Autos: Clearing the Air

Everyone in California seems to talk about smog, but no one has been able to do much about it—until recently. Aware that the eye-irritating, lung-smothering fumes are caused largely by the tail pipe exhaust from the state's exploding auto population of 7,200,000, legislators passed a law requiring all new cars to be equipped with a state-approved exhaust control system by the beginning of the 1966 model year. Four independent manufacturers rushed in to capture the potentially huge market, spent some $20 million to develop their own antismog devices, got state approval for all of them. Last week they suffered...

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