PREVENTING PUNCTURES.

Cromwell Argus, 30 March 1931, Page 7

PREVENTING PUNCTURES.

Punctures are by no meapa such f**“quent menaces to motorists and Cyclists as they used to be. Modern roads, kept in good repair and well tended, and tyres that have been Improved at the cost of much research and experiment, have had a good deal to do with this happier state of affairs.

But the possibility of an occasional puncture is still a source of worry to all who are awheel on the road. Broken glass and other debris left by picnickers, and the nails and bits' of metal that accumulate inevitably on the roads, with the ever-growing transport of these days, are the chief causes of trouble in this respect. The danger of litter discarded by careless people can only be abolished by an Intensive campaign in the Press. Nails, screws and other bits of metal, however, present a different problem. Yet the Nebraska State Highway Department has discovered an ingenious means of solving it. The department now makes use of a travelling magnet, which clears the roads of every kind of stray metal. Recently this travelling magnet was used over a stretch of road seventeen miles in length, and collected no less than one hundred and seventy pounds of metal! This shows that the risk of puncture from this source is still greater than most motorists and cy cllsts know.

Bride of a week (sobbing): “I am so unhappy. Peter does not love me any more.” Mother: “What has he done, the wretch?” Bride: “He said that out of a hundred women there was only one as pretty as I am." Mother: “But there is nothing wrong with that.” Bride: “But before we were married he said a thousand.” He: “Mrs. Swelltof certainly Is a beautiful woman. She carries all before her." She (spitefully): “Force of habit, 1 suppose. 1 hear she was a waitress before Swelltof married her.” Young Noodle: “Here, I say, 1 thought you were a mind-reader.” Fortune-Teller: “In your case, I find It easier to read the hand.” “Your silver wedding anniversary, is it? Congratulations, old boy.” “Yes, that’s the first twenty-five years of It over.”