IMPROVED MOTOR.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19150, 5 November 1927, Page 11

IMPROVED MOTOR.

NEW LIGHT OIL ENGINE. Slowly but steadily the light oil engine for automobile work is making headway on the Continent. Changed ecouomic conditions in certain European countries since the nar have rendered economy in fuel costs of such importance that a fresh impetus has been given to the oil-engine movement. As an example, it may be mentioned that in Frauce the present price of petrol ranges around ~s per gallon. Paraffin carburettors and oil vaporisers have never proved particularly successful, and after years of persistent endeavour in trying to make petrol engines run on a fuel for which they were not designed, the genuine light oil engine has begun to make its presence felt. One of the difficulties encountered by designers in adapting the Diesel principle to motor-car work has been the question of weight per h.p. developed, in order to obtain that self-ignition of the fuel which is a fundamental feature of the Diesel system, an exceedingly high compression pressure is required. This necessitates an engine which is more substantially b-'ilt and heavier than the standard automobile type. The ordinary Diesel engine for marine work, for example, is a massive affair, developing its power at a few hundred revolutions per minute, and J3 in every respect about as unlike the motor-car engine as possible. This difficulty of weight • has ' usually resulted in the adoption of the semiDiesel engine with a moderate compression pressure, and hot wire or hot bulb ignition, for motor-car or motorboat work. Out of half a dozen Continental oil engines for' automobile work ft present in production, only two, tho Benz and the Swiss-German Aero-Bosch, approximate to the true Diesel. _ln the recent .French trials for vehicles using . fuels other than petrol a new Belgian oil machine, known as the Held, made- its appearance and went through the trials with conspicuous success. This interesting engine is now in commercial production.

When filling tho tank with gasoline, it is important, particularly in cold, dry weather* to make suto that the hose nozzle is in contact with the iinpainted inner surface of the protruding neck of the car tank, so as to prevent ignition of. the vapours from static electricity. This is generated by the passage of the petrol through the canvas hose, and' u: V a there is actual contact a spark :'may ."jump from the nozzle' to the tank and cause an explosion and fire.