Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/73

Rh prone to the assumption that the motor-car question is a very simple one. To the horror of a good many of my enthusiastic friends I have always been bold enough to make two statements, first, that in unskilled hands the motor-car is very dangerous to its owner, its passengers, and others; and secondly, that the motor-car is as complicated as the horse. In skilled hands undoubtedly the motor-car has no compeer; it is a safer means of travel even than the railway. The chief danger is 'side-slip,' and in an article which I had the pleasure of contributing to the 'Badminton Magazine' I made the following remarks:

Personally I regard a twelve-horse power automobile as almost as dangerous as a four-in-hand. I object to driving behind a



spirited team unless in proper hands. I refuse to drive in a motor-car unless I know the abilities of the driver. The automobile is free from the dangers that follow shying, bolting, rearing and running away, but it has an equally dangerous enemy in sideslip. Nearly every motor accident one reads of is an exaggerated account of a side-slip; and yet nearly every side-slip is avoidable. Side-slip amounts to this, that one cannot rapidly apply the brakes on greasy wood, asphalte, oolite, macadam, or stone blocks. The result of such application is invariably unpleasant, sometimes dangerous. There are patent tyres which minimise the danger, but let every person who purchases a motor-car recognise that it is a danger, and one that cannot be avoided by the most skilful driver unless he proceeds slowly on dangerous road material.