CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4, 9 May 1913, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

A signal device for use on motor cars in traffic has been patented in America, and it is so connected with tli© brake mechanism that tiie signal is operated when the brake mechanism is manipulated to set the brakes, so that a motor car from the rear will

be warned when the car in advance applies its brakes to reduce its speed

or stop, thus preventing rear end collisions.

According to figures which have just been issued by the German Government, 120 motor road trains have been subsidised for the year 1913 by the Kingdom of Prussia, and 15 by Bavaria. This number, added to the 690, which were under the control of the Government in 1912, makes a total of 825 of these motor vehicles at the disposal of the German militarv authorities in case of war.

Someone with a predilection for statistics has figured out that in Great Britain alone about 1,600,000,000 miles are covered annually by all sorts of vehicles, including motor ears. Dining the past year 750 persons were killed by vehicle traffic, that is to say, one person for every 2,133,333 miles. Motor vehicles to the number of 50,000 covered approximately 300,000,000 miles and killed 200 people or one person for every 1,500,000 miles.

The revival of .lector car racing in England must be attributed to a desire on the part of many owners and some manufacturers to ascertain such information as is not afforded by tests on the Brooklands Taring track. The strains on a car that is being tested on the road differ in vital respects from those experienced on the track; new facts are to be learned as regards questions of springing, break-ing-power, bill-climbing, and acceleration. Hence it is not surprising that the R.A.C. should have again turned a longing eye to the Isle of Man where the authorities are kind enough to establish for motorists what is practically a private road lor the time being. There has been an outcry in England owing to the number of accidents to cyclists and others through motorists using such dazzling headlights, and the subject is now engaging the attention of the London authorities, who have made arrangements for a series of experiments to be conducted it the National Physical Laboratory with the view of ascertaining what steps can be taken to remedy the evil by new regulations. The problem is not going to be an easy one to solve, for it is-practically'impossible to fix' and w 'definite ’ standard of illuminating power, as there can be no uniformity in lighting unless- there can also be .uniformity_ in speed and eyesight; Something may possibly be done with regard to the , disposition yar, or the adoption of some device for reducing the glafe of headlights when meeting another vehicle. In addition to paying a fine of £2O, in American v ‘Scorchei l( ’ has been compelled to sign the following pledge: —“I solemnly promise this honorable ■part not tobfrtocjhjsit upon’, ride in, n- manipulate any automobile or motor-cycle in' tliC city :<>fl ( Chicago during the next twelve months.” The defendant in question isi said to have kept the court very active for several months past ; hence the drastic form which his punishment assumes. The pledge and its. consequences-are novel, for it even precludes ■ the “scorcher” from riding in a taxi. The wonderful strides made in the advance and use of the motor car in the Commonwealth are, according to official figures from New Zealand, also being repeated in the Dominion. The motor car progression in New Zealand is told in the following figures, giving their car importations fin voiced prices, only) for the past ten years:—l9o3, £16,598; 1904, £25,U 1 • 1905, 48,913; 1906, £79,821; 1907, £192,110; 1908, £249,929; 1909, £182.257; 1910, £293,015; 1911, £567,452; 1912, £776,670.