The Missoulian from Missoula, Montana • 17

Pontine Star Chief Custom Sedan Mlssoulian-Sentinel, Wednesday, March 24, 1 934 3 Made Its Initial Run Missoula's 1910 Taxi '7' mm i i-iiiiimiin mm rmv rr 1 tu mm, i 1 nr kzz I 1 i 4 y. yU 1 Sure to catch the eye of every show visitor is Pontiac's new Star Chief Custom Sedan. Bigger and longer than any car ever built by Pontiac, this luxurious car comes in distinctive exterior colors with upholstery in leather and nylon of matching color. This custom sedan has a distinguishing chrome plaque behind the rear windows and chrome moldin gs over side windows. Over-all length, 213.7 inches Electronic Marvels Speed Automotive Progress Automotive engineers are using electronics in their hunt for still better ways of making America's cars and trucks.

This relatively new branch of physics is helping the industry Electronic inspection machines are speedily performing jobs that formerly could not be done at all, or only with agonizing slowness. One inspection machine measures thickness oft copper strips to the thousandth of an inch and checks for pinhole perforations while the strips move past at 300 feet per second. But the story of automation, a natural fruit of production line techniques long familiar to auto on three fronts, all of direct benefit to the consumer. hands for those hunian workmen. Increases in output credited to transfer machines have ranged all the way from 15 to 200 per cent.

An example is the 32-slation machine in use by one manufacturer. It performs 198 fully automatic operations while machining all the holes in the top and both cylinder head faces of a V-8 engine block. It loads raw blocks, machines them, rolls them into, position, automatically gauges the holes and sends them on to the next phase of manufacture. And the electronics specialists say all this is only a hint of more amazing things to come. It is setting new standards of engineering perfection, pushing record production capacities still higher, and cutting processing costs.

Electronic techniques and de motive men, is perhaps the most fascinating of all. early-day Louvre saloon; an unidentified businessman; Gus Olson, and William Werner, employed then by the Papke Butcher Shop, later operator of shops of his own. The picture, taken near the Union Bar at Milltown after the first run, is the property of Earl Banta, present owner of the Missoula Yellow Cab. "Hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous early ride," or words to that effect. Missoula's 1910 taxicab made its initial run to Milltown, with John D.

Russ, present owner of the Russ Cycle Shop, as driver. The car was a Mitchell, operated under the original Missoula Yellow Cab franchise. Of the passengers on that first run, none is believed alive today. They were, from left, Bill Herwig, operator of the Automation is the automatic handling of parts, in the foundry, vices, including the vacuum tube and its cousin, the transistor, are proving to be valuable additions to the automotive plant. They are never subject to "morning after" the forge, the metal press plant and the machine shop, and it depends upon electronic "brains" to letdowns, or emotional and physi run the huge "transfer machines that make up an automated plant, cal fatigue, and are always ready to direct automotive machines in heavy, tedious work formerly done by toiling men.

Automated equipment turns out products with constant precision, and does it faster and cheaper than was possible with older production methods. In addition, these Balance in action, Mercury in motion-one's a perfect picture of the other. Here's the thrill of a new V-161 powerplant! The men are still there, but now In the latest plants, most of them are watching gauges, reading me processes have speeded the in ters and pushing buttons. dustry's long drive toward increased safety and improved working conditions by substituting steel Electronic circuits provide the nervous system of modern factories is a new concept of vehicle The "geared-to-the-road" stability of ball-joint front suspension! production called "automation looks like like flight! Machines that count, remember and control with unparalleled accuracy are solving mathematical problems that formerly blocked the road to Station Wagon Popularity Grows mechanical improvements. Meas urements, once thought impossible, A record 290,000 station wagons were built in 1953, topping the previous high set in 1951 by more can now be made electronically.

Staffs of mathematicians, for ex V- w. ample, have spent up to four years than 62 per cent. developing gear design tables. Elec Popularity of the utility vehicle tronical computers now do the job Mercury's five great optional power features take the tension out of traffic driving with power to help you stop, help you steer, adjust your seating 4 even to operate the windows! And Merc-O-Matic provides no-shift driving, if you wish. in 200 hours.

has increased steadily since the end of World War II. In 1940, station wagons accounted for less Similar computers are replacing the slide rule on such jobs as: an than one per cent of total passen ger car output, as compared with alysis of sales, costs, income, production schedules, quality controls, material and inventory con 2.1 per cent in 1948, 3.4 per cent in 1952 and nearly 5 per cent of the current year's output. trols: handling and evaluation of personnel records, design and in of parts. 'A i Enjoy motoring's greatest advances in handling ease It was the mid-thirties before any substantial number of station wagons showed up on America's streets and highways. Actually, Differential analyzers now "test" advance vehicle designs without resorting to the usual trial and error method.

Such things as brake however, this modern carry-all dates clear back to the 1850's, when and engine efficiency and riding it was known as a "depot wagon." It was a flexible vehicle, ideal EHiEHGUIiY The Car the West Likes Best Everywhere you look it's America's Fastest Growing Car! qualities are accurately measured long before a prototype model is for meeting trains, and adaptable built. lor carrying passengers, luggage, general light freight, or all three together. Most estates, lodges, resorts, livery stables and hotels kept one or more on hand. Depot wagons of one sort or an other continued to be used well come if hd ouf into the present century. When the horseless carriage came along, it was natural to expect a horseless depot wagon.

In the first two decades of this century, the custom-built motor station wagon gradually replaced its horse-drawn relative doing the same jobs, only more efficiently. It served admirably as a combination bus and truck, just as the old depot wagon served as a carriage and wagon. But demand for it remained low, compared with the how inexpensive it is to have a regular passenger car. The first station wagon offered All' Apt I Jr -fv rzzrr w-v-W yWHJM) aiw. Jt? MMMum tv by an automobile company as a stock production model appeared in the early twenties.

It featured roll-down side curtains, two removable seats, and the familiar mahogany paneling, trimmed in ash. By 1936, a large number of automobile manufacturers had entered the field. In that year, a total of 7,392 station wagons were built. Several explanations have been offered for the sudden postwar spurt in station wagon demand. One is the accelerated increase in suburban living.

While still serving estates, resorts and business establishments as before, the station wagon has broadened its field of owners. Today, its biggest user is the ordinary American family especially the suburban or rural family. Those who live out of the city usually must do more of their own hauling. The suburban home-owner also is more likely to be a handyman who needs a vehicle in which he can conveniently carry tools and Large families with young children appreciate extra space for passengers as well as cargo. The growing amount of leisure time enjoyed by Americans probably has been an additional factor.

The station wagon is popular with campers, hunters, sports enthusiasts and vacation tourists. they fit match most cars trucks KOSKI RADIO and TELEVISION BAKKE MOTOR CO. 131 E. Main Phone 4-4707 California has almost 10 per cent 145 W. FRONT MISSOULA, MONT.

9 of all motor vehicles in the U. S..