USE OF SPEED GOVERNORS

Evening Star, Issue 22353, 1 June 1936, Page 15

USE OF SPEED GOVERNORS

With a campaign in progress in TJ.S.A. to reduce the automobile accident toll the use of speed-limiting devices on motor vehicles is being discussed with widesperad interest. Efforts are being made to make compulsory the n§e of a mechanical governor —a small device placed on a motor vehicle to limit its speed—on all types of automobile; but just as fervently the proposition is being opposed as an ineffective means of preventing serious accidents. However, it is reported that the device is being voluntarily adopted in many places. All new trucks and passenger cars of New’ York’s Department of Sanitation, for example, are to be equipped with governors limiting thenspeed to 25 miles an hour, while in New Jersey a driver who had lost his license for_ speeding has w-on it back on con- ■ dition that lie keep? on his car a governor holding it to not more than 40 miles an hour. The idea of controlling speed by mechanical devices on cars is not new, states the ‘ New York Sunday Times.’ For many years every major truck fleet in the country has equipped its vehicles with these mechanisms, and some of the largest bus lines also employ such controls. A governor on a motor vehicle prevents the car from being driven at a higher speed than a predetermined maximum. This maximum is generally set at 30 to 35 miles an hour for trucks and at 50 to 52 miles an hour for buses. There are a great many types of governors on the market, but perhaps the most common is one that regulates the flow- of gasoline into the carburettor. In this way the predetermined engine speed cannot bo exceeded. The other major type of control acts upon the transmission as distinct from the motor, keeping down the speed of the car itself.