Cycling and Motoring.

Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 971, 27 February 1919, Page 23

Cycling and Motoring.

Up to the present very little lias been heard as to British mauufnc-iui-ers' intentions with regard to selfstarters. A great many people are taking it for granted that all cars except the cheapest- class will have an electi'ic starter as standard equipment, .hut it does not follow, states an exchange, that this will be the case. We may still find the starter classed as an ■extra. When the latest English files left London arrangements were almost completed for an aeroplane passenger service between London and Paris. The terminus in London was to be the Ritz Hotel, and the Riitz Hotel in Paris was the terminus at that, end of the journey. The proposed timetable was as follows : —Departure by car from the Ritz. London, at 10 a.m. for the London Aerodrome. Departure by 'plane at 10.30. a.m. Arrival at. Paris Aerodrome at 1 p.m., "arriving at the Ritz, Paris, at 1.30 p.m. The machines to be used are capable of a speed of 128 miles an hour, and able to carry a load of 32501b5. The single fare was fixed at 15 guineas per passenger. The service was to be daily as soon as the necessary formalities have been arranged. Two shillings per mile for aerial mail service would seem high, and it would take a lot of letters on the penny postage system to pay for it. Mail flights have been tested upon cost, and work out as above. Nine machines were tried out, covering flights aggregating 7234 miles. The total cost was £736: 1377 gallons of fuel were consumed for 113 hours 8 minutes' flying, or £6 10s per hour, and about 2s per mile. Twelve gallons of fuel per hour was the average. All items, including overhead- expenses, were taken into account to reckon the cost. Few people probably give a thought to the important and vital part the automobile and bicycle played in the Great War. Without them victory would not be ours to-day, for Verdun would have fallen, Paris would have been in the hands of the Huns in 1914, and then —well, they did not fall because of the wonderful motor transport work that enabled reinforcements and supplies to be carried speedily to vital points of defence and offence.. Motors saved the day. Going, back some years, to 1888, in fact, we find that the bicycle owes its development and efficiency to the birth and invention of the Dunlop pneumatic tyre; in fact, Dunlop tvres made cycling and motoring possible. Recognition of this fact, therefore, brings home what the world to-day owes J. B. Dunlop. His principle of using the buoyancy of compressed air for absorption of vibration serves millions of motorists and cyclists t}ie world over, and it helped in no small way in giving us the greatest victory known in the annals of the world. The history of Dunlop tyres lias been a remarkable one. First in 1888, they have been foremost ever since, and during that period have conferred inestimable benefits on the world in general. To motorists and cyclists in particular they have rendered service in making motoring and cycling popular, pleasant, and profitable. The big French motor manufacturing firm, the De Dion-Bouton Company, have decided that their leading postwar model will be an eight-cylinder car. A wealth of experience has been gained by this firm in the hard school of war, and it is the result of that experience that has resulted in this conservative concern adopting the " Eight,-" Many thousands of these engines have been used during the war, with most satisfactory results both on the road and in the air. By ,the way, most motorists are under the impression that America set the fashion in eight-cylinder engines; this, however, is not the case, for this type of engine was in production for over a year by the French manufacturers "before the Americans took it up and hoomed it.