Judge, 1922-01-07 · page 5 of 36
Judge — January 7, 1922 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Why Not Invent a Carburetor?" Analysis This article by Eliot Keen satirizes amateur inventors and their often misguided optimism. The cartoon shows a man examining a broken-down automobile near real-estate signs ("Park View Manor Lots for Sale"), apparently considering inventing a carburetor as a solution. Keen's text mocks the proliferation of amateur "inventors" who lack genuine expertise. He argues that successful carburetors require deep technical knowledge, not mere tinkering. The satire suggests that people casually propose mechanical inventions without understanding the complexity involved—a common attitude during the early automotive era when cars were still relatively novel technology. The cartoon illustrates this disconnect: a would-be inventor spotting a disabled vehicle and imagining himself as its savior-innovator, embodying the article's critique of unfounded inventive ambition.
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HE census doesn’t tell how many of our otherwise respected citizens have invented carburetors. Per- haps if there was a nonsensus that would show, anyway there is an army of them with a legion plunging in daily. And what better, I ask you, could one do than to enlist in this brigade of optimists? Only when one realizes that the resulting devices are all alike, then only can the proper respect be paid. Tom is one of these. Each morn sees his eye kindling with high hopes and every eve finds him undaunted by a single daunt. The only facts one needs to go on with are these: Two million cars are made each year, and at a dollar profit each, every year will show two million dollars profit. A patent runs seventeen years, and makes, say roughly, fifty million if we include foreign rights. These essential points being clearly in mind, one is now ready to start work on the design. Of course you know the carburetor is that doo-dad at the side of the engine, and its mission in this world is to so mix the gasoline with air that the mixture will explode. The ex- PARK VIEW MaNon LOTS FOR Sate \ Selecting a Good Location Not Invent a Carburetor? By Eviot KEEN plosion kicks the car ahead, and there you are. Tom had plans, designs and specifications for a doo-dad that mixed up a mess for each cylinder with such efficiency and good judgment that he really expected to use little if any, gaso- line; and if after the first test he had found that instead of using up his gas he had at the end actually added a gal- lon or two to the supply in the tank, he would hardly have been surprised. However, if you want to start in right and invent a carburetor you need one or two trifling bits of knowledge. These enable you to converse about your theory with greater fluency anyhow, and there is some dara thing about these facts that gives them the power to over- throw the sanest mind, steal away the mental poise and drive any intellect to attempts to invent. And therein lies the mystery of hope. Beginning with the piston in the cyl- inder, then, listen and learn, and then get your pencil: The piston moves down and draws in air. This air rushes past the end of the tube from the gas tank and draws some gas along into the cylinder, much the ‘same as soup may 3 That’s all there is to it. There it is be inhaled. The air sucks in some gas. complete! Just to make it harder, we will now try to fix this contraption so that the mixture is 12 to 1 and we do this by the size of the hole. Simple? Call it so if you will, but there are at least 15,927 able-minded men each deciding at this moment to make the hole for the air smaller or the gas hole smaller or bigger cr lop-sided, or multiple, or something. One rule has to be fol- lowed before you take this up for a life work. Each inventor must invent each and every different type, one after the other. Tom now has his model, so that if a fat lady gets into the car the carburetor knows it and leans the mix- ture to balance. In his younger days Tom used to fuss with the temperature of the ai and heat it or cool it, but that got tire- some after a year or so, what with the weather changes and seasons, so he is back now to changing the size of the nozzles. In all this time, however, he has made but one mistake. That was wi:en he tried to test one design on a comicbooks.com