The Modern Motor Car

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library has a large collection of pop-up and movable books. Many of these are for children’s entertainment and teaching; some are for the study and demonstration of anatomy and mechanical parts. The Library recently acquired The Modern Motor Car, which has five full-page color illustrations of automobiles and engines, all of which have folding plates which, when lifted, reveal the parts within the moving parts. There is one rather amusing and alarming full-plate of a "Chamber of Horrors" engine, which demonstrates the malfunctions and failures of an automobile engine when you neglect to keep it in top running order. Opposite each chart is a list of the parts shown, by section; at the end is an alphabetical index of all the parts. As we learn from page 1: "It is the object of this book to give our friends and readers the opportunity of visualizing the interior economy of the motor car, and of learning the 'why' and the 'wherefore' of the amazingly delicate, yet accurate, mechanism that makes motoring worthwhile to-day." The very detailed charts and illustrations provide a visual and “hands-on learning” experience to the mechanics of a 1933 automobile.