My wife's grampa who bought our T new at least had one arm to crank with.

THREE QUESTIONS

How does that self starter work, is it a spring that winds up and spins the motor?

Is that water or oil under the car?

Who helps him in the outhouse?

Caption on the reverse of that photograph:

After losing both arms to the treacherous hand starting crank, Alfred T. Heiferstass invented the ATF Auto Starter for the Ford. Powered by steam captured from the thermo syphon cooling system, the Auto Starter guarantees a fast start to any year Ford. The Auto Starter operates with the pull of a lever, and releases steam, turning the turbine fan contained in the drum mounted in the front of the Ford. The patent pending turbine features planetary gearing, same as the Ford transmission. Effortless steaming starts.

That would be interesting to learn some more on that, how he manages to use steam pressure form a Ford cooling system.

Yeah Frank, that's what I was thinking. Also, how does it work first thing on a cold winter morning?

Guys

My "caption" was just some fun!

Appears that starter is the Ever-Ready. Spring wound starter, when the engine starts, the coil spring gets re-wound for the next start.

"Unarmed man steals Ford Roadster."

You would think he would have learned after losing one arm or did he lose both at once? Must have had the spark advanced all the way. Even then, I can't imagine it kicking that hard. Maybe he owned one of those giant and treacherous Model Ks before this.

Thanks for the ad and explaining how it worked.

The ad shows the starter costing $65 a lot of money back then. The inflation calculator shows that in today's dollars that would be $1534.77. Very pricey for an add on item even today.

OK, I want one of those!

. . . and what happens if it doesn't start some cold morning before the spring unwinds? Looks like there is no longer a crank for backup.

Chris, not shown is auxiliary tow rope and horse!

Looks like one of his arms may be laying on the ground under the front axle.

I remember reading an old article about this guy. I think it was in an old Ford Times.

I want to know how he ties his bowtie.

I thought it was an adapter for that device on Professor Fates car. Note steam hose.

Here's a related armless driver thread.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/07/25/frank-fithen-the-armless-auto-spee d-king/