Excerpt from The Modern Gasoline Automobile: Its Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance; A Practical, Comprehensive Treatise Explaining All Principles Pertaining to Gasoline Automobiles and Their Component Parts The favorable reception of this treatise by the motoring public has been gratifying, to say the least, and in presenting the fourth edition Of this work to the motoring fraternity the author wishes to thank those readers and reviewers who have made suggestions for improving or enlarging the scope of the exposition. The improve ments in the automobile during the two years this work has been on the market have been more in the nature Of refinement of body lines and improvement of mechanical detail than any radical change in principles or basic design. The most pronounced tendency is the adoption of eight-cylinder V motors, such as used in aeroplanes, to automobile propulsion, but this is not general. The De Dion eight cylinder V motor, which is the type from which the American motors have been taken, is therefore illustrated in this new issue. While the major portion of the 1914 edition of this work remains unchanged, owing to the highly developed state Of the art at the time it was prepared, it has been found desirable to include much addi tional matter in this latest edition in order to keep pace with the progress Of the industry. The entire work has been thoroughly revised and a number Of corrections made in the text. Much supple mentary matter has been added relating to ignition, the action Of magneto generators and basic principles on which they Operate, so this subject should be more easy Of comprehension. Entirely new material has been written on tractors in three and four-wheel forms, cyclecars and agricultural tractors or automobile plows; combination gasoline-electric drive, front-wheel and four-wheel drive and steer systems, and other important developments in power-propelled vehicles. The discussion Of power transmission methods has been augmented by consideration of the skew bevel gear and two-speed direct drive rear axle, as well as several new forms Of worm gear drive. The subject of electrical motor starting systems has been considered at length and leading systems and their components described. A discussion on ball and roller bearings, their maintenance and installa tion, has also been included, and a number Of other features of timely interest, such as latest types of gasoline and kerosene carburetors, cyclecar power plants, the Fischer slide valve motor, detachable wire wheels, etc., have been added to bring the work thoroughly up to date. Many new illustrations have been made to illustrate the mat ter and the treatment of some of the subjects changed to some extent upon the advice Of various educators to permit the work to be used to somewhat better advantage in teaching classes in engineering in various technical schools that have adopted this work exclusively as a text-book on elementary automobile engineering. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.