Motor and Cycle

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 66

Motor and Cycle

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DEMON

“ What about selling your motor cycle? ” »aid Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Traffic Court at Christchurch, when a defendant asked for time to pay his fine. “You can’t sell them these days, sir, you can only give them away,” replied the defendant. “Would you like to give it to me. returned Mr Mosley. “ I might pay your fine then.”

An experiment which, if successful, will be of great assistance to motorists and ether road users, is being undertaken m the Wairarapa. The proposal, which has been made to the Masterton County Council by the district engineer of the Public Works Department, is to place a strip of crushed limestone for a width of about Ift 6in adjoining the edge of bitumen roadway which will be easily picked up by car headlights at night time. Apart from its value to motorists, it is anticipated that local bodies will also benefit by the proposal, as the greatest damage to the shoulders of roads is done at night, as motor vehicles are liable to wander owing to the difficulty of distinguishing the edge of the bitumen. A machine which will be equipped with powerful magnets to pick up nails and pieces of iron from main highways is under construction by the Main Highways Board, and will shortly be ready for action. A statement to this effect was made on Friday night by Mr A. Tyndall, engineer to the board (states the Christchurch Times). “We have a great deal of iron on our roads,” said Mr Tyndall in his address. “When the machine is in action you will be astounded at the amount picked up by it. The magnets, which are attached to the front of the machine at a distance of about six inches from the surface, are very expensive, and therefore I am having them made here.’ A slide thrown on the screen showed a collection of nails and iron picked up by a machine in the United States. There were many nails of considerable size, potential puncture-makers, and bolts, parts of axles, and wrenches.

PETROL WAR IN U.S.A. Advices received in Sydney show that first grade motor spirit is now available in the United States at as low as 51 cents an American gallon (the equivalent of about 3d an Imperial gallon) f.o.b. at American ports. . . i “As supplies imported into Australia come from thees ports, and as the local companies recently reduced the petrol price by Id a gallon because of the drop in wholesale prices abroad,” states the president of the N.R.M.A- (Mr J. C. Watson) “the Australian consumer may now reasonably look for a further reduction in the extraordinarily high price of 2s Id a gallon in the capitals. “Meanwhile there is every justification for an exhaustive inquiry by a Royal Commission into the operations of the local, companies, particularly in view of recent disclosures.” TARIFF WALLS. The world is about to enter a period in which the principal nations will make cross-wise reciprocal tariff and trade arrangements to get around or climb over the high tariff walls that have been built up by governments in the last decade, in the opinion of James 4. Mooney, vicepresident of General Motors Corporation in charge of the overseas operations group, expressed in a speech before the New' York Board of Trade in New York city recently. The speech, which has attracted widespread attention throughout the United States, and has precipitated new discussion as to whether the isolation policy of the United States is not hurting her own domestic trade, has just been received in New* Zealand by Mr W. M’Hardy Forman, managing director of General Motors, New. Zealand, Limited. “ I am afraid that the most favoured nation clause in commercial treaties is a dead letter,” said Mr Mooney. “ The ■handwriting is on the -wall. High tariff barriers throughout the world make the most favoured nation clause impracticable. People w’ill trade! During the next several years, w r e probably shall see many cross-wise reciprocal tariff and trade, arrangements made among the, various nations. This is really something to be generally happy about, for economists and business men. because it is a natural way to get on with taking us out. of the vicious tariff shackles our various governments have put on us during the past 10 years. The general horizon for international trade is very promising. The remarkable advances made in the arts of communication and transportation during the. past 20 years have actually made economic neighbours of all the nations of the world, regardless of the distance as measured in miles. There is wanted only an adjustment in the attitude tow'ard trading among the various nations. This adjustment, as evidenced by the AustroGerman trading pact, is under way.”

PEOPLE STILL TAKE HOLIDAYS. The world spent £1,508.000,000 upon vacation travels- in 1930. This is one of the interesting estimates contained in an exhaustive world survey by the American Automobile Association, a renort of which has been received by Mr W. M‘Hardy Forman, managing director of General Motors New Zealand Limited, and just made public by him. The survey, based upon figures from a variety of sources, official and private, shows that the automobile is the biggest single factor in the transportation of the enormous migratory holiday crowds of the world. In the United States alone it is estimated that £840,000,000 was spent on vacation motor tours, as compared w’ith £150,000.000 for vacation travel by rail, end £5,000,000 for travel by air and

water. The survey further shows that Americans travelling in Canada spent £90,000,000, and Americans vacationing in Mexico £8.000,000. American travellers spent £100,000,000 in Europe and the Orient.

Meanwhile visitors from other countries spent in the United States £25,000,000, it is estimated, leaving a balance in holiday travel in favour of the countries outside the United States of, £173,000,000. This item of expenditure by Americans who carry actual cash outside the country, and leave it within other countries, .is a factor in tlie estimation of international trade balance which is often overlooked. There is no way of accurately determining the exact amount which travellers take from their native land to other countries, but the American Automobile Association figures may be taken as being reasonably representative since they were gathered from governmental bureaux and from private steamship, airplane, railroad, automobile, oil and tyre companies, and other such institutions in position to measure travel expenditures. The survey estimates that throughout the world outside the United States, persons other than American travellers spent on holidays touring £500,000,000. The survey shows that in the face of a decline in the vacation business within the United States proper, Canada had an increase both in number of visitors and in the total revenue from this source.

“PREMIUM ON LETHARGY.” At the annual meeting of the Ford Motor Company of England the chairman. Sir Percival Perry, expressed his strong conviction that the British method of taxing motor cars is preventing British manufacturers from turning out a car that can compete in overseas markets with American and other cars. The root of the trouble seems to be the horse-power tax. which compels the British public to buy low-power engines to escape excessive taxation. So long as the present system prevails no British manufacturer can possibly build up any extensive business abroad with the vehicles made for the Home market. Even now, in spite of a heavy preference in import duties in favour of British cars, our Dominions will not buy British to any considerable extent. The _ consequences of high taxation, averaging £26 18s 9d per automobile in this country, against only £7 4s 4d in U.S.A., are thus most injurious, as not only is domestic consumption restricted, but the expansion of what ought to be a valuable branch of our export trade is systematically retarded. Another important point raised by Sir Percival Perry is the congestion of traffic caused by horse vehicles which, while wholly escaping taxation, are responsible for the daily loss of hundreds of working hours to motor vehicles. It is reasonablyassumed that if horse traffic were taxed equally it would be replaced by automobiles, the demand for which would give a much-needed impetus to industry, besides helping to solve the traffic problem. Our present method of allowing horse traffic to be entirely free from taxation was described by Sir Percival Perry, in a striking phrase, as “ a premium on lethargy.”

BAN ON AUTO HORNS. The Paris Prefect of Police and his traffic commission have declared relentless war on noise, and voted a decree which should ensure dwellers in that capital eight hours of comparative quiet each night. The tooting of automobile horns, which to visitors in Paris has become its characteristic sound, will be silenced between • 10 o’clock at night and 6 in the morning, when drivers must make use of their headlights to give warning at crossings. The new order goes even further, however, and forbids bells on street cars and whistles in stations or trains or on tugboats on the Seine being sounded within the city limits during the late night hours.

HEAVY OIL ENGINES. At the present time the heavy-oil engines for transport in England are onlyavailable in sizes suitable for the propulsion of heavy commercial ■ vehicles. In connection with buses the developments have been so promising that it would not be too much to claim that Great Britain has secured an effective lead over all her rivals in this field. One of the most promising trials received a good deal of publicity in London recently, since it has been produced by’ the factory which makes the buses for the London streets. A large amount of money has been spent on bringing the design to perfection, and it is now claimed that the final design arrived at will fulfil all the conditions required for the service and given by the petrol vehicle. The cost of fuel in running the enormous fleets maintained by the London General Omnibus Company is so. considerable that the question of the utilisation of heavy oil has been a special study for years. A number of these buses have been run experimentally’ by the company during the past six months, and they were the subject of a recent public demonstration to the press, the trade, and to interested Government departments. This demonstration showed that the heavy-oil engine as produced in this form can. run almost as silently as the petrol engine and with a range of speed that is approximately the same. A speed which involved 3000 engine revolutions per minute was easily attained, and yvhen it is remembered that only a short

time ago no heavy-oil engine had run at above 1200 revolutions it will be seen what a great advance has been achieved. Apart from a slight roughness noticeable yvhen the engine yvas idling or at lowengine speeds, there was hardly anything to shoyv that a petrol engine was not employed. The exhaust fumes were also shown to be no worse than those of a petrol engine of the same size. A GRAPHIC STORY. Sir Malcolm Campbell has a vivid story to tell of his feelings and thoughts yvhile his famous Blue Bird yvas racing over the measured mile on Daytona Beach at over 252 miles per hour. After the long preliminary run, and after changing into top gear at over 150 miles per hour, his impressions yvere these: “ The engines yvere screaming beautifully. Noyy' was the moment. I had to keep my foot yvell doyvn and hope for the best. I kneyv the risks, and I knew that the going yvas not too good. For that reason I dare not let the car full out. I pressed my foot doyvn on the accelerator as far as I kneyv I could yvithout uselessly throyving my life ayvay. Now I yvas going as fast as conditions would permit. It yvas a thrill—yes, even I yvas thrilled- “ I sayv the posts of the measured mile. In a blur I could see the dark forms of the people on the one side and the bluish expanse of the sea on the other. I yvas holding the yvheel grimly noyv, yvith the scream of the engine and the yvind in my ears, and the sand was shooting up and stinging against the car and nearly blinding me. Blue Bird had entered the measured mile. I glanced at the meter on the front of the car. The revolutions shoyved that the car yvas doing about 252 miles an hour at her maximum point. I kneyv this yvas not Blue Bird’s maximum speed, yet I realised yvhat it meant to push her any faster. And so yve hurtled across the measured mile before I could hardly realise it. The yvhole world seemed to rush towards me. It yvas like falling—

only falling upwards. As I flashed past the end post of the mile I kneyv I had at least for the one run broken the record.. came the job of decelerating. Very gently I eased my foot and the highpitched scream of the engines relaxed. In a second or two I yvas miles from the officials and their timing gear. As the great car came to a standstill I felt I was coming back to earth again. Still everything yvas O.K. The engine yvas syveet, if such a thing could be called syveet, the tyres yvere standing up to it, so yvithout delay I decided to make the return journey. Again I felt Blue Bird gathering speed at terrific pace. Again I felt the yvind and sand and bumps and vibration and a hundred other emotions anyone yvould feel on an attempt of this kindThis time I had not the advantage of yvhatever yvind there yvas. The hoyvl in my ears yvas yvorse. Again I yvas in the posts of the measured mile. Visibility yvas bad, there is no doubt of that. Although I had the car as much under control as any driver could at more than 200 miles an hour, I had the greatest difficulty in seeing yvhere I -was going. “ Through the gears again until the ear yvas roaring her note of British challenge, I lived a hundred times in that small space of time between the time the Blue Bird entered and finished that mile of great ordeal. As I yvas flashing across the sands at the highest speed I dared, I looked at the meter, and sayv that again I yvas up to 250 miles an hour. I think, 252 yvas the highest point I touched on the nortlnvard run. And then the ordeal yvas over.”

HENRY FORD’S HUGE ENTERPRISE. Those gloomy people who spend their time predicting the downfall of Britain as a yvorld supplier of manufactured goods yvould be brought to a brighter

state of mind by. a visit to Dagenham.

An apparently unpromising site has been selected by Mr Henry Ford and his associates as the situation for a great factory destined to supply British, Continental, and North African demands for Ford motor vehicles. Others have looked at the site for various purposes, but apparently have been scared off by its seeming inaccessibility and bogginess, and by the gigantic task of converting it into a base for factories.

What frightens others stimulates the Detroit millionaire, and in about 12 months’ time yvhat is probably the greatest conception of a manufacturing plant for dealing yvith one product that has ever taken root on British soil will be fully realised. To-day the skeleton and floors of a vast collection of shops has arisen. A thousand feet square, the shops yvill be served by a complete railway system. Fronting it to the river are the offices, and behind the offices is a garage yvhere members of the staff yvill be able to keep their oyvn cars yvhile at work.

On one side of the mass of shops a factory is being erected by one of the American pressed steel companies. Here yvill be made the steel panels and pillars for the Ford vehicles. On the other side of the main building is the poever house and other buildings. Current for poyver, light, and heating yvill be produced on the premises. So self-contained is the scheme that there will be no need even to buy yvater. Already tyvo yvells, yielding large supplies, have been sunk. In front of the main office block a deepwater jetty is being constructed, and from this point, within a few yards of the final exit from the factory, the finished Ford products yvill be shipped to their overseas destination.

It is planned to employ some 15,000 men when the yvhole scheme is completed, and the yvages bill yvill not be less than £lOO,OOO a yveek. A syndicate uncon-

nected yvith the Ford organisation is planning to erect nearby 1500 houses for the use of the employees. The factory with its equipment will cost £4,000,000. It is being laid out for a smooth and economical production of 1000 vehicles a day. Anticipations are that 80 per cent, of these yvill be exported. Elaborate plans are being made to deal with and utilise yvaste products, and even ordinary household refuse, including old tins and cans and such like, yvill be obtained from local urban councils and other bodies for fuel and resale as scrap metal. Costly plant is being installed for this purpose. Household refuse noyv costing public authorities many shillings per ton to dispose of doyvn the Thames yvill be accepted by the Ford plant as valuable material

EFFICIENCY IN TRACTOR OPERATION. MORE ACREAGE AT LESS COST. As the majority oL tractors use kerosene as a fuel, the following information on the quality of a suitable power kerosene should be both informative and interesting to every tractor owner. This information has been gathered from the tractor engineers throughout the yvorld, and is the result of experimental yvork both in the laboratory and on the farm. It was found that one of the greatest factors in reducing efficiency in tractor operation yvas the contamination of the engine lubricating oil by unvaporised fuel. Unvaporised fuel is due to lack of volatility-. When the kerosene is not vaporised it gradually yvorks doyvn from the combus-

tion chamber past the piston rings to the crank case, where it dilutes and weakens the main supply of oil. When this takes place the oil cannot protect the moving metal surfaces of the tractor, and wear takes place rapidly. Tractor owners should therefore see that they use a fuel of proved quality, such as Voco Poyver kerosene, which yvill prevent as far as possible the entrance of drops of liquid or unvaporised fuel into the cylinders. , Have you ever heard a sharp metallic “ ping-ping-pinging ” sound yvhen your engine is under heavy load ? This is knoyvn as detonation, and it causes hammering of the bearings. Sometimes it may cause the cracking of the cylinder walls, and ey’en the bloyving in of piston heads has been traced to fuel knocking. Quite definitely, loss of poyver always results from the use of fuels that knock. LAW OF NEGLIGENCE.

MOTORISTS AND PEDESTRIANS. AUCKLAND, May 20. Comments on the duties of motorists and pedestrians yvere made by Mr Justice Herdman yvhen summing up in a collision case at the Supreme Court to-day. He said that in France if a person got in the way of a motor car and yvas run doyvn and injured he had no claim of any kind against the driver, but if the car yvas damaged because the driver yvas trying to avoid . a collision a claim could be brought against the pedestrian. “ 111 Neyv Zealand and England yve have reached a higher plane of civilisation, and yve provide by our law that if a person not guilty of negligence is injured by reason of the negligence of a person driving a motor car a claim can be made for damages,” said his Honor. He added that it must be shoyvn that the driver had been guilty of some breach of duty. Any person who used the street, whether the driver of a motor car or a horsedrawn vehicle, or a pedestrian, was bound to exercise proper care. Motorists were under an Obligation to keep a proper lookout, to drive at a reasonable speed, and to have their cars under proper control. A pedestrian yvas not entitled to cross a street yvith his eyes shut or to be “ wool-gathering.” If he attempted to cross yvith his vieyv obscured and an accident happened the driver of the car was not guilty of any contributory neglect; the pedestrian yvas the author of his own misfortune, and yvas not entitled to recover anything. In some cases nobody yvas to blame for an accident, said his Honor, and in that event the defendant yvould succeed. If both parties yvere equally to blame the defendant would again succeed. The defendant yvould also succeed yvhere, even if there had been neglect, the real cause of the accident yvas the contributory negligence of the plaintiff. MOTORING INTERESTS. NORTH AND SOUTH ISLAND BODIES. WELLINGTON, May 22. Motorists’ representatives from all parts of Neyv Zealand are holding a conference to-day, M r O’Callaghan (South Taranaki) presiding. It was decided to yvait on the Minister and ask that the Motor Vehicles Act be amended so that it should be the only Act under which local bodies could make bylayvs; to approach the Government to have the law amended in the direction of altering the present practice under yvhich costs are not ayvarded against the Croyvn to successful defendants or appellants in traffic prosecutions. A deputation to the Union Company yvas arranged in connection with the basis of charges for freighting cars between the tyvo islands. It yvas resolved to urge the Goy’ernment to provide that all bicycles be painted white at the rear, the red reflectors being considered inefficient. It yvas decided to seek legislation prohibiting the use of glaring headlights on stationary vehicles. It was also decided that the Government be asked for legislation making it compulsory for pedestrians to keep to the right on roads yvhere there are no footpaths. It yvas resolved that the unions in the tyvo islands unite in an endeavour to secure the elimination of all roadside advertising hoardings in rural districts, also hoardings on railway property at or near level crossings, except .in cities or large toyvns.