Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/428

 412

��Popular Science Monthly

��Operating an Automobile Steering Wheel with Oil Pressure

THE tendency of the conventional automobile steering wheel to jump out of the hands of the driver when negotiating uneven streets or roads full of ruts is corrected by the novel device shown here-

��5TEERIN0 POST

-BRACKET

���PISTON ROD OPERATED BY STEERING WHEEL

��*IP£ LEADING TO END OF STEERING CYUNDER

��Above: Details of the device for pre- venting the steering wheel from jumping out of the hands of the driver over vm- even rough roads

At right: A cut- , away illustration of the device in opera- tion showing how the wheel is con- nected with the cylinder piston rod

���first cylinder, compressing the oil ahead of it and forcing it into one end of the second cylinder. This causes a movement of the second piston and with it a movement of the steering arm and the wheels attached to it. A reverse turning of the steering wheel turns the vehicle wheels in the op- posite direction.

Any shocks communicated to the vehicle wheels will be transferred to the piston in the thread engage- ment with its cylin- der. Part of the shocks will be taken up in the oil itself. Due to the larger volume of the first cylinder, a small movement of its pis- ton will cause a re- latively greater move- ment of that in the smaller or second cylinder.

By this arrangement the automobile can be made to negotiate the roughest roads and the deepest ruts with- out causing the driver to lose control of the steering wheel. The amount of jolting and the consequent wear and tear on the mech- anism are also greatly reduced.

��with. It accomplishes its purpose through the flow of oil between two inter-connected cylinders and pistons.

The lower end of the steering wheel column is attached to the end of the piston rod of the first cylinder, mounted on the forward side of the dash, under the hood, as shown. The interior of this cylinder is screw-threaded, as is also the piston which works in it. A filling tap is provided at the top of this cylinder near each end for the admission of oil or other suitable fluid. Similarly placed outlets are provided at the bottom, with pipes leading to the second cylinder which is supported from the vehicle frame near the front wheels so that the forward end of its piston rod may be connected to the usual steering arm in a suitable manner.

In operation, the turning of the steering- wheel moves the threaded piston in the

��In What Position Does a Rifle Bullet Return to Earth?

IN order to solve the problem, a special stand was erected in Germany recently, and experiments were carried on along the shores of a lake, the surface of which was frozen. The ice was covered with strong planks. It was shown that an in- fantry rifle bullet shot upward in a vertical direction passes downward in the same posi- tion in which it passed upward — in other words, it came back again to earth with its bottom first.

Why was it not upset at its culmination point? The answer is that the propelling force ceases to act at the culmination point. But the twist has as yet not stopped, and therefore it starts its fall with a twist. Even on impact the twist has not stopped, as was indicated by the warping of the wood fibers in the planking on the ice.

�� �