MOTOR AND CYCLE

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1916, Page 11

MOTOR AND CYCLE

A'EW ZEALAiVDER'S EXPERIENCES. ''ln my opinion."' said Mr. W. B. Clarkson, of Christ church, who lias returned from a. trip to the Old World, "the time is ripe for New Zealand to embrace a 'good roads movement,' which ■should be operated by a committee of business men, and should be supported by a special tax ou wheeled vehicles and also by a tyre tax, levied through ths Custeius. This mosey should be capitalised and ear-marked foi special uses is Hiking sound arterial roads throughout New Zealand. Such roads would be available for military purposes, and they are absolutely necessary to the interests of a country such as New Zealand." Mr. Clarkson is having a large amount of data on the subject sent to liitn from the United States, where there has been great progress, during the. last few years, is sceintiiic road-building and in the formation of highways traversing the whale of the North American Continent. Some interesting remarks on the motor trade at Heme were also i-i .7'' r> by Mr. Clarkson. "After the war." he said, "the British motor-car manufacturers will lie ready to supply a very large number of m»t»r-cars at prices much lower than they have been in the past. They are seriously considering how they will be able to compete with foreign makers in the world's markets, and they are realising that this can be done only by specialisation and by better organisation than they have had in the past." In illustration of the great increase in manufacturing plants in Great Britain, due to their having been converted, for the period of the war, into munition factories, Mr. Clarkson instanced the works of a motor-car, motor-cycle and cycle manufacturing company at ■Birmingham, which has so greatly increased its factory that it has spent £1,250,000 on tricks and mortar since the war broke out. Another company had spent £200,000 on machinery and plant alone. The French military authorities have decided to replace the young drivers in the French motor transport service by men belonging to the older classes of soldiers.

The French Government in one month disposed of 740 motor trucks, used in the war since August, 1914, at public auction. The trucks were originally fitted with motor-'bus bodies, and were running on the streets of iParis. At mobilisation they were commandeered, and have been used in transporting meat and otlier provisions. New French-made chassis have taken their places, and the Government sold the old trucks. Hereafter all imported trucks will be "run to destruction," and then replaced by domestic product. France announces its intention of using 110 further imported trucks in the war. OILDAG. At last something like the perfect motor lubricant would appear to have struck the market. The product is known as "Oildag." It is the invention of Dr. E. G. Aclieson, and that scientific genius stands on the threshold of a fortune if lie manages the thing correctly. The new lubricant is composed of one cubic inch of solid defloculated graphite mis.'ed with three gallons of ordinary cylinder oil. Tests have been made with three cars which covered an aggregate distance of 42,000 miles, and not one valve had to be ground. The reason is simplicity itself. A small proportion of the graphite is carried out into the exhaust, and a smaller proportion becomes embedded in the surface irregularities of the valves, and has the effect of preventing pitting and maintaining compression. That is to say, the graphite fills up the microscopic irregularities of the steel surface till an absolutely perfect fit is obtained between cylinder and piston, so that practically all oil is wiped down by the piston off the walls of the cylinder at each stroke. Worked out in detail, it proves that three times the distance can be covered with "Oildag" and oil than with ordinary oil unreinforced with the graphite. It is worth while remembering that ordinary graphite is useless for this purpose, as it is too coarse. The defloculated graphite used in the new preparation is 1000 times finer than the ordinary graphite, ao it is obvious that the ordinary mind, unaccustomed to the chemical fineness of things, finds it hard to realise how minute are the particles of graphite used in the new lubricant. But it ie effective. It alse lessens carbonisation owing to the lessening of e;l consumption. "Oildag" is being marketed in tins, the contents of which are intended to be mixed with one. five, ten or fsrtv gallons of ordinary lubricating oil.