NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21086, 21 January 1932, Page 13

NOTES.

A super-cinema to be erected at Nottingham is to have a car park for IQOQ ■rehicles.

Overhead lighting _ has been installed along most of the principal thorough;ares in Nottingham.

During February an appropriate length of tie Mangere-Papatoetoe main highway will be reseaJed.

Last year something like £1,778,000 of foreign material was used in the construction of British roads.

The annual maintenance process of refilling- joints with bitumen on the Great, South Eoad is now in hand.

Trolley-buses on the Kingston Bypass will create a new diversion on a highway already noted for its diversity pf thrills.

Traffic on some of the itiam roads has been unusually large in the holiday period and miles of corrugations are the result.

Nest year Hastings will hare what will probably be the finest underground parage in the country, with accommodation for 300 or 400 cars.

The scheme for constructing: the Scunthorpe portion of the new Grimsby-Don-caster trunk road has been passed at a cost of £123,000.

\ new highway in Southern Spain, which circles the heights overlooking the Mediterranean near Granada, 55 to be the highest, in Europe. Known as iarra Road, it is said to rival ?he Grande Corniche, the famous highway in the Eiviera.

WAYSIDE. ENTERTAINMENT. BRITAIN'S ROAD HOUSES. It is only during tbe_ past year cr that the in trodaction of road-houses baa taken place into Great Britain. This adaptation of the more commonplace inn made its debut in America, l>ut it is rarelv seen anywhere by the roadside in New* Zealand." A road-bouse -was designed in the first place_ for providing refreshment in remote districts, previously none existed. Later it grew into something more elaborate, and now jx- has turned nseif into a sort of puDtic club with a dance floor, cabaret, swimming pool, rest an rani, tennis courts, clock rolf and other attractions. The idea in England is so .ar meetins; with great approval, and even on winter nights one finds crowds of cars parked outside these houses. It is essentially. however, an enticement for the motorist, as these plates are generally too far from any centre of public transport to interest, anyone not owning a car. The English road-bouse is still in its infancy, although several have sprung up near London recently 6>n very go-a head lines and having dancing and bathing facili: ies are well in the running toward catching up their American contemporaries. Others are content to remain more modest, and rely on their "open all n:ght for refreshment" signs more than on sophisticated attractions. Naturally, the licensing question- is one of importance to the road-house proprietor, but so far be is meeting with little success in his applications to the local authorities. Thus many are forced to send out to the nearest inn to bring back their customers' requirements. At one roadhouse recently visited, an attendant with a fast motor-cycle made frequent journeys to the nearest inn over a mile away. But even though there is no licence, it seems that those -which serve ccfiee alone are as frequented as the fully licensed ones. It is on the artprial and main trunk roads that they appear to Sourish. There, away from the more populous centres, thev are in their element, and seem to call in the motorist from those wide expanses of concrete.

UJTDES-INTLATIOISr. Almost -without exception all failures at or in the region of the walls of car tVTes are attributable to tmder-mSation-A large user of motor vehicles recently rnade independent investigations on the question of inflation pressure, and, after exhaustive tests, satisfied himself that in r6sp€*CD oi particular siz© ci f.yr© 211 which he was interested, a sacrifice of 700 miles of tyre life accompanies evenangle pound below correct pressure _at which the tyre is used. Blows resulting from sharp contact between the tyre and some irregularity of surface may cause local fractures of the tyre casing, not necessarily accompanied by a bruising of the outside rubber. SYNTHETIC PETROL. A recent announcement by -the Imperial Chemical Industries, Limited—one of tbe largest organisations of its kind in the world—states that they have nowsucceeded in producing petrol of a quality equal to the highest grade spirit on the market, at 7d a gallon. _ Tbe stage has new been reached that justifies the production of synthetic petrol in Britain on a big scale, and the company plans to erect a huge plant, capable of manufacturing over 200.000 tons of petrol per annum. Tbe scheme will involve an outlay of about £8,000,000, and when the plant is in operation will give employment to 2000 men, and in addition 3000 miners will be needed to raise the coaL It is claimed that a satisfactory profit can be made on the undertaking, even at present ruling prices. Apropos of petrol distillation, it is interesting to record the result of some recent French experiments carried out in connection with the production of fuel alcohol from bananas. From one class of fruit 19£ gallons of pure snirit was obtained per ton of bananas, while from New Guinea bananas, nearly 21j gallons per ton was obtained. Whether cultivation of bananas for production of alcohol alone could be made a payable proposition is a different matter.