tractor and ran all the time on the batteries. Finally a friend offered to look it over and find the trouble. The owner assured him that it was no use; the magneto was no good and as soon as possible would be replaced. He consented that the friend should look it over but insisted that the tractor must be ready to thresh the next morning. It only required a short time for the trouble to be located. One of the wires from the magneto had rubbed against the metal of the tractor until the magneto was really shortened. As soon as this wire was well taped the magneto worked as well as when new. The owner had overlooked the contact made with the frame and thought it must be the fault of the magneto. Advice. Do not be too ready to condemn the magneto. Our experience is that the trouble is seldom with the magneto except as the bearings or the breaker box of the high tension type may get out of adjustment. Almost invariably the trouble is due to defects in wiring or poor coil adjustment. Beyond doubt most of the so-called magneto troubles can be traced to other sources. CASE 307. DIFFICULT PLOWING WITH TRACTOR. Condition. A piece of plowing could not be done well with a tractor outfit. Discussion.-Those who are sent out to start and demonstrate tractor outfits have many interesting experiences. In this case it seemed impossible to get a decent job done. The plows did not scour and just "rooted" along in the ground. At first the trouble seemed to be due to the roughness of the lays and the slow speed of the tractor. So the lays were removed, ground and polished. The tractor was speeded up and still no results. Reducing the number of plows and high speed had no effect. The owner of the land assured the · operators that there had never been any trouble in plowing this piece with horses. But the neighbors quietly informed the engine men that for two years the field had only been disced as it could only be plowed under favorable conditions and then only with a plow having a very high land polish. So the tractor outfit was moved to another field where a very nice job of work was done. Advice. This case may be a little unusual and yet we have known of many quite similar to it. For the tractor outfit is expected to work under conditions which are impossible for horses. This of course is not reasonable except that the tractor can work when it is so hot and dry that horses can not stand the strain. CASE 308. PISTON RING TROUBLE. Condition. The piston rings gave some trouble after a repair job had been done. Discussion. During the repairing and overhauling of a tractor it was decided to put in a longer piston and increase the compression. When the repair work was completed the fly wheel could not be turned. It moved a slight distance either way from inner center and no more. Bearings and adjustments were inspected but nothing wrong was found. The real cause of the trouble was due to the length of the new piston. The counter bore, or rather shoulder at the combustion end of the cylinder was rather sharp, which allowed the piston ring to hold the piston. Of course the harder the pull the tighter the ring held against the edge of the bore. It was necessary to take out a valve cage and break the ring in pieces in order to get the piston out. Advice. In making repairs or alterations be sure that you properly measure the parts and have no interference between them. Often we have seen owners of machines take measurements for some part to be made at a repair shop. Then when the piece is taken home they find that some part has been overlooked in the measuring. Be very careful in all your measurements for even experienced designers and engineers make mistakes. SOLIDIFIED NATURAL GAS FOR AUTOMOBILES. DR. LEONARD KEENE HIRSHBERG. Mr. Henry S. Blacmore has been investigating the adaptability of solidified natural gas as a motive force for automobiles. Mr. Blacmore finds that liquified natural gas is a fluid like gasoline. Eight or ten gallons of it can be produced from one thousand feet of gas. The fluid natural gas has an advantage over gasoline in that it can be produced at about two cents a gallon, and, further, because it leaves no carbon deposit to clog the cylinder. Still more advantageous, however, is natural gas further concentrated into solid form. It is cheaper than gasoline. It leaves no carbon residue. And a cubic foot of the solid gas, weighing about five pounds, will carry an automobile from twelve to fifteen times as far as a cubic foot of gasoline. Storage of the solid gas would represent a much easier problem than the storage of gasoline. A cubic foot of the solid product comprises the condensation of twenty-five hundred cubic feet of natural gas. It has the appearance of crystallized paraffin, softens to a putty-like consistency at 212 degrees, and begins to turn back to gas again at 313 degrees. Both the solid and the liquid natural gas are perfectly safe to handle. It is possible that the automobilist of tomorrow will fire with the solid gas and never take his machine out of the garage without laying several bricks of this fuel in a box next to his tool kit, thereby insuring himself against present common annoyances of getting half way to somewhere when the fuel gives out with no fresh supply in sight. It is estimated that this country uses a half a million horse power for irrigation purposes. We Want To Give You This Book It will tell you all about how easily your home and other buildings can be lighted by the brightest, safest and cheapest light known. This complete, handsomely illustrated story of the Universal Electric Lighting System is yours for the asking. It will mean pleasure, satisfaction and a saving of money for you. This System will operate with any make of engine. The battery can be charged when the engine is doing other work. Send a card today for BOOK C Universal Battery Company 3413 So. La Salle Street, Chicago, Illinois We make all kinds of storage batteries for the trade. Please mention Gas Review when writing. RUMELYX Power Farming Machinery ON Let an Engine Do the Hard Work N your farm there are many jobs that require an engine, particularly at this time of the year. There is wood to saw, corn to shell, silage to cut, feed to grind; and at all times of the year, you can use an engine to advantage for pumping water, running the cream separator, churn, washing machine, grindstone hay and feed cutter and a host of other machines that make farm work infinitely easier. Rumely-Olds Engines 1% to 65 Horsepower These engines have been used more than thirty years by farmers and contractors, and in shops of all kinds. In the Rumely-Olds you get an engine that has proved its economy, reliability and long lasting qualities by many years of service under every possible condition. Here are a few Rumely-Olds features worth keeping in mind: Removable valves in cages, makes cleaning of valves easy. No weight on the vertical valve stems means less wear. Inlet valve lock rod saves fuel. Cylinder and head in one piece, no gaskets to blow out. Breaking plates prevent serious damage by freezing. Patented mixer has no wearing parts; and makes starting in cold or hot weather easy. Removable hopper permits engine to be changed from hopper to tank cooled. Oil is fed at top so piston grooves carry it to all parts of the cylinder. Drop forge crankshaft and connecting rod insure great strength. The simple, safe governor latch is adjustable when engine is running. There are many other Rumely-Olds features you should know about, and they are completely described in our new Rumely-Olds catalog-ask for a copy. L ET an engine relieve you of the hard, time-wasting, drudgery jobs on your farm, you can save money by doing it, and get the work done quicker and cheaper. A good gas engine will do the smaller jobs at about onefourth the cost of hand power, and the larger ones at one-half the cost of animal power. The Rumely-Falk burns cheap kerosene under all loads and all conditions. It is not an engine that burns kerosene sometimes, when conditions are just right; it is a kerosene engine all the time. Rumely-Falk Engines 3 to 20 Horsepower This engine is designed for hard continuous service, and even if it could not burn cheap kerosene, it would still have many advantages in the way of material, design, finish and durability. The throttle governor gives a very close regulation of speed that keeps the engine running smoothly and steadily, regardless of the load it is carrying. As a result the engine will last a long time, and the machines it operates are not subjected to severe strains. We would be glad to send you our Rumely-Falk engine catalog. Ask us for a copy. If you are interested in kerosene engines of larger horsepower than the Rumely-Falk, it will pay you to ask for catalog describing the Rumely-Adams and Oil Turn engines. These are powerful kerosene burning engines made in sizes from 30 to 60 horsepower. For your tractor needs we have the OilPull, a kerosene burning tractor, in two sizes, 15-30 and 30-60 horsepower, and the GasPull, a light weight, gasoline tractor; size 15-30 horsepower. Catalogs describing any of our farm power plants, or machines designed to be operated by them will be sent on request. Auto Department MAKING AUTO CRANK SHAFTS. JAY MAGEE. ONE hundred and seventy-five dollars? Great made, and if you have any ear and eye for science blow-outs! You repair men do certainly and art, I'll tell you something of interest.” tag us poor autoists with war prices!" "Oh, well," calmly replied the agent mechanic, "I can get a crank shaft for you for twelve dollars, but I know that you wouldn't have it. You FIG. 1. THE BROAD DROP HAMMER. need a six-throw, seven bearing, hollow shaft. Crank shafts you know are like watches. There are 'forty-nine centers,' 'Waterburys,' 'Hamiltons,' and a score of others. They're all worth the price asked, and each fills a field of usefulness. But whatever you buy, be it a watch, a pair of goggles, or a crank shaft, you'll be on the road the longest and in the shop the least by getting the kind that best fits the service. "Listen! I've seen many kinds of crank shafts The cross-country tourist resigned himself to a seat on his pile of baggage, as all tourists do who FIG. 2. STEEL BILLET FROM WHICH CRANK SHAFT IS mourn the loss of a friendly crank shaft; and while a group of mechanics engaged busily in installing a new six-throw creation on his car, from the discourse of the master of gas engine obsequies his mind became hypnotized for the coming operation that would deplete his purse. "There are two classes of crank shafts, drop forged and forged. Both classes are made of the same kinds of steel but by entirely different methods. The steels used for crank shafts are known by the names of the metalloids used in them to give soundness, strength, toughness, elasticity, and great resistance to shocks. The substances generally used for this purpose are nickel up to about three per cent, chromium with nickel, and vanadium. Regardless of these special substances, all steels are a combination of iron and carbon, the softest steel containing as little as .05 or .06 per cent of carbon, and the high class steels up to about one and one-half per cent carbon. It is the carbon that produces the hardening effect, and the special substances mentioned above influence the action of the carbon. "The alloy steels are more expensive than the plain carbon steels because in addition to the cost of the metalloid itself a great deal of extra work is necessary to make the steel. The molten metal from the open-hearth furnaces is cast into ingots which may be either square or round, but FIG. 3. APPEARANCE OF BAR AT END OF FIRST OPERATION. in all cases of much greater cross-sectional area than the finished work is to be. "For crank shafts the ingots must be rolled, hammered or pressed down to at least one-half the diameter of the ingot. It takes at least one |