MOTOR AND CYCLE..

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1917, Page 6

MOTOR AND CYCLE..

NEWS AisD XOTES. Sectional motor rear bodies. —Of importance to car manufacturers and owners alike is the development of an automobile body which is biiilt in sections and held together by a few 'bolts. The novel invention is of particular value at the present time when the shortage of freight is acute, for the sectional body may be packed for shipment in a case no larger than 'that required for a chassis. The saving that such an improvement means to builders of motor cas and shippers should run into huge figures if the device is adopted to any great extent. The invention U the work of a South African, Mr. Robert Booth, of Johannesburg, who was engaged in the shipping business and was impressed by

the cumbersome form and size of car bodies packed for shipment. For several years 'he worked upon a type of body

that could be assembled and knocked down and finally .succeeded in building one composed of panels almost flat. The sectional body was given a thorough tsst in England and was mounted upon a chassis that travelled a thousand utiles over all kinds of roads .without working loose at the joints. 'So tightening'of the bolts was required, and no squeak or rattling noises indicated any tendency to "work apart under the vertical and lateral movements of the motor car. The body rendered as good service as if it were in one piece, and there was nothing in its appearance to indicate thajj it was not a standard body. The joints are all covered by beading, and the lines are as graceful as those of any modern car. Of course the principle of building the body in sections can be applied to almost any model now in use. The body is mounted upon continuous runners or sills which afford this' advantage, that the assembled body is a unit apart from the chassis and great additional strength is obtained thereby. The further advantage of the body sills is that the rear seat of the car with its side panels and doors can be removed as a unit, so that a four-passenger machine can be converted into a single seated bodyjn a foiv* minutes. A metal boot can be substituted, or for commercial purposes a light delivery body can be placed 'behind the driver's seat. A .point of consider \ble merit to the car owner is the fact llst a body built in sections is easily repaired in case of collision or other accid-. ent. If an ordinary one-piece body is badly dented, it is an expensive and tedious job to repair it, while the sectional body allows for speedy replacement of the panels at a low cost. The assembling of an entire body requires only about half an hour for a couple of men, while

the removal of the rear seat or one of its panels is the work of a few minutes. The panels are easily removed; because it> is only necessary to turn back flaps of the upholstery to reveal the bolts that join the parts. Aside from the compactness of this body for shipping, the fact that it may be stored in very small space is a decided advantage to the dealer or distributing agent for cars, a? it makes an excessively large storage warehouse unnecessary. The saving in manufacture, shipping and storage should I eventually benefit the car buyer, as it will result in substantial lowering of the cost of production. The body will pack into a case six feet by five feet by 26 inches with a contents of 66 cu'ble feet, wh\Je the same body, a four-passenger model, if built in one piece would require more than 166 cubic feet of spaco when packed for shipment. The saving of 100 cubic feet in shipping a single body is a matter of importance at a time when ships are so desperately needed. When this saving is multiplied by the inumber of cars shipped annually, the figures are staggering, and the revolutionary possibilities of this invention are realised. Now that an embargo is to be placed .on imported car bodies, some of our enterprising body builders could with advantage get into touch with Mr. Booth with a view to building and standardising this type of body for Australasian use. It 'ha9 many features that are specially suited to this part of the world. A huge British aeroplane in a recent

test carried a ' pilot and twenty passengers to a height of 7000 feet. This machine, it is understood, is to be equipped with six machine guns and 1500 pounds of bombs —a veritable dreadnought of the air. It is typical of the big machines which the British and .French are now building ostensibly for the purpose of carrying on raids deep

into German territory as an answer to the Zeppelin and aeroplane depredations. In connection with the Allies fighting aeroplanes, it is interesting to note that the French, have now perfected a system which enables a machine gun to fire through a hollow propeller shaft. Instead of firing through the propeller, as ia usually the or firing above the swoop of the propellor, the latest French aeroplanes are equipped with a Lewis aeroplane gun rigidly mounted between the cylinders of a V-type 180-horsepower Hispano Suiza motor, which fires through a geared-down hollow propeller shaft.

To those familiar with the drawbacks of firing through the propeller or above it the .present motion is at once appreciated because, after all, it is the simplest and the best solution of the practice.

The second largest automp'bile plant in the United States uses 5,000,000 pounds of transmission grease, and 3,000,000 pounds of cup grease each year, in assembly of its motor can. It would be interesting to see the "Ford" figures for the same items