A rum running automobile and two men were captured at Harrison’s Lake between here and Princeton Friday night by Federal officers. The car was a Buick and it was equipped with a smoke screen. When the car reached Harrison’s Lake the smoke gave out and as it slowed down to round the curve, according to reports, the officers dashed up and arrested the men. A Federal officer from Charlotte and another from Fayetteville had been chasing the car since it left Kinston but on account of the smoke screen had not succeeded in capturing it. Between 75 and 100 gallons of whiskey were found in the car.
The men, Robert Seapark and L.M. Hamilton, were brought here and placed in jail. Yesterday they were carried to Fayetteville to await trial there in Federal court this week. They are thought to be regular rum runners.
From the front page of The Smithfield Herald, Tuesday morning, March 23, 1926
Are you wondering how leaving a trail of smoke could hide a car and keep police from stopping the bootleggers? I was, so I asked AI. Copilot says an oil-burning smoke device didn’t hide the car so much as it hid the road ahead, slowing down the police. The car would carry a small tank of waste oil, crankcase oil or kerosene and route it into the hot exhaust manifold or tailpipe through a valve. When the oil hit the hot metal, it vaporized, producing a huge, think, white or blue cloud. At night, when headlights hit the smoke, it turned into a blinding wall.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1926-03-23/ed-1/seq-1/
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