RADIO CONTROLLED CARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20306, 13 July 1929, Page 14 (Supplement)

RADIO CONTROLLED CARS.

AN EXPERT'S FORECAST. .ft lias been predicted by the f vivsi'lrnt of ono of America's leading automobile companies (Mr. ('». M. William?), that iuib)tnobilcs of (hu future will be liiivcn by electric motors and will receive their power by radio direct from centrally located transmitting station.-;—car owners being assigned a specific wavelength. lie slates that possibly during tiio nest generation, ami'most certainly within the twentieth century, tho present typo of automobile, powered with tho' u lenial combustion engine, will become obsolete. The 60urce of power for theso electric automobile motors, lie says, will 00 large contra! generating stations similar to which at- present are in w»u for (he generation ot electric power for lights ami ether commercial purposes. This automobile power, however, will bo tiaiismitted by radio direct from the . central station to tho car itself, and all that will bo necessary to start tho car, will hd to pull a switch cm tho instrument board, thereby automatically tuning into tho power wave, which has been assigned. Jn predicting tho universal use of electric motors in automobile:", Mr. Wiliiains declared, however, that it would be necessary for electrical engineers to speed their effortj toward reducing tho weight of all sizes of electric power plants in order to meet tho conditions that would bo imposed through their adoption 111 automobiles. Among some of tho advantages which would accrue from this development, he Kaid, will be tin? speeding up of tiatlic conditions duo to greater acceleration and deceleration; the elimination of tin*ions fumes; absence of fire risks; the minimising of maintenance costs due to Iho relatively small number of moving parts in such electrical apparatus, as compared to the present-day internal cm bust ion engine. Further, there would bo the completo elimination ot the problem of heating and cooling, existing in tho petrol engine of to-day, whether water Or air cooled; simplicity of operation due to tho elimination of absolutely all operating gadgets with tho exception of th c controller and switch, and tho c< iitinued availability of power without replenishing fuel supply. The strides made during !ho last ten rears by radio experts have been as phenomenal as those mado by automotive 'engineers. The greatest success has been attained in tho transmission of sound waves, but it is the opinion of some of tho most eminent radio engineers jn America that, within a relatively short time, power transmission without taie use of wires will be an accomplished fact, 'llierc seems to have been littlo or no co-operation between tho engineers of theso great twentieth century ueveiop'ii.m'.s —t:ie automobile and radio industries —but it is Mr. Wililams' belief that this co-opera-tion will begin in the near future. TIMING RACING CARS. Public attention having been directed to tho subject of motor-car racing by tho recent remarkable achievement of Sir Henrv Sograve at Daytona Beach, Florida, and of Captain -Malcolm Campbell, at Ycrrteuk Pans, in South Africa, it may bo of interest to give some particulars of the apparatus used for timing such events ■with tho necessary degree of accuracy. •The method adopted is to place electrical contacts on the track at an accuratelymeasured distance ap&rt, so that the car, in passing over each of tho contacts in succession, closes circuits controlling the operation of pens, under which a paper at/ip is moved at a uniform speed by clockwork. As tho car passes over the contacts, tho pens aro momentarily deflected, so that kinks aro produced in the {straight linos drawn on tho paper strip. Another pen, marking on the same paper *trip, and operated by a chronometer, is deflected every half second, so that, by measuring the distance of tho kink 3 produced by the car on entering and leaving the measured distance from the nearest kinks produced by tho chronometer, and counting tho number of completo half keconds recorded on tho strip, the timo occupied by tho car in passing over the measured distance, and henco its velocity, can bo obtained with tho necessary precision. MOTOR TRADE ITEMS. The profits of tho Albion Motor-Car Co., Ltd., for tho year ended December 31. last, amounted to £90,477 (compared with £117.897 in 1927), and 21,407 was brought forward. Tho rescr.vo fund leficive.s £30,000, and tho benevolent fund £2OOO. It, is proposed to pay a dividend Jor tho year on tho ordinary shares of 12/ per cent" (tho tame) and to carry forward £25,853. The board announce tho proposed is3uo of 46,004 ordinary shares to be offered to shareholders in the proportion of ono sharo in every eight of their holding of ordinary shares, at a premium which should be attractive.

Soviot Russia is on the ovo of important developments in (lie automobile Hold. At present there aro only about 20,000 motor. rn.ru in tlio whole of Russia, of which only about 12 per cent, aro privately owned. Their vast territory, with a population of 150,000,000 people determined to dovelop tho immense natural resources of tho country, has brought to tho fore tho problem of motor transportation as on« of tho most important tasks of the day. They requirs hundreds of thousands of motor-caw, which could bo profitably utilised at tho present time by various industrial and trading organisations.