MOTORS & MOTORING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2611, 5 November 1915, Page 9

MOTORS & MOTORING

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The Industry in Britain. There are over £50,000,000 invested in the British motor industry, which employs over 300,000 skilled workers, nnd a large part of thoso men are now engaged in the manufacture- of munitions. As one largo English manufacturer puts it: "This huge industry is now faced with extinction or protection, for greedily aggressive 'neutral' competion has taken advantage of the situation to tho full." That is to say, while the British motor workshops are turning out munitions, foreign rivals are capturing the motor trade. It is remarked by Mr. _H. Massac Buist, in dealing with this question, that anybody who assumes that the British Budget proposal in relation to motoring- contitutc a protection of tho British car-making industry is as utterly wide of the mark as if he were to believe that those proposals have anything to do with Tariff Reform as a party proposition. The import duty of 33 1-3 per cent, that must now be paid on cars, motor-cycles, and parts of them imported into Great Britain, he continues, has not been calculated with any special reference to the motor industry either at Home or abroad. It is, instead, a round. rate that applies equally to such -diverse articles as hats, clocks, kinema films, and so forth. I

The now import duty on motor-cars has two purposes only, namely, the raising of a certain amount of revonuo towards defraying; the costs of war and putting. some reasonable sort of check on unnecessary exportation of • British capital, • since when these cars cost a third as much again it is to be presumed that for the most part, only those who have absolute need of them at this juncture will buy them. For the rest, whoever has no actual'need of them yet insists on having thorn in war time may well contribute something direct to the national exchequer.

You may insist that these purposes incidentally work out in protecting the British industry, but you will be wrong,' because that industry is not supplying; the British public, being engaged instead on.war work. An industry which cannot produce goods for sale in a protected market cannot by any stretch of tho imagination be said to be protected by the imposition of a tariff on the importation of similar articles to those which- it is concerned in manufacturing in normal times. Nor is this all, as is abundantly clear when you reflect that if the aim were to protect the British motor industry in particular it would fail on practical grounds because it would treat our ' enemies as handsomely as our Allies, and the neutrals better than those who are fighting our cause.

Before wo can begin to talk about t'he Government taking any steps to protect the--British motor industry we shall have to see what it does when the campaign is actually concluded and that industry is freed to supply the public with, vehicles, and also when our Allies' industries are ready to resume .the export of cars to' England and our present enemies find themselves in similar case. Starting by Wireless. For the first time in the history of the motor-car it has been demonstrated that a car can be started from a distance by means of the wireless telegraph. This was proved recently in America, where an "Overland" was started every live minutes by a wireless spark from the Overland headquarters in Indianapolis, five miles away. A complete wireless outfit, consisting of motor generator,- transformers, relays, and other paraphernalia was installed in the show windows of the Indianapolis depot. This was connected with an aerial on the roof of the building, and by stepping the alternating current up from 110 volts to 16,000 volts the apparatus made it possible to send messages 300 miles. The car was fitted .up with a receiving apparatus and the necessary automatic switches and relays for throwing on and off the electric.current of the' starter and magneto. An automatic switch was regulated so as to allow the car to ran for forty-five seconds, after which the magneto was cut off. The operation of starting the car was repeated at five minute intervals. One of the most interesting features of the experiment was the fact that the entire operation of starting the car was accomplished without the aid of a human hand. A time switch,, installed in connection with the wireless outfit in the city, controlled the entire operation. From .the time the car was first put in operation, by touching a key at the sending station, until the last day of the experiment, the starting and stopping of the car was taken care of automatically. • Petrol Imports. That petrol has played an important part in the European war is reflected in the shipments of this motor fuel from America. For the year ending June 30, 1915, France imported 32,718,000 gallons as against 3,494,000 in 1913 and 19,608,000 in 1914. English 'purchased 6,000,000 gallons in 1913, 25,800,000 in 1914, and 34,634,000 for tho year ending last June. Italy nearly, trebled her petrol imports, securing in. 1915 9,160,000 gallons. • England's command of the' seas in this direction alone has been of tremendous value to the Allies. Aluminium Pistons. In view °f 6 growing." importance attaching to the reduction, of weight in the reciprocating parts of a- petrol niotor—perhaps the biggest factor making for high revolution is not surprising that aluminium pistons are much used for engines built specially I for racing purposes. It is only recently, however, that'their advantages' when applied to pleasure car engines appear to have been realised, or perhaps it is that makers havo rather fought shy of them on account of fancied or real drawbacks to their use. In America, on the other hand, side by side with tho growth of the number of cylinders, which, by itself, renders possible the reduction of. woight of reciprocating parts, has grown up the use of pistons of some aluminium alloy. One of the best-known firms over there is specialising in tho manufacture of these pistons. Made from Magnalium, an alloy of aluminium and magnesium, the weight, size for size, is as one to three as compared with ordinary castiron pistons. Magnalium' is, in fact, oven lighter than pure aluminium, since the specific gravity of magnesium is only 1.74 , whereas that of aluminium is 2.6, so that the saving- in weight, it will be seen, niay be fairly considerable. Indeed, the makers state that in one particular case a reduction of no less than 241b. in reciprocating weight was effected by substituting "Magnalite" for the original cast iron pistons. It is said that Magnalito pistons cost very little more than those made from high-grade cast iron, for although the metal itself is far more costly per unit of weight, there is, of course, less of it, while another factor tending to keep down cost is the ease with which magnalium may be machined. An important claim made by the advocates of aluminium pistons is that the possibility of scoring the cylinder walls in the event of lubrication shortcoming is minimised, since, in the cvnnt of a seizure, partial or absolute, it will be the softer metal of the piston that suffers, leaving the expensive cylinder block uninjured. Certain it is, however, that only one or two English car makers are using aluminium pistons fitted as standard, and they appear to give every satisfaction. Here and Titers, lisMn* ug .time for motor-

cars and motor-cycles:—To-day, 6.49 p.m. Next Friday, 6.57 p.m. A leading English firm lias cabled its Melbourne agent, announcing that it has a small number of motor wagons available for export to Australia. This firm, since the outbreak of war, has been unable to ship because the War Office needed all the wagons it could produce. In the circumstances, it is believed that the cable implies that the supply is now meeting the demand of the War Office, which in itself is a hopeful sign, and further suggests a gradual return to normal conditions in the English motor trade.