MOTORING NOTES.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 27, 17 September 1920, Page 15

MOTORING NOTES.

ELECTRIC CARS. On account of the high price of petrol, a decided. impetus has been -given in some eountries, particularly Scandinavia and Italy, to the electric vehicie. The vast hydro-electric schemes now under consideration in various eountries may lead to clreap electricity, which will to some extent compete with petrol or benzole as a motive power for cars. An electric garage has been established in Milan, wbich operates electric 'buses for the hotels and also a fegular.lorry service between Milan and Bergamo. In Denmark and Norway electric. cars are being used in the postal service. SPRING FOOTBOARDS. Many motor-cyclists prefer footboards to footrests, but complain that a fixed footboard conveys vibrations and obstructs access to various items of the machine. A recent English design is free from such ob, ■ jections, and has the further merit of being cbeap to make.- The footboard is ireely pivioted at the forward point of attach. ment, so that it can be swung up when the rider wishes to adjust any mechanism ; when the board is dropped into riding position, the free end of a cantilever spring, bolted to its .miderside, rests' against a cross arm fixed to the bearer bolt. A i-atchet adjustment permits the angle of the board and the action of the spring to be reset to please individual tastes. ELECTRIC SIGNALS aT NIGHT. Ihe troublc with so many signals is that- they fail to attract the attention of the motorists ah'ead or behind the car that may be operating a signal. But the signal about to be described gives intermittent flashes, which quickly catches the eye of the driver in the rear . The flashes are produced by an electric light attacfaed to the end of an arm, with two revolving- discs, the light being located between the two discs. When the arm is in the upright position the light on the arm is exting'uished, but as soon as the arm is moved down to any of ihe threc positions, the light automaticaliy conaes on. and the action of the air causes the discs to revolve rapidly, thereby giving the intermittent flashes " which attract immediate attention to the arm. The nature of the tara that is to be made by the driver is then indicated by ."he position of the arm.

A NEW VAPORISER. In cold weather, or when using pobr quality fuel, the starting up of petrol engines for lorries, motor-cars, aeroplanes, as ' well as stationary petrol engines. in exposed buildings, , more often than not causes con_ siderable difficulty. In contrast with the. methods commonly employed, but not pai. ticularly effective, ' such as flooding the carburettor, priming t-he cylinders with petrol, the application of hot- rags or boiling water to tlie exterior of the carburettor, or repeatod cranking up, the scientific way of ensuring rap-id ignition would seem to be fo heat up the induction pipe inside. The lates-t device to.effect this consists of an enclosed electrical Ixeating element placed within an asbestos cusnion. This is mountcd on the packing material between the induction ,pipe and carburettor flanges, the asbestos oushion proj.ecting upwards into the induction pipe. On the suction stroke of the piston, the cushion absorhs the liquid fnel spray injected by the carburettor. This spray is imniediately vaporised on coming into contact with the eloctrically heated cushion, thus producing the .necessarv volume of hot fnel vapour for starting the engine.