Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/566

 Prizes for Labor-Saving Automobile Improvements

$100 for the best labor-saver and $50 for the next best. Read these rules

��MORE than four million Americans own automobiles. Most of these owners run their own cars and make their own repairs. Many of them have undoubtedly invented ingenious at- tachments about which others would like to know, and some have unquestionably made improvements about which the great automobile manufacturers would like to know.

All this latent, unrecognized inventive talent should be brought to light, es- pecially at a time when we need inven- tions. And so the Popular Science Monthly has decided to inaugurate an automobile contest. It offers two prizes —one of $100, the other of $50— to be awarded in accordance with the rules pub- lished below. The prizes will cover at least part of the cost of patenting the in- ventions. The devices which win the prizes will undoubtedly be of sufficient commercial merit to warrant an automo- bile manufacturer purchasing the patents by which they are protected.

The main purpose of this contest is to encourage automobile owners and users to disclose their ideas.

Rules Governing the Contest

1. The device offered for consideration

��must be labor-saving in character. In other words, its use must result in a saving of the muscular effort required to run a car or to maintain it in good condition.

2. The device offered for consideration must be commercially new. In other words, it must not be purchasable in the open market.

3. The device submitted by a contest- ant may be a simpUfication or improve- ment of an invention now incorpo- rated in standard automobiles. Thus, it may be an engine starter, an elec- trical or hydraulic gear shift, a brake, a mechanically raised body top, a me- chanical clutch throw-in, etc. But always, it must be commercially new. The accompanying illustrations with their captions will give the prospective contestant an idea of the kind of labor-saving device the Popular Science Monthly editors have in mind.

4. Contestants are not limited in the number of devices which they may sub- mit. But only one device can possibly win the first prize and only one the second. The contest is open to every- body.

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��Here is an excellent instance of what we mean when we speak of a labor-saving device. This hood-raising mechanism does away with all muscular effort, beyond throwing a lever, as it consists of a method of raising and lowering the hood by means of power developed by the engine. Your drawing need not be as elaborate as this, but it should clearly show essential features. We will work it up in the form here shown

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