THE MOTOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 69, 21 March 1912, Page 4

THE MOTOR.

(By "Autos.'')

The motor bylaw, which comes up for confirmation by the City Council tonight, appears to have been fairly well j receiVed in motoring circlee. though j naturally the taxi-cab interests are up against it — at present, at any rate. Probably when they have a little cxi perience of its working, there will bo a great deal leas to growl about. One thing is certain, and that is it is quite I hopeless for the taxi people to try to I evade the bylaw by running from the garage and not from the stand or by any other mean*. The authorities have kept these things in view. The only course left for the proprietors and drivers of taxi-cabs is to comply with the bylaw and trust to the vastly increased public confidence in the taximeter and its fair record of fares, and in the better maintenance of the cars, to loa-d to a great extension of the use of the motor cab. This will come, if the taxi-men endeavour in every way to improve their vehicles and keep them up to the mark, run a legitimate business, and look after it properly. They will then recognise the bylaw as a blessing in disguise. On tlie whole the results of the twoj day reliability trials of the N.Z.M.C.C. ' will give general satisfaction, as tho honoiuv are well divided. The little A.J.o. did very well to win the light- ■ weights and light-weight hill climb, while the Triumph was successful in the heavy-weight hill climb,, and the Kudge in petrol consumption. The new Hudson also madti a very promising debut. ' It is rumoured that another hill-climb is in contemplation by the club— with a dry day for the event, if possible. The wet weather at Paekakariki proved very hard on most machines during the two days' trial. The Indian scored well in the teams' competition. j On the question of the- " cut-out " ;wlxion"; w lxion" writes in the Motor Cycle:—' , "Personally, I confine the use of a cutout to two sets of conditions,, viz., climbing steep hiljs and. threading heavy traffic.. Better design would obviate the usefulness of 'the cut-out in' climbing exceptional hills, and, from, this standpoint legal repression of cut-out* is certainly to be welcomed ; it will accelerate the production of better engines. *As regards the other circumstances, I have always _ asserted that a silent motor bicycle is a most dangerous vehicle in traffic. The silent car is safeguarded first by its eize, which ensures its catching the eye of a pedestrian, and ako by the comfort and ease with which a- car , is slowed, stopped, and re-started^ as i contrasted with a motor bicycle. I confess that in busy cities J almost invariably drive on tho open cut-out' in daytime ; the restricted throttle opening prevents roally excessive noise. If tho Jaw robs me of my cut-out, 1 shall be compelled to make excessive use of a penetrating hooter or exhaust whistle, which will be less convenient to myself and more irritating to the public, whom 1 so. lovingly protect. The whole trouble is due to the mannerless riders who love to crackle along under all circumstances and a-t- all speeds With a welltuned engine and open exhaust." Any person who haa dismantled a carburettor, filled it with petrol, and accidentally moved it iv & jerky manner will have noticed that the movement is at once accompanied by the dancing al the float and by an overflow of the flui,d sat the jet. A quicker, movement will 'cause quite a considerable Bpray. This illustrates what occurs with a car bouncing on a rough road. If the* carburettor ( is affording the proper., fuej^flpw^ on, a smooth ro*d it will supply an exoese probably alternating with X slight deticjency at each road shock. .Both ex•cess and deficiency, means loss of powr'er, and in extreme cases misfiring. This can be remedied by retarding the movements of the float by damping, and conbidering / the remarkable falling-off in a var's spued ■on reaching "a rough' road there stems little doubt but that is due not only to the increased rolling resistance and friction, but also to the decrease' of engine power due to the jabove indicated cause. ' In the regrettable" absence of that stimulus to car improvement, great road races on carefully guarded and protected courses, it will

probably be iong before any such minor advance i& even asked tor by the testing officials, and etill longer before it is supplied to a petrol saving public, which has only the vaguest notions of how petrol is wated. Another cause of loss, the tilting of the float chamber with road camber and hill-climbing, is slowly receiving attention and remedy by the incoming of tho concentric float— that ie to say, the float, and float chamber in tho centre of which is situated tho jet and air inlet. There is no carburrettor maker, except perhaps the Polyrhoe, who does not, adjust the height ot his jet to an exact millimetre in relation to the fuel in tho float chamber, and yet it may easily vary by that amount by road camber alone unless the concentric arrangement is used. Cheapness and pre- occupation with other affairs presumably account for such matters being "disregarded. The firm of Messrs. Stanton and Richards has lort tho services of Mr. Richards, who has joined the Colonial Motor Company. The firm is now Messrs. Stanton and Evans, and will continue its well-known business of vepairing and overhauling cars at the Molesworth-streot garage. Mr. ' J. Boucher had a curious adventure on Saturday night. Ho was Tiding on his Rudge motor cycle up Creswickroad to Karori, when he suddenly came round a corner on a trap driven without lights. The shaft of the vehicle struck Mr. Boucher in the chest and gave a bad ten minutes, but ho was able to pull lound luckily and got home without serious injury. The case is one of not "a few, where drivers of horse vehicles omit to carry lights at night, thus endangering 6very user of the road. The authorities should enforce th© bylaw' far moro strictly. Among the now "valveless" car engines is the Dubois-Rousseau. It is described in French atS "Sans Soupapes," but its valves are of a novel kind, and really there in oscillating split rings over each cylinder. According to report it runs successfully. Meanwhile there are hosts of Tadial, rotary, sleeve, and semisleeve valve patents. ' What the final upshot will be is hard to forecast. One can find little fault on the score of noisiness with the best poppet valve engines nowadays, and, as that was the chief complaint against the poppet valve, ,one can hardly see where the far more expensive sleeve valve is going to come in. Hubert Latham, the famous airman,has gone to the French Congo for big game, and to study the possibilities of aviation in the French colonies. SPORTS AT INVERCAfiGILL ♦ fBY TELEGRAPH— PBESS ASSOCIATION.] - INVERCARGILL, 20th March. The Irish athletic sports were held to-day in good weather,- four, thousand people being present. There were large fields, and good contests Entries were received from all over the South Island. The following are the results of the big events :—: — St. Patrick's Sheffield Handicap, 135 Yards (£4O and Sir Joseph Ward's gold medal). -F. C. M'Cahnan (Chribtchurch), 12yds, 1 ; J. J. Livesey (River>ton), 12iyds, 2; E. 0. Bartlett (Inver* cargill), 13 yardo, 3; R. Pedlar (Inverrargill).. Ilyds. Time, 13 3-Ssec. Won by half a yard, .with a foot between the second and third. 75 Yard & , Fly.— F. C. M'Calman (Christchurch) and E. J. Barttett (Invercargill) dead-heated, with F. Wise (Christchurch} third. Tho men decided to run- off,, when M'Calman won easily. In ttte'i^O^yards hurdles Gerald Ked^ d«ll»put uj. a good performance. Owing to want of 'space the distance was only I 115 jjatdd, .which K«dd«ll, starting 30 yards, behind.* covered in 18sec dead. • The .actual distance run by Ked- . dell wa<£ 145 yards,-, which works out at a, shade over lfr l-ssec for the 120 yards distance _ 'The 'champion has nob had a slice on since tho New Zealand amateur championships', on. which occasion he was I far from well, and it was with diffidence . that he camV out to-day. It is reported that an up-to-date Opera House is to be built shortly iii a prominent place in Feilding (says the local Star). The Opera House will ba in the hands of a company, and opportunity is to be given local residents of taking up shares. j

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