Современное автомобилестроение. Сахарова Н.С. - 87 стр.

traps and then to warn oncoming motorists. The police counter attacked by moving
their position so that the AA scout was inside the trap and so prosecute him for aiding
a criminal. The AA then introduced the system of not saluting motorists to indicate a
‘hazard’ ahead.
   The first problem facing the novice car owner was how to start the motor.
Handbooks warned of thumbs dislocated by incorrectly gripping the starting handle,
of broken wrists from a back-fire swing and hernias from standing in the wrong
position. With those thoughts firmly in his mind the motorist followed a set routine;
check petrol tank, turn on tap to carburettor, switch on accumulator, engage brake,
disengage clutch, place speed change lever in neutral, open throttle, retard ignition,
tickle carburettor float, insert crank handle and pull up against compression. The
motor may then splutter into life. Since anything could happen on a journey, a variety
of spares was carried, for example, outer tyre covers, numerous inner tubes, puncture
repair kit, sparking plugs, exhaust and inlet valves, magneto, wire, water pump and
tool kit. Tyres were the motorist’s largest item of expenditure during the year, with
punctures expected on every on every journey.

   Exercise 1. Read and translate the text.

   Exercise 2. Answer the question:
   - Why was it a problem to start the motor?


   17.4 Text 4
      The pioneer motorist

   Most motorists used their brakes sparingly. In most cases they were hand-
operated, contracting band brakes on the rear wheels. Stopping on a hill was
hazardous and one handbook for motoring advised ‘when the car begins to slip
backwards on a steep hill, and you find you cannot control it, you had best to jump
out promptly and block the wheels with the biggest thing you can pick up quickly’. In
the event of a break-down in a rural area there were no garages. Even patrol supplies
were scattered, with the main sources being chemists and hardware stores selling
two-gallon cans of fuel.
   Yet for all the breakdowns, dust, chills, boiling radiators and speed traps, the
Edwardian motorist persevered. The car gave him the freedom to go wherever he
liked, whenever he liked. Picnics, touring holidays, visiting friends, and the sheer
novelty and exhilaration of motoring itself, were the real pleasures. At first motorists
were the exception, with children running to the garden gate to see a car go by, but by
1912 it was members of the gentry still with horses who were the exception.
   The First World War (1914-1918) was the first major conflict to make use of the
motor vehicle. Military vehicles had been under discussion for many year but
generally there was little interest. The horse was considered the only suitable source
of mobility. That was in 1914, but as the war progressed the need and the value of the
motor car became more apparent. On the Front with its mud and shell-craters,
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