MOTORS & MOTORING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2557, 3 September 1915, Page 9

MOTORS & MOTORING

IBv Clutch.] Motor Traffic in Petrograd. _ A correspondent of tho "Autocar" who has recently tflkou up his residenco in the Russian capital, writes: —"I think tho two things . that struck me most forcibly when I arrived in I'etrograd were—(l) The entire absence of motor omnibuses and (2) the terrible state of ,tho roads. Even the Nevsky. Prospect, which is, I believe, considered to be one of the best streets in the world, and certainly nrast.be one of the longest, lias generally its road surface in a.very bad condition compared with our English standards. In the smaller streets the road siirface is so had that I never pass over it without musing on the strength of my car. These smaller streets are paved! with large flints, which seem to be resting in loose sand, and -when' the Btones are moved out of their original positions things happen very rapidly. In the street that I live in, soon after tho snoiv' cleared away; a rut appeared,, which . .stretched from one side of tho road to the other. For curiosity ; I made a rough measurement, .and I think tho average would bo 12in. deep and 21in. across., One day my little girl, looking from the nursery window, saw the axles of two horse carts break, one a droshky and 'the other a goods cart. There were two ruts like -this in the street; they remained untouched for about ten days. The remainder of this street is very much in .the same state. I really cannot, understand how cars stand up in Russia at all, but they do. "Another thing that strikes me is the complete absence of lorries in private service. I see a few lorries in use - for military purposes, but nothing else. This war has ( . had the effect_ of bringing all sorts of cars into service for carrying merchandise, and) a few days ago I saw a Ford which had:blossomed l out into a lorry, with a body projecting' fully 3ft. behind the back axle. There are practically no .texicabs here, which seems very strange to a Londoner. . The few taxicabs that are running are mostly tho very dregs left after the military re-, quirements have: been satisfied; ', • "Generally speaking, the traffic of all sorts is riot, nearly so great here, as in London, and at the present time the , proportion horse traffic to motor is probably three times as high as in London." ' " Benzole in, Germany. . ■•'As";it' has' frequently been reported that .benzole has. proved, in the absence of adequate supplies of petrolj the salvation of the Germans' motor transport the 'following''!extracts, from - the annual report for last year of the German. Benzole Union may be of interest. 11l the first place, it niay -be stated that , practically all, the producers .of- benzole ' in Germany belong to the union, through which the output of the various produc'-s era is sold on a uniform basis. The report states that at the beginning of 1914 the demand' for benzole was much below tho supply, with the' result that stocks accumulated. '/This was perhaps fortunate, for' Germany, as on-the outbreak of war the conditions of production and sales were completely altered. On the declaration of war •tli'e output at first declined to oG per cent, and then to 60 per cent, of, the possible capacity, while -''at the saino ; timo there camo a huge: increase in the demand. No .information is available as regards the i'rate of' production; ,at tho present time. :. It iSj however, ■■ added that the German Ministry of-War lias requisition-. Ed ; the greater portion of .the output, so that it has only been possible to fulfil a fraction- of the private orders that have'been received. The quantity of benzole sold by the union'during last year was million gallons, compai'od with' 25 million, gallons ill" 1913. 1 Hints and Tips. An American motor-car repairer has stated that, being struck with the largo number Of Ford cars in which the front cylinder carbonised quicker than- tho others, 'lie discovered the reason to be that the front, transverse spring had ( ."settled'," causing the front of the engine to drop. This-resulted in. the oil level being constantly deeper for the ■front oylinder than; the others./ He says_ that ho remedied tho trouble by placing packing'• pieces . between ; th© transverse spring' and the frame. It will be understood that the level of the fuel in a. carturetter varies with different fuels ' aitdy mixtures of fuels used. - In the'early days of motoring the density of petrol was .68 or thereabouts; at the other extreme is benzole, which is about .88. . If tho carburet-, ter -be adjusted to suit the lightest' petrol the level will be much too low when benzoic is used, and vice versa. To, compensate for this the float should be" weighted and to get the correct, ; weight • the float should be removed , and then immersed in petrol.. The depth to .which it dips should be marked, and it should then be placed; in benzole; or other fuel to be Used,and weights should \be added until it js immersed to the same depth. Having ascertained the weight required, a, washer should be made'of the same weight and rested on or attached to , tho float. In actual,.practice slight variations of the level of petrol in the jet do,'not affect matters, provided that the jet is not likely ,to overflow. With a Very low level starting is a little more difficult, and sloiV running is not so good in some cases, but tho writer's experience' decidedly indicates that thero ,is no necessity to go to the trouble of very fine adjnstriiCnts in this respect. ■ l 1 or some months (writes a contributor to, an English motoring journal) niy clutch had been terribly tierce, .and for a long time T was - unable to find the cause. It is of the ordinary leatherfacfed typo,..and i> has fivo'springs be--neath the li-ather. Each of theses presses against a pluliger, shapfid like an engine poppet valvo in miniature, tho head bearing against the underside of the- leather. The clutch leather was ill good condition, and there was no shoulder upon it. , Thinking.'tliat'thp springs under the leather- wore not strong enough-I removed them, made them stronger, and then replaced them, but if anything ■ the clutch was worse. I therefore'tried the .clutch' without them and fouticTit' battel', but by no means perfect. .. I thon fitted much weaker springs and this cured the trouble. I think what was happening was that,the stiff springs prevented • gradual release of the clutch pedal, from causing the clutch to •take up gradually. Intsead, the clutch engaged partially until the resistance of tho springs under the leather was felt, and then the, clutch pedal required to be released considerably further before the springs under the leather were compressed, and the i clutch went in . with a It is evideilt, therefore, that' "first, intention" springs can bo too strong, in which case they opposo the main clutch spring. ' •' Here, and There. Legal lighting up time for motoroars and motor cycles To-day, 5,34 p.m. , Next Friday, 5.41 p.m. During a recent official touring car test for sliced on the new Chicago speedway, it Was found that with the llood up on a powerful 12-cylinder car; the difference in speed was equivalent only ' tothree miles an, hour. With hood down the pace maintained over 10miles was 72.7 m.p.h., with it up 69.8 m.p.h. On a lower powered car the difference" 1 would, of course, bo moro marked. There is every probability that, sayft the "Motor News" (Eng.), within tiio near future the motor garages will bo denuded of nearly all their mechanics, the best, of course, being selected. Already this has happoned in a number of cases. There is a crying need for for men to produce shells and' still iliore shells, and the motor mechanic, who is generally a versatile individual, is naturally in ereat demand.