This article also contains pictures of an early version of a breathalizer called the “Drunk-O-Meter” and an early automatic speed trap camera.
COPS ON THE CAMPUS
At the Traffic institute, veteran officers —finest in the country—are pumped full of facts on how accidents happen and how to help motorists behave
By Clifford B. Hicks
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED police officers from every section of the country have been learning the finer points of traffic enforcement at Northwestern University’s Traffic Institute since 1936. It’s not entirely coincidence that the national death rate per 100,000,000 vehicle miles has been cut more than half—since 1936.
Even faculty members don’t suggest that the institute is solely responsible for this startling reduction in fatalities. Yet during the past 12 years those 1700 officers, crammed with knowledge of how accidents happen and what to do to prevent them, have taken over key positions on traffic police forces throughout the country. And the institute’s sister organization, the Traffic Division of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, has probed traffic enforcement in 60 cities, counties and states and made recommendations that invariably have brought surprising slashes in the accident rate.
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This seems like a really good way to kill your dogs, not to mention just cruel. I don’t really know how fast dogs can run, but 35 mph seems a bit high, doesn’t it?
Car Exercises Dogs
With six racing dogs to keep in top shape, Dewey Blanton of Columbus, Ohio, has developed a “canine exerciser” that fastens to his station wagon. Blanton built a frame to support a long plank beside the vehicle. Springs fastened to the plank are attached to the dogs’ collars, permitting the dogs to run wide. Longer chains keep the dogs in check. The broad plank bumper prevents injury to the dogs as they race along at 35 miles per hour. Best of all, the dogs seem to love the exerciser.
This is actually a really cool idea. I doubt it would be practical with the variety of modern body and wheel types, not to mention the fact that modern tires need air far less frequently, but it’s still nifty.
TIRE INFLATOR WORKS WITHOUT HUMAN AID
Putting air in the tires of your car should be a pleasure instead of a nuisance,according to Ellis E. White, of Los Angeles, who has just perfected an automatic tire inflator. To get air in the tires of his car, the driver need not get out from behind the wheel.
When his tires need air, he drives up a runway at the service station. He passes a box with a lever and a graduated scale, and with a touch of his hand he sets the lever to the number of pounds pressure he wishes in his tires.
At a certain point on the runway his wheels drop into a groove and close an electric contact, setting the intlator in action. Air nozzles advance from each side and press against special connections on the wheel’s hubs. Air flows into the tires. When the tire is full a bell rings and the air is shut off. To use the novel service, a car must have special air nipples that fit over the hub of his car’s wheels and have a pipe connection to the tire valve to complete the operation.
Highway “Beam” For Motorists
War-born device will guide peacetime motorists unerringly to their destinations —or plot their course as they go along.
EARLY one morning last year, just before sunrise, two men in a jeep found themselves lost in Washington. That is a horrible fate which can happen to anyone and often does, but in this case it was serious. In the back seat of the jeep was installed the first model of a secret new device which was being delivered under cover of darkness to the Army Engineer Board at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It had to be there at 8:00 a. m. to be inspected by a full board of high Army officers. But the two men in the jeep, newcomers to Washington, were stymied.
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