QUIETER MOTOR CYCLES

Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 15

QUIETER MOTOR CYCLES

In quest of silence the motor cycle manufacturers have called in the aid of scientific research. Mainly as the result of a gift of £I,OOO from the British motor cycle industry, the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, is to make a thorough investigation into the sources and character of engine and mechanical noise. Last year the industry gave Mr Hor-Belisha, Minister of Transport, an undertaking that it would not in future market noisy machines. To implement that promise the manufacturers set aside this £I,OOO. They have supplied to the scientists at Teddington four motor cycles—a 250 c.c. two-stroke, a 350 c.c. high-compression overhead valve engine, a 600 c.c. side-valve engine, and a 1,000 c.c. four-cylinder. A special anti-noise committee has been set up to supervise the investigation, including representatives of the laboratory, the Institution of Automobile Engineers, the motor cycle industry, and Professor Cave-Browne-Cave, of the University of Southampton. The latter is already engaged on a study of carburettor noise. The first year’s programme of investigation is to cost £1,400.