CYCLING AND MOTORING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 197, 28 January 1915, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTORING.

The English war authorities now realise the value of the armored motor car , for scouting and other purposes, ami. , are now rushing through the a fleet of powerful armed cars tor use. - at the front. Some of the vehicles ' that have already done good work with the expeditionary forces are veritable armor-plated turrets, the cars weighing unloaded .some four tons. Naturally only high-powered cars are being used. -, The Duke of Westminster—one of the. ■- leading motorists of England—who has v

already rendered conspicuous service at | the front, recently returned to England to take charge of a fleet of armored | motor cars for service in Belgium and 1 France. I.

Users of commercial motor lorries, vans, etc., will be interested to learn that the Dunlop Rubber Co. has just issued, a new solid rubber tyre list, based on the new standard sizes recently adopted by the Enyjish Society of Motor Manufacturers. As only a range of six different sized rims are to be used in the future, it is now necessary that the owners of motor vehicles using solid' tyres should acquaint themselves with the "old" and '"new" sized tyres that can be used on the various rims now fitted to motor lorries, etc. The new Dunlop list covers all this informaton.

Some months ago attention was called in tlie English motoring journals to the fact that certain go-ahead makers in France and Belgium were successfully using aluminium pistons. Very great interest was taken in the news, because it seemed to offer a possible solution of the problem of how to make a light piston without having recourse to very thin material. It is a well-known fact in engineering that, however strong a material may be, there is a limit of thickness below which it is difficult to go. For instance, cast-iron is stronger than aluminium, but if it be reduced so that the piston is really light very considerable manufacturing difficulties I are encountered, as such extraordinary |care has to be taken to ensure that no I one part is cut a shade too fine. On the other hand, with aluminium quite a [ thick piston can be cast, which at the j same time is very light. This is rough- 1 ly the. attraction of aluminium, and - it ] does not apply to pistons only, but to j a number of other parts of the modern motor car. Nevertheless, the work im- j posed on a piston is very different from ' that expected of an aluminium crank chamber or gear box, and it was ima- j gined that there would he many difli- { culties to overcome with an aluminium j piston, particularly in the way of col-1 lapse under heat, possibility of the pis- j ton rings cutting into the grooves of • the relatively soft piston, and of the j gudgeon pin working loose in the gudgeon pin lugs. It was therefore generally assumed that some very special! alloy of aluminium piston was to he made. These aluminium pistons were only to be obtained ir. Trance and Delgium, and the war lias now rendered it impossible for them to be secured. However, in the meantime good reports j of their behaviour have come through ( from various sources, and at least onej manufacturer has standardised tliem, j "":e alloy used is:—Copper 0.30 per [' cent., xinc 2.44, iron .04, silicon .22, j aluminium 00.40; total, 100.00. The I above figures represent a very ordinary j cast aluminium mixture, except that j usually in cast aluminium the ahove proportions of copper and zinc would be reversed. It therefore follows that those who have hesitated to experfofent with aluminium pistons, because they believed that some very special alloy was necessary, need no longer hesitate. There certainly seems to be considerable possibilities in the aluminium piston, for apart from its lightness, 1 it should Ik- cheaper to make than either a light i cast iron or steel pistol. I

It appears that the KN. automobile and small arms factory at Liege was not destroyed when tliat city fell into tlie hands of the Germans, for according to particulars to hand, these fine works are still intact. Numerous tales of heroism are told of both directors and men. The former were called out by tlie Germans, and told to start the factory working for their benefit, hut they refused. They were given five minutes in which to decide* or be shot, and in five minutes these brave men came back and told tlie German officers that they saw no reason why they should alter their decision. Fortunately, the Germans acted as gentlemen, and told them that, though they might be civilians, they were brave men, and their lives would be spared for the time being at anv rate. The men were offered fifty per cent, more wages than they had been 111 the habit of receiving before the war, but to a man they also refused to serve their country's enemies. The directors were then putin prison, but finally let out again. At the present time the works are being used as a barracks for the. German troops.

The English war authorities have decided to form an army cyclist corps as a distinctive branch of their lighting services. The experiences of tlie British forces in France and Belgium during the first three months of the war satisfied the Knglish authorities of the value of the soldier-cyclist, with the result that a new branch of the English Army is to be formed.

Over W.flOO English motorists offered tlie Automobile Association and Motor Union the use of their services and cars for Army military purposes in England. They have been largely used for the conveyance of staff and other officers, the provision of cars to facilitate recruiting, for confidential, military and naval despatch work, for conveying wounded and refugees, and for assisting numerous public departments and organisations.

Tlic annual balance-sheet of tlio Ford Motor Company, of Detroit, appears in Hie 'Motor Age and other motor journals to liand. l\t tile end of the fiscal year, September 30, 1914, the surplus amounted to nearly forty-nine million dollars, «ir approximately "over £9,750,000. This is £-4,000,000 more than the previous voar, and nearly £ 7.000,000 more than that on September 30, 1912. The surplus inehnles 27% million dollars (or £5,550,000) cash in hand and in the banks, an increase of more than 100 per cent, on the amount in hand on September 30, 1912. In three years the total assets of the company have almost trebled, being nearly twenty-one million dollars in 1912 and sixty-one million this year. For the three years the total surplus ig nearly a hundred milion dollars, or £20,000,000. The surplus is one of the biggest among all industrial or manufacturing concerns in the United States, and, according to the Motor Age, is all the more remarkable, because during the last nine months of the flscal year, since January last, the profit-sharing system lias been in operation at the Ford plant, affecting about 52% per cent, of the employees, and meaning about £2,000,000 taken out of the company's profits. During the twelve months ended September 30, the company, built and shipped *bout 260 000 cars, a large increase on last ve 3. figures, in spite of the war. Thou/h cost of labor and of materials "'s is con-

tnually rising, the Method of working tnroug'li tli« i'C'-il system appears to iv so edicicnt and so economical that the company can afford to reduce the price of cars very materially. Quite apart from the merits or demerits of the Ford car itself, the whole business is quite one of tlie wonders of the. age—a perfect triumph of organisation in industry. ' Despite the early statements audit the "total destruction" of the .Minerva factory at Antwerp, Belgium, the plan; has not been damaged, and is at present doing excellent service as a repair shop ' for the German motor truck detach- . ments. Even new complete ears and ■/trucks are reported to be issuing from I'the factory. The story is related that '.on the plans furnished to the Germans | prior to the bombardment, the Minerva [ factory location was indicated, and the 1.28-c.m. mortars carefully refrained from i; sending any of their huge shells into J the plant. "Minerva alive was evidently .'better than -Minerva in ruins.

A new motor fuel, which seems to I have possibilities, is being tried in I America. A number of Indianopolis I manufacturers are interested in the new fuel, which is said to be made by a distillation process from a number of secret chemicals, though water and I iiapthalene, of which moth balls are , made, are known to be its principal constituents. The claim is made that it i can be manufactured at a cost of 2 'cents per gallon, and it is expected to j sell in quantities at G cents per gallon. Tile mileage per gallon seems to be ■, about equal to that of ordinary petrol, j and no harmful effects are to be noticed '. in engines using the new fuel, which J has been christeend Zoline. i ===—_