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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1959)
Split Automobile Engine Said To Cut Fuel Consumption Washington, (Science Serv- Stuntz, Hyattsville, Md., ! sists of a base, containing a ice)-A split automobile engine, j whose resulting anti-ground operating more economically on only half of its cylinders, is the brainchild of two Mich igan inventors. . For their invention, John Dolza of Fenton and William H. Kolbe of Huntington Woods received one of 1,035 patents awarded by the U. S. Patent Office here recently. They as signed their patent. No. 2,878, 798, to General Motors Corp., Detroit. clutter invention brought them patent No. 2,879,504. The patent was assigned to the Westinghoue Electric Corp., East Pittsburgh, Pa. This approach is based on the lengths of reflected radar pulses. Each pulse sent out by the antenna is a tiny fraction of a second long, and the reflec tions from distant objects in the sky are essentially the The rationale for the inven-1 same length. The ground re- tion is that internal combus tion engines are inherently more efficient when each cyl inder is running under a high load. At cruising speed the load is relatively light and gas consumption uneconom ical. Fuel Supply Cut In an eight cylinder car, the new engine operates some thing like this: Accelerating the car from a standing position is hard work and requires the power of all eight cylinders. Once the car is rolling easy at a steady speed, the load on the cylinders is relatively light. The fuel supply to four of the cylinders is automatically cut off, placing a greater load on the operating cylinders. The now split engine is running more efficiently with less gas consumption. In order to pass another car, the driver depresses the ac celerator pedal and the inac tive cylinders are kicked into operation. This supplies the additional power for fast pas sing. When the pedal is let up, the split operation is re sumed. Clutter Eliminated One of radar's disadvant ages is that it reflects off near ly every solid object and often causes a confused picture on the scope. One of the major sources of confusion is "ground clutter," reflections from the ground. The problem has been at tacked by Robert J. Howell, Harunsdale, Md., and John W. turn pulse is longer, however, because the radar wave is re flected from a considerable number of places at various distances. The invention consists of electronic gates which block out the long reflected pulses and allow only the short ones (reflecting from distant tar gets) to enter the viewing scope. Lambert Decker, Ulster Park, N.Y., received patent No. 2,878,641 for a motor which employs two natural in exhaustable sources of energy the sun and the earth's grav ity. The motor consists of four extendable metal arms placed like the spokes of a wheel. At the end of each arm is a dead weight. In one of the motor's several methods of operation, part of it is kept in sunlight and part in the shade: When an arm is in the hot sun, its metal expands, push ing the dead weight' out in front. This causes a shift in the center of gravity and the weight tends to fall toward the earth. The arm turns into the shade and contracts as the second arm is carried over to the sunlight. The process is repeated for all of the arms and the motor is kept turn ing. A small planetarium, which used heated air from a lamp to revolve "planets" around the "sun," brought patent No. 2,878,591 to Arnold H. Harris, Santa Clara County, Calif. lamp, arid a hollow transpar ent sphere. Heated air from the lamp rises into the sphere, hits vanes on one end of su spended metal arms, and caus es the arms to revolve. Small balls representing the planets are attached to the other end volve at approximately the same angular speed as their natural counterparts. A machine that hands out lighted cigarettes at the push of a button has won patent No. 2,878,960 for Peter E. Holtsch, Wiesbaden, Germany. The cigarettes are lighted by an electric heating coil, into which they are inserted a short distance. They are then partially ejected and held un til the customer pulls them out of the machine. NEW CONTENDER A brand new contend er in the compact car field is this five passenger Taunus sedan, to be imported from Germany by the Ford Motor company in June for sale in the United States. Med ford Motors will be the local representa tive. The Taunus has a 102.5-inch wheel base and an overall length of 172.2 inches. It is powered by an overhead valve, four cylinder engine delivering 67 horsepower at 4,400 rpm, and provides up to 35 miles per gallon in fuel economy. Merit Rating Auto Insurance Plan Due Test in California Editor's note: This is the first of two dispatches on the merit rating insurance plan for motorists which will be tested for the first time on a large scale in California be ginning May 1. By JACK VANDERBERG UPI Automotive Editor Detroit-(UPD-A traffic ticket may cost you more than the fine assessed by a judge, and an accident may be more cost ly than merely replacing a dented fender, if a California experiment proves successful. On the other hand, if you can avoid a traffic ticket or an accident for three years, it will save you money. The insurance industry will begin its biggest experiment with a program which penal izes the bad driver and re wards the good one when "merit rating" insurance takes effect in California May 1. If the California experiment proves successful, the plan is expected to be adopted by most insurance companies throughout the United States, according to the National Bu- The educational device con- reau of Casualty Underwriters MEDIUM-PRICED-Designed exclusively for the medium-price field, Mercury for 1959 of fers a combination of advanced design, me chanical' excellence and superior perform ance and economy, Medford Motors, 225 South Riverside ave., has announced. Mer cury's space-planned bbdies provide a new passenger comfort, and has a compound curved windshield with 60 per cent more glass area. Above is a Park Lane sedan. steadiest stance ! Wheels are five inches farther apart. This widens the stance, not the car, gives you road-hugging stability, less lean and sway. Only Pontiac has Wide-Track Wheels! RttTT YnTTW T.nr AT. ATTTTTni?T7irn PUVTTin flPITITD . "VCTT DEAN & TAYLOR PONTIAC CO. 6TH AND GRAPE MEDFORD and the National Automobile Underwriters Associations. These two associations, rep resenting about 200 insurance companies, petitioned the Cal ifornia Insurance Commission for permission to try the ex periment to see if merit rat ing automobile insurance is practical. 20 Per Cent Discount . Under the California plan, drivers with no accidents or moving violations over a three-year period get a 20 per cent discount in their insur ance rates. Those with one ac cident or violation pay about the same rate they would pay under any standard plan. Those with two or more acci dents or violations will pay higher rates. Only moving violations, not parking infractions, are count ed against policyholders. Traf fic accidents involving $50 or less in damages and accidents in which a car was damaged while it was parked also are not included in black ma"rks against the policyholder. This type- of insurance ac tually is not wholly new. It has been tried in various forms over a period of several years and currently is being written by individual compa nies in several states. But, it is generally consider ed to be still experimentaal by the insurance industry, and the California experiment is the biggest of its kind under taken to date. One Big Drawback It could be the key to wide spread use of merit rating in surance or the death of it, de pending upon the results. Most insurance companies have been hesitant about try ing the plan previously be cause they foresaw one big drawback. Most motorists would take the insurance and benefit from its lower rates until they prove to be bad drivers, the insurance companies felt. Once they get into the higher premium rate bracket, they would drop the insurance and switch to a company that pro vides Insurance at a standard rate. This would mean the companies using merit rating plans would have to pay dam ages incurred by these drivers in their first accidents but would not be able to keep them once they had to start Having the penalty. It could mean the companies would not get enough revenues from their low-rate customers to cover the expenses necessary for damages incurred by cus tomers who quit to avoid pay ing higher rates. Experience Lacking So far there has not been enough experience to deter mine what will happen. If all companies used the plan, and any driver switching from one company to another had to pay a higher rate until he estab lish a record with the sec ond company, it might work J out, insurance officials say. There is some home this type of insurance might furth er encourage drivers to be more careful. But again, there's not enough experience with it to be sure. EVEN IN OLE MISS Oxford, Miss.-UPD-A confer ence on the rehabilitation of alcoholics opened here today, the day on which Mississippi became the nation's only le gally dry state'. Tigard High Wins State Math Contest Eugene Tigard High school placed first in the Ore- j gon Mathematics contest for; 1959 for the fifth time in the eight years of the contest. Tigard students also scored highest in 1958, 1954, 1953, and 1952. The contest is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Association of America and the Society of Actuaries. This year approximately 3,250 high school students representing 79 Oregon schools partici pated. School rankings are deter mined on the basis of total of scores of the top three stu dents in each school. - Togard this year had a to tal score of 292, followed by Benson Polytechnic of Port land at 198.5, Lake Oswego at 183, Lincoln of Portland at 170.75, Grant of Portland at 153.25, Woodrow Wilson of Portland at 148.5, Beaverton at 142.25, James Madison of Portland at 141, Springfield at 132.25, and Parkrose of MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Oregon, Wednesday, April 8, 1959 7 INVITE DALAI LAMA Washington -(UPD- Sen. Clif ford P. Case (R-N.J.) has urged the administration to invite Tibet's ousted Dalai Lama to visit . the United States as a gesture of sympathy to Communist-plagued Tibet. Portland at 129. These were the highest 10. CHECK; ON RELATIVES Washington (UPD Rep. John F. Baldwin (R-Calif.) has in troduced a resolution to re quire all House members to declare whether they have any relatives on their govern ment payrolls and to make public details on government offices pace they rent in their home districts. SINCERE THANKS TO OUR CITY, COUNTY AND STATE POLICE We appreciate and admire your skill and promptness in recovering three cars which were taken recently from our lot. JAY ALLEN CO. 1078 Court St. .....oe PROUD or CAR ! WE'W PROUD k record yfc OF o A Km Liz, Fisher Meet Stumbling Block Wnllvwood (DPD Actress Elizabeth Taylor- and Eddie Fisher are running into an kinds of stumbling blocks, but they're going right ahead with their marriage plans. The couple learned Tuesday that the rabbi who officiated at Miss Taylor's conversion ceremones last week when she 1 J Tanned -fulfil will not be able to marry ner and Fisher in Nevada next month. Rabbi Max Nussbaum, whom Miss Taylor, "27, asked tn nerform the wedding rites, was advised by three Nevada judges that he" cannot perform the Nevada ceremony because he does not have-a congrega tion in that state. Rabbi Nuss baum's congregation is in 5 TTT Consider the reasons why so many smart driv ers are switching to Fiat: First of all there is the low initial cost this saving alone will buy gas and oil for years! There Is the low operating cost a Fiat can give you up to twice the gaso line mileage (takes less oil, too). Parts cost less, and so do the repair bills. But money-saving reasons aside, there are other big reasons for owning a Fiat (if you've ever driven one you'll know what we mean). Fiat is so much more fun and so much easier to drive! You can park one anywhere. And, throughout the car, you get custom quality, quality you expect to find only in cars costing much more. There's so much more, why not ask a salesman! m W0 tari. in souftem Oregon f on.rs-e", "n1 S..V.C-';;, BVes- ALLEN & Living room comfort, features and appointments of expensive cars you get this plus spaikling per formance and hardtop styling in the new Fiat 1200 Gran Luce. Fine styling, easy handling, maxi mum mileage, no parking worries, passenger roominess, large rear luggage space all yours in the low-cost Fiat 1100. MVE A FIAT AND' YOU'LL. BE A FIAT ENTHUSIAST FOR LOFE! More fun to own, costs half at much to buy and drive. The amaz ing Fiat 600 Sedan or Convertible gives you up to 43 miles per gallon! Fiat offers a wide range of models, each with distinctive styling and design that are typical of the skill of Italy's largesf manufacturer. There is a just-right model for every one . . . the comfortable 1200 and 1100 sedans, the dash ing roadster, the economical 600 sedan and convertible and functional Multipla. Whatever you need a ear for, there's a Fiat that will fill the bill better and more eco nomically! Why not discover for yourself why Fiat has become such a favorite right here in Southern Oregon. You get custom quality and dash ing performance in the Fiat Spyder Roadster Convertible. Powerful O.H.V. front engine, 4-speed floor shift. Now on display. Fiat 600 Multipla holds 66 cu. ft. payload! Two models, seating five or six. Low initial cast functional transportation for pennies. UVe BETTER BY frAj "HiTfiSftii WWIIHII'1 Ha brand new ca JAY' AlW C. Fiat-Borgward Sales and Service 1078 COURT ST. SP 3-4543 Hollywood.
