2. There's room in one driveway for a standard car and this two-seater, too. With a 72-inch
This one-cylinder midget, designed
by former airmen, has a two-speed
automatic drive. It can be bought
unassembled, or in a crate ready to run.
By Harry Walton
IN a small Ohio town a couple of ex-fliers
are turning out a two-passenger car you
can buy for about $400, before taxes and
trimmings. Things like fenders, windshield,
top and bumpers are considered extras, but
even they leave the price tag on speaking
terms with $500.
The car is really practical. It will run a
dozen errands and still give you change out
of a buck at the gas pump. As I found by
driving it, it will climb steep grades, make
better than 40 on the highway, squeeze into
a substandard parking space, and ride out
real bumps. It will seat two husky passen-gers
and take a couple of armloads of pack-ages
as well.
Anybody can drive it. If you have an
able-bodied maiden aunt who never got the
hang of the old electrics, you can teach her
to drive the King Midget in five minutes.
104 POPULAR SCIENCE
There's no clutch pedal, no gearshift lever,
no Greek-lettered selector quadrant. You
drive with one foot—which controls an hon-est-
to-goodness two-speed transmission.
All you do to start up is step on the gas.
After a short run in low, you let up for a
moment, press down again, and pick up in
high—just as in the latest automatic jobs.
Downgrade, the engine gives compression
braking down to about 15 m.p.h.
Climbing hills, the engine stays in high
until it drops considerably below the cut-in
speed. Then it shifts to low and keeps right
on. You can't forget to shift, and you can't
stall the-engine.
Who makes it? The King Midget got
off to an imperceptible start when two pilots
met in the Civil Air Patrol. Both were ma-chinists
by trade; both had built their own
planes, as well as cars and motor scooters.
And both wanted to manufacture something
with an engine in it.
Chunky, blue-eyed Dale Orcutt dreamed
of turning out planes at first, for both pilots
had ideas about aircraft design. But Claud
Dry, once an aerial photographer and opera-tor
of a small airport, was less optimistic
3. wheelbase and a 42-inch tread, it fits into a space only 48 inches wide and 8-1/2 feet long.
about private flying. Inevitably the talk got
around to midget cars.
The partners decided to keep their feet on
the ground. In 1945 they bought out a de-funct
motor-scooter factory, named their
new firm Midget Motors Supply, and es-tablished
their plant in Athens, Ohio.
By 1946 they had designed a single-pas-senger
midget racing car and bought out
two more scooter plants. A powerful scooter
of their own design was a success and is
still in production. But their dream was to
build a small two-passenger car.
The difficulties loomed large. A differ-ential
would boost costs formidably; would
one-wheel drive do? Could a really light car
be roadworthy? Could a mechanical starter
be devised, saving the price of a complete
electric system? Nine test cars were bviilt—at
the price, they ruefully assert, of 12 Cadil-lacs.
One was hastily junked; others revealed
basic design headaches.
It's no scale model. They found the
answers in their knowledge of small-plane
construction, and in their own ingenuity. If
you just scaled down a big car, they rea-soned,
you'd wind up with a small one
NOVEMBER 1951 105
that was almost as complicated and costly.
The new car had to be planned from a
fresh start. One-wheel drive was found to be
effective if car weight was properly dis-tributed
and springing right. The engine
went in back, on the drive-wheel side. Rope
and pedal starting were discarded in favor
of a retractable cable. This runs over pul-leys,
giving a two-to-one advantage, to a
rack that meshes with a pinion on the
engine—but only when you pull the cable.
Simplicity, patented. The King Midget
is starkly simple where it doesn't hurt, but
significant details aren't skimped. For in-
Four can tote it. The car weighs less than
500 pounds, with most of this on the rear wheels.
One man can slide the front: end to get the
midget in or out of a tight space.
4. You can buy it knocked
down. Metal parts of the
body (right) are steel.
Fenders, bumpers, cloth
top and plastic wind-shield
are extra. Basic unit
is the welded frame, of
seamless steel tubing and
airplane-type channel,
shown below with wheels
and engine. Buyer needs
only common tools.
stance, brake drums were first stamped, but
they warped out of round in use. Now
they're lathe-turned from heavy-walled
seamless steel tubing.
Wary of imitators. Dry and Orcutt have
patented several of the Midget's features.
Take the brake system. Hydraulic brakes
are self-equalizing but costly to make.
Mechanical brakes are troublesome to
equalize, hard to keep that way. Wanted:
self-equalizing mechanical brakes.
The King Midget has internal-expanding
brakes actuated by cables. But the gimmick
is in the cable rigging. It runs from one
brake to a pulley near the driver's feet,
across the car, around another pulley, and
back to the other brake. These pulleys are
mounted on the ends of a pivoted bar to
which the pedal is welded. The bar multi-plies
pedal leverage, while the cable, free
to move over the two pulleys, equalizes it-self
at all times.
The hand brake is a simple lever working
on the toggle principle. When thrown so
that the cable pull is just past dead center,
it holds positively—without tooth or ratchet.
Power plant. Inside this little bus is a
one-cylinder, 23-cubic-inch Wisconsin en-gine.
But there's no one-lung jerkiness to
the car. Pickup is smooth, and the shift to
high quick and easy. The four-cycle engine
is rated 7-1/2 horsepower at the comparatively
low speed of 3000 revolutions per minute.
It is air-cooled by a built-in blower (there's
no radiator).
This engine boasts such features as roller
crankshaft bearings and an oil-bath air clean-er.
There are also a two-jet carburetor, auto-matic
spark advance and impulsed-coupled
magneto ignition. This last means you don't
have to spin the engine like a whirling
dervish to get a hot starting spark.
Standard starting equipment is the Yankee
type—you yank a retractable cable on the
106 POPULAR SCIENCE
5. Or they'll put it together for you, and paint it
a standard cream finish. All parts except engine
and wheels are made in Athens, Ohio, factory.
Above is one of the assembly lines.
side of the car. Since you can't stall the en-gine,
one start lasts a whole trip. You can
get a battery-powered starter as an extra.
The engine holds three pints of oil, cir-culated
by a pump. You switch from grade
30 in summer to 20 in winter. That's all the
winter conditioning you do.
It shifts for itself. The car can be
bought with a single-ratio automatic drive.
This is a centrifugal clutch of special design
that lets the engine outrun the drive for
a quick getaway and pickup, and locks it
in after the gas pedal is momentarily let up.
The two-speed transmission, listed as an
extra, gives better pickup and hill-climbing
ability, for it affords two distinct drive ratios.
The car PS tried out had this transmission.
This patented drive gets results with a
minimum of parts, complication and cost.
It consists of dual V-belt drives, with pulleys
of different ratios, and two automatic
clutches. These operate somewhat like self-energizing
brakes, engaging at a much high-er
speed than they will disengage at. The
Leg room is good, and you don t sit way down
—seat is 9-1/2 inches above floor. Although seat
cannot be moved forward or back, brake and
gas-pedal mounting can be adjusted to suit.
Starter cable has handle on driver's side of
the body. Small button above louvers is the
choke. Cable retracts into body. Once the en-gine
is running, you can't stall it.
NOVEMBER 1951 107
6. Oil is checked on a dipstick. Engine holds
three pints. Being air-cooled, it requires no
antifreeze in winter, only lighter oil. Spare tire
goes on outside of rear panel.
One-cylinder power plant slides on its mounts
for tensioning drive belt (not shown). Pulleys
seen are for the single-ratio drive. Lighting
generator runs only when lights are wanted.
low-speed clutch gets the car off to a smooth
start. Then, at about 14 miles an hour, the
high-speed clutch locks in, the low-speed
drive free-wheels through an overrunning
device, and you're rolling in high.
On a hill, you stay in high until speed
drops to about seven miles an hour. Then
there's a quick automatic shift to low, dur-ing
which the engine picks up speed. You
go right up.
The centrifugal elements that take up the
load are faced with molded lining and give
a positive lock when they are engaged. Both
V belts are the heavy industrial type, with
steel cables inside.
The jackshaft drives a gearbox by which
the car can be reversed. From there a
motorcycle chain drives the right rear wheel.
To back up the car, you flip over a short
lever under the front of the seat. That's the
only time you touch anything resembling a
gearshift, and the only thing Aunt Matilda
could stub a thumb on. The lever has a
neutral position, so the car can be towed
Chain from jackshaft drives rear wheel. Start-er
meshes rack with engine pinion only when
108 POPULAR SCIENCE
cable is pulled. Wheels run on tapered roller
bearings. Tires are 5.50 by 8, 18 inches outside.
7. Wheels are sprung independently. Each rear
one is mounted on a triangular frame pivoted
at its wide end (upper right in photo). Front
wheels have enclosed springs, oil shocks.
Four-wheel springing can take it, as I discov-ered
by repeatedly running up curb at drive-ways
and then hopping off (above). The bump
was easy, and there was no loss of control.
easily, without turning the engine over.
How's the ride? Not sedan-soft, but
by no means uncomfortable. All four wheels
are independently sprung—the rear ones on
coil springs, not snubbed, and the front ones
on oil-filled combination shocks and springs,
heavily snubbed. You can bounce the back
of the car, but not the front. Despite the
absence of rear shock absorbers, the drive
wheel will always stay flat-footed on the
ground.
Steering is through a gear and segment,
with a much lower ratio than the one in your
Breezeway Eight. The Midget responds like
a sports car on the turns; a twitch and you're
around the corner. But that snubbed front
end makes it foot around the curves nicely;
there's no sway or wandering. With its low
center of gravity, it would be hard to turn
over.
The chassis is of welded-steel tube and
channel. Body parts are cold-rolled steel.
Like a plane, the car has a plastic wind-shield—
it costs less than safety glass, is light
and nonshatterable, but can be scratched.
How about bad weather? Side curtains
and heater are extras. The curtains are fitted
on a steel frame, hinged like a door. The
canvas top stretches over a strong steel-tub-ing
frame, well supported by the windshield
posts and by braces at the rear. But you can't
take the top down on the road, for there is
no way to stow the frame. "Next year, may-be
we can make it fold," say the designers
hopefully.
What about servicing? King Midget
dealers are scarce, but the little car has
fewer potential trouble spots than any other.
The drive chain, subject to grit and wet, may
need occasional adjustment or replacement.
Drive-belt tension is a simple matter of
tightening a draw bolt on the engine. Brake
adjustments are easy and obvious.
Owners who know which end of a wrench
fits the bolt will probably enjoy working on
[Continued on page 266]
Top speed won't get you a ticket on this high-way.
Officer Joe McBride of Athens police
clocked a new King Midget for PS at 42 m.p.h.
The car will beat that when broken in.
From dead slop, car started up 37-percent
grade (tough even to walk on), though drive
wheel spun on smooth brick. On ordinary
"steep" 17-percent hill, wheel didn't slip.
NOVEMBER 1951 109
8. Pat. Pending Get Out of Trouble
After Your Car is Stuck
On Ice, In Snow, Mud or Sand
An amazing new invention . . . PRESTO Emergency Tire
Chains are snapped on to wheels instantly after your
car is stuck . . . not before. This assures a saving in fuel,
tire wear and time . . . you drive smoothly along with
complete confidence of having efficient traction to get
out of trouble from wheels spinning next to the curb, in
ruts, on ice at intersections, getting up that sloping
driveway, off wet and muddy highway shoulders, in mud
or snow. Chains are used only when needed and there-fore
give years of service. There are no straps to tighten
. . . no jacking up the car . . . no loss of time, fuel and
tires because you can get your car out of trouble in-stantly,
this easy PRESTO way:-
Magic clips are inserted be-tween
the tire and rim (like
wheel balancers) and chains art-attached
instantly when needed.
•Wheels stay in balance
and the clips are unnoticed.
One box of four Chains
(enough for one car) as-sures
trouble-free driving.
Order direct for two weeks
trial on our money-back
guarantee of your entire
satisfaction. Postage prepaid
if payment in full is sent
with order, or write for free
circular.
NO. 1 SIZE (for one car) fit 5.25
to 7.20 tires, $5.95. NO. 2 SIZE
(for one car) fit 7.60 to 8.20
tires, $6.45.
Dealers, Agents Wanted.
PRESTO CHAIN CO.
266 POPULAR SCIENCE
500-Lb. Car for $500
[Continued from page 109]
the car themselves. For others there's the
corner garage or motorcycle repair shop.
Lubrication is so simple you don't need
a service-station grease job: Engine oil is
added or changed as necessary. The front
shocks are filled with oil. Wheel bearings
need packing twice a year as on big cars.
That leaves only the steering and reverse-gear
cases, jackshaft bearings, rear-wheel
mounts, and chain to lubricate.
Drive after dark, too. The battery-less
version of the King Midget can be or-dered
with lights and a 35-watt, com-pensated-
output AC generator. You have to
reach back over the deck to a lever that
moves the generator against the engine fly-wheel
(what do you want, dash control?).
The automatic compensation gives you good
lights even at low speed. The dimmer switch
is on the dash.
Where state laws require parking lights
independent of the engine, a dry-cell stand-by
battery can be installed.
Any color, as long as it's cream. As
part of the price struggle, the makers of the
King Midget have standardized everything
—even the overspray in the paint booth. It
has to help finish the next car, for they spray
a cream finish on six cars at once. If you
want some other color, it will cost you ten
bucks extra.
Buy it knocked down. If you buy a
King Midget fully assembled, it will come
in its own crate, which you have only to
open at one end to roll the car out, ready
to run. The crate is returnable.
You can save a few bucks by ordering it
in separate units—chassis, engine and drive,
fenders, body and so forth. All parts are pre-fabricated
and can be assembled with just
a few tools. A booklet giving assembly in-structions
is provided. If you buy it unas-sembled,
you have to paint it yourself, END
Screw-Nails Stop Floor Squeaks
SQUEAKY flooring may be prevented by apply-ing
the planks with helical-threaded nails, Vir-ginia
Polytechnic Institute's Wood Laboratory
reports. Driven with a hammer but holding like
screws, the nails show far greater and more
lasting holding power than cut flooring nails or
plain-shank flooring brads of equal size. Earlier
Institute tests (PS, Sept. '50, p. 126) have dem-onstrated
the usefulness of the helical-threaded
nails called Screw-tite nails, in other applica-tions.
