SPARKS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 515, 26 April 1933, Page 6

SPARKS

The difference between a Scotsman and an electric battery is that you can overcharge ian electric battery. A young woman university student in Auckland h'as heen igranted a taxidriver's licenSe. Drivers in England have been advised to wear white gloves to enable road-users to isee th(eir siginals |a.t night. Sheffield's first traffic signals of a j type which regulat'es the traffic hy | contact of 'the vehicle wheels have j just been set in operation. Roller bearings have a load capa- ' city isome 70 per cent. greater than j ball bearings of the same external dlmension's. ' In this year's Indianapolis race, fuel tank capacity- will be limited to 15 gallons, so as to increase the number of pit stops. Series of tests in America have j shown that traffic-actuated light signals save some 45 per cent. of halting time as compared with pre-timed signals . "Horn' pliay very little part in givSng warning, for one side always says they sounded their hom and the other 1 that they never heard it," says an English judge. He was going at 18»or 20 miles an ! hour, and there were a lot of people- | and traffic about, defendant dodging [ in and out like a swallow flying home. — From the Autocar, Spetember 30, 1898. I A revision has taken place in French , road law. Previously drivers gave way at crossings to cars approaching | from the right. Priority is now given in every case to vehicles on the main. road. Light oil contaiining 33 per cent. petrol is reported to have been discovered in Brunel, British Borneo. A company has persistently searehed for 011 in that district, ( but previously had discovered only he'avy oil in shallow w-ells. Of the 20,000,000 cars in use in the United States it is calculated that 20' per cent. have outlived their avexage of seven years' usefulness. In spite of the increased petrol tax manufacturers were optimistic at the opening of the New York Show recently. They anticipated an improvement in saies figures. That th'e Commonwealth of Australia is rapidly recovering its former prosperity is indieated by the increasing imports of British cars. The number of orders received from this territory by the Morris factory during the first five months of the current season represented an increase of 41 per cent. on the corresponding period of the season preceding. ■ Lubrication of the cyclinder walls of a cold engine does not take place until about 500 revolutions. In the first eilght months of this year approximately 1,120,000 cars were produced in the United States. This compares with 2,022,000 in the corresponding period of 1931. The world consumption of petrolj eum products during 1931 is estimat- | ed a.t 47,666,000,000 gallons, and ' petrol, 'gais and fuel oils represent i iabout 83 per cent. of the total consumption. All motor cycle ruders who cover a lap at Brooklands track at 100 miles | an hour are entitled to a gold star ' presented by the B.M.C.'R. Club. The first gold star was won hy the late H. Le Vack in 1922. Motorists on a coastal road in England were recently held up hy a I iswarm of flies. There were many ispecies among the swarm. They came apparently from the sea, and hy th'e time night fell they had mostly disappeared. During an address- given in Wellington on the economic wastagei as the result of the deterioration of rural roads, Mr. H. F. Togood isaid it appeared that the puhlic and even, perhaps, many membexs of connty councils, had failed to grasp the fact that £5,000,000 invested in road crust had d'isappeaxed in road dust in the last 12 months. This wantage had not been replaced in the ordinary course of maintenanee, and on lPany miles of roadd the deterioration had not been arrested, but was continuing.