USEFUL PADLOCK.

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 September 1934, Page 3

USEFUL PADLOCK.

PREVENTION OF THEFT Sometimes it is not possible to leave a car with the doors locked, and thus the cautious owner 1 inclines to the use of such theft-preventatives as the gearlever locking device or a key-switch in the ignition circuit. On the other hand, it is advantageous in a public garage to prevent the car being unnecessarily moved or entered, and in this case locking the car doors has its appeal. For these and other contingencies, the provision of a small, reliable padlock and of a strong chain with welded or solid links in which the padlock can engage, is well worth while. The first use is in preventing the car being driven away. This can be done by passing the chain around the gear lever or under the clutch pedal and thence around the nearest object (such as the steering column) —the padlock being used to unite two convenient links.

Then, in order to leave the doors of a two-door car locked internally the chain can be passed across from the handle of one door and attached to that of the other by means of the padlock —the latter operation and the locking (or unlocking) being carried out by reaching through a rear side window. The arrangement has such advantages as preventing the ingress of mechanics with greasy overalls or of urchins who stand on one’s seats; also of allowing .large articles to be left anywhere in the car, or small ones safely out of reach from the rear side ! window. On occasion, merely securing the driver’s door serves a purpose: in I a small car, for instance, reaching the driver’s seat via the other door may be difficult or even impossible. A further application of the chain and padlock is in preventing car movement by chaining one of the wheels; thus on a hill this arrangement has not only an anti-thief value, bitt also gives the assurance that the car cannot run away. Should one run the car off the road into a field or on to a garden path (a step which one is forced at times to take, or even to choose as a lesser evil) chaining a wheel can be worth while even if other means for ensuring an. easy mind are at hand. For this contingency the chain can he used as a means of securing the gate. And then, finally, there are occasions (and dubious districts) which give one cause to secure the spare wheel or any bags or goods mounted on the luggage carrier. SAFETY OF CYCLISTS The great majority of cyclists still appear to think that the responsibility for their personal safety when, awheel should rest nbt. on themselves but upon the drivers of overtaking vehicles whose speed at all limes should i enable them in ample time to perceive, by their lights, all traffic ahead (states a Cape Town writer). Anyone with road experience knows the impracticability of such a counsel

of perfection. Even the most careful drivers can record narrow, escapes from running down cyclists through the absence of a reflector or one of inferior quality or improperly mounted. The danger is aggravated further by the glaring headlights of passingcars but in any case it is a nerveracking tack to guard against overtaken cyclists. Just as much as others, cyclists must realise that they have a duty, not only to themselves but to theii’ fellow roadusers, and the easiest way in which they can discharge that duty is by ensuring that they can be easily distinguished at night. He mentions that there has been report of making compulsory in South Africa the white painting of rear mudguards, the suggestion having been sent forward to the Traffic Control Committee from overseas experience, but he is not impressed with the idea. Reflectors, he says, are more satisfactory, though it must be remembered that there are reflectors and reflectors, only the type that concentrates and reflects the light rays straight back to the driver’s eye being effective. But even their effectiveness depends upon the lamps of the overtaking vehicle, and so he is forced to the conclusion that the only really satisfactory safeguard is a separate lamp or a combined front and back light, as adopted by some cyclists.

DANGEROUS MASCOTS There are no exact principles upon which a man who is about to be knocked down by a motor-car may act to avoid serious trouble, but there used to be a rough-and-ready rule that if he jumped for it and took the knock fair and square on the radiator he might come off better than if he stayed on the ground and was scraped over by the bumper and run over by the wheels, at the same time having his head broken on the roadway. The jump-for-it rule does not apply so well now that fancy radiator mascots are one of the big things in car developments (says the Wellington “Post”). . This is the day of streamlining, and so mascot-makers have called up artists with instructions to design something really speedy. The field is very wide, and in a couple of days the following list was made of passing mascots and others parked about the city (mostly in those absolutely-no-parking streets): Eagles, very fierce and streamlined into a deadly spearhead; ships with sharp bowsprits; angels of great wind spread; a Greek sphinx (the Egyptian sphinx was just a landgrubber, wingless and less suitable for streamlining); Indian heads with flying eagle feathers; several Schneider Cup winners; other aeroplanes, Mercury in a hurry and other assorted winged figures; plain wings galore; a symbolic war figure with spear, the Old Man of the Pit, complete with pitchfork (pointing well forward); more eagles and, in the unstreamlined class, a rooster (just crowing, not even trying to fly); Vulcan; sets of bells (possibly of St. Mary’s); an urn with a lid (or perhaps a tobacco jar), and just plain spikes. The Automobile Association has expressed itself very forcibly against some of these mascots, not that it objects to art, and many of them are beautifully lined and worked, but because members fear that some unfortunate person- who jumps for it will be caught and impaled and terribly injury by an eagle, a sharp-bowspritted

ship, an aeroplane, .or another of these dangerous embellishments. However, here these mascots are, and a new general rule must be applied: Jump for a plain radiator cap; take the bumper for fancy caps. That is not the view of the Automobile Association. It takes the matter seriously (as it must be taken) and has made representations to the motor traders and also to the Transport

TiS'AaU.t-. Department, ds well as relying, so far with hot very wide response,-upon its own members choosing something artistic. hut not artistically deadly.