MOTORS and MOTORING.

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 83, 6 January 1928, Page 14

MOTORS and MOTORING.

(BY

"SPOTLIGHT.”

DEAF MOTORISTS ARE THEY UNSAFE ON THE ROADS? A protest against the implication that deaf persons are incapable of driving automobiles safely was made in New York recently by Chief City Magistrate William McAdoo, has been made by Marcus L. Kenner, Vice-President of the National Association of the Deaf, in a letter to the Chief Magistrate. In sentencing a young man who had substituted for a deaf and partly mute man in taking a test for a driver’s license, Justice McAdoo stressed his belief that a deaf and dumb man, unable to hear policemen’s whistles and approaching cars, might kill people and “be a wild thing running at large.” Mr. Kenner contended that a person's inability to speak did not imply mental deficiency, andasserted that good sight, not good hearing, was a prime requisite for safe driving. “This writer, deaf for nearly thirtyfive years, has been a privileged passenger in the cars of nearly 100 ‘deaf and dumb’ drivers,” Mr. Kenner wrote, “touring thousands of miles all over the country, including our own city, and he can honestly aver that there are no more careful and conscientious men and women at the wheel than the deaf. The' very fact that they cannot hear distracting noises tends to make them extra cautious.” The letter closed with an invitation to Magistrate McAdoo to allow a licensed deaf automobile driver to take him for a ride. A HINT ON REPAINTING One of the difficulties met with by an owner-driver who desires to smarten up his old car by doing a little amateur coach-painting is to get the enamel to run evenly in the unfavourable atmosphere of’ the average private garage. The usual procedure of adding turps, or thinning generally, makes tt impossible to continue to obtain the same “body” throughout in the enamel unless it is stirred constantly.

A far more satisfactory plan is to stand the tin of enamel in a saucepan of water brought to boiling point, when it will be found that the brush will work easily and the enamel will flow evenly, drying more quickly with a more brilliant finish. So soon as the brush again begins to drag, reheating the enamel will immediately bring back the easy conditions, and enable the owner to complete a job of which he will be satisfied. WHAT CAUSES PUNCTURES The destruction of a tube often is started when it is being applied through its being pinched under the tire tool or under the bend of the tire. A little care is all that is needed _ to avoid pinching. In straight-side tires the flan should be carefully and smoothie applied. ’ A wrinkle will cut the tube, causing a slow leak. The lock-nut on the valve stem should be tightly screwed down, as should be the valve cap Keep your spare tubes where they will not be chafed or injured by grease or oil.

COMPULSORY INSURANCE

A NEW YORK AGITATION FOR IT

Compulsory insurance for motorists through a mutual company is advocated by the United Auto League of New York State, under whose auspices a Bill was recently before the State Legislature, but was not carried. A new Bill is to be introduced tins year. “There were 'JIB persons killed by motor vehicles in New York State in the first nine months of 19'27,” states Mr. Straus, who introduced the Bill. “The records show that three out of every four injured persons never receive any redress whatever. Liability insurance, so costly to the motosists, is of practically no value to the victim of an accident. Less than 60 per cent, of the money collected by liability insurance companies in premiums goes to compensate the victims of accidents. “There should be a system of compulsory compensation insurance in a mutual company composed of all of the motor vehicle owners of the Stale, and operated by them under State auspices. Persons injured in motor vehicle accidents should be paid out of this fund on a fixed basis of schedules according to the injuries sustained. The basis of payment and the general plan of operation would be similar to that in the Workmen's Compensation law. “It is estimated there are 2,200,000 automobiles in New York State. A payment of 10 dollars (£2) for each one would rsult in a fund of 22,000,000 dollars (£4,400,000) available for the compensation of the victims of motor vehicle accidents—a fund wholly adequate for that purpose, and yet its collection would impose but a slight burden on the motoring public.” THE MAMAKU HILLS FUND FOR COMPLETION. A drive to raise £l.OOO for the completion of the metalling of the Mamaku bush section of the main RotoruaHamilton road is to be launched in Rotorua. This has been undertaken on account of a promise of a subsidy of £4 for £l. The work is estimated to cost £5OOO, and residents of Rotorua apparently think that an allweather road would be cheap at £lOOO from their own pockets. The completion of the road would certainly increase the motor traffic to Rotorua in the winter, and as a business proposition the £lOOO might be well spent. Vital as the work is, there is no reason (remarks “Focus” in the Auckland “Herald”) why motorists should participate in the contribution Through petrol taxes and license fees the motorist will provide the £4OOO subsidy which is offered, and it would be bad policy for motor organisations to encourage drives of this nature. Many of the contributors to the fund will be motorists who have become tired of railing their cars every time they leave their district during the winter, but it is a sorry reflection on our reading policy if the multiplicity of taxes have to be augmented by taking the |iat round.

MANY MOTOR CAMPERS TAUPO DISTRICT THRONGED. Since Christmas Day all the roads leading to the Taupo country have seen the passing of many cars, and more than half Tf them, according to the Auckland “Herald’s” correspond, cut, seem to be laden with camping gear, Running-boards packed high with tents, bundles of tent-poles lashed between bonnets ami mudguards, rear luggage-carriers piled with neat kitbags or less pretention but equally effective sacks, all testify to the carrying capacity of the modern motor. On the bank of the Waikato River, near Taupo itself, camps are clustered in tlie shelter of the pinewood which, a few short years ago, sheltered the residence of the officer in charge of the Armed Constabulary. Along the cliff overlooking the lake are more camps, and still more dot the reserve above the river outlet. Every sheltered spot along the road toward Tokaanu, on the eastern shore of the lake, has its canvas homes, gleaming white among the pendant greenery of the kowliais.

Many of the camps consist of two or three tents. Never was seen, surely, such a variety of tents. Large and small, white and green, bell tents and ridge tents, square tents and pyramid tents, tents with verandas, oneroonied tents and two-roomed tents, tents new and gleaming alongside tents that have obviously seen much service; in short, all sorts and conditions of tents and all sorts and conditions of campers. Family parlies seem to be in the majority and mother is to be spelt hanging out some washing on an improvised clothes-line stretched between two manuka bushes, while father keeps guard over a set of billies on the camp fire. A few feet away the children, clad in gaily-coloured bathing suits, romp about on the pebbly beach or splash in happy abandon in the crystal water of the lake.

SELF-STARTER BEARINGS

The shaft bearings of the electric selfstarter should receive an occasional drop of oil. Oil on the “engaging end” of the starter is likely to bold dirt and grit, and for this reason it is well to use no lubricant other than powdered graphite at this point. Graphite only should be used to lubricate the IJendix drive. Oil holds road dust, and will cause the pinion to stick on the thread of the shaft, on which it should move easily.

In the course of a discussion on “Eyesight Under Modern Traffic Conditions” at the recent International Optical Congress at Oxford, Dr. Mintt, Director of the German School of Optics, expressed the view that every driver of a motor vehicle should be compelled to be examined by a speciallv-trained and equipped optical specialist, and should be reexamined at intervals of three to five years. This would be an excellent arrangement for the optical specialists, no doubt. Next the dentists may discover that the best way to prevent autointoxication is to have a compulsory examination of all motorists’ teeth every six months,

FOR MOTORS ONLY A 250-MILE SPANLSH HIGHWAY. Two draft proposals for the construction of a track for the exclusive use of automobiles connecting Madrid with Lun, a concession for which was recently granted, as well as proposals for tracks connecting Madrid with Valencia and Gijon with Oviedo, will be immediatelv submitted to a competent commission. The motor track from Madrid to Irun will be about 40 feet wide and 250 miles long, and will reduce the distance between the Spanish capital and the French frontier by approximately 125 miles, as compared with the railway route, and 62 miles as coinpared with the ordinary road. The distance will thus be reduced to five hours for touring cars and eight hours to ten hours for passenger-carrying automobiles. The road will pass near several towns, but will not actually go through them. It is expected that the work will be completed in four or five years. The only other road of the kind in Europe is that recently opened in Italy, which connects Milan with the Great Lakes, and is approximately 50 miles in length.

FRENCH MOTOR-CARS BY AMERICAN METHODS

Use of American methods in European automobile production is reported by H. H Kelly, writing in “Commerce Reports” (Washington). For instance, he says that Andre Citroen, of Paris, probably the largest foreign builder, has concentrated on a single model, low-priced, car, and that practically all .of the special machines used in the production are American. Its all-steel body is made by American methods, from sheets imported from the United States. It is finished by an American process. Some of the buildings in which it is manufactured were designed by American engineers, and American process manufacturing and merchandising piethods are being used.

DO NOT EMBRACE THE DRIVER The co operative advancement of purity and safe driving as evidenced in section 43 of the new traffic ordinance of the rising town of South Bend, Indiana: “It shall be unlawful,” says section 42, “for any person to embrace anv person while operating any vehicle on tlie streets of South Bend, or for any person to so operate a vehicle while being subjected to the embraces of any other person; and it shall be unlawful for any person to embrace any person so operating any vehicle.” If we get the meaning of this clearly, it indicates that embracing or being embraced while driving a vehicle is unlawful in South Bend.

NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW COLOUR EFFECTS A FEATURE. Brilliant colour schemes were an outstanding feature of tile new American models exhibited at the motor show ill New York at the end of NovemJ ’! ’ ts review of the show the 'New York Times” writes: Public interest in fine automobiles equipped with bodies of gorgeous colour and luxurious furnishings was exemplified m an unusual manner at the, opening of the Automobile Salon in the ballroom of the Hotel Commodore. This is the annual event formerly restricted to foreign cars but which, ’by the natural process of automobile evolution, has become in recent years primarily tm exhibition of the best custom body ''ork by the leading American and foreign coach builders. N. OI i c . fb&il one hundred cars arc on exhibition each one revealing something Original ami distinctive in body design, colour treatment and interior upholstery. The chassis upon which these expensive bodies are mounted come from the factories of six nations. In number, the American cars predominate, representing ten different types. '1 lie five foreign nations are represented by some of the finest creations of tile foreign coach builders’ art ever seen in America. Sonic of these bodies uere recently shown in the Paris ami London automobile shows

Ihe attendance was one of the largest ever seen on the opening niglit of the Automobile Salon during the twenty-three years of its popularity as a unique exhibition event, in the American. automobile industry. A large delegation of motor representatives from the Detroit factory centres was present. Among them was Edsel H. Ford. Among the foreign exhibits, the French Renault made a striking contrast in showing the smallest car in the salon and the one with practically the greatest horsepower. The later is a cabriolet, direct from Paris, the body by Kellner and mounted on the big six-cylinder 110-horse-power chassis.

Grand Canyon Colour Lffects.

Some striking and original colour effects are seen in the Fisher and Fisher-Fleetwood bodies. For these new combinations the artists have studied animate and inanimate nature, such as precious stones, flowers, birds, butterflies and deep-sea fish. The result has been some brilliantly harmonised tints. One brilliant four-passenger phaeton is in emerald green, with fenders and running gear in silver. A convertible two-passenger coupe is in colours derived from the Grand Canyon, representing brown, orange and what the artist styles' Grand Canyon blue.- A Fisher-Fleetwood convertible cabriolet body is finished in rose coral, with ebony wheels and tipper panels. Another outstanding feature of the show is the growing popularity of the use of safety or nori-shatterable glass, not only for windshields but for the windows of the closed models. These are equipped with what is known ns Triplex glass, which has been manufactured in America under an English patent for one year. In the salon last year there were four cars with this safety glass. This year there are fourteen.”

The Highest-priced Car.

The English Rolls-Royce exhibit presents eight Brewster bodies in rich colour effects. One of them, a glorious maroon four-passenger sedan, has the distinction of being the most expensive car in the show, the sale price being £-10'10. All of the Rolls-Royce bodies arc mounted on the Phantom six-cylinder chassis made in the United States. A brief survey of the exhibits indicates very clearly that the coining year will be one of wide variety in the colour treatment of automobile bodies. The demand for artistic colour tones has been growing rapidly in the last half dozen years, but it reached its height in the opening shows of 1927. While the colour effects this year are probably no more pronounced than last season, closer attention, not only in the rich custom work, but also in the best standard bodies, is being paid to fine details. This is very noticeable in the treatment of the exterior and interior for contrasting shades, and more care is also shown in the treatment of the doors.

Examples of these details will be seen, for instance, in many of the Lincoln, Cadillac, Franklin, Packard, and Chrysler bodies. One of the Lincoln town cars is conservatively upholstered in heather tone broadcloth, absolutely simple in design, but presenting an aiistocratic effect. Another smart Lincoln is a brougham of the “all weather,’’ or collapsible, type, which is more noticeable this year in the sedans and other bodies larger than the coupes. The brougham body is by Le Baron, and in the chauffeur’s compartment the old style curtains and sagging canopy are dispensed with. Immediately following the show the new model Ford was exhibited at a special showing of its own, preceded by a five days’ advertising campaign in 2000 daily papers, on which the Ford Company is estimated to have spent £320,000.

No country offers the touring motorist such a wealth of wayside interest and romance as Great Britain, and provided adequate instructions are available, it is easy to enjoy unlimited miles of glorious travel with visits to endless points of interest that are linked with the life of early days. In rendering these tours more easily available to the motorist, signal work is being done by the Dunlop Touring Service Bureau at 43 Kingsway, London, W.C.2. Motorists only have to make inquiry at this bureau (giving some indication of the time at their disposal on the part of the country they wish to visit) to receive, entirely free of cost, a complete itinerary of the tour indicating mileages and all details of interest on the road. Accompanying the itinerary is a road map, on which the route is shown bv a blue line, with sections of bad road, repairs, etc., marked in red.

Under the auspices of a number of American automobile clubs a new body, the National Motorists’ Association, has been formed in Washington, with the object of improving the roads, bringing about uniformity in traffic regulations, restricting the sale of stolen ears, increasing the facilities for touring, providing mechanical first-aid and towing services throughout the United States and Southern Canada, extension of safely education ot pedestrians and drivers, and the elimination of “unethical and illegitimate practices bv the trade.”

COMMON DRIVING FAULTS BLOCKING FOLLOWING TRAFFIC AND STOPPING ON CORNERS. With the great number of motor vehicles on the roads during the holidays it was not necessary to travel far to discover what were the two commonest faults among drivers. With cars parked by the roadside everywhere by picnicking parties, it was very noticeable that many drivers failed entirely to understand that a vehicle should not be left standing on a corner. Innumerable ears weie to be seen so parked all over the countryside, as often as not with open straight stretches of road available on either side of the corner at which the car had been left. Drivers leaving their ears standing in such positions show themselves possessed of a very poor ■road sense indeed. Almost as noticeable was the slow driver holding the middle of the road and running most of his or her time on the thronged roads with a line of cars behind seeking an opportunity to pass. 'The slow driver seems generally to have a marked disinclination for keeping to his or her proper side of the road, and to possess a positive genius for monopolising the whole width of even a 20-foot roadway. In many cases, no doubt, the same spirit of caution which dictates a speed well below the average leads also to a desire to travel at a maximum distance from the ditch on either side of the road. As the only place where many such drivers get ove- to their own side of. the road is on approaching a bend, their habits thus lead to the drivers of blocked cars behind taking a chance and shooting by at the bend. There is no reason why drivers who wish to travel slowly and cautiously along the roads should not do so, but there is every reason why they should keep well over to their proper side and let the rest of the traffic go