MOTORING NOTES.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 7, 30 April 1920, Page 3

MOTORING NOTES.

WINGS ON A RACING CAR. An irnportant Italian maker is experimenling with streamlhiing up-to-data This racing car will probably look as little like a motor-car as anything ever seeri on wheels, for the -driver will be completely enclosed in the fuselage-like body, .and there will be small wirrgs, not, as might possibly be conjectured to be the case, with the object- of taking the machine ofi the ground, but of holding it dewn at high speeds. PETROL-ELECTRIC FIRE ESCAPE. The petrol-electric system, when applied to road vehicles, conviently lends itself to the special requirements of fire brigade work besides that of transport alone. The London Fire Birgade is using a petrolelectric chassis cari-ying ,a fire escape extension ladder mounted on a turn-table. The ladder, which can be extended to a h eight of 85ft., is operated by electricity, the power being obtained by simply connecting the ladder motor with the chassis dynamo by means of a switch, the engine being kept running. The ladder, of course can be used for either fire escape, or as a water tower. MOTOR VECHICLES IN BRITAIN. The highest total ever reached in the United Kingdom for motor-cars, motorcycles, and liackney motor vechicles, was attained in 1915-16, when 362,200 licenses were issued, while in March, 1919, there were in use approximately 75,515 commerce' vehicles. The addition of these two figures gives a grand total og 437,715, which may be fairly taken to present the position to-day. This figure is not very imposing when compared with American totals. In New York State alone there are 485,000 motor vehicles, while there are no fewer than. 6, 400, 000 in ihe whoie of the United States.

MOTOR TRANSPORT AIDS SPORT. It is a far cry to the days when M.F.II.'s vented their wrath on every petrol-drivein vechicle in energetic terms. Nowadays every M.F.H. is a motorist, the "Autocar" declares, and many pf them not only for their own personal comfort, but also for rapid transport of horses and hcunds. At one spot in England hunter®* are boxed and unboxed in a special horse lorry, constructed to carry two horses and four grooms. The Duke of Beaufort uses a hound van for ihe conveyance of h s grace's hounds. By this means not only are hounds brought fresh to a meet, distant, perhaps, many miles from kenr.els, but they are immune from innumerabie road dangers from passing traffic. STREET SWEEPING MACHINE. The employment of the motor is being used to perform simultaneously a number of street-cleaning processes which hitherto have each constituted separate operations for horsed vehicles. One of these machines as used in Birmingham, is towed behind a- 5-ton steam waggon. Road sweepings are first thrown into a shallow pan by rotary brushes driven by a chain. To the centre of this pan the refuse is passed by helical rubber conveyors, and thence into tLc boot of the elevator, whence it is carried by buckets on endless chains and drcpped into the waggon in front. To follow varying road contours, the brush Is made in three sections, with universal joints between each, and the brush pressure is regulated by a balance weight. Tests carried out by certain corporations go to show that at six mileg an hour one of these machines, while effeetively sweep-in-g, can load a ton of sweepings within *Vv"o minutes.