MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1917, Page 8

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

A now type of mobile army camp kitchen, wliioJi will serve throe hot meals a i.lay to a battalion of 2(100 men and will provide enough coffee for 100 men every 10 minutes lias been devised in America. At a recent demonstration 1750 men of tlio 1.02 nd Regiment of infantry were fed in less 1 linn an hour. This is probably the •first successful steam cooking unit on wheels and by its u«e two cooks displace -20 camp kitchen units, which require S!) men and 40 horses for operation. Th» whole cooking unit is mounted on a. 'l-ton motor vehicle, which is capable of a speed of 15 miles p.h. under favorable conditions. The outfit is designed to move Willi or ahead of a battalion on the march. Meals are cooked, on tbo road and when the men halt the hot food is ready. The Ford motor works are ■.arrying out a U.S. Government order for -iOO.iiO'.i aero, engine, cylinders, and thes» are : being delivered at the rate of .WOO f< r day. The production of standardised aeroplane! parts is proceeding at a trcmeadows pace in numerous American factories, and it is fully expected that hefore the end of the year 100,000 complete machines will lie delivered to UnAmerican front. To this gigantic total, of course, has to be added the intensified liritish and French production running into tens of thousands.

According to reports from Mexico further large petroleum deposits liar; recently been discovered in that country. .Surface indications point to many square miles of oil bearing territory. '.Mexico already produces a huge quantity of oil as may be judged from the fact that for tile first six months of this year 22.140. ■ STli barrels of petroleum ■were exported from that country.

Petrol is now sellinsr at 4s per gallon in England, when you can get it. Under these conditions the use of coal gas for private vehicles is making great strides at- home. At present, the chief difficulty with the use of this fu<>l is the business of the bag containers, but experiments are being conducted with a view to making practical light tanks or cylinders capable of holding compressed gas. If it were not for the trouble of carrying the gas, it would quickly ' supersede 'petrol, as 1000 cubic feet only costs about .'is and it will do the work of about four gallons of petrol costing 10s. A French writer tells how worn-out motor lorries from the war front arc treated. When the sections of wornout lorries are discharged from, the railroad trucks, each engine is relieved of its carburettor and magneto. These two parts are examined and tested and then put in the store. The lorries are only operated on when a suflicient number of one make and type have 'been secured to allow a series to go through the shops together.. Then they are completely striped, engine, gearbox, rear .'axle, front axle, steering and springs being taken down, leaving but the bare members These are examined for any possible defects or loose rivets, then stored on adjustable metal trestles, about six frames superimposed, but so arranged that each one can be taken out without disturbing the others. Meanwhile the units go into their respective shops for dismounting, examination and repair. When the engine is re-assembled it receives u tested magneto, and carburettor from the stores,, and passes through to the bench test, where it is Inn under load for a few hours. On coming out it. is, practically as good as new. Then follows the re-assembly of the.units in the same frame members, followed by a road test, the fitting of the original body.' which has been repaired and painted while the mechanical work has been going through. If, is in the repair shops, that the value of uniformity is most apparent, for, obviously, if only one type bad to be dealt with, and all parts were interchangeable, there would be no necessity to see that the original engine, garbox axle got together again. Unfortunately there are too many makes and too many types among the makes to allow interchangeability to be carried on to anv great extent.

A novel and interesting recording* device has lieen patented in America which will interest the. cartful njotorist who is keen on knowing how much, service, in terms of miles, he is (jetting from each of hi* lyres, his petrol, his lubricating oil ami so on. The new instrument is not much larger tlnm (he ordinary recording speedometer but there is contained in it. in addition to means for indicating the speed at any given moment and means for recording the mileage of any given trip, as well as tile total mileage, means whereby the mileage of each tyre is recorded and also for recording the number of gallons of petrol and oil consumed in the mileage travelled. Furthermore, there are moans whereby warning of the necessary adjustments, such as oilini', cleaning and repairing, required after driving 300 miles, and 1000 mib's. will be recorded on .separate recording instrumentalities. In brief, there are contained in the instrument twelve distinct and independently-operating recording devices. Six of these are set apart for recording the mileage covered by each cover fitted on car, and for two spares, provision being made for cutting out the recording slip of any cover, and bring into operation the talbjf of the spare tyre when substituted. The device'for checking oil and petrol supplies is onemte'd bv h<>n<i >.'•- -'icording discs '.covering quarts and gallons, being turn\fA every, time. .These peeessitieo »<">

I emptied into tanks, etc The outfit is 'protected from unauthorised tampering by a lock. The meter is power driven in the same manner ns the ordinary speedometer. A lug battleplane lias been recently constructed for the. British admiralty by Mr. llandlcy Pago nnd, while not as large as the huge 1200 horse-power Curtiss triplane delivered to the admiralty, is still of considerable size. It has a span of about OS feet, a length of ft) feet, and a height of 2ft feet. Seats are provided for five people, nnd moimtings are available for three Lewis guns. The craft is propelled by two 12-eyHnder Rolls-Royce motors of 231) horse-power. During a recent tight thW battleplane carried 20 passengers and pilot to a height of TISO feet. The fjiiestion of smoking in relation to petrol lire;; is seldom understood, even by those who are daily handling cars and motor cycles. At least a bright red heat is necessary to ignite petrol, and a cigarette is therefore safe enough, while a pipe is hardly less so. The danger with both of these is probably that if an owner gets into the habit of'smoking while at work on (he car he will very easily go further and strike a match. Smoking and lighting-up close to a ear in the open is safe, as a rule, but in the garage it is certainly to he condemned. A thoughtless proceeding which has l"d to the desl ruction of mnnv ears is filling up with petrol by the light of an oil lamp. Petrol in the tank itself is not so easy to ignite in this way, but the stream leaving the tin ninny catch, nnd unless this is instantly smothered the only thing to do is to (ling the can away from the car where it can do least harm. An empty tank is always dangerous, from the probability that enough petrol will remain in the form of vapor to provide an explosive mixture, nnd if soldering work is to bo done, the only safe method is to fill the empty tank with water and drain it dry before corameneiaa work