Page 3 Advertisements Column 2

Dunstan Times, 18 November 1946, Page 3

Your New Car ! The first of the new English postwar cars are on sale in New Zealand; worthy ambassadors of a mechanical perfection that will i forge a vital link in Britain s economic future. Technical and research, engineers, whose job it . is to ensure that their firms' finished products ' are world beaters, find added responsibilities thrust upon them. The owner of a British car m New Zealand or Norway expects the same reliability and road worthiness as the customer in Ceylon or Central Africa. This is no light responsibility for virtually the same models are being exported to over 70 countries, all with thenvarying climates, temperatures and road conditions. British manufacturers’ research departments now- put cars and components through standard tests that simulate conditions in every corner of the globe. The most spectacular is the Arctic test. The model, selected at random off the production line, is driven into a large refrigerator simulating severe winter conditions in temperatures between 10 degrees and zero. There it is left from two to four days while turbulent cold air produces snow, driven by electric fans into every crevice. Encased in snow- and ice, the car is then tested for flaws. A concentration of anti-freeze mixture suitable to the temperature is always used so that the engine may survive, but after this drastic treatment it is started in the normal w-ay on the electric starter. Dynamo and switches and lamps are all checked to see that they function satisfactorily. This test is a valuable means of discovering the effect of exceptionally cold w-eather on the manual effort required to operate controls such as the gears and steering aparatus. The thaw-out and the subsequent effect on the engine and circulation system are also closely followed. From snow- and ice to bright sunshine and sizzling heat; the research department has them all- Samples of all paint, rubber and external materials used in the manufacture of the cars are inserted in a weather-o-meter and subjected to the pene- < trating rays of an intensely power- i ful lamp many times stronger than the most brilliant sunlight. As if this is not enough, water is sprayed . on the samples by high-powered jets. Two weeks of this treatment 1 is the equivalent to 12 years of the I worst possible weather any motorist could find. After that, samples are placed under a microscope w-hich ( magnifies them 4500 times, revealing even the most minute faultsIn another weather-proof test, 1 the model is driven slowly through 1 a tunnel of water pipes which pro- \ duce driving rain that can be intensified to something approaching the world’s record rainfall —40.8 . inches in one day at Cherra Poonje, , in AssamThere are no half measures about 1 the check-over these British cars get before they leave the factory, Other rigorous tests include mount- ( ing the model on rollers fitted . with cams, and, its engine roaring ' bouncing it at the rate of 200 < bumps a minute. There are other < devices which violently shake and ] vibrate the car. No driver—no road anywhere in the world—could treat a car so badly as this. Brake lining , samples are held in contact with a ■ revolving brake-drum continuously ' for a “distance” of .100 miles; i samples of leather trimmings are i stretched to destruction on a machine , resembling the torture rack of olden times. Even the despised exhaust pipe undergoes the most exacting lest to ensure that .the waste gases 1 are- conveyed to the atmosphere < efficiently and with the maximum 1 degree of silence. While this thorough testing is taking place, the research engineers are already working on the designs and the proto- 1 types of the cars to be. The experimental stages in the development of the automobile have long been passed. Radical changes of design have consequently become progressively infrequent. Future changes will rely mainly on detail improvements. Although startling changes arc suggested and tried out behind the scenes, quantity production necessarily imposes rigid limits on bright ideas in order to produce cars at the right price. Standard refinements in 1947 models are brakes which require no adjustment and automatic chassis lubrication and clutches which provide the same easy change for hamfooted drivers.. British manufacturers are determined to provide the best and most advanced forms of motori?ig.

“Toasted tobacco**, said the reporter, “has come to stay; we all know that, because every other bloke you meet smokes one brand or another of it. But what is the toasting process exactly? How is done?” '‘There’s a good few would like to know that, if you ask me, ’ replied the wbifl merchant, lighting a cigarette. “Every industry has Us secrets, and I reckon that’s ope of the secrets of the National Tobacco Co., the pioneers of the tobacco in-, dustry in New Zealand. But ‘toasted’ caught on from the jump, you know, and no doubt toasting' had a Iqt \o do with that—cleans up the nicotine in the leaf and helps to give the six blends: Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshcad), Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Cavendish, Riverhead Gold, Desert Gold and Pocket Edition, their distinctive flavour and fine bouquet.”' ‘fff I 9 nl y k h ew all about the blanky process/’ said the scribe, “it’d make a story, that would!" “No doubt," laughed the tobacconist, “but the manufacturers are hardly likely to give away the secret just to oblige you! ’

Defies Cough, Colds, Influenza— Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure \y.E. VVopde, tawbtou Quay, Wellington