THE MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1915, Page 11

THE MOTOR AND CYCLE.

NEWS 'AND NOTES. The amount of money spent annually on motoring in the United States is almost incredible. To start with, the number of ears registered there reached the 2,000,000 mark on June 1, 1915. Figuring on an average of four persons utilising each car—which is a conservative estimate —there are 8,000,000 people in the United States who enjoy motoring. What it costs to follow motoring up is of interest, and the figures stupendous. To run 2,000,000 cars for one year requires at the very least over one billion gallons of motor spirit, worth £26,000,000; lubricating oil, £1,600,000; the tyres required totalled 12,000,000, valued at £58,400,000; accessories, etc., £20,000,000; garage, repairs, replacements, etc., £00,000,000; making a total running cost of £140,000,000. If the cost of the 000,000 new cars sold during the year, taking tliem at an average price of only £l5O eactlj., is reckoned, then another £90,000,000 less has to be added to tha above amount spent on motoring in America (Turing the past year, making up the immense total of £236,000,000. These figures arc pounds, not dollars, and are compiled and .vouched for by the Scientific American. Even discounting the huge sum by 50 per cent., there still remains a total amount that is astounding, especially when one considers that the American automobile industry i 3 only a little over a decade old.

An extraordinary increase in the number of motor-ears made has chad a-pecu> liar influence upon the artificial leather industry. While not so long ago "artificial!" leathe" was marketed under names suggesting leather, and as a sort of apology for the real thing, its extensive use in motor-body upholstering has caused the manufacturer to openly boast rf the fact that their product is artificial. The reason for this change of heart is found in the custom of some upholstery makers of "splitting" the cowhides into several thicknesses, each of which is used as "leather." And the good service which the new water-tight materials give is gradually working a fhange in the motoring public, to the extent that many people deliberately ask for "artificial leather" tops and covers.

As in majiy other things connected with the war, Germany's exactness and preparation is first in the field to solve the problem of the used '"war-car" which looms threatening in the distance. Great Britain and Franco realise the seriousness of the matter, but so far have not taken any action to control it. Germany, however, has ulready ••r.ade preparations to handle the ieTirata situ-j ation effectively, the moment the war stoj>s. A company has been formed !n •which the Government and the motorcar manufacturers are interested, which company will take over all the cars lued in the war which are capable oi repair. They will be put in first-class running condition, and then offered to the public at a reasonable price. 1 Only one-third of the total will be placed on the marxc.i in the first year, one-third in the second year, and the remainder in the third year. In the meantime manufacturers' of new cars will be able to introduce their product knowing exactly how many cars, and of what price and condition, will be offered in the second-hand market during a certain time, and can plan their manufacturing and sales campaign accordingly. If, for instance, a certain type of car is especially numerous in the used-car field, manufacturers will "go - " light" on that type. By such means it is Ihoped to control the situation, and prevent a flood of poor used cars at ridiculously low prices.

The announcement is authoritatively made that Henry Ford, the designer and manufacturer of the well-known Ford car, which is being turned out at the rate of over a thousand a day, has practically perfected a motor tractor, upon which he has been working' for a long time, and that within a few years he expects to develop an immense new plant at Dearborn, Michigan, where these machines will be 'built. .Nothing in the way of details nor of the character of this tractor has yet been given out; but the inventor saja that it will be of worldwide importance in reducing the labor of tilling the soil and doing the heavy work on the farm, with a corresponding effect in reducing the cost of food. It will take ten years to fully develop the new plant, where ultimately he expects to make all the new motors required for both his automobiles and tractors, all the iron work being done here. "ir. Ford has acquired over 2000 acres' of land at the new site, and of this the new works will occupy about 600 acres, or nearly one square mile. On a portion of the remaining property a new town will be provided for, to accommodate the employees.

Of all the puzzling problems motorists have to face, none is more confusing than carbon deposit. Barring mechanical troubles, faulty (-arbitration and ignition. carbon deposit from lubricating oil may be summed up as follows:—Carbon deposit is caused' by excess lubricating oil burning in the combustion chambers. IPrevent the presence of excess oil, and you avoid undue carbon in your combustion chambers. In some motors the piston stroke will, by suction, draw u light oil too freely to the pistol heads. In other motors a heavy oil will work r» the piston heads. In either case excess carbon will lie deposited. The remedy is obvious. Keep ex: ess oil from you* combustion chambers by using an oil whose body and quality fit the mechanical conditions of your motor. Most motorists are of the opinion that any lubricating oil will suffice, as long as the. quality is right, but it is not so, for every engine requires an oil especially suited to its own mechanical conditions, of these is that the pneumatic tyre is, even in these advanced days, a most vulnerable object for the puncture fiend to attack. With this fallacy ever before them, inventors (very often without knowledge of mechanical ana pjyshtal laws) still exercise their ingenuity, and, as a result, the puncturc-proot' tyre would appear to he invented on the average about once a week, and. apparently, so long as the use of compressed air forms the basic principle of the pneumatic tyre, inventors will continue to produce what is, in their opinion, the one and only perfect non-puncturing tyre, which, nevertheless, usually fails to displace the ordinary standard tyre. What the average inventor of these tyres fails to realise is that t?he steady improvement in the pneumatic tyre which 'has been in progress in recent years, has, in effect, rendered actual puncture troubles negligible under fail conditions of tyre usage. This assumes

tliat the tyre used is of a size and quality equal to worlf expected of it. If a tyre tie overloaded, it will be prone to puncture, if nothing worse happens, although, even in this case the risk is nothing greater than a sporting one, as the users of humorous under-tyrel cars must be aware of. It ia difficult to estimate what proportion of tyre troubles to-day are due to actual penetration of the tube by the two commonest ioTms of puncturing medium met with, namely, nails and flints; ,but it can hardly be an appreciable figure, such as it was in the old days. It would probably be found that the vast majority of such troubles as are actually due to direct injury to the tuhe are traceable to carelessness in fitting the tube, which results in nips and bursts, and as long as an air tube must be U3ed it seems in* possible to make it proof against careless usage and neglect. With an ample thickness of rubber, such as is on the tread o'f a Dunlop cover, it must be admitted that for all-round practical purposes the modern cover is punctureproof. This means that,,on the aver&ge, about 2000 miles should ibe covered /before the exceptional puncture occurs.