THE McCURD SPRING-DRIVE DEVICE.
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Those who ate familiar with that interesting chassis known as the MeCurd, alai are appreciative of its many evidences of practical appreciation of lessons which have been taught by the running of early models, will not be surprised to find 1■1 /. NV. A. :IleCurd making himself responsible for an accessory fitting of the kind which we illustrate herewith. One day last week he called at our offices with a car fitted with one of his new spring-drive devices, and he explained that it was to a large extent his unhappy experiences with cars of all kinds. upon which the clutches were either originally fierce or had become so from mal-.adjustinent or wear, that pronipted hint carefully to consider the possibility of minimizing evil effects of this kind by the inclusion of a compact shock absorber of )Sohie .kind or other in the main drive.
Our drawing of the design which he ultimately adopted is almost self-explanatory. It will be seen that the driving end of the propeller shaft is made. part and parcel of the outer shell of the device, whilst the other end is extended forward into a screwed portion of slow pitch. This engages with a spacial nut,. of which the outer projections engage with special keyways cut inside the main easing. The tendency of this nut to be screwed baekwaids when the drive comes on the worm is resisted proportionately
by the strong helical spring, which is mounted as shown in the illustration. During a short drive on the car fitted with this device, we were distinctly impressed with the ease with which it took up the drive from a clutch which was admittedly a fierce one. It was also noticeable that this spring-drive accommodated itself to the slight variations as between engine and road resistance, whilst driving over an exceptionally-uneven road sit/face. Mr. McCurd handled the car in masterly fashion, and he took pleasure in demonstrating to us his ability to change speed without withdrawing the clutch, elither up or down, now that this spring-drive bad been fitted.