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j ■ j PUBLIC TEST OF THE ELECTRIC EYE * Hawthornes Latest Innovation in Timing Races to Be Demonstrated at Cicero Track Next Sunday — Three Actual Races Planned to Reveal Operation of the New Device ♦ A public demonstration of perfect timing in horse racing will be made Sunday at Hawthorne, when Albert Sabath, president of the Chicago Business Mens Racing Association, will stage three races with the newly installed "electric eye" in operation. Members of the Illinois Racing Commission, Hawthorne officals, owners and trainers will be present. The demonstration will be free to the public and as many of the latter as care to attend are welcome. The first race will be sent on its way promptly at 11 a. m., and those who are present will be given an inkling of what to expect in the matter of timing when the Hawthorne meeting opens on July 30. The west side track, so far as president Sabath has been able to determine, is the first on this continent to employ the "eye" for recording time accurately. No other American track is so equipped, and thus Hawthorne lives up to its reputation of providing an innovation in racing with each meeting. The "eye" is an infra red ray that starts and stops the electrical timing clock that has been in use at Hawthorne for several seasons. That clock, by the way, is the only such chronometer used in the United States. It was imported from Australia in 1931. An infra red ray device has been established at each of the starting posts with another at the finish. ~ The horses are started from the gate in the usual manner, some distance back of the ray and when the first breaks through it, the timer is started. The clock stops when the first horse to the wire breaks the ray at the finish. Messrs. Thomas McHale, Charles Bidwill, Albert Sabath and other Hawthorne officials have made numerous tests of the device and have found it practically infallible. Engineers have been working on its installation for several weeks and since timing horses accurately is a most important item in racing, turfmen everywhere will have their eye on the west side track when the clock is put into operation under actual racing conditions. Continued on ninth page. PUBLIC TEST OF ELECTRIC EYE Continued from first page. The "eye" is foolproof in that the ray is invisible and is sufficiently wide and deep so that a large object such as a horse must pass through it before the connection is broken and the machinery set in operation. Rain will not affect the ray. Hawthorne officials met last night and completed plans for the coming meeting, but no announcement will be made until these have been submitted to the racing commission for approval. The matter of stakes, admission prices and racing officials all must be approved by the commission under the new law before they can be revealed. Barns at the west side track already are beginning to fill and training activities are ; going on daily. Mose Lowenstein, who handles the C. V. Whitney horses, is due Tues-I day with thirty-six thoroughbreds from La-! tonia. More than a dozen stables already ! are represented. Apparently there will be no lack of horses for Hawthorne, and arrangements already have been completed for use of the stables at Sportsmans Park. Hawthorne agents at various eastern tracks report favorably upon six intended shipments, bearing out the as-| sertion that the handy west side track, recognized everywhere as the most conveniently located of any American track, is | as popular with owners and trainers as it is with the public. With the opening of the Hawthorne meet-i ing only three weeks away, numerous im-I provements in the plant have been made, ! all looking forward to the convenience of 1 the public. The chief innovation, however, ! is the use of the electrical timing device. j The three races planned for Sundays demonstration will be run off under actual rac-I ing conditions.
