NEW DEVICE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 350, 11 October 1932, Page 2

NEW DEVICE

AMERICAN INVENTION TO MEASURE SPEED. To determine wh'at is the average prevailing speed of motor vehicles on Connecticut highways and in the various cities of the State, the Department of Motor vehicles is makinguse of a new device, known as the speed dectetor, a development of the Eno Foundation for High Traffic Regulation, Inc. (states the New York Times). The instruments in use were made by the traffic section of the department on specifieations supplied by C. J. T'ilden, professor of engineering mechanics at Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, representing the foundation. - The detector is a simple device consisting of a xight-angle box in which' a mirror is set across the angle at 45 degrees. This enables an operator to see around a corner, in effect. In actual use this L-shaped box permits one man accurately to measure the speed of a vehicle over a given distance when he is equipped with a stop watch. The vehicle, passing the box set up at a specified distanoe from the operator, is seen in an instantaneous deflected flash. The operator then op'ens the stop watch, and eloses it when the vehicle passes before him. Knowing the distance and the time in which' it was traversed, he can quickly compute the speed of the vehicle. This method of measuring speed does not arouse the suspicion of motor vehicle operators that their pace is being checked. The box may be screened from the view of the drivers by a pole, tree, or other object. The fast driver, who would moderate h'is pace under old conditions, is clocked before he is aware of it by this plan. At present the check is merely for ascertaining by observation existing speeds on particular types of highways. No record of individual vehicles or their operators is kspt. Sample observations checked in a test of the device in Southerri Connecticut. showed that, for a New Haven city street, the average of 100 vehicles was twenty-six miles per hour, for a Fairfield County post road location th'e average speed of 92 vehicles was 36.5 miles per hour. Department inspectors are engaged in making.a wide study of speeds in all parts of the State. "Science and scientific application has always been a part of the machinery by which practical problems are solved, and put into effect," Com-

missioner Stoekel said in commentmg upcin the Eno speed detector. "When scientific attainment intercepts reasonable rul'es, the height of perfection is reached. The work done hy cooperating scientists has many times aided the State in connection with traffic." . _ He added that study of results obtained by use of the detector will reveal the average reasonable rate of speed at which people travel. "Such evidence may 'eventually, be used to determine what constitutes reasonable speed," he continued, "but far more important and more in accdrdance with the praetice of education and discipline is the fact that there will he a positive guide which will allow traffic aiitliorities to determine with eertainty what constitutes reasonable speed within the limits of their jurisdictions."