Cycling and Motoring Notes.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 May 1913, Page 2

Cycling and Motoring Notes.

From tlio Dunlop Rubber T.vre Co., Christchurch, for week ending April 2(jth, 1913. ****** A speed of 70 miles an hour has been attained on the frozen suitace of Lake Ontario (.Canada) by a -10 li.p. motor-driven ice boat, lit ted up with ice-runners. The power was applied by an aeroplane propeller, fitted up to the front of the chassis. Motor ice-boating i.s now becoming very popular as a wintei sport in some parts of America, and it may not be long before the great speeds attained on .Mrookhuid;: Track (England) are beaten by iceboats on the frozen lakes of Canada . * * * * * * A corporal in the French army ii North Africa has devised a peculiar motor machine particularly adapted for travel over the sand wastes of the Sahara. The machine is cross between an automobile and . Bleriot type of aeroplane, and lia. been dubbed "the sleigh of the de sort." The construction is very light indeed. It. is mounted on bru.i•' iyred pneumatic wheels, but is driven by an aeroplane propellor. Ii is so light and its bearing surface iso great, that it will ride over tin sands without sinking, leaping o\'e light depressions .and climbing tlu steepest sand dunes. There is ;;

decided advantage in using an aii propellor. for the drive of tlie inn chine is independent of its traction. In the loose .sand of tin- dessert ii is difficult to propel a machine nitei the manner of a motor car. One trip ol 120 miles across the Sahara has already been (.successfully accomplished on this machine. * * * * * * I lie development ol motoring in Europe has boon attended bv a corresponding development in the construction of motor car bodies, even by an over-development, which h.r produced cjueer forms that depart widely from the conventional types, although they are not always impractical oi' destitute of merit. Mos. of tlie.se (pieor-looking automobileare of l''rench make. A well-known example is "built on the lines of a submarine, which conceals all Inn Ihe head of the driver. The same linn makes a still more realist ii submarine which is provided u itli a conning tower, and completely encloses the driver. Then there ancars shaped like artillery shells, with rounded tail pieces in which extra wheels or tyres are neatly stowed, and other shell type.s with ulass skylights. A signal device for use on nmtoi cars in traffic has been patonied in America. ml is so connected with tlie brake mechanism that the signal is operated when the brake mechanism is manipulated to sot th. brakes, so that a motor car in the rear will be warned when the car in advance applies its brakes io rednc speed or slop, thus preventing rear collisions.

••****» According to the figures Hindi have just lieen issued by {he (!crnian Government. 120 motor roa<" trains have been .subsidised (Or i!i« year 1013 I|V tlie Kingdom oi Prussia. ;uhl I.~i by This number, added to the 000. v,h,Vh weiv under the control of the Cmx-ninn.. in 1012. makes a total oi' N2."> of these motor vehicles at the disposal of the German military authorities iu case of war. * * I * Someone with a predilection foi statistics lvns figured out llrat i; Great i J (it;) in alone ;ibout l.tidd. 000.000 miles are covered annually hy all sorts ol veilick\s. including motor cars. During the pnsi ye.-n 7">o persons were killed by vehicle traffic, that is to say, one person for every 2,1 33,333 miles. .Motor vehicle* to the number ol' oO.OIJD covered 'approximately MO,00(1.000 miles and killed 200 people or one person for every 1,000.000 miles.