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Touch-Up: 1920

The baritone John Charles Thomas, last glimpsed here, showing his non-musical side. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

The baritone John Charles Thomas, last glimpsed here, showing his non-musical side. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

 

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I wandered in here when this was on the front page and the Eveready caught my interest, short work with a search engine led me to the archives of a Model-T forum, which has eaten my spare time for the last three days!

I hope he gets the same comment

as I did when I painted a 1948 Mercury: "Did you paint it with a broom?"

Ever-Ready Automatic Starter

The device shown was an after-market accessory used to retrofit cars that originally did not come with electric self starters. Electric self starters became available on 1912 Cadillacs and spread to other cars very rapidly so that by 1920 virtually every new car had an electric self starter. These spring-type starters were available for at least five years before the electric self starter, but they were not very popular.

(The car he is working on appears to be a Renault. Note that he has removed his headlamps to prevent getting any paint on the polished brass.)

The following short article and picture is from "The Automobile," January 4, 1912, Page 36:

The Ever-Ready starter, which is attached to the front of the car in place of the ordinary starting crank, has been manufactured for some years by the American Ever-Ready Co., New York. It is about the size of an ordinary automobile headlight and looks like one reversed. There are two powerful springs in the device which are released by a very slight pressure on a pedal which is located near the driver's seat. The illustration shows the starter in use. When released the springs revolve the crankshaft six or eight times at a speed of about 300 revolutions per minute. Once the engine is running it rewinds the device automatically. When wound it disengages and is ready for the next operation. The starter will start the motor if it is in condition to run. However, if for any reason the engine is out of order and the device unwinds without starting it the former can be rewound by hand. This is made safe and easy to do by a set of reducing gears. The company makes three sizes of starters for engines of various horsepowers.

Eveready Automatic Engine Starter!

Was that factory or an aftermarket accessory.

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