MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1918, Page 7

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

- NEWS AND NOTES. A strange story conies from America relative to the well-known German racing cyclist, Walter Rutt—who some 12 years back raced with considerable success in Australia, and more recently has earr;ed oft' some of the biggest events m America, including three -New i'or''six days" races- It appears that for many months last year the French lines were Ireqai i.tly v ; sited by an enemy aviator, known as the ''Grey Ghns't/' whose daiing raids on the Western front caused much comment in the military c.u-ps. At last the identity of the "Grey Gliosi" has been unmasked and found to be ncne other than our onetime visiter, Walter Rutt. The news of Rutt's death was cabled to America in November last. A letter from a member of the American ambulance unit in France, written before Rutt was brought to earth, gives the following interesting details of'the German's luetics. ''We have a peculiar—not to say weird— thing on this front- There is a German aviator here who calls himself "Fantomas" or the ghost. His name is Walter Rutt, and he used to be a cycle rider in the six-day races in New York. Well, It appears from the notes that he has dropped that he has had three- brothers killed in the war, and to avenge them he has adopted the plan of strafing the French from an aeroplane. He never fights other planes or makes observations, but just flies over the French lines at a height varying from 30 to 400 feet, and everything .he sees, even one poilu or waggon or auto lie dives at it, banging away with, his machine gunHe attacks sentinel posts and supply trains, and once or twice he has even shot into aviation camps, winning a unique place as a dangerous pilot. You have no idea of the amount of damage he does. He. certainly has the respect of the Frenchmen here in this sector, where he (lies almost exclusively. He borers around all day long, and although he has been shot at with machine guns, rifles, and anti-aircraft guns he never seems to be touched. It certainly is mysterious, because he often comes close enough for us to hit him with a stone. It wa3 he who dropped the warning about the hospital being bombed, about which I told you in my last letter."

" For some time past there lias been considerable rivalry amongst Victorian motor-cycle speedmen. as to who would be the lirst motor delist to negotiate a mile with touring side-ear outfit in under a minute The fact was officially accomplished recently at the monthly competitions of the Victorian Motor-cycle Club- The, honor of being the first man to do over "sixty" for the mile, fell to Mr. W. S." Clu/rke on a Dunlop-shod 7 h.p. Excelsior. Considering that MrClarke weighs 11$ stone, his passenger eight stone, and his touring outfit 4'/, cwt„ or a total of about 7701bs for passengers and machine, the. performance was certainly a good one. The ride was established in competition on the fine stretch of road near Werribw, 20 miles from Melbourne.

One often hears the statement made that one outstanding feature of British cars is that they are built to last. As a striking commentary on this practice, as distant from American manufacturing' methods, we may quote, what the Horseloss Age, of America, gives as the second hand values of used cars- One built in 1913, we are informed, is only worth what it can be sold for as old metal! A £2OO car built in 1916 is worth ,COO to .£B4. For a 1915 model, £4O to ;C72 is the value, and so on down the scale to 1913, wdien it is scrap metal. Just for the sake of comparison we may point out that the mod. representative British light car, tho Singeiv priced originally about £2OO, is now fetching, in England, £152 for a 1913 model, while a 191G model is worth £255. Even without the shortage of new cars t,, alfect the prices of old ones, a 1913 Singer would probably have fetched £IOO in the present year.

The present, of course, says thp Car (England) i 8 a most opportune time just when manufacturers are looking forward more hopefully to a termination of the war and settling their plans for post-war production, for an announcement to be made by the second, largest motor concern m America of a completely equipped £IOO oar. It will be so comforting for those who are contemplating the last word in light car design to have the prospect of yet another American vehicle competing on similar lines to their own. They know onlv too well that the immense outputs' which arc possible only in America, (because it is 'by far and away the largest car-usin-country ,n the world) make compel tjon on anything like equal terms out of 110 question. They do not need tellintiiat it such a car is dumped upon the British market and is really all that is claimed for it, patriotism will go bv the board mid the British manufacturers wi l,e. left m the cold. Therefore, exactly W ] iat ; 8 t0 bfi (l0l)e tho future atitude towards imported cars is a matter of very great concern to' manufacturers m this country. The announcement of this new model, although ,t ; s honele-xlv outside the light ear standard is bound to have a bad effect upon British trade overseas. It finds us wondering how it is that with America at war and still able to safeguard her future development, the British manufacturers are tied hand and foot, and not even, in most cases, permitted to turn out experimental models as a o-.unter-blast. We shall have to be very careful that we rto no* find future British trade hopelessly crippled by the circumstance that we are putting our whole, and not merely the larger part of our efforts into war production. We may po."i,t out also that the American Government is considering tin; proposal to limit tho output of pleasure vehicles, such as motor-cars, in order to release labor. Hero we do not limit; we prohibit (altogether, the Allies can hardly be said to be pulling together if tne has its peaco time industries completely demolished and another is merely linYited in its production. Hence the value of putting into effect the Paris Economic Conference proposals. The whole of tho American automobile industry lias offered its assistance and whole-hearted support to the U.S.A. Government. This i s tho decision of over 000 manufacturing concerns and son-'.. 27.000 do-'"i-s. Tho influence of the autoraolv" di"JTv in America is enormous, as hiay Ire judged from the following figurej. There are 230 make? of

pa;sei!;,ei: curs and .'ii'2 manitK.cturcr,- ot commercial motor I rucks with a capital investment of £l-!y,imo,iii::) and isu.ouo workers. 'Pin- annual wages paid total ,Cs,vH>')l;l::>- The production for the year ending la:.U. June wan 1.800,194 "motor vehicles, of- which 112,000 were motor trucks. There are in addition 10SI) manufactures of bodies, parts and accessories, will) a <;«;»(' a 1 of C0',200,Oi'O. .In this dir. .-linn alone there are Mil tHW workers employed, llioir wage-; reaching C.57,tjUD.000. 'l.a-t year .Cll-'i,-()l.i(),0l)i) worth of tyres were made, coverin;; ls,000,l>!!0 covers and tube*. (Jurau'u.s total 25.500, located right through the United States- They £3O 800,000 capital and employ 2:!0,000. All told, it is computed Unit over £211,200,01)0 is invested in the American motor industry, which is many times bi"ger than all the motor businesses of the" rest of the world combined. A cycle ride which has stood for_ 18 years as tl.e be..t on record and defied the efforts of later day speedmen—aided by improvd machines, tyres, ami pacing -to beat it, may surely be reckoned as having- made "some" history. The performance referred to is A. E. Walter's (Ens.) remarkable ride in the :8!MI 80l d'nr,". the then great French 24 hours paced track race. In this event the English crack too the lead in the early part of the contest and was never headed. In the 24 hours he travelled 63b miles 770 yards and was only off his machine for nine minutes. Ho rode the same bicycle throughout and pushed a IIG-iueh gear. It weighed nearly IlOlbs. and was shod with wired on Dmilop detachable tyres. He was paced by a motor tandem fitted wiht a 3Jh.p. engine. The front rider attended to the steering and the rear one looked after the engine. Both riders pedalld and lilped to propl the machine.. Two similar machines were used In Australia by the Dunlop Tyre Company some 10 ye.iv.-i back, for track pacing purposes. Walters subsequently won the richest prize ever given for a cycle race in Europe. This totalled £440. The event was a six hours' race in Berlin (Germany) and lie had to beat such cracks as Buret, Taylor, Bouthours, Fischer, Robl, and Bauge. He won in world's record time. To Walters we owe the recognised pace-following machine with its straight forks, short wheetbase and small front wheels. This was designed by him in 1899, and used for the first time in Paris. He raced on it in Berlin, where it was a complete novelty, but a few weeks later, on again visiting the German capital, his idea hod been copied, and all the Teuton cracks had similar mounts. We are of the belief that after the war the motor-cycle will find a very ready demand among firms and individuals engaged in various branches of trade. Tho "commercial" motor-cycle, that is to say the machine with box carrier attached, will perhaps be developed a stage or even two beyond that already reached and there are many and varied uses to which it can be put in an industrial capacity. In ihe field of motor vehicles the light delivery van on four wheels is going to he put to a widespread uso when normal thnes return; at least that seems to he tt'e opinion generally held in England an* though it is possiblethere may be a Kirplus of 'heavy vehicles, the light and spwidy tyre- are fh ones that at first, and mdccfl for a long period, we mav anti'ipate will command attention. This bei\g so tlier n is every reason, says the Mc-tor Export Trader (Eng." why motor-cydc designers and makers should pay reg.vrd to the future in this connection an* be ready with plans for construction of commercial motor-cycles on ala rep scale. Such rnodels have already been brought to a high pilch of excellence, but finality has by no means been reached i>\ their design. The high powered combination with box carrier of large capacity fof its weight may be still further Improved, and there is certainly more, scopo f or a lighter pattern with ?inal)?r engine and adapted for the shorter runabout k.<ns about mcdiilm-sized towns and the surrounding neighborhood. Tiles ecommer-. cial motor-cycles can be made and used profitably in different models, just as machines built for pleasure riding" ep n and if suitable propaganda is SPVea/l abroad and the vehicles on offer are advertised on a scale commcnsir ra t c with the needs of the times, tJ-,cre will we firmly bc'icve. spring ini o existence a demand that will justify to the full a new policv on the par* 0 f i>iamifactur°rs and winch will have as its central )urposo the most C ytended use of the ootor-cyclo lor nusj* css purposes. "'in the Kunstoffe, a German paper, "ome* word that a good deal of'attention is being'given at the moment to various forms of animal plant and mineral substance's for the manufacture of tyres. In place of robber, flax and hemp are being used. These are soaked in rubber, paraffin wax or celluloid. Tyres arc also made of a series of layers of calico steeped in uibber, or of'stripes of leather specially treated. Tu place of plant fibres mineral substances are also in use. For instance, asbestos, which is mixed at a certain heat with balata rubber. From the same source it is stated that air tubes for tyres are being made in Switzerland from Japanese silk paper soaked in u, form of wax. A new feature in English motor car bodywork design is a single door 2flins wide, giving access to the front and rear s?ats. This idea is carried out »y having a 7in section of the front: seat attached to the inner sido of the door. When open it leaves a Yiin wide entrance at its narrowest point, and the passage way to the rear seat is lOin wide." The fixed part of the front seat is 34iu wide.