A Dictionary of Automobile Terms
till 1913
The arrangement alphabetically the mass of terms which current usage applies to the motor car and its accessories and definition automobile terms clearly, concisely and in language as untechnical as the nature of the subject permits.
So far as is known, this is the first Dictionary of Automobile Terms to be compiled and the work being of a pioneer character and subject to all the limitations necessarily characterizing a first attempt to systematize the vocabulary of a new art, which is not yet entirely out of the formative stage.
During the period covering the development of the motor car industry in this country, a large body of terms has been coined, borrowed from other languages or adapted, with new significations, from the vocabularies of other arts, and it has not only proven a difficult matter for the general public and even the users of motor cars to become conversant with the exact meanings and uses of these terms, but it has been demonstrated that many of these terms have come to be used with indefinite or even contradictory significance by persons technically skilled in the art.
It is with the double purpose of informing the general public and students of the automobile as to the commonly accepted meanings of these terms, and with the hope that, in a general way, the definitions herein suggested for them may be accepted as suitable and standardized by a majority of those identified with the industry, that this book has been brought out.
Many thousands of people each year enter the automobile market with the intention of buying a motor car, or at least of informing themselves concerning automobile technique. In the course of their investigations they read masses of automobile catalogues, couched in technical language, and converse with numerous motor car users and salesmen. While so doing they are constantly confronted with technical terms, the meanings of which they do not understand, but which have a most important bearing upon the problem in hand.
A word as to arrangement may not be amiss. Nearly every important component part of an automobile is built in a wide variety of "types" or forms, each one of them known by an appropriate descriptive prefix. Thus there are "air cooled cylinders», "water cooled cylinders», "block cast cylinders», etc. These various types in which a certain component part figures in the industry will, in general, be found grouped together under the name of the part and not under the name of their respective descriptive designations. Thus the types of cylinder mentioned above will be found under "cylinder" and defined under the titles of "cylinder, air cooled», "cylinder, water cooled" and "cylinder, block cast».