This 1920’s silent black and white film with intertitles presents an introduction to the electric starter, using a combination of live action and animated footage to illustrate its implementation on buses, taxis, and motor boats (TRT 12:11).

A title card introduces the voltage regulator as a tool for preventing buses from overcharging their batteries (0:23). An early Yellow Coach Model Z-63 double-decker bus labeled “1595 Special” with men and women in hats visible from the top deck. Passengers exit the rear (0:27). A look behind the wheel. The vehicle console reads “The Yellow Coach MFG. Co. Made by North East Electric Co. Rochester, N.Y.” (0:37). An electric starter (0:46). Three Model Z buses lined up on a city street, most likely Fifth Avenue Coach in New York City. Two more pass in the opposite direction, partially revealing their rear staircases (0:57). Rear view of the bus as it drives alongside Model T Fords and similar automobiles. The bus slows, cars pass, and passengers exit. (1:10). A title card shifts focus to “taxicab service” (1:36). A 1923 Yellow Cab Co. Model A-2 Taxi pulls into a service station (1:45). A mechanic in a cap opens up the hood. A voltage regulator with Yellow Cab branding is opened up then replaced (1:58). A tube with a bulb is held up to take a reading and a number appears on screen: “1,280” (2:35). Two white motor boats with flags speed towards the camera. Passengers wear furs and hats (2:48). The generator (3:03). The boats race (3:07). A larger passenger ferry boat, its captain and engine (3:23). Animation: Black and white dotted lines show the movement of electric current through a starter (3:38). A speedboat in action and behind the wheel. Inside, another electric starter (3:50). Factories in the background. The boat, labeled “Rainbow,” speeds away (4:05). “In the winter woods as well, the generator plays its part” (4:26). Lumberjacks sort a massive pile of timber. A continuous track logging tractor hauls away logs (4:32). Inside the Holt Caterpillar Tractor (4:44). The tractor pulls carts piled high with tree trunks (4:50). “Why The Starting Motor Starts” (5:08). Stop-motion cut-out “puppet” style animation of two mechanics and an electric starter. One mechanic adds an electric shock, and a human arm reaches out of the starter to crank the engine of a car (5:16). A word about magnets (5:38). Animation: A horseshoe magnet attracts an electromagnetic rod wound with conductive wire. A cartoon mechanic runs wire to it, then adds two open switches (5:42). The switches are thrown, closing the circuit. The rod is attracted to the horseshoe magnet (5:57). The polarity is reversed in another animation (6:26). “Rotation can be produced by reversing the current after each half revolution” (6:45). The electromagnet spins. The cartoon mechanics place it on an axis (6:49). A starter, in closeup, is taken apart (7:33). The cartoons hoist the starter into place to start a cartoon engine, then withdraw it once the engine starts moving (8:24). A cartoon mechanic balances on the apparatus, then removes wires (8:40). The same parts are viewed in live action (8:57). Workmen shovel loads onto a truck (9:19). The starter engages its gears in close up. An engine fan whirrs to life and the truck drives away (9:29). The boats return, starting from a full stop (10:06). “The Sea Sled is the latest form of fast transportation on water” (10:48). Regatta flags on a Hickman Sea Sled labeled “Luz” (11:05). The engine room (11:16). The boxy, double-decker boat cruises on calm waters, then speeds after a smaller motor boat while carrying many passengers (11:23).

The first electric starter was installed by H.J. Dowsing in 1896. Charles F. Kettering and Henry M. Leland of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company invented and filed the first U.S. patent for an electric starter in 1911. The Yellow Coach Model Z series launched in 1923.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com