THE MOTOR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1434, 8 May 1912, Page 5

THE MOTOR.

(BY AMI-hivs.) Turning Corners. Motorists no doubt road with a technical the account of the accident to Hie motor tire-engine, at tho Caledonian corner. Anyone wno iia«, been driving a car even at a moderate ..peed round a hi, V' L '" ot fru'ic ivres ii. M d.le" ly burst will realise now niffi. tult it is tj avoid di.Mister. A corre*poiideiit to tlic" "Autuciir" some time ago, in (.ruling with accidents at eornen linngs nil a iioint tliat is wortli special consideration. Jlis contention is that if, in turning a corner, one hmts a evclist or u motorist bearing down upon one' on Ills wrong side, one's natural inclination is. to go over to the right to make room 101 (lie man who is apparcutiv auuut to cliargo one. He j s convinced! from observations'he has made, that on tlio whole it is much safer to keep to the loit as if one once begins to go to the right the oncoming rider or driver, though lie may have been 011 his wrong side' when first seen, is 111 a dilemma, and a collision is almost- unavoidable. Oil tile other hand, by sticking liriiily. to one's proper course, tne mau 011 the wrong side has a very good chance of changing his direction and avoiding a collision by the simple expedient of going over to his own side. The Safest Course. Arguments to ths opposite effect can be introduced, but, considering all things, the safest thing to do is not only to be careful always to turn corners to the left at a reasonable speed, but having onco done this, to keep to the left. It is much safer than cutting' out to tho right on the assumption that the mau 011 his wrong side will keep on his wrong side. Stop if you can, but do not imagine that von can tell what the other man is going to do. It is far. safer to assume that he will turn sharply over to his proper side than it is to assume that il' you go on lo your wrong side he will keep to his wrong side, ami so pass without danger to cither.

Another correspondent to the same journal warns novices as lo sounding tho horn when rounding corners. At corners do not "hoot, lioot, hoot," as though you expected everybody to clear the road for your coming—you may not so expect, : but do not let it even appear that you are . anticipating this—but give a. warning ,blast, or two if you like, and then drive [ as though you expected to meet a vehicle coining in the opposite direction. A hint I to novices by the way. If you approach I an unexpected corner, and think that yon have not time to iise both Ihe horn aud tiie throttle, or .when you arc overtaking or passing another vehicle, use the throttle first. If you do Ibc reverse, you will perhaps imagine that it is necessary to continue to give waniiag, and, neglecting !o slow down yourself, take the corner or pass the vehicle at a higher speed than is really safe when your inexperience is considered.

Springs and Their Lubrication. Only tho=o iivlio have . experienced it know (liediscomfort of riding iu a badly sprung ear. Every severe jolt is registered in one's spinal column, unless the victim rises to the occasion, .which he must do if the -journey is a long one,'and he hopes to go through without a headache; but such -continuous effort is tiding and tiresome; lie must keep his eyes fixed upon the roadway, and. be ready to lift the greater part of his weight off the scat, and his mind' is so much ' engaged- in looking to his personal comfort that little opportunity is afforded him to take mora than a passing glance at the country side. .Some cars give the passengers in the tonneau a rough time, bceauso the springing is weak and the'body is weighed down to the axle .when travelling over hump ground. In other cars the riding is harsl although a big bump has less actual, ja; as if the springing is too stiff for th weight carried, while cars of the sam make and exactly similar pattern ro, smoothly over all kinds of surfaces. A explanation was recently given why th springing varied in the two cars, and briefly, if was because the springs wer too stiff to respond quickly to anythin; less than a fairly severo bump; but tlia inability to respond quickly was not du to any defect in the springs, but simnli to neglect in properly greasing the leave; If owners of cars would s?e that the leave are properly and periodically lubricatei the springs would scon reciprocate ant bocomc so flexible that, in some cases, tlr expediency of fitting shock-absorbers wonlt hardly present itself: lien one comes to consider the mat ter. it will be seen that for a laminate! spring to resnoiul readily and quickly i is necessary for each leaf to slide tasilj on the face of its neiglil'inring leaf, then bamg a very large sliding surface; ami if, as in the majority of cars, the surface he rough and clrv; and in most cases also rather rusty, it is obvious that great resistance is opposed to any sliding movement. mid. as a result, the spring as a whole is "dead," while those small shocks, which are the prime causes of rattle and noise and discomfort, are transmitted, not only to the frame and bsdy of the ear, but also to the body and .brain of the passenger, the result of which is detrimental all round. Self-starting' Dcvices.

Many of the American ear manufaei i rs tui-ninfr out practically the v.liole of this year's product with" selfstarting devices, as 'part of the equipment not. as. a .luxury, but a necessity, l ls i !'i quarters fsavs an exchange) that the effect of the self-starter is bad on the engine; but it is first neces- .? c ' cilr 'f understand what happens uheu a charge of mixture (whether the air be carbureted with petrol, acetyIt'iie, etc., 1S immaterial) is exploded in a. cylinder, when the crank-shaft and Pistons are. stationary. The shock is sud- • den enough to present a liability to dam;p m I'nWlitj- is enormously increased if the cylinder walls get gummy i.ith congealed oil, -as may be the state in \ery cold weather after a period of disuse. Probably the thickening of the oil could be prevented by injecting a few tho P L'i P™ 11 " 1 . into ««ch cylinder at e " d ° f » days running. The compressed air system of self-starters are freo from the objection ot imposing sudden 9 locks r but even with them clean cyli," if arepss(, ntial, particularly in iery cold weather or when a car has been standing in a cold atmosphere all ni"ht Jt is on(j*oii rare occasions, 'perhaps, that the temperature in .Australia would have any great etteet on the lubricating oil. The Motor Omnibus.

nwS,? 1 " 0,1 " libl J?' which is being external 1 lrf, t nletl " lm s-iiamel.v, by intornal combustion engines, bv stoain power and by electricity—has not hitherto been shown to the public as a unit capable of being handled like a tram J«ot a little interest (writes A. Jlassac Bmst in the Observer") therefore nt snr?° S f ' alC f t srstwn ' which'is a sort cf grafting of an invention by two engineers, llr. Ldmund W. Lewis and M .'\ L : 'tox, on to the hHilv original Dannler petrol-electric bus, which lUelt is a composite invention evolved after many years as tho result of a concentration of. several highly original biains on one problem. Briefly the point of the Lewis-Cox device is that you tako the Daimler petrol electric motor bus and make it reversible so that vL i" a .3°" rnp y. f °r example, .Aou do not have to turn tho big vehicle round in the public streets, but instead the driver and conductor merely chamro places precisely as in the trnmcnr, whereupon. without being turned round, the machine can start back along the road it has just traversed. The vehicle is steerable from either, end. At the journey's finish time is saved by reason of the fact that the passengers, can pass out of and enter into the vehicle at bath ends. In appearance the machine is like a small tram, save that it has only four wheels and these are of the usual'size, employed on motor buses. As such a vehicle as this travels quietly along the road without anv of tho echo which makes the I ram really an exceptionally noisy machine, and needs neither a special track nor overhead wires of any sort, it. trill be interesting to see to what extent it is employed in the future by comparison with the scope that does exist, and will exist, for the latet forms of motor omnibuses steerable from only one end.