ITEMS OF INTEREST

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 22 October 1935, Page 2

ITEMS OF INTEREST

In the past 10 years the Automobile Association, Southland, has spent £1167/15/8 in erecting signposts.

Take a pride in your driving; proficiency is at least as much worth cultivating as are your golf or tennis.

This year 13 States in America have passed laws requiring the installation of safety glass in motor vehicles, bringing the total number of States having a compulsory safety glass law to 21.

Pneumatic tyres for horse-drawn vehicles, even heavy lorries, are being extensively developed in Australia and farther afield.

German motor car manufacturers are trying to establish a law which will force owners of old cars to scrap . them; they also suggest that secondhand cars valued at less than £10 should not be allowed to be sold.

The French Government has decided to reorganise the petroleum market in France in order to check competition between importers, resulting in a great deal of price-cut-ting. A plan for the better organisation of the selling side of the petroleum industry is also under consideration.

Petrol-driven buses on the London j streets are doomed. The London Transport Board has been experimenting for 18 months with the' Diesel-engined bus, and already 850 of its fleet of 5500 buses and 500 coaches are using this method of propulsion. The board has now decided that no more petrol-driven vehicles are to be built. As each petroldriven bus is withdrawn, it will be

replaced by one of the Diesel type. Between six and eight of the new type are being placed on the streets every week. It is expected that it will be 10 years before the . last petrol-driven bus finally leaves the service. The change is being made for reasons of convenience and economy.

When removing the engine-head prior to decarbonising, don't ruin the gasket by forcing a screw-driver in between the head and the gasket. First loosen all the cylinder head bolts, and then screw them up again with the fingers. Start the engineonly for a few revolutions—and you will then be able in most cases to remove the head without difficulty. * * * *

There is apparently no foundation whatever for the rumour that a £30 car is being produced, or is to be produced, in the U.S.A., writes the New York correspondent .of "The Motor." The Society of Automotive Engineers says that it has never heard of such developments. Equally vigorous are the denials by the Ford Motor Co. of America that it is contemplating the production of a cheap Diesel-engine car to compete with an inexpensive Japanese model.

An unusual statement was made recently by Mr Ernest F. Hadow, the coroner for Mid-Warwickshire. He said that but for the intelligence of motorists fatalities would be much heavier. He added that every time he drove out in his car he saved somebody's life, and the same applied to all other motorists. For every pedestrian or cyclist killed by a motorist, he added, the motorist saves the lives, by his courtesy and skill, of 999.

The perishing of the heavy insulation surrounding the high tension leads to the spark plugs is sometimes the cause of intermittent misfiring. It is a good plan to replace perished cables, for it might happen that when the engine is operating at wide throttle under load, and the compression pressure is high, the ignition current will leak through the insulation if the cable happens to touch any part of the metalwork.

In New Zealand, as well as in overseas countries, the practice of changing cars for new models each year is fairly common, and those are the people who are a god-send to the seeker of good used cars with very modest mileage to their credit in addition to other attractive features, says an exchange. Invariably

such cars are very well tended, and they are, in most instances, as good as new. . Other owners, on the other hand,, and they are in the majority, cling to their cars, year after year, questions of ready cash and human traits entering into the matter. Scores of New Zealand families can boast of having had 10 or a dozen or more cars in their lifetime, but those are tame records compared with those held by Masterton people. One motorist can boast of having owned and driven 65 cars, and two others claim an even more intensive ownership plan, namely, over 40 cars in 10 years.