THE MOTOR WORLD

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 October 1924, Page 14

THE MOTOR WORLD

BY-LAWS

“I think that we have more • infringements of the by-laws in Hamilton than in any town in New Zealand,” remarked a member at a meeting of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. It was hard on country .people and visitors unfamiliar with the bylaws to be prosecuted and heavily lined for trivial breaches, he said. In some towns in America when a strange car was seen a card was attached to it by the police welcoming the owner and indemnifying him against prosecution for breaches of the traffic by-laws.

LONDON TRAFFIC

In an informative interview given to a Christchurch paper, Mr. F. Wilding, K.C., says:—The wonderful' cleanliness of London was another thing that impressed me. “Fifty years ago,” he remarked, “If you wanted to appear respectable you had to wear two collars a day; now you can wear one collar for two clays. Dust and horse droppings have disappeared from the streets, and cleanliness has been promoted by the asphalt, roadways. Despite the talk about the traffic difficulties of London it is possible nowadays to; get from the West End to the city in far shorter time than it could he done fifty years ago. As far back as the times of Edward I. they Avere debating the. problem of the city traffic pr London, 'and they had come to the conclusion that it would soon be impossible to control it. That indicated that the problem was no new one. Today the traffic was easier and quicker than it was fifty years ago, but pedestrians require to be careful; stepping on to the roadway without first looking meant ‘Kingdom Come’ and a Coroner’s inquest; on the other hand, if one watched the “man in blue” there was less risk in crossing a London street than in crossing the Bank of-New Zealand corner at busy times of the day. In London the regulation of traffic to its'proper side of the road is rigidly enforced, so that the pedestrian in crossing the street has only to look to one side. That the traffic problem is considered acute by some is indicated by the scheme, seriously put forward, for the construction of a road across London at a height of 200 feet, with elevators and graded ways giving access.to it. at different points.”

THOSE HEARTLESS MOTORISTS

The Feilding Star says that the motor traffic plays havoc with frogs, which are very numerous just now, and that when a strong light approaches the creatures “sit upon their haunches, paw £he air, and emit shrill hissing noises.” The explanation is simple. The frog community has decided to take strong measures to put down this speeding up on the roads through Frogland, and the air-pawers and hissers are the traffic regulators, The mortality rate among these inspectors, however, is so heavy that it is extremely probable a deputation will shortly wait on the Government to, protest against the alarming slaughter of so many respected old identities by these diabolical imported machines, which don’t even stop to'ask about the victim. TESTING HEADLIGHTS. EXTRACTS FROM INTERESTING REPORT. An interesting report on testing motor headlights for focus and dazzle was presented to the Trade Convention by the general secretary, Mr. J. F. Cousins, on behalf of a special committee set up to go into the matter, the report was adopted and the committee thanked. ’ The following is a portion of the report, which deals with the investigation of the committee:— “After a trial of more than a year by the California Motor Trade Association, the system has been taken over by the State of California and made the law of the land. 1 ‘Briefly .put, the method referred to is a systematic regulation of (a) The style of headlight. (b) Type of lens. (c) Maximum and. minimum candle power of filament permitted. .(d) Focus of filament in relation to reflector. (e) The setting of the headlights to confine the rays within specified limits. “Investigations made by the electrical engineering department of the University of California proved that certain types of lenses would give all the results called for in the regulations, if the filaments were focussed and the position of the headlights fixed according to instructions which have been set down for the guidance of .those who have to test all headlights. SAFETY ON THE ROAD. Commander F. Spring Rice writes as below to the Times:— Is not the long-needed and simple reform that of including in the rules of the road ashor© that rule of the road at sea relating to crossing—i.e., that the vehicle which has the other on its right hand gives way? I believe this is the rule in France now. Most of the bad accidents are due to these crossing cases, where neither is bound to give way, and “trouble” is simply “.yelled,” not “asked,” for. THE RULE TO FOLLOW. A pedestrian came upon a big car by the roadside, and the owner of the car was fast losing his prospects of heaven. When at last the atmosphere grew a little less sultry, and the pedestrian thought he could venture without too much risk into the danger »one, he advanced and enauired politely: “Having a bit of trouble?’!. “Yes!” grunted the motorist. “Looks like it, doesn’t it?” “It does,” admitted the pedestrian. “What horse-power is she?” “Forty,” snapped the motorist. “Indeed! And what do you think is the trouble?” “As far as I can see,” barked the motorist, “39 of them have died.” SAFETY FIRST. I drive my tumbril east and west, as stately as a wedding guest, and in. my wide and' bulging breast I hold the love of ‘man ; if I treat others, I decree, politely, as my weird I dree, then others will play fair with me, and will not- wreck my van. So with the grace of Chesterfield I drive my wagon, yellowwheeled, and I am always prompt to yield when arguments arise: I won’t dispute the light of way or argue rules i with any jay: “You’re doubtless right, drive on,” I say, serene, unruffled, wise. If all the drivers were polite when travelling by day or night, we’d ‘ seldom see a mangled wight stretched

out upon the grass; but many delegates forget that courtesy’s the noblest bet when once they grab the wheel and set their feet upon tne gas. They’re always prone to take a chance, like streaks of lightning they advance, although there is no circumstance that calls for frantic speed; along the dusty road they rack; let other fellows clear the track, and then a hearse severe, and black bears off the forms that bleed. And often times the speeding skate, the frenzied, deadly delegate, has manners truly fine and great, when from the gas afar; when he’s afoot he’s kind and mild, he would not injure man or child, he only shows us conduct wild’when he is in a car.— Walt Mason.

CROSSING THE SAHARA

Dealing with the great scheme for traversing the Sahara by motor, the London Times says:—“The war had left the French impressed with the necessity of consolidating and developing their colonial possessions, conscious of their special racial gift for making their ascendancy acceptable to coloured peoples, and conversant with mechanical devices which had been perfected in conditions in which expense was of no account. It seems to have been to M. Citroen that credit is chiefly due for adapting means to ends. He “originated” the caterpillar car which crossed the desert, and devised the arrangements which demonstrated in this expedition the possibility of establishing rapid, safe and permanent communication between the valuable districts to the north'of the Sahara and those to the south. ‘He was invited by the authors to contribute an introduction containing those particulars of the genesis of the expedition which he was specially competent to supply; and this he has done. In it he describes attempts to use the wheeled motor-car in the desert; in exceptional conditions he holds that it might traverse it, but not to any practical purpose. ‘ The wheeled car would not solve, the problem of reliable communication. But for some years his work had been constructing cars that would move over broken ground :— ; ' The system adopted consists, in principle, of an endless rubber hand, a sort of moving rail, supple and resistant. which unrolls under the vehicle. We have thus constructed cars capable) of travelling over yielding ground without sinking in, and over ridged ground without deteriorating, as well" as facing inclines of every kind, while making 25 to 28 miles an hour-. In this system which was adapted to the Sahara cars, and to indicate how thorough was the procedure it is enough to state that trial’’trips of several thousand miles were made in the desert. As the result of them, modifications were introduced—changes in the shape of the caterpillars, contrivances for reducing the- consumption of water and for protecting the machinery from sand. There remained to trace out the route and to see to it that supplies were procurable along it as far as conditions allowed, and that there were specially equipped supporting parties at either end. Of these, qne provisioned posts as far south of the starting point as In Salah (620 miles); the other advanced north-eastwards from Timbuctoo to the wells of Tin Zowaten (550 miles). This left 800 miles of desert in which the ear s would be left to their own resources. One is apt to conceive the Sahara as hot and sandy; it is that; but it contains peaks 8000 ft. high, and it may be so cold at night that radiators freeze. The special dangers seem to have been three—night attacks from the marauders of the desert, tbe collapse of the machinery in broken country, and sandstorms. As to the first, the party was unmolested. The nearest approach to a breakdown occurred at the beginning of the most difficult stage, when one of the cars was hurled on to a block of stones in descending a steep slope; it split a driving pulley, and it is typical of the unhurried tenacity with which the journey was conducted that, though the party carried spare pulleys, they saved them for a possibly greater need .and sent back 31 miles for a pulley from the provisioning car left behind. They did encounter a sandstorm : ‘ ‘We stop frequently.. We are plagued with hunger, hut . . we onlv succeed .in munching some bits of dry bread by squeezing against the body of the car on the lee side, and even so we swallow a lot of sand.” This storm appears to have been the most trying incident. The success of tne expedition had been assured in the The five ears that left Touggonrfc arrived in the prescribed formation at r Timbuetco on the twentieth day; and when they "were 'nvited to make tho return journey to omve yet further their reliability they 'hd their overtime with no more protest than so ipany motor ’buses.