Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/119

 Popular Science Monthly

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���top if allowed to accumulate. The water drains off the eave trough through pipes to the ground.

Another feature of the turtle back is a tire-carrier directly under the top compart- ment. The carrier is made of two semi- circular halves mounted on a central shaft so that one half forms a curved door to provide a closed cylindrical box when shut and pro- vides access to two horizontal shelves, each of which car- ries a tire, when open. This ar- rangement is especially con- venient because it eliminates lifting and strapping the tires upon a con- ventional carrier.

The automatic top differs from that j ust described not only in that it is raised and low- ered by the power of the vehicle engine instead of by hand but that it is stowed away out of sight in the extended rear end of the body without any turtle back. When not in use. the top is wound around a horizontal crosswise roller in the rear compartment. The front end of the top is drawn forward to the windshield by means of two steel cables which extend down through the hollow windshield side posts to a small spool drum revolved through a friction gear from the engine fly- wheel. The operation of drawing the top forward out of its compartment and wind- ing the two cables around the drum is controlled by a small lever manipulated by the driver. The winding drum is re- v o 1 v e d through a set of gears and a clutch under the floor of the cab. The top compart- ment is closed by a door re- strained by springs and so arranged that a push

��on a small button by the driver automatically opens it. The manipulation of the| drum lever draws the top forward in ten seconds. It is automatically stopped when it reaches the windshield.

To lower the top the operations are reversed, the cables being dis- connected at the windshield and the top drawn back by a spring- reel at the rear. The free ends of the cables are laid in small grooves in the body sides in the way of the, rear seat where they are easily reached by the driver. When up, the top is pre- vented from sag- ging by means of three thin strips of spring steel wound with it around the roller. The spare tires are carried in a horizontal position beneath the top roller in the rear compartment.

��A separate compartment to carry extra wheels, a feature which distinguishes this car from all others

���Raising the top after removing it from its hidden position in the turtle - backed carrier at the extreme rear of the car

��A Vast Fortune Is Chewed Up Every Year

LOUD and long are the complaints of the / stringency of the times and the wails concerning the tightness of money; but these laments are not coming from the manufacturers of chewing gum. Neither the war nor any other calamity has affected the output of this great necessity. The annual im- ports of chew- in g gum average about 7,000,000 pounds, al- though in 1913 the av- erage reached nearly 14,000,- 000 pounds. Thus it is esti- mated that $13,000,000 are chewed up annually.

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