The author believes that an incompatibility exists between the results achieved in this country by the growth of the automobile industry and the almost complete lack of rational data on the most essential elements of kinetics relating to the modern automobile.
He submits considerations that can be used in establishing a rational theory of spring suspension in general. A few words are devoted to the first principles of dynamics of springs, to damping, kinematic features of harmonic motion, energy consumption and shock absorbers.
An introductory problem, involving an imaginary one-wheel “elemental car”, meant for purely inductive purposes, is then analyzed. Finally the main problem is presented in the form of an analysis of a skeleton-car, spring-suspended and simplified as much as possible.
