MOTORING NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 11 January 1932, Page 3

MOTORING NOTES

THERE IS “NOTHING” LIKE 1 RUBtihH. > (“Australian Motorist,” September ; ■ Ist, Inal.; The idea conveyed by this saving was once believed to rerer to excellent ' profits from the tyre industry. It will surprise people, therefore, to learn that during the last decade 10,000 J <50,000 dollars of business showed less than 2 per cent earnings. Of late the aggregate earnings oil invested capital in 'the American tyre industry has been averaging less than 1 per cent per annum. Two of the companies showing practically njo profit produce 70 per cent of the tyres in the United States,’* and out of five tyre companies only two showed any profit last year. One of the two failed to cover its deferred dividend rerequirements. Of the three reporting financial losses, one went into the hands of a receiver. The five big tyre companies collectively showed a loss of 21,(184,822 dollars last year. An examination shows that all five companies made profits on nearly all theii* other rubber lines except tyres. One of the companies manufactures no fewer than 32,000 different articles, and the losses on its tyre department can be imagined when its net loss for the year was 8,374,148 dollars. Howard Wolf, writing in the American “Mercury,” gays the cause of the astounding losses by the tyre companies may be told in two words, “Jealous rivalry.” He writes:—“The association apparently has bad no effect on'the prevailing rivalries or upon the ruinous competition springing therefrom. In 1913, the user'of the most common standard tyres paid 55.80 dollars for j 3000 tyre miles, in 1921 41.85 dollars

for 8,000 miles, and in 1931 12.80 dollars for 15,000 miles. The 1913 cost for each 1000 miles of tyre wear was 18 dollars; the 1931 cost 80 cents. In other words, the motorist to-day travels 22) times as far for each dollar as he did in 1913. Department of Labour figures show that no other commodity has dropped as fast in price in the past five years as have auto tyres. Tyres to-day cost only 45.7 per cent of what they cost in 1920 (even ignoring the fact that they give greater mileage), whereas the average cost of 550 other commodities is now 77 per cent of what it was five years ago.” Continuing, he says:—“Prices today are the lowest in the industry’s history, and the tyres of to-day wear longer than over before. The tyre makers are thus losing money ; a simple proposition. The only answer, of course, is to boost prices. But because of th e senseless competition in the industry this will not be done. The same senseless competition, springing in part from over-production, results in even greater over-produc-tion. With each of the giant, companies of- Akron I,'listing to be the. greatest in the world, they have built and equipped block after block of factories, dreaming in brick and- glass and machinery, and oblivious to all such work-day incidentals as market saturation and the laws of supply and demand.

“ Last year the American rubber corporations sold some 54,000,000 tyres. This year the most optimistic of the moguls sees 64,000,000 being sold, and the more conservative estimators set the figure at 60,000,000. If the year were a roa jungly prosperous one for all business and all industry the world over, the world market could not he more than 85,000,000.

And yet the American rubber companies. operating at capacity, could turn out about 110,000,000 a year, an excess of 25.000.000 over the greatest potential world requirement. The ultimate fate of the majority of smaller companies is clearly written in the fact that the Big Five alone, operating at top speed, could supply that potential market of 85.000.000 casings.’” Tt was a Frenchman—Edouard Benedictus—who was responsible for the invention of the threeply type of nonshatterable glass, which is now used for the windscreens and windows of many motor cars. The extra cost of menu factoring the glass-celluloid-glass sandwich, has precluded fts adoption as a standard fitment in all automobiles. Tt is now reported tun? France lias produced another really remarkable non splinterahle glass, of a totally different character to that now on the market. It is known ns “Securit,” and is said to offer all the visibility of ordinary glass without any of its disadvantages. The new

glass lias remarkable qualities of re-

sistance, flexibility and cohesion, .-s will he realised from the details of

the following tests: A windscreen pane 3ft. x loin, was placed on two

blocks of wood, and two men, of a

total weight of 18sfc.7*8tbod on ft. llie glass bent, hut immediately., the men -stepped off, it returned to'its normal

position. /Then -a js.teel.' ball- .-wlas dropped 10 feet on to. the pane, the hall bouncing off without damage to glass. When the glass is broken up by it violent shock, it crumbles into granular particles, without sharp edges, and is incapable of cutting, even if squeezed tightly in the hand. The inventors of “Seeurit” have been 10 years perfecting their safety glass, a peculiar feature of which, is that it cannot be cut. As a consequence fit has to to be made to actual size required before being submitted to a special beat treatment. “Seeurit” is perfectly white, having tile appearance of the purest polished glass. Seven of the leading French qar mama faciturers have already adopted this new non-shatterable glass as standard equipment. Important motor, bus or-

ganisations in Paris are also installing

it in their motor vehicles; As the cost of production of this new safety glass is likely to be considerably less than the processes involved in making the three-ply type, it should not be long before all new automobiles, are fitted: with non-spljiijerable glass wind-screens and windows.

Almost without exception all failures at or in the region of the walls of car tyres, are attributable to underinflation. A large user of motor vehicles recently made independent investigations on 'the question -of inflation pressure, and after exhaustive tests, satisfied himself that;; in respect of the particular size of..tyre..in which he was interested, a of 700 miles of tyre life accompanies every single pound below correct, pressure at which the tyre is used. Blows resulting from sharp contact between the tyre and some irregularity of surface (pot-holes, obstacles lying on the road, kerb, etc.) may cause local . fractures of the tyre casing,. :, not necessarily accompanied by . bruising,of .the outside rubber, but it has; been ; clearly ! proved by the Dunlop Rubber Co. that tyres are susceptible to the damaging effects of such blows to greater degree when under-inflated .

The world’s position -as" Regards motor spirit is indeed a. peculiar one. In America a deluge of oil has resulted in prorationing, despite which crude oil is selling in U.S.A. ait a price about a fourth ol the cost of production. Then Russia has vast supplies, for which she has practically no -domestic market, and is with a certain measure ol success penetrating other national markets. In the meantime other nations are striving to produce synthetic petrol, /to make themselves independent of the flood ot oil that the earth is vomiting- up in various parts of - the world, -.-

* England has long visualised procuring her own patrol n< eels by hydrogenation of coal, but little progress has so I nr. ,been made. A recent announce; ment by the Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd.—one of tne largest organ*tuitions of i,ts kind in the. world—states that-, they have,, now succeeded in pi:or during petrol of , a quality equal to t|i,c highest-grade ispjrit on the market, at 7d a gallon. The stage has- now been reached that jutifies the production of synthetic vpetrol iiP-Britain On- -a r -big scale,.-and .the Company. plans to erect a huge plant, capable of manufacturing over - 200,000 . tons of petrol per annum. The .'scheme will involve ,an outlay of about £8,000,000, and when the plant is in operaioH,’ will give employment to 20-00 men, and in addition 5000 miners will be needed to raise the' coat. It is claimed that a satisfactory iprofit can be made on the undertaking,, even "At. present ruling prices. r • Apropos of petrol distillation, it is interesting to record the result'Of sonic, recent french experiments carried suit in connection with the production of fuel alcohol from bananas. From one; class of fruit 19) gallons of pure spirit was obtained per ton of bananas, while from New Guinea bananas, nearly 21) gallons per ton was obtained. Whether cultivation of bananas for production ol alcohol alone, could he made a payable proposition is a different pi utter. •