CYCLE AND MOTOR NOTES

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 31, 5 February 1913, Page 7

CYCLE AND MOTOR NOTES

A HANDY ATTACHMENT. A acuum cleaning attachment foi automobiles has recently been invented. It is operated by the exhaust gases from the engine by peeing them through a suitably designed nozzle and vacuum chamber. The principle of operation may be likened to that of the injector as used with the steam boiler. The exhaust gases create a suction in the hose as they leave the nozzle and pass the opening in the vacuum chamber. Any dirt or dust will be picked up by the cleaning tool or brush, and discharged to the atmosphere through the exhaust tube. The device is installed on the car in the same manner and place as the ordinary muffler cut-out valve. This is accomplished simply by cutting out a short section of the exharist pipe ahead of the muffler. The invention renders it possible to finish a long day’s run over dusty roads clean and free from dust. Clothes as well as the car can be cleaned. NEW CRANKING HANDLE. A novel type of automobile cranking handle, in which the danger of a “kick” is materially reduced, has just been put on the American market. The device consists of a folding handle, which, when released by the hand, or torn from its grip by a “backfire,” jumps into the same plane as the cranking arm, thereby reducing the width of the “danger zone” to one inch, instead of the five inches swept by the rigid handle. The power needed to throw the handle out of tire way is furnished by a stiff spring. RECORD BREAKING. There are likely to bo two separate attempts to reduce Mr G. G. White’s Sydney-Melbourne motor car records during February. The existing record is 19 hours 47 minutes. The motorists referred to are Mr Allan Doone (40 h.p. National), and Mr D. Campbell (40 h.p. Vinot). THE “BOOM” PERIOD. ! Motor cars have had their “boom,” which will reverberate for many a day to come; motor cycles have had their boom; the commercial is in course of having its boom; the agricultural motor is showing signs of the approach of a boom. There is one class of vehicle which has not yet begun to boom —the cycle car—and the recent successful exhibition in London, following so soon on the motor show, tends to indicate, says “The Car” (Eng.), that the small car is about to have its boom, which, when once it is started, will probably bo far in excess of most of the others. There are many thousands—indeed, tens of thousands , —of people to whom the acquisition of a rnbtor car may seem not attainable, Alio nevertheless will not hesitate to purchase a cycle car, and find great pleasure in its use. And as there can be no doubt now that such cycle, cars of light weight and of small price can be supplied to the public, with certainty that they will be found efficient and seasonably durable, it may be held to be certain that there will be a .brisk and ever increasing market. Just as the motor car has reduced the horse carriage to a minute percentage of the number of vehicles of that class on the road, the gig, the small pony roundabout, the governess tub will disappear, and power vehicles to hold two or three will take their place. This will go a long way to the final practical removal of the horse from the streets, and also in a measure from the roads. The classes of society which hitherto have not been able to use power-vehicles will soon supply themselves when they can do so with cycle cars, which will enable them to cover longer distances with less trouble and at no greater expense than when they had to provide for the keeping of a horse or pony. There is every prospect that this change will proceed rapidly. Example will be given by some, and others will follow in an ever increasing stream. The country road will be changed as regards the traffic on it, just as the town traffic is already practically a motor traffic as regards passenger vehicles, whether public or private, and is rapidly becoming a motor traffic as regards commercial vehicles. One very important result of the vast change which is now proceeding, and of which the cycle car boom will be the culmination, will be the almost immeasureable improvement (in the sanitation of our streets which must follow. REPLACING PETROL. The English Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has voted a sum of 2000 guineas to be awarded as a prize for a home produced fuel to replace petrol. It is anticipated that valuable results will accrue from the offering of this handsome prize. Experiments arc likely to resolve themselves mainly into the cheap production of benzol from coal slack. Already large quantities of this fuel are being used successfully in England and France, and there is little doubt that the 2000 guineas prize now offered will encourage English owners of coal mines, coke ovens, etc., to develop ream very plants for the cheap production of benzol. STARTL I NG STA TISTICS. Recently compiled statistics rov that there were at the end of last year in Great Britain, 320,119 motor vehicles of every t'escription, as against 260,258 for the previous 12 in mtl ;■ The progress of motoring for the par i twelve months in that country i therefore represented by the substantial increase of 53,861. motor vebHrr. During the same period, 81,280,750 gallons of petrol, valued at £‘2,129,071 were imported.