Books The Steam Powered Automobile

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POLLUTION control. as the columnists are fond of saying, is now the "in" issue. Everyone is for it-politicians, radicals, house wives. But, while publicity bombards us with facts about our deteriorating environment and speakers decry the deterioration, little is actually done about it.

There are reasons for the lack of action. Effective pollution control would invoive a massive realignment of our society and would tread on the economic toes of some of the most powerful interests in the country. Liberals, unwilling to advocate revolution, are bewildered in their search for constructive alternatives to ways of life which may be ending life.

Senior Andy Jamison's book. The Steam Powered Automobile, is an examination of the problems of pollution caused by automobiles. More importantly, however, it provides a viable alternative to the chief cause of air pollution-the internal combustion engine.

There are 90 million cars in the country today, and by the end of the century that figure will double. Yet the big Detroit companies are reluctant to take even minimal steps to combat the menace their cars are spewing forth.

JAMISON traces the history of the steam-powered vehicles and says that the reason we are not driving them now is not because they are inefficient. He argues that only through superior business practices, accidents of history, personality factors, and a general lack of knowledge about pollution did the gasoline engine men, led by Henry Ford, came to dominate the automotive industry.

Steam cars are at least as efficient as gasoline engines, Jamison says. And, because steam cars burn their fuel more completely than gasoline engines, they are virtually pollution-free.

The economic hurdles faced by the steam people, however are nearly insurmountable. Detroit hangs on tenaciously to its monopoly on the automobile, and because of the nature of the American economy it is difficult for anyone to compete. Jamison documents the competitive attempts of modern steam car builders from the backyard "kooks" who build cars in their homes as hobbies to the efforts of William P. Lear, a self-made multimillionaire who has taken on steam car production as a personal crusade.

Even a financier of Lear's resources and ability has found it difficult to compete with Detroit. Only government backing can provide steam cars with the boost they need to replace the 90 million gasoline engines now on the road.

BUT THE automotive industry remains strongly resistant to any tampering with its domain. In Congressional hearings it has testified that anti-pollution devices on gasoline cars will make automobiles pollution-free. Jamison points out, however, that such devices wear out quickly and that motorists desiring a more efficient car are tempted to remove them. Some automobile companies have investigated steam cars. but in most cases those investigations were half-hearted or were abandoned as economically unfeasible. Detroit is making money with the gasoline car and is unwilling to abandon it.

The main ingredient missing from the fight against the internal combustion engine, according to Jamison, is a large public outcry, a refusal to buy the polluting cars, and a demand for a pollution-free automobile. Only an aware public, applying economic pressure on Detroit. will be able to break its financial stranglehold on transportation.

Jamison's book is an attempt to align the public behind the steam peoples efforts to replace the automobile. It is a well-documented, easy-to-read analysis. Comprehensive and scientific, it still manages to explain to the reader what problems antipollution efforts face, and what the layman can do about it.

In the fight against air pollution, perhaps the most important factor missing is constructive alter-natives to the present way of life. Short of a revolution, there seems little that Americans can do to influence their environment. All the cards are held by the large corporations. By providing an answer to air pollution. Jamison's book offers the public an outlet for its frustration.