MOTORING AND CYCLING.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1917, Page 7

MOTORING AND CYCLING.

J.TSWS AND NOTI& The American Government Is already buying up motor cars by tie thousand for use with its contingent in tile fighting line in Prance. All the large ear manufacturers have been asked to subnut prices according to a set schedule as regards chas, power and price. Already the U.S.A. haa purchased 4000 cars from one maker, 2000 from another, and 1000 of another make, all touring cars. The five per cent, war tax levied on all cars sold in the United States has been amended to a degree. This tax is now to be only collected from manufacturers who show a profit more than £IOOO in excess of eight per cent, on their capital. In Detroit aJone, 214,500 cars were delivered by six factories only since April 6 (when the tax came into, operation) till May 20, of a total value of £ 72,400,000. The tax on, this output alone reached £3,620,000, equal to , i £l7 per ear. This war tax means a pertain increase, in the selling price, of American cars in this country. Passenger cars, motor trucks and even way yet be propelled by heavy | oil, high compression engines such as the DieaaV In fact, an engine of this type already- has been constructed in Germany, and has given one horsepower for every 341h$ of weight. There is such a shortage of new cars in America juat now that even secondhard "Fotfa'< in good cojjditioa are being readily bought up at nearly their original selling figure. Premiums are toeing paid in many instances for delivery Of new caw. Judging by a statement made by an important. English official in the Ministry Mji&itkm, wo mm are now capable doing veil nigh every class of Work iA tjw production of aerial engines, The fact that there will be a grew re-, serve of s*kilM la>or fyr motor work after the war points to the fact that the British industry will ,be in a position to produce cars on, a very much greater 'scale than heretofore.

Very few motorists appear to realise that prolonged; exposure of rubber to sunlight has a deteriorating actiofi on, rubber by reason of the slow chemical action oa the complex structure of t'he rubber which takes place. This i 3 the reason why motorists should always carry their "apaFV fitted with a light and air proof cover. When rubber is in constant movement, says the Dunlop Rubber Company, it help 3 to prevent deterioration, and that is the reason why a tyre that is in use shows less effect of perishing than a, cover strapped on to. - the side of a cox.

Two types of wotor-cycles are extensively used on the Western war front, viz., the low powered light weight lor despatch ridara'and the big heavy powered models for machine gun and aide-car work. It has been found that the heavy 8 or ? h.p. machine is unsuitable and, unnecessary for despatch work. In a day's >work the despatch rider may be compelled to lift his machine or pull it out of, dishes, shell holes, etc., dozens of time* and. it did not take long for .the military authorities; to drop ithe heavy 300-pounder for the lighter and; easier handled usaall twin, or single cylinder 3-h,p, engine. On moat of the heavier outfits a sfare wheel is now carried as the machine gun crews have no time for roadside tyre repairs, While there is. no real solvent for cajboo, save heating metal to a considerable. degree, there are several liquids which tend toward the removal of carbon 'deposit beeause they soften and dissolve the gummy oil which acts: as a binder and holds the accumulated particles of carbon in a compact, almost solid mass. About the most efficacious of these la strong acetic acid: This liquid, of course, cannot bo used in, the motor. ■For removing the last, trace; of deposit ftpm fouled sparking plugs, however, it leaves little to- be desired. The treatment should be followed by soaking the plug in petrol a,nd then drying them og to remove moisture.

The most- unusual use to. which the motor-cycle has been adopted in Anwrica is that of patrolling the orange and lemon districts of southern California to protect tkera against frost injury. The growers uso crude-oil heaters to warm up tjie fruit in the groves whenever the temperature drops to thirty degrees or less during the winter nights, and in order to- know when to begin lighting theif heaters the fruit men maintain a squad- of motor-cyclists to read- ther■mometers for them. In this district there are one hundred and thirty-six Government thermometers. These* are located: oil telephone poles, trees* and posts at the roadside in all the low spot* of the valley. The object of locating them m this manner is to oatch the temperature of the coldest places; There are seven raotor-cycTe patrolmen on the 'list. They draw £1 per night and are used only on the cold nights. Each man has about twelve square miles to cover every hour. In that time he must visit from fifteen to twenty-one thermometers at remote spots in the coun-, try, list the number of the thermometer and register its. temperature on a card. 'He is supposed to make the rounds every hour. Hi' a. ridcr ; in making the rounds, 'finds the temperature at thirty degrees or below that, he goes to the nearest 'house* and reports, to %e secretary of j the Frost Protective Association. The' secretary then instructs the central girl a* the telephone office to call all of the ranchers out «f bed and notify them to "iighi up. The system has been worked out so- nicely that every fruit grower in ■the district—and there are nearly a thousand of them—can be notified within, an hour. The motor-cycle riders are, to n. peat, extent, responsible for the safety of a fruit crop worth nearly a million sterling per year to this valley. -