A NOVEL MOTOR-CAR.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 828, 28 May 1910, Page 6

A NOVEL MOTOR-CAR.

FOR SCOTT'S ANTARCTIC EXPEDI TION.

A HINT FROM THE CENTIPEDE.

Tho first man whom Captain Scott engaged for his forthcoming Antarctic Expedition was young Bernard Day, who made himself so useful —with and without tlio Arrol-Johnston motor-car— in the Shackloton Expedition. This may be taken not only as a tribute to the handiness of Day, but also as proof of the fact that Captain Scott hopes to get very good results with his motorvehicles, which have been designed and built' by tlio Wolseley Company, and have undergone successfully some very interesting tests in Norway, not alono on the level, but'on considerable slopes and over fairly soft snow. From tho picture of the finished machine, which wo publish herewith, it will be seen that it neither follows tho Shacklcton system of being an ordinary sort of motor-car, nor does it copy tho Charcot system of being a sledge with a sort of paddle drive. Instead, a hint has been taken from the centipede, for this new machine puts one in mind- of nothing so much as that insect of tho many legs. You see not wheels, but sorts of giant sprockets that are turned round by the motor, and that have round them an endless chain equipped with spikes and broad grips, so that the power given by the engine is not delivered on any small surface space on the .snow or ice to be traversed as in the case of a wheel-driven vehicle or of one sent forward by paddles. To the contrary,■the energy is divided equally over the whole wheel base of tlio Wolseley sledges. You have, as it were, a runner that is in gripping contact with the ground throughout its length. This has an advantage in efficiency in travelling over soft surfaces, the chances of doing so successfully being multiplied almost by the number'' of inches .of driving contact with the surface, as distinct from, the few inches with which a wheel or a paddle can be in contact at any given time. Nor is this all. These ingenious vehicles are of the same length that the Nimrod party found most suitable—a length that enables the sledgo' to span the average crevass without much difficulty. By having such a long power-driven contact with tho ground, of course, it is possible to go along in circumstances and over

country where a car or a paddle-driven machine would become bogged owing to getting on to soft snow or slush. In a phrase, it may be said that if this Wolseley system of driving is not fruitful of good results, one will almost havo to give up tho notion of motor-sleighs for the Antarctic. In tests, these machines havo hauled amply sufficient loads. Of course, the experience gained in regard to carburation, and particularly in tho matter of lubricating oil, in the Shackloton expedition havo been had in mind in the design of the machine, the fact of Bernard Day's ingenious ahd improvised methods of enabling tho Arrol-Johnston motor to. bo kept going, rendering it more likely that these difficulties will not bo experienced to any great extent in these new Wolseley machines. It will be observed, moreover, that a very ingenious system of allowing a certain amount of "spring" to the machine has been devised. Like all Wolseley these sledges are thorough engineering jobs. The petrol tank is seen on the top of a case that covers the motor, which is wholly enclosed, only the starting-handle projecting in front. The clutch pedal and tho hand lover are also clearly illustrated. What happens to this machine in use is that the driving wheels, which are like giant sprockets, never touch the ground, but the sledge itself actually moves bodily forward on its own track, which it lays by means of the endless chain fitted with spuds and pattens. Thus when seen in., action the appearance is very curious, becauso where the chain touches the ground it remains stationary, the sledge itself sliding along within the chain. Yon are therefore not to picture this chain as scratching at tho ground like a cat and slipping backwards. !