CYCLING AND MOTORING.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1916, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTORING.

NEWS AND NOTES. ' Pew people have even a faint idea of what a tremendous industry the, pneumatic tyre business lias developed into since tile romantic invention of the Dunlop tyre by Mr. J. B. Dunlop, the Belfast veterinary surgeon, in 1888. The influence of the pneumatic tyre lias in turn made cycling and motoring possible in every civilised part of the globe. The capital of the original Dunlop Co. was £15,000. lii six years .-€3,000,000 in cash war offered for the English business. Tho company started with six workmen. The English firm alone has now nearly 30,000 engaged, whilst millions of men and women are now employed throughout the world in the making of pneumatics. To-day the tyre •industry is one of the greatest in the world, America alone producing at the rate of over £70,000,000 worth a year, whilst the world's output is estimated to reach £130,000,01)0 per annum, all attributable to the fact t'hat J. B. Dunloo built up an air-contained rubber tyre for his son's bicycle with a view to reducing vibration on tho rough roads. The rapidly-increasing use of internal combustion engines in all types of selfpropelled vehicles, in motor boats as well | as in the numerous stationary power aphas resulted in a scarcity of petrol which has not been a serious factor to consider until this year. As a result of the increasing price, numerous suggestions have been made that kerosene be used as-a substitute fuel. A number of devices are -offered for vaporising kerosene, and many claims are made by the promoters for these that are not always thoroughly borne out in practice. While kerosene is fairly plentiful, its physical properties are such as to render it a poor substitute for petrol with existing carburetters and engine design. The main drawback is that kerosene is much less volatile than petrol, and must be raised above atmospheric temperature before it will vaporise readily. This Tack of the property of quick evaporation, which has been the greatest advantage of petrol, not only interferes with rapid Totalisation, but makes kerosene a ''smelly'' fuel to handle. Kerosene, however, has marked advantages which will appeal to the user of internal combustion engines more when entirely suitable devices ai'e evolved for gasifying it successfully. The big advantage at the present time is the relative cheapness, the cost beitig somewhat less than one-half tiie present price of petrol. At the present time many oi the world's ablest automobile engineers are experimenting with the object of devising workable carburetters for use with kerosene. It i 3 only a mutter of time when the difficulty will be overcome; in fact it must lie, in the face of the serious pertol situation, that now looms ahead of motorists the world over. It is stated that some 4000 motor lorries were used in the French defence of; Verdun. When it became apparent that a great assault was to be made upon this important point, the French commander realising the inadequacy of the railway communication, organised a complete system of motor transport, for the purpose of which roads were completely closed to other traffic. The above-men-tioned fleet of motors carried out the special duties of supplying the Verdun armies with munitions and reserves. These motor-lorries, running each about 100 miles a day, maintained a constant and reliable'llow of supplies for the divisions at the front, and also for the auxiliary services suc-h as those of the engineers and of the medical staff. The special British correspondent with the French armies wrote that never had the value of motor transport been more brilliantly demonstrated. On, the average about 2GOO lorries serving Verdun passed each day in either direction. One may visualise the resultant muddle had these machines not been in a high degree reliable. A remarkable 1200 miles motor-car journey has been successfully, carried through across North Africa. A French motorist, 31. Garennc, drove from Tunis to Casablanca in 7 days f> hours. This is the first occasion upon which a motorcar has negotiated tills part of Africa. Some prophecies of the future motorcars:—Longer stroke engines; increased use of aluminium in engine construction; light steel pressings in place of wrought steel; smaller engines; lighter cars; enclosed springs; overhead valves; detachable cylinder tops; aluminium pistons; lighter valves and weaker valve springs; four speeds instead of three; reduction of unsprung weight; electric starters and electric light standard practice; lighter body work; mechanical tyre inllators; unit construction of engine and gearbox; more 'scientific use of metals. From time to time one hears of the wonderful organisation at the immense Ford motor-car works in Detroit, U.S.A. At times people are sceptical of the stories that are told of the Ford plant. A recent Australian visitor to these works, Mr. W. J. 'Proctor, general manager of the Dunlop Rubber Co., bears out in many respects the reports of the up-to-dateness of this immense organisation which is now turning out cars at the rate of over 1500 a day. One of the most spectacular displays at the Ford works, says Mr. Proctor, is the gigantic conveyor upon which the cars are assembled. Hundreds of workmen are stationed along this moving workshop, each man having only one task to carry .out, First tho chassis is dumped in on to supports on the conveyor.. At a speed of about four feet a minute, the conveyor moves through a lane of workmen, the engine is placed in its frame, and the mechanics attend to so many bolts and nuts. It moves away to the next group. Wheels are slipped on, and thus it proceeds for about half a mile until the completely assembled car, greased and oiled, glides ofl! under its own power into the testing yards. A continuous stream of cars is thus passing in front of a small army of workmen, every unit doing his own work, which he keeps on repeating as the next car passes along. No man must miss his appointed task, nor must he delay, otherwise the clockwork system of assembling would be deranged. To avoid any trouble in case of accidents, deputy workmen stand ready, to take any placa thus rendered vacant. One complete car is delivered off the conveyor every minute. Several other big American car manufacturers, including the Overland, have also adopted the same system of assembling.