MOTORING WORLD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 79, 2 March 1929, Page 14

MOTORING WORLD.

NOTES. Motor cars arc more widely used in the English provinces than in London. It is estimated that 38,500 applications for patents were filed at the British Patent Office la”st year. Motor vehicle .accidents in New Zealand in January caused 12 deaths. Regulation of motor traffic must be sympathetic rather than oppressive.— The Marquis of Londonderry in tire House of I-iords. The Ulster Tourist Trophy race which was inaugurated last year will be again held in 1929, August 17 has been chosen for the event, the same course of 410 miles being approved. Taxi fares in Brussels have just been revised. The charge is now equivalent to 3d for the first sixth of a mile and id for each two minutes after. A rub of a quarter of an hour thus costs about Od.

A British inventor has produced a dash board fitting which delivers a cigarette ready lighted. The device embraces a wire connected to the battery and becoming red hot when the control is pressed. The tip of the cigarette is in contact with this wire, and a small bellows provides the suction from a pipe in the centre of the heating element.

A scheme has been' launched for the treatment in Great Britain of the large quantities of oil which are becoming available from British coal by low temperature carbonisation. A plant with a capacity of 25,000,000 gal. lons of motor spirit a year is to be erected.

Harold Smith, the brilliant West Australian cyclist, wlio gained fastest time in the world famed road race--Warrnambool to Melbourne—in 1925, has been riding very well in Sydney lately on the new board track, lie recently won the three-quarter mile national championhsip and also carried off first honours from scratch in the two-mile handicap which he won in. 3.54, thus breaking the previous i Australian record (3.59 4-5) made on I the Melbourne Exhibition track by the late Floyd MacFarland (U.S.A.) away back in 1906. While there are not many automobiles in Japan, tho tyro business there is growing rapidly in supplying pneumatic tyres for the native rickshaws. This fact was stated by Sir J. George Beharrel, of England, while stopping az Seattle; U.S.A., on his American tour. “The Japanese would not part with their rickshaws,” he said; “so we put pneumatic tyres on them. The streets in many cities are too narrow for motor traffic, but the recent earthquake remedied that to a great extent. Lokohama is now rising as a model metropolis with broad avenues and amazing business activtiy.--In view of the varied opinion held by' Australian traffic experts on the subject of “off side” road preference, it is interesting to note that recently the Ministry of Transport, England, i had this matter under discussion, ana I the question as to whether, traffic com- j ing from the right should be given; the right-of-way at cross roads was decided in the negative; in other words, it was not approved, and it was recommended that the existing rule that main-road traffic has preference, shall stand. It was proposed that a sign be erected at points where two important roads cross each other and that it shall bear the word “Halt” to warn the driver on the secondary road; also that a white line be drawn across the by-road. It is essential in the interests of all road users that motorists should realise that it is absolutely necessary for sfife driving for the person at the wheel to look both to the right and to' the left, before crossing a main road or any other road, irrespective of regulations. BRITISH MOTOR-CYCLE. While the British motor-cyclist naturally takes considerable pride in the fact that in the manufacture of motor-cycles Britain leads >ihc world, he may well question tho advantage of this vaunted supremacy. Ho probably knows that thousands and thousands of British motor-cycles are sent abroad in the course of a year. Perhaps he has even noticed that the value of British exports for the first nine months of 1928 amounted to £2,122,756, and lias realised in a hazy fashion that this must have its effect on employment. A , motor-cycle —from the raw material to 'tiro finished article—is the product of many trades, and on a- basis of £3,000,000 a year the industry finds employment for at least five thousand men. „ SOOTED TLUGS. Because of improperly fitting piston rings or wear of pistons —in some cases 'due to engino design itself—the sparking plug may he subject to ail undue quantity of oil, or oil mist, which finds its way beyond the spark gap to the interior of tho plug. The result is that a deposit of burnt oil and carbon is formed oil tho surface of tho insulator, which conducts the current to the body of the plug without its crossing the sparking gup. The immediate remedy is plug cleaning, and while this is a simple operation with detachable plugs, the remedy is- but temporary. The best euro, of course, is to tackle the trouble ufc its source, but one may justifiably delay this laborious or costly job by fixing special non-oiling sparking plugs. DIRT TRACK INFLUENCE. The remarkable entry of 212 motorcycles and three-wheel cycle-cars lor the recent London-Gloucester Trial, the first of Britain’s great winter events, indicates that there is no fulling oil'

in the interest taken in trials. When dirt-track racing was introduced pessimists foretold a decline in the popularity of reliability trials and the doom of the clubs. And ye* it seems that the sporting side of the motor-cycle movement has had one of its most successful' years and advocates of the new sport can claim with some justice that its advent has spurred club officials to even greater efforts in ensuring the success of their events. ' In all spheres healthy competition has its uses, and there stems little doubt that, in 'the main, clubs, fearful of their future, have been stimulated rather than adversely affected by the commercial influences introduced m motor-cyclo sport. SIX-WHEELER FUTURE. Investigations conducted by •the United States Bureau of Public Roads point to the introduction of the sixwheel truck with a limitation of wheel concentration and pneumatic tyres as a solution of the problems of highway preservation and economic transportation, rather than a limitation of gross loads. Tests haye shown that, all conditions being equal, the effect of a six-wheeled vehicle on the highways is only about' ons-lialf that ■ of tlio four-wheeler. In addition, increasing the number of wheels reduces the load on each so as to permit the use of pneumatic tyres on larger-sized trucks. These protect the highway further by reducing the impact of the moving truck, tests having shown that the impact of a solid iLre exerts a pressure on a surface equal to two or three times that of a standing load, while the pressure exerted by tire pneumatic tyre is only a small percentage above that of a standing load. f It is pointed out that adoption ot the six-wheel truck would make possible where desirable, the operation of trucks of more than five tons capacity on a very large mileage of roads in the United States at present unsafe ' for such loads if four-wheel trucks are ,used. MAGNETO AND BATTERY. A recent analysis by the Royal Automobile Club of Great Britain, ot breakdowns each year shows that failure or some part of the ignition system is responsible for one-third of the total trouble encountered on cars to-day, nor do the passing years bring any sign of improvement. Battery and magneto both have their defects. Bat-tery-and-coil ensures a good spark when starting, because the current is always there independent of engine speed. On tho other hand, above a certain speed the magneto gives a higher standard of efficiency. In prewar days, the better classes of car were fitted with dual ignition—that is, both magneto and battery. Some still are, but not the kind most generally used to-day. So the news is welcome that a magneto designer has produced a form of machine that combines the benefits of both magneto and battery at a moderate price. It comprises an inductor type of magneto with stationary windings and an auxiliary coil connected with the battery. The current passes through the magneto winding

and induces a high-tension current, which, is conveyed to- the distributor. Thus, whereas ..the ordinary typo of magneto docs not begin to spark until at least 100 or 120 revs, per minute are attained, this one starts to fire the charge at 40 to 50 revs, per minute, such as wouldu be given by quite an easy and slow half-turn of the startinghandle. The battery current can be used in addition to the current generated in the ordinary way by the magneto. It is found that this' current actually assists in keeping the magneto permnanently magnetised, and being about one amp. there is no fear of the batteries running down quickly should the switch bo forgotten. The contact breaker is particularly accessible and there is a very easy method of adjusting the points. The condenser is also placed in an ideal position, viz., close to the mnke-and-break. This magneto has already been adopted on several of the leading French cars, and 750 are being made each day in France. STEEL SPOKE AYHEELS. Automobile wheels have undergone a considerable change within the past ten years, and some of the most notable improvements are to be seen in the wheels with which the new model “A” Ford ear is equipped. These new wheels are known as “steel spoke” wheels and are of special Ford design and manufacture. The wheel department in the giant machine shop at Ford City. Ontario, is in reality an industry itself. Machines take strips of flat steel and make rims and hub shells. Another set of machines turn out spokes from rolls of steel wire. Welding makes the individual units of one piece of steel. Like other features of the new model “A” Ford, they combine lightness and graceful appearance with strength and durability to a degree, never before attained. The steel spokes, of which there are thirty in each wheel, are made of a fine grade of Ford steel, electrically welded to the steel rim and the hub shell so that the entire wheel, hub, spokes and rim become in reality one piece of steel, with no part that can work or wear loose and weaken the wheel structure or become noisy. Besides, each spoke before being welded to hub and rim is set at just that angle in relation to the other spokes which makes it perform the best possible bracing and pulling function. This feature of the design prevents road shocks being transmuted directly to any single .-poke in ibe wheel, and distributes the shock equally to all of the spokes and "o all sections of rim and hub, thus lessening the danger of vlipfl failure. The rim of this Ford wheel is of the “'drop centre” type, which gives greater strength to the rim. imparting the same cfuailities of rigidity 'that are found in channel and corrugated steel, and which also greatly facilitates changing tyres, as the tyre, once the air is out, may be removed easily even without the aid of tools. Speed of wheel change is another advantage, as, in the case of a puncture, it is far easier to simply remove the nuts from the fixed studs of the Ford spoke wheel than it is to remove the nuts, lugs, etc., and the demountable rims which are more apt to be rusted on account of being so close to the road.