obvious, would be the proper speed for four-cylinder engines. If eight cylinders are to be fired from one magneto, the magnetos are run twice as fast as the engine shaft.

The magneto alternator, when used with either make and break or jump spark, permits of the ordinary spark timing, except that the timing mechanism for the jump spark is very greatly s plified. Since the spark is generated at certain points in the revolution of the armature of the magneto, it is necessary, in order to change the time, only to change the relation of the armature to the engine crank; and this is accomplished by a simple construction made a part of the magneto. Probably the


Jump Spark Coil, with Vibratoz. lows of the most simple, positive installation in use. When used with the jump spark, a coil without vibrator is used with it, and but one coil for single or multicylinder engines. When used with the make and break spark, no coil is used. Owing to the very efficient designs of these magnetos, they will furnish a satisfactory spark at any speed between 30 and 3,000 revolutions per minute. An alternating-current magneto, not like the direct-current machine, generates its current only at certain points in the revolution of the armature. It is evident, then, that a magneto of this type must be driven by the engine through some positive mechanism, such as gears, chain, or

Vertical Magneto. pitman rod, and that the magneto and greatest advantage in the magneto alengine must be so connected mechanically ternator system of ignition, lies in its that the spark will be generated at the simple and positive construction. The required point of the engine's revolution. magneto, not having either commutator Owing to the ability of this magneto to or collector rings and brushes, conducts generate a large spark at so low a speed its current through the simple bronze as 30 r. p. m., engines can be readily bearings of the machine, which are oiled started from it with the magneto driven in the usual manner. There are no adat the same speed as that of the engine, justments, and oil and dirt cannot damat which speed it is usually driven. The age the apparatus.-FRANK REMY in magnetos now in use generate two sparks Nutomobile Review.


Bowl with Cover. Imitation of Imari Porcelain.


formed me that the greater part of his output was shipped to an agent in New York, who judiciously distributed it to dealers all over America.” So clever is this mode of giving age, that the combination of acids applied is absorbed by the marble and turns it yellow right through, so that even experts can be deceived by those ingenious imitations of Michael Angelo, Donatello, and other celebrated sculptors.

At Athens there is a factory busy all the year round turning out by the score "ancient" Tanagra terra-cottas. One of these imitations will be sold for fifteen hundred dollars when fifteen dollars is every penny it is worth.

When old silver became the fashionable craze, the little stores on the Ponte Veccheio contained many genuine chalices, goblets, sugar basins, and the like

tery. At first the Italians told the tourists there were no antiques left; but, finding the truth of no avail, and being an obliging people, they invented a new industry—the counterfeiting of antiques— which has to-day become almost a fine art.

An English gentleman of many years' residence in Italy, says: “I have stood in more than one sculptor's studio, both


a genuine piece—say a fine old goblet- such an extent is this counterfeiting carand produce exact copies. By a chemical ried on that after a Russian nobleman process they give them an appearance of had spent twenty-five thousand dollars in age that would deceive the eyes of an expert. For years there has been an increasing demand by collectors for mediæval armor and arms. In a back street of a prosperous Italian city is the workshop of a man who is a genius at manufacturing every conceivable kind of armor, from breastplates to gauntlets, from halberds to swords and daggers, all stamped with the monograms of some famous Spanish or Italian armorer.

The steel is treated with acids; the bronze hilts of swords are dipped in some kind of solution to give the appearance of age and use ; then the pieces are

Forged CANDELABRA OF THE 17TH CENTURY. placed in boxes of damp earth to induce rust; and in a week or two they are ready forming a collection of cameos, so many to be sold to the dealers at so much a when carefully examined proved to be dozen.

forgeries, that, despairing of separating


the false from the true, he sold the entire collection for what it would bring.

In Manchester, England, a large number of men are employed in making old furniture. The large majority of the supposedly genuine Sheraton, Chippendale, and Happlewhite sold in London, each with a certified pedigree that runs back to the middle of the eighteenth century, are probably not more than three months from the factory. A dealer described the making of a sixteenth century chair in these words: “You make the chair to pattern, soak it in a certain fluid, then shoot a few rounds of small shot into it, to give it a worm-eaten appearance, and there you are!"

Grecian terra-cottas, Louis Seize, Queen Anne furniture, Tanagra statuettes, Egyptian pottery, ancient brasses, pictures, armor, arms--in fact, you have

only to say what particular antique you want, and the London, Paris, or Italian dealer will in a week's time secure it and supply gratis an unimpeachable history, sworn to by the descendant of six generations.

Sacred scarabs, little Egyptian charms, are manufactured by a Connecticut firm. They are carved and chipped by machinery, colored in bulk, made to simulate age, and shipped in casks to the Moslem dealers in Cairo. The Arabian guides are the chief buyers, many of them being adepts at “salting" the sands at the base of the pyramids or about the sacred temples, where they artfully discover these scarabs before the very eyes of the Yankee tourist, and sell him, for an American dollar, an article manufactured at a cost of less than a cent, perhaps within a stone's throw of his own home.

The Worth of a Patent

S SOON AS the average man ob- Inventors, however, are often without ex

tains a patent upon any device, he perience or knowledge in regard to the I considers that his fortune is business side of the question and the dif

made, and that he has only to ficulties which attend the introduction let people know what he has done and and marketing of even a meritorious where he lives to be overwhelmed with article. Before a patent can make reoffers for it at his own price. The facts turns to any one, much time and money are that a patent is no more and no less must be put into it, and all this is to be than documentary evidence that the recovered before the investor can recoup holder of it is entitled to its exclusive use. himself for his outlay, to say nothing of If he does not wish to use it, and will not making money on the venture. The sell it at a reasonable price, the inventor large sums said to be paid for patents holds a piece of paper only, which de- that are not remarkable for novelty, teriorates rapidly from the competition being mere improvements upon existing of other inventors in the same field. machines or relating to some unimportant What is a reasonable price for an inven article, are mostly fiction. Inventors are tion, depends wholly upon circumstances apt to have an exaggerated iclea of the and conditions. If it relates to an article value of their patents, and to think that that will have only a moderate sale, a they should receive for their patent what very moderate sum is all that can be it may be worth after all the work reexpected, if, indeed, a manufacturer be quired has been done and the demand has found who desires to take the matter up. been created.

« PreviousContinue »