MOTORING

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 21 July 1928, Page 14

MOTORING

(By “Magneto.”)

SPARKS.

If the average man could look as young l'or his age as thousands of the presu mab 1 y isi x tee n -yea r-ol d c-h ildre i 1 we see- at the steering wheels, wouldn’t life he great! X- * -X- * -XInspector: dome on. What’s the matter with you? Truck driver: I’m well, thanks, hut my engine’s dead. “What’s the matter, dear?” “Can’t get this self-starter to work. I think there must be a short circuit somewhere.” “How annoying! Can’t you lengthen it?” * * •* « * Bud Jackson’s car a. total wreck; It happened Friday morn. Tlud says the fast train engineer Alu st not have heard his horn. * * * * » A. certain motor ear manufacturer wlif, had advertised that he Jiad put a car together in seven minutes'/ was lung up on the telephone and asked if it was true. “Yes,” was the answer; “why?” “Oh, nothing. But I believe I’ve got the- car.” * m * * • They had been married only a short time, "when he was required to take a fifty-mile motor trip without her. ■Starting in the. morning he swore he would return lor iseven o’clock dinner. But s.oveu o’clock found him absent. The hours went by, and still no husband. Whan ten o’clock came the frantic bride sent this telegram to a friend of bis in eacrh of live towns through which he would pass: “John is missing. Much worried. Have you seen anything of him?” Hubby reached home at midnight, having had engine trouble by the way, and soon the answers began to arrive. .Each telegram read: “John is all right. He is spending the night/with me ”

NOTES AND NEWS.

.More than 30 per cent, of all the motor cars in the United States are on farms. Nearly 18 per cent, are in villages of less than 2500 population.

There is a Herndon scheme afoot to provide garage accommodation for, it is said, jOLKJ cars close to Piccadilly Ui-rous. 'ike building is the first of 100 similar garages to meet the needs ol t neatre-goers.

Air Vi. 11. Morris has announced tiiat a 7 h.p. model will be produced. It will he about two-thirds of the size of the Morris-Cowley. In five years the Austin Company has sold nearly 100,000 7 h.p. cans.

T. A. Edison, the famous inventor, says that the motor-car, next to the Great War. has done more to make Americans think than any agency or invention. On the other hand, motorists in Hawera will agree that the motor-car has enabled the possession of a large vocabulary of words- not in the dictionary.

One occasionally meets with paragraphs in the Press the headings of which arrest one’s immediate attention. A case in point is a. paiagraph, which- the- writer noticed the other day, headed “The- .£40,000 car.” This turned out to refer to a demonstration model of the 18-50 h.p. six-cylinder Star, which has earned over .£-10.000 in orders in a- matter of about four months.

“Torque Tube,” who contributes a week I v page of satire to “Alotor Transport-,” has a happy knack of expressing, with Gilb-ertian humour, the comic aspect- of ordinary mundane- affairs. The road v. rail controversy, now raging in England, is reflected in the- following example : “Talking of railways, what’s the difference between the permanent way of the Great- South-North-ern and the permanent’ way in which meetings of the directors of that company are conducted! You don’t know! AVell, in tiie first the chairs are on the Heepeis and in the- -second the sleepers are on the chairs.” There is; many a true word spoken in joist.

A wonderful change has taken place in Germany during the .last three or four years in the application of omnibuses and coaches. The vehicles are all of modern design, and their use has grown in- amazing proportions. Generally speaking, Germany is much more advanced in. commercial motor transmutation than in private cars. In Fraqee Ihe post-war revival showed itself in popular private cars; in Germany it came with commercials, and it may he two or three years yet before the nrivate car begins to grow at a rapid rate.

There are many aged cars still _ to bc> found in regular use to-day. proving <f vvhat excellent material these were originally made. The owner ol a 1.U14 Sunbeam, for instance, who still cues it regularly for business p-n poses, makes a -point of driving up io the Olympia Show each year in this old machine and, needless to say, his arrival creates greater interest year by year. The car is- chain-driven and possesses the heavy type of .open high-seated body which was the fashion a quarter of a century ago. Despite its age, however. ii can still keep up a steady 28 to 30 m.p.li. for-hours on end.

WANDERING FRAIILEIN.

HUGO STINHES- DAUGHTER.

A< companiod by a kinematographer iiml lot ll- Gorman mechanics. Ernulein t laorcnoro Htinnois, only daughter o tlio Into Hugo .Stinnos, millionaire industrialist, has motored from Germany l.!irough Pen-Tin, Uussia anil Siberia to Pe.cing (China), where she arrived at tlie end of last month. Travelling in a German ear and motor-lurry, the party intends to go on to Japan and South America. Tim trip was adventurous, with Chinese bandits dotting the landscape, and the parly claims to have been the rrst to motor across Lake Baikal, in Eastern Siberia. It waited lor two ana a-ha If months for ice to form on the lake,and then drove rapidly across the surface, with the ice cracking and splintering in the wake of the cans.

At Home amid Abroad

S.T.A.A.

A TANGLE.

SAVING PETROL.

INGENIOUS PLAN.

TWO RADIATORS

A GROWING ASSOCIATION

The following list shows the increasing popularity of the South Taranaki Automobile Association, and with new memcers given below the membership has now reached a total of nearly 10(>o. Hawera.—B. L. Haisemne, C. L. Rowlandson, ±£. L. Spratt, Rev. Lather P J. Cullen, J. N. Crocker, A. K. Rogers, 11. 11. Scott, H. H. Legge, A. J. Haseltine, W . Kothery, L. i-ustace, C. W. Hodge, L F. Pell, J. E. Dingle, i’. J. JacKson, D. Handyside, J. F. Kiley, Aliss I. H. Stewart, Airs. B_ T. Bulloch, Garheld AVallace, J. trail, H. Spratt-, J. binilie, H. H. Bramweli, Gyde and Barringer, Q. L. Curtis, M. Riley, J. L. Carter, H. Cameron, H. McKay, \A . R. Laurent, C. Radlord, H. D. ..MacDonald, John Lind, I). Wards, T. King, K. Meliarry, Dr. J. Cairney, T. Anderson, J. A. AlcCallmn, J. AV. C raig, G. 11. Alills, Airs. C. Twaddle, E. Wat-son, K. T. Clout, R. B. Douglas, C. St amp: i, G. Canty, Dr. N. T. Mira ins. /L.ltham. —.1. ixxitton, J. P. Marx, -T. Kerr, F. E. Silver, J. J. King, R. A McConnack, AY. Jerr. Patea.—Airs.- A. AI. Alcllae, A. J. Porteous, itev. C. Aker, E. R. Palmer, A. J. Giobs. Alanaia.—W. AValker, W. A. Verry, J. it. Anderson, H. Feather, W. T. Christian, S. Davies, \Y J. \Velham, A. T. West, J. S. Gamlin, E. Wills. Kaponga.—D. P. J Alalonc, R. E. t\ dihuns. Opunakc.—J. Huwiler, H. H. Gilsli«an, R. J. Alorris, H. \Y. Pettigrew, W. L. Chambers. Stratiord. —11. AVellington, C. .H. Clemow, A. H; Gaze, \\ . Ashley, .if. Kear, ,1. i,. Taylor, E. A. Adlam, AV. Bray, T. Godiun, \\ . Doon. K. Lawyer.

THE SPEED LIMITS. REG UI .ATKINS CL A Sll “The system by which each local body deals under its by-laws with motor vehicle traffic in its district has not been found to be satisfactory, due to the wide range of the motor vehicle, and the draft regulations have been prepared with a view to obtaining uni.ormity throughout New Zealand in the essential requirements of motor vehicle control.” Such was the explanation of the new motor regulations circulated by Air. Furaert, Under-Secretary of the Public Works Department, in November last. At the conference of the North Island Alotor Union in March last a representative of the Public AVorks Department was present,.and stated definitely that the regulations would override and nullify the existing local speed limits. The tangle of local speed limits in New Zealand is the bane of every motorists’s existence (says a writer in the AVellington “Dominion”). Some hundreds of local bodies have power to impose pretty well any limits they fancy, and in a day’s journey a motorist may easily be called on to observe thirty or iorty different speed limits in the villages and towns he passes through, and very often the smaller the .entre the lower is the speed fixed. So far from untangling this mess, the new regulations have done nothing except further to complicate it. In Wel,ington, and most other part’s, prosecutions arc being brought and fines imposed under the by-laws jiist as before, m Napier the Atngistrate has def ini tele ruled that the regulations do not o.erride the lotal by-law speed limits. ..li Wellington the Automobile Club lias a case pending in which the point will oe contested. No Alagistrate, however, is bound to follow another Alagistruteh ' ruling in this matter, and until a case 1 reaches the Supreme Court it cannot be said definitely what the regulations mean. In the meantime, for practical purpose the old tangle of local limits remains in force, and the effort of the Public: AVorks Department to secure i uniformity has proved a complete fiasco.

In my correspondence it has just iieer. my unhappy lot to destroys the nappy dreams of a reader who believed lie had invented a- wimple apparatus which “gives wonderfully improved engine running” (says a motoring writer). On his existing car he had fitted a. small additional radiator underneath the normal one, and arranged to pass the lubricating oil through the additional radiator.

He had also incorporated a standard type of thermostat in the oil pipe system, so that “the oil remains substantially at the right temperature all the time—automatically.”

All of which praiseworthy effort is g-ood —but not an invention. The idea has frequently been adopted oil racing cars, and is used in other engineering spheres.

AMAZING FIGURES. But while I was compelled to throw a cold douche on the patent question, i was certainly very interested in the taoles of comparative car performance with the apparatus in use and not in use.

in. fact, the data given was so instructive that I l'ear the tests may not na.o been sufficiently exact to be fully icliable—and I say, that quite without on once, as such tests must be. very precise before one can accept ttie results. The most astonishing figure is a claim to a reduction or 8 per cent, in the jT-trol consumption. r i no supporting line of argument, given by my corrcspondtMU runs like this:— When starting up Irom cold, the oil is too thick, and the engine takes an appreciable time to warm up, and durinthat period the petrol consumption .s abnormally high.

Out* reac.lny aumiUs Hint period <>i iiCn . y (■onsumption —ii is .fur .vor.se I.nan most people imagine, lint while in no way querying the*' bona .des of the iigures given me, I lind It 1i . i uIl to credit that luhriialion can yi.'iv so important a part as that suggested. (In the other hand, it is obvious that ih re m «t he ‘ some temperature” for .h oil to give highest lubricating elfi•ienc., and if one can automatically and simply maintain that temperature, •in all-:o ud improvement would result It vv i 1 be- interesting to have some arefnl scientific experiments in this direction.

DIRTY MECHANICS.

A CAMPAIGN AGAINST THEM

MOTORISTS’ COM PLAINTS

The following remarks on the subject of dirty mechanics appeared in a recent issue of ‘‘The Jtadiator,” the official organ of the New Xealand Motor Traders’ Association: We believe it would pay the proprietor to provide overalls and pay for their laundering, and in doing so lie would soon weed out the dirty men. Many of the better-class garages are abo\e reproach, but there are still very many where the dirty mechanic is the rule and not the exception. The man with the clean garage and lean and courteous attendants is going so get a larger share of the trade than er before, and it behoves every motor trader to get into line. Now that the closed car is becoming

,1110 popular model, it is customary for the interiors to be upholstered' in cloth which is often of a delicate shade. This has increased the difficulty of the garage proprietor in keeping such interior clean, when repairs make it necessary for a mechanic to get insidethe car. The result of a mechanic with dirty overalls getting into such a car v is disastrous, and it is necessary that .ai'nge proprietors prevent this. At a recent meeting of the M.T.A. .ouncil a complaint on this particular subject was received from the Wellington Automobile Club, and feeling that the complaint of motorists was in many cases justified, councillors agreed to I 1 have the matter brought before the 1 notice of members of the. association, j It is most exasperating for a , motorist who has a nice car ajud is par-1 1 ticular about its appearance, to-find; that after it lias been in a garage for; '.repairs or adjustment, grecisy marks I have been left on the upholstery, the wheel, or parts of the body.

The annoyance is itensified if the motorist is a lady in a light frock, and it must be apparent to every motor trader that he mugt take steps to remove this complaint if he expects to remain in business. Although motor engineering is a somewhat dirty business, there is no need 1 for mechanics to be smothered in grease and oil. Some of the best meehanics we Jiave known are men who keep themselves spick and span even when doing dirty jobs. Clean overalls at least once, a week should he insisted on, and it should be impossible for a dirty mechanic to hold his job. Unless the difficulty is tackled at this end, ancl the cleanliness of mechanics insisted on, the provision of covers, etc, to keep cars clean cannot be effective. There is room for great improvement in most of our garages in this matter, and w? hope the attention which has been drawn to it will influence garage proprietors to set about putting their houses in order!