MOTORING

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 12 August 1932, Page 6

MOTORING

"Roadster" invites articles and paragraphs of interest to motorists for this page.

I SATETY GLASS. i Safety glass has proved itself so I valuable, and withal so strong that ,- t I may be that a certain percentage of j owners come to regard the material as virtually indestructible; a flatterI i"g but expensive notion to harbour. | it will crack and break just the same | as ordinary plate-glass, Out wnl noo I splinter, and the pieces will always hold ! together. Liiiic every other form of glass, safety glass requires intelligent and careful handling if it is to give of its best from a service standpoint. Window mechanisms in cars lifted with I this glass should therefore operate I with a minimum of effort, if they are | not to be strained, and if undue stress I is not to be imposed upon the glass itself. To ensure this easy: working, all moving surfaces must receive their proper-lubrication, and the lifting and winding gear must be free. In default of proper treatment or attention, it is possible to crack the ! glass in the effort to force the window up or down, just as damage may bs caused to it through unnecessarily violent slimming of doors. Another thing to remember is that i safety glass is more expensive than ordinary glns=, and the nerson who I breaks any through carelessness will j nrobnbly treat it with more respect on future occasions. INTERIOR MIRRORS. A motorist, according to a report in a Manchester paper, was recently successfully prosecuted for driving a car with an interior reflecting mirror when the curtain was drawn across the rear window. Many motorists in Manchester, it is stated, have been summoned for driving in this manner. The it-port, rogrettauiy, does not state wnetner the defence was before or after lighting-up time—a point that is really most material. If the motorist was driving in the daytime wi\. the rear blind drawn, then he was de;it>rvedliy punished. If, 'however, it was at night, then the report must ho inaccurate, for it states that the point on which the conviction rested was that "the instructions given in paragraph 13 of the Motor Vehicles Construction and Use Regulations require that every car shall be equipped with a mirror so constructed and fitted that it enables the driver to see "behind." This is not a correct resume of the paragraph, which is to the effect that the mirror must be so constructed and fitted as to enable the driver to be or become aware of the presence in the raer of any other vehicle, the driver of which is desirous of passing, says the "Autocar."

The difference is small but vitally important, for a moment's reflection reveals that few, if any, rear blinds completely shut out the lights of an overtaking vehicle.

It should be possible to plead with success that a light curtain of the type that is generally fitted renders it possible to become aware of the presence of a vehicle desirous of passing. To argue that a lowered blind of the usual semi-transparent material does not complv with the regulation is absurd. If any more convictions are registered, a case should be taken to appeal.

BY " ROADSTER."