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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 1920)
7 ES AND NOW FORDS AS WELL AS PIERCE-ARROWS CAN RIDE AROUND ON AIR SPRINGS. FIRST AUTO LISTS App erson Claims Aired New Affidavit. in NOVEL ANGLE PRESENTED Pioneer in Game Tells of How Idea Was Born of Car With out Horses. THE SUNDAY OKEGOMAN, FORTLAAD, JULY 4, 1920 NTERS I " ll'wmMiiimwii'-i'itw--.!VS , - t . I4 If::.- s-v. ' tec? Yf-rrrz I . agar &m Now comes Elwood Haynes. manu facturer and designer of the Haynes car, with still another angle in the celebrated controversy as to who thought of, designed and actually built the first automobile. Mr. Haynes' side of it is that he himself did the aforesaid thinking,, designing and building of the only and original first car. and in witness thereof he has prepared and submitted the follow ing affidavit. For the benefit of those interested in the controversy, it is herewith appended in full: "For three or four years before coming to Kokomo I had been think ing about the possibility of making a carriage which could be driven by its own power. At first my idea was to run it by steam, but I abandoned that thousht because at that time I did not consider it advisable to have an open fire burning in a vehicle, and besides I felt that the problem of carrying a sufficient water supply was a difficult one. So I gave that up. "Then I turned my attention to the internal combustion engine. This gave me food for thought, and sev eral times I tried to get around to Ihe actual planning of the machine, but my work as superintendent of the Natural Oas company in Kokomo kept me too much occupied. How He Thought of It. "It was almost midsummer in 1S93 I came to 'Kokomo in December, lS9i before I was able to give the mat tor any. serious attention. At that time I -had no idea whatever of the automobile as it is today, and nat urally not of the automobile business. My sole idea was to see if I could not make a carriage that could be driven without horses. After I de cided to use the gas engine I bought one from the Sintz Engine company. It was shipped to me in October or November of 18113, and I set it up In my own home. I don't think the Appersons saw it, or even knew that 1 had it. I remember that a girl who worked for us at that time asked Mrs. Haynes if 1 was trying to make a carriage that would go without horses, and when she was told that I was. she said: "'Well that surely will be a scrump tious sight you and Mr. Haynes ridin' down the street in a buggy without any horse ir. front of it. "When I got ready to get down to actual work on the invention 1 asked Mr. L.affeity regarding a machine shop where I could get some work done, which I did not want made public. 1 realized that my efforts would awaken a lot of comment and ridicule if made public and for that reason as much as anything else, I wanted everything done confiden tially. "Mr. Lafferty recommended the Apperson shop, and said that nobody was allowed inside it during the day. So I went there and called on Elmer Apperson. I had never seen him be fore. I told him what I wanted, and he said that they vere not very busy and that they would be- glad to under take the work. I asked him if they would rather do the work from the drawings and make an estimate, or would they rather do it by the hour. He said he would rather take it by the hour, and in that way. it would be satisfactory for both of us. Some Mathematical Problems. "I told Mr. Apperson specifically that I would not hold him responsible for the outcome, but that I did ex - pect good construction and good me chanical work, and that I wanted the work well done. "Then I brought the drawings for the machine. The frame was a double hollow square of tubing; the front axle was to be swiveled on with a large ' kingbolt. I had to work out the pitch of the sprockets and var ious other engineering items and I had to use a little trigonometry to do it. I am quite sure that neither of 1 the Appersons knew much, if any thing, about engineering or could use mathematics ' in any way on such a problem. Elmer not only told me that he could not calculate the horse power of an engine, but also told me that I was the only man in town who could do it. "In order to make a machine that ; had a chance to run. it was necessary . first to determine the amount of trac tion required to overcome the road resistance. I h.d no means of doing that except by having a man on a bicycle towed behind a buckboard , hi w ii Dy a norse. i attached a spring scale to one end of the. tow- line, and the bicycle -to the. other. and had a man on the buckboard take readings of the pull registered on the spring scale. We kept a record of the readings, averaged them and , arrived at the result. The man and bicycle weighed 200 pounds and the test shewed that it took 34 pounds of traction to move this weight, which gives something like 17 Vs pounds to the 1000 pounds of weight in a motor Thin picture ahowa a Ford nape equipped with the new air 'spring for Ford cars Invented by L.ewla I. Thompson, Portland architect and In ventor. Xot the air aprinsa just above the front axle on either aide. Two more of them are on the rear. This device, which la the very latent thing In Ford ahoek alisorbcra, la known an the Thompaon air aprlng, and a Ford equipped with them rldea II ke a Plerce-Arrow. Standing bealde the ear la Martin F. Swift of the Howrll-Swift Tire company, 44.1 Stark street, which Is Oregon distributor for the Thompaon air aprlng for Ford cars. car which is about the standard of today. "Then it became necessary to esti mate the torque, which I did by means of a brake on the flywheel of the engine. 1 believe it was nine pounds. 1 was able to determine from these figures what gear ratio I must have to drive the vehicle over a level road. I arranged for two speeds the low speed just strong enough to move the machine up a 4 per cent incline. It could barely do this. On the other hand it moved right off on the level road, carrying three men. "The first drawing I made for the placing of the engine contemplated having it horizontal. I abandoned this, as I saw that a horizontal en gine would not work practically, and adopted the vertical installation. "Now, there may have been some slight changes in the plans, to enable the workmen to follow them more easily,' and if those minor changes constituted the designing and build ing of the car, then certainly the credit for it belongs to the Appersons. But, if the engineering , plan enabled them to carry out my ideas and in structions the idea, the designing and the drawings and the general plan then it seems to me the credit is mine It would have been prac tically the same machine if built in any other machine shop in the world or by any other workmen. "I did not object to slight changes. so long as they did not interfere with the basic plan. For Instance, the sprocket wheels, which transmitted the engine power to the rear wheels by means of ordinary bicycle chains such as were used then, did not exist at that time. I designed the sprocket wheels and calculated ths pitch line. Most of the work on the machine was done by Billie Adrain and very little was done by the Appersons. They owned and ran the machine shop, and took my job in at so much an hour, i Edgar did some work on it, but Elmer did very little. wants History Correct. "I..ater on, when we got into the business of manufacturing horseless carriages. I created several more new ideas. For example, l proposed the design of the double opposed motor. The idea was mine, and it was carried into execution under my direction. I remember that Henry Ford at one time came to me and voluntarily said that he got his start from this very form of motor. "I have no desire to take part in an argument or a dispute. 1 have al ways avoided this, being content to allow the facts to carry their own impression to whomever was inter ested in the matter. 'All I am inter ested in is that history shall be cor rect and fair to all concerned. "The men who took part in the work of making the first car of mine have made affidavit setting, forth the facts and have Bworn to them. They did this a long time ago. Noth ing has ever been produced to refute these workmen's sworn testimonials. "(Signed) ELWOOD HAYNES." Subscribed and sworn to before me this 17th day of June. 1920. (Signed) NELLIE A. MANNIAN. Notary Public. My commission, expires August 17, 1921. 13 AUTOS ARE MISSING HERE'S POLICE BUREAU LIST 1 OR IjAST WEEK. Auto Theft Department Asks the Co-operation of Public to Aid in Recovering Them. Thirteen automobiles are on last week's stolen car list of the auto theft department of the Portland police bu reau as not yet having beer recov ered. Co-operation of the public gen erally is requested by Lieutenant H. A. Thatcher, head of the auto theft department, in giving information as to any of these cars that may be seen.. Following is the list, which includes two Buicks. one Chevrolet, one Chand ler, three Dodges, three Fords, a Max well, an Overland, and a Tulsa, also one motorcycle: Buick. 1920 touring:. Oregon license No. 1557H. motor No. 5BS432. Buick, 1!H6 touring:. Oregon license No. 14X17. motor No. 14SI405. Chevrolet. 1U19 touring. Oregon license No. 251-0. motor 'No. C-2318, black. Chandler, 191H touring. Oregon license No. 821-49, motor No. 54570. Podge. 19l(S roadster. Oregon license No. 4741, motor No. 146172. Dodge, 1018 touring. Oregon license No. 31K7S. motor No. 39905. lodge. 1920 touring, Oregon license No. 82998. motor No. 509486. " Kord, 1914 touring, Oregon license No. 73752, motor No. 121717. Ford, 1919 roadster, Oregon license No. 15737. motor No. 3042798. 1 Maxwell. 1918, license tags missing, mo- tor No. 227041. Overland, 1918 touring. Oregon license No. 4iio. motor No. 3tbi0. Tlusa, 1920 roadbter, Oregon dealer's license 799-A. motor No. 3BS56. Harlcy-Uavldson. 1919 motorcycle. Ore gon license No. H-65- motor No. L.-19 A-22401. Protecting Gaskets. When a gasket has been in place for some time the material often ad heres so firmly to its base that re moval is practically impossible with out tearing the gasket. The way to obviate this trouble is to give the gasket a generous coating of graphite, which prevei.ts adherence and per mits using the part time after time. Long Parade of Autos. There are in round numbers 8.000, 000 motor vehicles in use in the United States at the present time. "Make one grand procession of all these cars," says Howard Greene in the .May issue of Motor,: "allowing four feet between cars, and the line would be 20,000 miles long. If they traveled 20 miles per hour and -you made up your mind to watch all of the procession go by, you would have to sit on the fence for six weeks, day and night. That's what 8,000,000 cars mean." MASTER TRUCK IN PENDLETON TERRITORY HAULS WHEAT UP GRADES ALMOST UNBELIEVABLY STEEP. .it- : y W ITTT 1 How? Ask Us! All batteries wear out in time. Many a battery dies long before its time. You can't prevent battery death but you can postpone it. Threaded Rubber In sulation h a 8 been selected by 13 6 manu facturers of passen ger cars and rfotor trucks. Tke track In the plrtare on a recent demonstration conducted by the branch of W. C. tiarbe, Inc, at Pendleton, hanlrd three tona of mill feed up grade of 30 per cent and greater thronsh plowed fleldn. The pnr poae of the teat waa to illustrate the ability .of the track to take on loada of wheat at almost any place on these raatrrn Oreron wheat "aches, the topographies of which were not constructed by satire with a view to making wheat hauling easy. Some grades climbed by the trnrk were ao ateep that the load had to be tied on to keep the aacka , from dropping off. This track Is equipped fore nnd nft with Goodyear pneumatic cord tlrea. which srlve traction where solid tires would allp. .Many Master trucks are operating now In the eaatcrn Oregon wheat fields, where they are great favorites with the ranchers. jji. SERVICE Ninth and Everett at Seventeenth j; ; . f ffit Now Is the Time to Paint Your Automobile PHOE OR CALL FOR ESTIMATE Robinson-Smith Go. Sixth at Marilaon. Main llOO. A spirited companion for a ivon-' derful girl and a ns:o?idcrful boy The Jbrd. The Jordan Playboy is ready. A spirited companion for a wonderful girl and a won derful boy. It's a shame to call it a roadster, so full is this brawny, graceful thing with the vigor of boyhood and morning. It carries two passengers -three if they're friendly to the place you have always longed to go. It revels along with the wandering wind and roars like a Caproni biplane. It's a car for a man's man that's certain. Or for a girl who loves the out-of-doors. J O R DA N M O TO R C A R C O an Playboy V It's true there's some of the tang of that rare old English ale that was brewed from the . smiles of youth and old boxing gloves. How did we happen to think of it ? Why a girl who can swim and paddle and shoot des cribed it to a boy who loves the roar of the cut-outJ s -aj We built one and slipped away from the quiet zone.1 And stepped on it. And the dogs barked and boys stopped to cheer. And people we passed stopped and looked back and we were boys again. The Playboy is built in limited numbers frankly, because we love to do it. Inc. C level an d , Ohio We Are Displaying The New JORDANS JORDAN Sales and Service BROADWAY at EVERETT anjhaausi ssFi ifni