Who Won the Motor Contest
An interesting collection of labor-saving devices brought forth in the Popular Science Monthly's prize automobile contest
���THE Popular Science Monthly's motor contest has been a huge success. The first prize of $100 goes to Mr. C. A. Butterworth of Newton Center, Mas- sachusetts; the second prize of $50 goes to Mr. P. C. Haas, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Both prizes were won by young men in whom invention seems to be a cradle- gift, for neither makes his living as an en- gineer.
It is significant that both prize- winners made use of the electric cur- rent to carry out their labor-saving ideas. Electricity is playing an in- creasingly impor- tant part in reducing the muscular labor required to drive the car. We have only to cite the electric starter and to contrast it with the old laborious hand-crankers to drive home the point; or to mention electric lights, turned on and off by a switch from the driver's seat, thus elimi- nating the flickering oil lamp or the gas lamp with its leaking pipe; or the elec- tric water temperature controller which insures efficient engine operation as against no controller at all; or the elec- trically operated gear shifter as against the hand shifter; or the score of electric comfort-giving accessories.
Mr. Butterworth, the first-prize win- ner, is a young man who has had no academic mechanical training and who has not even had a lesson in mechanical drawing. He has worked out an elec- trically controlled hydraulic gearshifter with an automatic clutch throw-out. It
��On the left, Mr. P. C. Haas, winner of the second prize of fifty dollars. On the right, Mr. C. A. Butterworth, winner of the first prize of one hundred dollars
��eliminates the physical exertion expended in the present type of car whenever it is necessary to shift gears. In addition, it does away with the physical labor re- quired of the foot to push down on the clutch pedal and to disconnect the engine from the driving mechanism when- ever the gears are to be shifted.
It was our in- tention to publish complete drawings of Mr. Butter- worth's invention in the present is- sue of the Popu- lar Science Monthly. We find, however, that the time at our disposal is too limited for an ad- equate presenta- tion of the sub- ject. Hence we must ask our readers to wait for the July issue, in which full justice \\ill be done to Mr. Butterworth's ideas.
The winner of the second prize of fifty dollars, Mr. P. C. Haas, has inven- ted an electrically operated steering gear controlled by means of a small switch mounted on the steering wheel, retained for looks and for cases of pos- sible emergency. The task of guiding a car saps both the physical and nervous energy of even the most hardened driver. Mr. Haas' invention, therefore, reduces the effort of merely following the right path by a percentage which cannot easily be calculated. It is our intention to publish Mr. Haas' invention with full plans and specifications in the August issue of the Popular Science Monthly. Both Mr. Butterworth and Mr. Haas are to be congratulated on the success of their ingenious ideas.
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