One of the new departures in engine design that serves to reduce weight is the substitution of copper-cooling for water-cooling. The function of water in an automobile engine is to carry the heat from the cylinders to the radiator cells, where it is released by radiation.

For a long time, at least one manufacturer has been able to produce an air-cooled engine, with iron fins surrounding the cylinders, that has stood up well in every-clay service. The engineering text-books all declare that it is impossible to fuse copper and iron in a commercial way. however, at least two manufacturers have succeeded in doing so, and two cars are now on the market with copper cylinder jackets which claim to give radiation efficiency fully up to the standard of the modern water-cooled system.

Copper, being much more efficient as a heat-radiating medium than iron, makes an ideal substitute for water, eliminating radiator repairs, freezing dangers, etc. The copper-cooled engine weighs less by about 130 pounds than a water-cooled engine of similar horsepower and cooling efficiency.

ANTI-FRICTION BEARINGS

One of the prime causes of short life in motor cars is neglect in the matter of lubrication. Owners of fleets of cars, notably some of the taxicab companies, get from 200,000 to 300,000 miles out of a machine. The owner of an individual car considers that he has clone well when his odometer registers 5o,000 miles. His neglect of lubrication is more frequently responsible than any other one item for his low mileage.

The General Motors Research Corporation has been working on the task of producing a nonfriction bearing, and demonstrations at Dayton point to complete success. Instead of melting the metal and molding the molten fluid, it is powdered, put into the mold in that form, and subjected to heat. The alloy has a lower melting point than the steel itself and thus is made a homogeneous part of the material. When taken out of the furnace, the bearing has a certain porosity not present in bearings molded in the orthodox manner. It is capable of absorbing a certain percentage of its weight in lubricants.

Under dynamometer tests these bearings have been run at 2,000 revolutions per minute, which is equivalent to a speed of the crankshaft of a car running 40 miles an hour. Although told that they had been running for 3,600 and 3,700 hours without stop, they were still cool enough for me to bear my hand on them when I examined them.

With frictionless bearings, burned-out bushings will probably be a thing of the past. The antifriction element in them will be used mainly to counteract neglect. It will be the savings-account funds of car operation�not to be drawn on except in emergency.