Gas Review

A Magazine for the Gasoline Engine User MADISON, WISCONSIN

Entered at the Postoffice, Madison, Wisconsin, as second-class matter

B. B. CLARKE, Editor

PROF. P. S. ROSE. Ass't Editor

prices, was $68.70 per horse. The total of all costs was $92.30. By crediting the horses with the value of the manure saved and with the increase in value of young horses, the net cost was $87.50. These horses worked an average of eight hundred and thirteen hours per year, making the hourly cost ten and three-quarter cents. This is a pretty high charge per horse power hour when

"SAFETY FIRST;" "See America First;" "Buy a Bale of Cotton;" "Use Goods Made in America," are all excellent slogans born of very recent events. They are rousing public sentiment to work together for a greater, better America. Now let's add another slogan, "Let an Engine Do It."

THE New York College of Agriculture requires every student in agriculture to have at least forty credits in farm practice, all of which may be obtained, if the student so elects, in running farm machinery. New York has read the hand writing on the wall and is profiting thereby. May the other states do likewise!

THE front cover page for this month's issue was prepared from a photograph taken on the farm of Harley Julian, Yukon, Oklahoma, on the twenty-third of last May. The press shown was made by the Collins Plow Company of Quincy, Illinois, and the motor by the Cushman Motor Works of Lincoln, Nebraska.

OUR Correspondence Department is particularly interesting this month as it shows how three farmers have provided themselves with a household power plant. These little plants are becoming more and more popular. In a very few years every well equipped farm will be provided. They save the men's time and relieve the women of drudgery.

A FARMER in Illinois, acting under instructions received from the United States Department of Agriculture in 1912, kept accurate record of the cost of keeping his horses, with the following results: The cost of feed alone, charged at farm

annual charge for keeping the horses was below the average.

THE growth of mechanic arts has been phenomenal in this country in the past four decades, faster than any of us realize, and it is only by making a comparison with other expositions that we can arrive at any accurate conception of the progress made. For example, at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, there was exhibited a 1,000-horse power Corliss engine which was the wonder of all visitors. It was the largest steam engine at that time in this country. There were no gas engines worthy of the name. The Otto licenses had just begun to build a few small gasoline engines and Brayton was working with his expansion gas engine but it can truthfully be stated that the gas engine industry in this country had not yet been started. Now we have steam engines developing as high as 30,000-horse power and gas engines of 7,000-horse power. Gas engines are now found everywhere, not only doing much of the work formerly done by steam engines, but they have made thousands of new uses for power in manufacturing, in transportation and in agriculture and all within the thirtyeight years which have intervened between the Centennial Exposition and the installation of the first exhibit a few days ago at the PanamaPacific Exposition. There will be even greater developments in the future.

THE war revenue bill which proposes to levy a direct tax on the people is the hardest blow the pork barrel representatives and senators have yet received. When people were taxed indirectly by means of a tariff, and no one knew what proportion of the tax he paid, nobody cared very much how much the government spent, but when the proposal was made to dip directly into the people's pockets everybody woke up. There immediately arose a very insistent demand for economy in government as in other things.

From now forward the people's representatives in Congress will have to be mighty careful how they vote to appropriate public moneys. It will be dangerous to trade with each other for appropriations for their several districts and if we read the signs of the times aright, a man's usefulness in Congress and his ability to be returned will not hinge so much on his ability to bring home a slice of the public pork as it has, in the past. Rather, he will have to show a record for

economy. Another thing that we shall have to reconstruct our views upon is the tariff. After Europe gets through with this war it is doubtful if our imports from foreign countries will reach the volume they have in the past for many years. Foreign events will thus have a determining influence upon American politics.

THE gas engine driven mechanical milker is becoming very popular in many parts of the country. An Ohio farmer in writing on this subject for one of the agricultural papers says: "We are finding that the best part of the machine is the man who runs it, and understands how a calf gets its dinner. A smart boy of eighteen makes an efficient engineer, nimble of finger and quick of sight. The task of milking, to him, is not drudgery but that of a managing expert."

This farmer has discovered the key to success in the handling of farm power. It is in the man who runs it. It needs intelligent, sympathetic care. The man who runs machinery ought to know enough to at least have a reverent respect for finished surfaces and nicely fitted bearings.

It is not every man who is a successful teamster. To be such he must love his team, take a pride in their prowess, and their appearance. He must be willing to work over them and care for them. The good engineer feels the same way toward his engine. He watches it, keeps it clean, seeks to understand its peculiarities and, withal, he is sympathetic and patient. When a small gas engine, a tractor or an automobile is sold to that kind of a farmer it always gives a good account of itself.

The rank failures are due to ignorance, lack of sympathy and an erroneous belief that a machine does not require much care. If tractors were treated with the same consideration as horses they would rarely give much trouble. The farmer we have just quoted suggested the solution when he said the bright boy of eighteen makes an efficient engineer. The reason is that he is willing to learn and is at the age when new ideas come easily. If he can get a little first class instruction to start with his success is assured. Now that we are just entering the greatest period in the development of power farming this matter of efficient engineers is a serious matter both for farmers and manufacturers. The solution lies in training the boys and young men. To make the business permanent and profitable greater efforts must be made than in the past to spread the right kind of instruction among the people.

THE hardest blow struck at the gas engine business was the proposed tax of two cents a gallon on gasoline and all products obtained from crude petroleum. This bill was rushed through the House but was stopped in the Senate. At the present writing it has agreed to reduce the

tax to one cent a gallon but even this is too much. It was proposed ostensibly to strike at the oil trust but every one who buys oil knows that it would be the consumers that would have to pay in the end; not only would they have to pay the two cents tax but undoubtedly another cent to the dealer to salve his feelings. It is a well known fact that when prices start upward their momentum carries them always a little beyond the mark set.

A tax on gasoline is a direct tax on agriculture. There are probably close to two million gas engines used on the farms of this country and nearly half a million automobiles besides many thousands of gas tractors. The farmers are depending more and more upon mechanical power and it is safe to say that they are using by far the greater part of the petroleum products marketed in America. It is a tax of fifteen to twenty per cent upon one of the necessities of life and, moreover, one of the necessities that makes powerfully for national prosperity in agriculture, in manufacturing and in transportation.

The tax would fall particularly heavy upon the users of commercial trucks. These trucks, of which there are fully one hundred thousand in the United States, run more hours per day and consume more gallons per mile than passenger automobiles and their cost of operation would be greatly increased. Raising the price of transportation will affect the price of every commodity. Any increase in the price of gasoline reacts disastrously on the sale of gas engines and thus affects a great many manufacturing plants and reduces the number of men who can find profitable employment.

Moreover, the automobile owners, on whom the tax was supposed to fall heaviest, are already afflicted with taxes almost to the breaking point. In most states they have to pay an annual registration fee, a driver's license and taxes on the value of the car as personal property. If one or two cents a gallon are added to the tax on gasoline they will be certainly thoroughly well taxed.

When we come to look into the reasons for the tax it seems all the more indefensible. When the war revenue bill was first introduced nothing was said of reducing expenses, all the congressmen thought of was to get more money. They wanted to go on with their program of spending money on useless river and harbor improvements, on elaborate public buildings and in a thousand and one other extravagant ways. The matter has been so thoroughly well aired, however, that they have cut down their appropriations considerably but there is still plenty of opportunity to use the pruning knife. If we are saddled with a tax of even one cent on gasoline it will be because the representatives at Washington refuse to heed the country's demand for retrenchment in government expenses. It is a needless and a vicious tax.

CASE 303. POOR GOVERNOR OPERATION. Condition. The owner of a tractor sent for an expert, stating that the governor on his tractor did not operate properly, that the engine was not being controlled in speed.

Discussion. When the expert arrived he found that the tractor was being used to drive a big separator with a forty-four inch cylinder and that wheat was being threshed at the rate of three thousand bushels per day. The tractor was only a 65-horse power machine and it was apparent at once that the load was as heavy as the engine could handle. Consequently, there really was no governor action, since the governor held the valve wide open at all times. This made the engine take the whole impulse every time and it worked this way for hours at a time. There were four men pitching into the machine which was equipped with wing feeders. As soon as the pitching quit and the load lightened up, the governor controlled the speed of the tractor properly and kept it within the proper limit. The owner did not realize what a load he was giving the engine and thought that there must be something radically wrong with it somewhere or the governor would control it more than it did.

Advice. Be sure that your engine is not overloaded before you think the governor is out of order.

A gas engine really can not be overloaded, that is a mis-statement, but be sure that your engine is not pulling its full load before thinking that there is something radically wrong with it. We have seen a tractor pulling ten bottoms in the Dakotas, which seemed to have a full load all the time, the governor scarcely ever operating at all. Yet there was no harm done whatever, because the engine kept up to speed all the time. Be very careful, however, when the engine is working at full load as this one was with the separator, that the full load does not become an overload so that the speed of the engine is reduced, power lost, and unusual strain imposed.

CASE 304. DRY CELLS EXHAUSTED. Condition. A small tractor worked very nicely except that the dry cells only lasted about fifteen hours.

Discussion. This little tractor was one of a very popular make. The ignition equipment was regular jump spark parts for use with a two cylinder opposed cylinder. But in spite of the greatest care the dry cells lasted but a day and a half. The most careful search for a ground or short circuit was unsuccessful. All parts were in good order and in the proper position. But it

was found that the contact blocks in the timer were too long. This made the drain on the batteries very heavy as the coils vibrated much longer than necessary to produce a good spark. Evidently the timer had been designed for a higher speeded engine or for use with a magneto. At any rate, the trouble was ended by taking the contact blocks out and filing them much shorter. This lessened the contact period and the spark was still satisfactory. The tractor was used for four days and the cells then tested around twenty amperes when the last day's work was finished.

Advice. In this case the manufacturer or designer was at fault. But the remedy was so simple that anyone could give it. When your tractor uses an excessive number of dry cells you may know that your contact period is too long or that you have somewhere a short circuit. In any case do not continue to buy dry cells without finding why so many are used.

CASE 305. TRACTOR OFF THE CAR. Condition.-Owing to a defect a tractor was run off the car on which it was to be loaded.

Discussion.-The loading of a tractor on a car is not a boy's job. This is true when everything is working nicely and more so if anything breaks or sticks. Then even the most experienced men may get in trouble. Recently a man loading a

tractor ran it off the side of the car because he could not release the forward clutch. Some parts of tractor were damaged as was a box car on the next track which really kept the tractor from falling to the ground. The trouble was caused by the breaking of a cable which controlled the clutch mechanism. When this and some other parts were put in repair the tractor operated as well as ever.

Advice. When loading on a car or working in some other ticklish place be sure that you can easily reach the switch or fuel cut-off so that you can instantly stop the motor. In some cases the most experienced operator will find it best to pull the switch and get away from danger as fast as he can.