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While even the most casual ob
servey of automobiles is aware that
their appearance has been improved
in recent years, only a few people
realize what a world of study and
scientific research has been spent in
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their development, or to what lengths
manufacturers have gone to produce
satisfactory effects. A glance at il
lustrations which represented the’
car fashions of a few years ago, and
their comparison with the graceful
models of today, is most interesting,
clearly demonstrating that improve
ments in body design have kept pace
with the more mechanical develop
ments of the car itself. But it is
only by taking a trip through some
great body plant ?uch as those of
Studebaker, in etroit and South
Bend that any real idea of the highly
scientific methods and processes em
ployed in present-day body building.
The public in general, and motorists
HEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN
in particular, therefore, will be in
terested in reafling what J. Horace
Bourgon, body engineer of the Stude
baker Corporation, famous here and
abroad as a designer of original and
beautiful body creations, has to say
concerning the art of body building.
“When a new design is to be
brought out the body designer is
given only the most fundamental
facts-to start on,” says Mr. Bourgon.
“Wor instance, he is given only the
wheelbase of the car, the seating ca~
pacity desired, the general type, and
the approximate weight. From these
he must create something that will
be good to look upon from any angle,
something in which every inch of
| space is utilized, something which
— A Newspaper for People Who Think —
provides the utmost in seating and
riding comfort for the passengers. All
this is by no means as easy as it
sounds.
“The ma'ting of rough sketches and
prelimlnary scale-drawinggs is a first
step that alone may represent weeks
of study. He may then visualize his
ideas by models in wax, to which a
littie is added here, a trifle taken off
there, until the whole appears in per
fect and harmonious outline, thus es
tablishing the general design. Next
come the big drawings, which en
[ga.ze the attention of the whole
draughting staff for many weeks.
Every line of these is worked out
with the most painstaking accuracy.
not only by itself, but in relation to
every other line of the gar: the va
rious curves being established, point
by point, to harmonize with all the
other intersecting and comparative
curves which constitute the general
design, applying, in this, the most an
struse principles of descriptive ge
ometry.
“Or, to make the explanation more
simple, it may be said that all the
drawings are carried into three planes
in a similar manner to the work of
a naval architect, the curves of one
plane being “faired up” by smooth
flowing curves which touch in other
planes -and so check up their accu
racy throughout their course. You
perhaps have seen a great ship be
ling launched, or a Dbeautiful yacht
SUNDAY, MAY 12, 1918.
drawn up on shore, and If so you
must have marveled at the sweep
ingly graceful lines, the perfect pro
pertions, and the smoothness with
which the wvarious curves melted into
one another when viewed at any
angle. But the chances are you never
realized that all this skill and in
tricate designing are duplicated in
the modern autqmobile streamline
body. This, however, is not merely
in the interests of beauty alone, for,
Just as In the case of the ship, the
maln purpose of the design is to
lessen resistan€e to the progress of
‘the finished object. The naval de
signer works to overcome so far as
possible the resistance of wave and
water; the streamline body designer
has as his problem the lessening of
wind resistance. The air resistance
is a highly important factor to a
car which speeds along at speeds of
40, 50 and 60 miles an hour, and un
less the design is such as to slip
through the air with the least pos
sible effort a great deal of fuel and
power is unnecessarily wasted.
“The new car is laid out full size
in several positions upon enormous
blackboards, thus making it possible
to see and check up each detail with
particular reference to seating ca
pacity, arrangements of doors and
fender lines, as well as to establish
the general outlines of the design as
a whole. The utmost care is.mecess
sary to see that all measurements
are in correct harmony with the re+
quirements of the average | .
especially considering such d%
arm and leg lengths, height, d
and comfort. 5
“When all these detafls have
gone over again and again, and
resuits approved, the working out
preliminary models is begun. Th
are handmade. Oak frames are espew
cially built to order from bluepfl’rn
and over these frames hand-hams
mered aluminum bodies are Cow
structed. These bodiés, when roughlyy
finished, are movnted on the experis
‘mental chasses and sent out on.ths§
road for long and severe tests.
13B
