MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 May 1921, Page 10

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

FILLING THE RADIATOR The radiator should be filled slowly in order that the water may pass into the whole system. Before assuming that there is enough water in the coolingsystem, it is best to start the motor and let it run slowly, then to continue pouring the water into the radiator until full. WATER IN THE CRANK-CASE. In cold weather water will often gather in the crank-case, for steam will make its way past the piston rings and condenses on the wall. Careful drivers will drain the crank-case of their cars often so as to remove this water, which hinders lubrication. The period of time between draining w][ll depend on the size and number of cylinders, for the larger surfaces will gather more steam. SPARE SPARKING-PLUGS. ■

Do not permit spare sparking-plugs to rattle Ground in the tool box at the risk of breaking the porcelain off the terminal or jamming the points together. You may want them in a hurry. A good carrier may be made of soft pine two inches wide and long enough to bore in as many holes as there are cylinders in the motor, the holes to Q)e just large enough to screw in the plugs. End pieces should he tacked on the wood strip just a little higher than the top of the plugs. Over this a piece of an old inner tube may be stretched. It gives complete protection to the plugs and is compact enough to stow away readily. SOLUTION FOR TYRES. It is stated that bicycle tyres and inner tubes of automobile tyres may be made quite safe from small punctures by using a liberal amount of the following mixture:—Procure 1 pound of sheet glue and dissolve it in warm water—enough to dissolve the glue only. After the glue has been dissolved add 1 quart of molasses. Remove the valve and inject this mixture—about one cupful—into a bicycle tyre and a correspondingly greater amount in auto tubes, depending on their size. Replace the valve and blow up the tyre. This mixture semihardens into an elastic jelly. This treatment will stop all leaks in a tyre. A BATTERY THAT IS DIFFERENT. A French inventor has recently put out a battery of novel design for which notable advantages are claimed. The superficial solution is poor in mineral salts and rich in ammonia, so whether used for continuous or interrupted service the battery never contains corrosive salts. The salts which are formed by long operation of the battery are deposited in the middle portion of the vessel, leaving the zinc as well as the surface of the liquid entirely clear; as a consequence the zinc is at all times fully utilised. The performance of the new battery is summarised in the claim that a cell mounted in a vessel 10 centimeters square and 22 centimeters high, containing one litre of water and 125 grams of sal-ammoniac with a zinc plate weighing 100 grams, yields a total energy either in continuous or interrupted service amounting to 125 amperehours. .

WHICH WHEEL LIFTS’ A correspondence discussion in an English motor journal discloses the curious fact that many people—perhaps even a majority—think that when a car turns sharply round a corner it is the outside wheels that tend to lift —that is, that when the car turns to the left, the right side wheels bear less heavily on the road than those on the left. They even support their view by pointing to the “banking” of high-speed tracks, claiming that the track is raised at the outside in order to maintain contact with the wheels. As a matter of fact it is the inside wheels which lift, because the car tends to travel in a straight line and the centrifugal force is exerted in an effort to throw the car onwards. Those in the car, of course, feel this ‘•'outward” force. The point is of mote than theoretical interest, because people who hold the mistaken view have been known to lean their weight deliberately on the outside of the curve “to keep the wheels down.” Nothing could be more dangerous. They are simply conspiring with an already powerful natural force to help it throw the car over on its side. It is true that a bicycle leans inwards on a curve; but that' is not because the force tends to throw it in; it leans in that direction so as to oppose the capsizing force. As a car cannot so lean, the centrifugal force is opposed only by the fact that the weight of the car lies within the width of the wheelbase. PENALTY OF BIGNESS. Commenting on the report that Mr. Henry Ford had recently gone to New York with the object of raising a loan of something like £15,000,000, The Motor (London) says the news probably came as a shock to many who had come to believe that if stabilised conditions were to be found anywhere it would be in the vast industrial organisation at Detroit. But if one pauses for a moment to consider the matter on a logical basis, the fact that Mr. Ford is endeavoring to raise this loan is not, perhaps, so surprising as it might at first appear to be. The magnitude of the Ford concern has to be kept in mind in considering the matter. Everything is on the colossal scale. The staff turn out some million cars a year. In norma] tims demand is large, and this output has been rapidly absorbed. When demand falls off it generally does so on a big scale, and circumstances have pvi-| dehtly combined to make the falling off greater; for instance, obstacles in the way of exporting cars would create a tremendus disturbance in the flow of business, because, as is well known, the Ford car penetrates to all parts of the world. When the equilibrium of such a huge undertaking is upset the upheaval must almost inevitably be enormous, and if a crisis is reached commitments must of necessity be on a correspondingly big scale. Thus we find tax demand amounting to £11,000,000, and loans to banks £7,000,000. For the time being, the world cannot absorb the product of the enormous factory at Detroit as fast as it can be made, and although the works have been closed for two months, it. is said that there are £7.000,000 worth of unsold cars in stock. When'a factory is organised on the scale of that at Detroit the wealth represented in the plant, stores, and general organisation | have only their maximum value when running at highest pressure, and when I the output can be absorbed as quickly as I it is produced. All this will show that

Henry Ford can only seek relief on a scale commensurate with the vastness of his enterprise. SCARCELY SUITABLE. A motorist was having considerable trouble with misfiring, and at last he traced it to a faulty brush in the magneto. There wa.; nobody in a small country town who stocked the necessai’y spare part, and as a last resort he inquired at a shop the owner of which kept a motor-cycle. “I want a carbon brush for my magneto, and thought perhaps, as you had a motor-cycle, you might have a spare one in your possession?” The shopkeeper thought for a moment. “No,” he said, “I do not stock magneto brushes and I have not got a spare one, but I have a small shaving brush, if that will be of any use.”

ALCOHOL PROCESS. ' . The report issued recently by the Empire Motor Fuels Committee of the Imperial Motor Transport Council inspires the belief, says an English motor journal, that something really constructive is being accomplished in alcohol research. Definite experiments and progress have been made in regard to the discovery of a satisfactory denaturant, and conferences have been held with the Board of Customs and Excise. Many substances have been, and are still being, experimented with at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, where laboratory accommodation has been provided for the purpose. The laboratory research goes hand in hand with experimental work, which is being undertaken by an engineering sub-committee. The

work of this body is of the highest importance, for it has in hand a series of tests which, it is believed, will establish definite data governing the design and operation of internal-combustion engines running on alcohol fuel and mixtures of iPcohol-benzole-ether and similar mixtures containing varying proportions of certain kinds of denaturants. Viewing the report as a whole, we regard it as very encouraging, as, in spite of the gloomy views expressed by other committees, we still regard alcohol as one of the possible solutions of the fuel problem. It is true that there are a number of very serious difficulties to be overcome, but we are certainly by no means convinced that these are insuperable. It appears to us that by tackling the subject of alcohol with an eye to thd, whole range of complex problems the Empire Motor Fuels Committee is ''doing a real service to the fetate.