THE MOTOR. (By "Autos.")

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 74, 27 March 1912, Page 4

THE MOTOR. (By " Autos.")

The Library Committee of tho City Council is not a very live body or it would have ecen long ago that the Municipal Library should take in at leaet one ov two motor journals. At present Uiero is not a, single journal dealing with the motor car or the motor cycle proper. The only paper m any way connected with, the motor k "The Motor Boat." It is high time the committee should remedy this defect—a complete anarchronism in these days. It would be-vejy tie* sirable ako if for the Reference Moom some standard work on the motor was procured. The present volumes date back to the Stone Age, so far as modern motoring in concerned. It might also be advisable to improve the whole of the engineering aeetion dealing with the internal combustion engine, where new inventions and discoveries have revolutionised the field daring the last half-dozen yeans. It is not much use having a. technical .school mileee firstclass technical literature is provided in the Public Library for reference. The I City Council might very .veil look to this important branch of the library. Mr. Arthur Cleeve, of the New Zea, land Motor and Cycle Journal, i» m town juet now. He drove through from Auckland, in his ne-w nix-cylinder Knight Daimler car—the only eix-cylindersd Knight 'Daimler in the Dominion. He was accompanied by Mr. G. 0. Beckett. The trip was accomplished in a fairly leisurely manner without mishap or incident though the rdade were very bad between Auckland and Napier. A comical incident happened in ono of Wellington's main thoroughfares this week. A motor-cyclist -riding a rather ancient machine 1 of nondescript design camo to a «top, something going wrong with his mount. An important part had dropped off. A benevolent boy ridI ing an ordinary push-bike courteously i jumped off and picked it up. He dropped it with a yell. It wao the hot exhaust pipe! A feature of the lateet Austin car just •landed by the Scott Motor Agency is tho Austin patent leather hood. This is of substantial leathei'( with polished surface supported by side extbntuont, which will hold up the hood without the U93 of the cuGtomary straps. The Scott firm is also showing the newest type of Colonial Napier with ite immene© front axhypiece of solid forged steel of square section about 2£ inches square. The new Napier ifl fitted with duplicate watei cooling evstems-^-one the ordinary thermo-fiyphon and the other operated ,by a circulating pump. ' For broiling 'weather and for uphill work on low geaf this is a decided improvement. Everybody is familial- with the et&aming radiator, say* oh the climb of the Bimutakae. Henri Brasier makes out a very good case for the worm-drive ill the small car. Writing to L'Echo dcs Sports he saye :— "The Teason why I haVe sought to adopt worm-drive to small cars is most simple. Small" cars have small motors which are obliged to run at a high num. ber of revolutions, and in order to provide for'theJ comparatively low number of revolutions of the road wheels, when on direct drive, it is necessary to fit a very large crown wheel and a very small driving pinion. But we aix> limited in the diameter of the crown, wheel, and the driving pinion must consequently bo made 1 smaller. N everthele6S, this small ■, pinion dccc what ife asked of it/*and, even does it well, because it transmits low,'efforts at frequent intervals, notwithstanding that its teeth work one by one t and'not-two ,or even three to- 1 gether, as in 'the case_ of larger driving; pinions obtaining their power from, a 'big, loW'Sp&d'motor. It will be asked, 'Why change\it, then?' For the reason that the small bevel pinion has not only to support the efforts due to the power of the motor, but has also to withstand directly all rood shocks, and paiticularly all braking efforts, tinder these conditions it has some really hard work to do, and it is only a, proof of its robustness that it does not break more often. I believe that by replacing this small, hard-working little pinion, which only works by points, by a big-eurfaced, well-mado ' worm —it is tru© that it ifi not easy to make—is for the good of" all motorists.' I have applied this system- to my new 10 h.p. four-cylinder models of 67 mm. by 110 mm. bore and stroke, after having tested it for several months on all kinds of roads with a car weighing 26 cwt empty, and driven by a motor developing 28 h.p. to 30 h.p. As the result of these tests, I am convinced that with a correctly-cut worm the only difficulty has been with tho ball-thrust bearings. This difficulty has been overcome. As the result oif experiments now being undertaken with larger models, I shall decide whether the use of the worm can be advantageously applied to heavier and more powerful cars." . Self-starters are the chief topic of discussion. at present vi the principle motor journals. In this new improvement to the car the Americana have for once taken the lead —as a rule they have been content to follow European practice. In the recent New York motor show a very large percentage of the cars shown were fitted with self-starters. So much was this the case that a prominent motor export, returning from America, gives it as his opinion that at the Olympia Show cf 1913 a car will not be found without an engine-etarting device of some sort. The three principal methods in America by which the engine may be started ! from the driver's eeat are tho acetylene starter, the compressed air starter, and the electric staTter. Them is also tho semi-automatic Holden device, ft is impossible to explain these different sys- ! terns briefly, but they can be tuggosted. The acetylene self-starter is particularly adapted for American cars, which already carry their acetylene stored up with the gas absorbed under prossuro in acetone—tho system used in the oxyacetono blowpipe. Its simplicity in use is rudimentary. When stopping the engine by cutting off the spark after a run, a foot button is depressed for about three revolutions of the engine. This opens a valvo which admits a small proportion, of acetylene to the inlet pipe oi the engine, and thus to all the cylinders. Acetylene, unlike petrol vapour, does not condense in the cylinders, and is at once expired on passing the ordinary "trembler coil" spark, even though long periods may have elapsed sines the car was stopped. The electrical system in essence consists of an electric motor couple to the engine and driven off accumulators. Th© function of the electric motor being reversible, it is in turn driven by the engine as a dynamo to recharge the accumulators when they run down. This has been made a standard equipment of the Cadillac car. The Holden system is simpler still. A. valve-lifter is employed, and lifts the valves, while the engine is easily rotated from the driver's seat. Petrol vapour is sucked into the cylinders in the ordinary way, and the engine starts on the spark. These, or similar devices, will probably be the feature of next season's cai'ft.

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