IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMOBILES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12278, 23 May 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMOBILES.

The automobile is coming into its own. In the last year or so it has been so greatly improved that it is a different machine, and so much reduced in price that it is no longer to be considered the rich man's toy. So we are told by Henry Norman, who writes in the World's Work (April) on what he calls "The Coming of the Automobile." Says Mr. Norman: —

. " Not much more than a year ago the motor-car was a noisy, ill-smelling, costly, and unreliable machinea public nuisance. To-day it is silent; if it smells the driver is to blame; it is within the reach of a man of modest means; and it is as little likely to break down as any other fine product of human ingenuity. ... A car of twenty horse-power, capable of carrying four passengers at forty miles an hour, can hardly be heard by those on board; in fact, its extreme silence is a new element of danger, as the only notice of its approach is the horn of its driver. It is on land, in that respect, what the canoe is on water. These most silent cars are for the moment expensive, but even moderately-priced cars can be Had as silent as anybody ought to desire them. This, for the benefit of the nonexpert reader, .is due chiefly to two factors —the balance and slower revolution of the engine by the increased number of cyclinders, and the introduction of the valve which is opened and closed mechanically in place of the valve held shut by a spring and opened by the suction of the piston. Opinions differ yet upon the advantage of the new method, but in my humble and amateur judgment the motor with automatic spring valves will be as obsolete a year hence as the bicycle without free-wheel action is today. There are, moreover, to-day one or two makes of car with the older valve which are "almost as silent as need be.

" Improved methods of combustion and lubrication have practically abolished offensive odours. Pneumatic tyres, once the bane of the motorist's lifefor he never dared be confident that he would not have to spend an hour in tedious and dirty repair of a puncture by the roadside — with luck will run a thousand miles without mishap, and several thousand before they need be recovered or replaced. And it is by no means certain that the inflated rubber tyre is destined to remain an essential part of a motor-car. In the vehicle of the future concussion due to inequalities of road surface may be absorbed by springs, either in the wheel or in the body. This would be a more scientific method. Side-slip, too, the one and only real danger of motoring, both to the motorist and the public, is on the eve of being, if it is not already, overcome. Gasoline costs twenty-five cents a gallon, and a gallon will take an average car twenty miles, and each new car put on the market runs farther on —one make of car has just run fifty miles on a gallon."

As for price, Mr. Norman sums up the whole mater somewhat as follows: —For about £1500 one may buy the best car in the world, and for' £700 one nearly as good—all except unnecessary sp,eed, luxurious fittings, and fine workmanship. For £500 a good, high-speed, heavy car can be bought.