The Brake.
—Perhaps the most serious danger in the car mechanism is the brake. Mr. Harold F. Blanchard writing in Motor (New York), argues that more than half, probably as much as 90 per cent of all motor accidents may be eliminated by making the stopping ability of motor vehicles a maximum instead of 25 to 50 per cent, as is now the rule. He would have brakes put on all four wheels and claims thereby the braking power of the machine can be more than doubled. He further maintains that the braking power of the ordinary car is extremely low, due, sometimes to the design of the braking system and sometimes to the failure of the owner to adjust the brakes properly. He states that a car equipped with an efficiently constructed system of brakes on four wheels may be stopped from a speed of 30 miles per hour in 36 feet, whereas an average car in the hands of the average motorist will require from 100 to 150 feet. He thinks the brake should be powerful enough to lock the wheel through which it acts. This is not possible on many cars, especially trucks, and it is the reason, he says, why there are so many truck accidents in spite of their low speed. He argues that since very few crises arise so abruptly that the accident takes place before there has been some opportunity to slow down, and that a majority of accidents occur during the latter part of the stopping period, therefore, the substitution of 100 per cent braking power on four wheels instead of the present 25 per cent, the decelerating period will be reduced to one-half or one-quarter its former length, and consequently the number of “accidents would be reduced to a mere shadow of their present magnitude.”
Some automotive engineers think it best not to lock the wheels completely in braking. That the best plan is to apply the pressure only until incipient locking has been reached but the wheels are still rolling. The driver has little control of a skidding car, and certainly would have none whatever with all four wheels locked. While the wheels are still moving there is a chance to guide the car so as to avoid an obstruction even though it can not be stopped in time. Steering and braking should go together.
On some of the steep mountain roads, which, because of their length and relative grade with the bottom of the canyon, appear to be nearly level, it is impossible to hold the car with the brake alone. It is customary in such cases to assist the brake with the engine; unless the driver is very expert at changing gears the engine should be put in low, or intermediate, depending on the steepness, at the top of the hill, then with brakes and clutch the car may be controlled and kept to a safe speed.
The brakes being under the car are more or less difficult to get at, they form no part of the ornamental finish, and as a consequence usually are neglected until they become so very bad that they scarcely brake the car at all. They receive the mud and water from the roadway. The joints and pivots become rusted so that even with good bands they are only a quarter to a half efficient. It will pay better than life insurance to keep the brakes in first class condition.