A GENIUS INCOGNITO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

A GENIUS INCOGNITO.

"LU" OF NINETY-MILE BEACH.

BY J.F.B.

Somehow, the outrageous checked cap did not appear out of place on its wearer, in spite of the fact that the face beneath was not of the typo that is usually associated with such violent head-gear, but scholarly and totally unexpected in view of (he grease-smeared overalls and dusty shoes. At-., the first glance, the enthusiastic worker might have been mistaken for an ordinary mechanic doing some humdrum task on a perfectly ordinary engine, but the long, delicate fingers gave the first suggestion that here was no everyday craftsman changing a tyre or greasing a complaining spring, but an expert and an enthusiast engaged in a delicate task. During a brief pause in his work the enthusiast reveals his face, and here is definite proof that some extraordinary mechanic has been engaged. Palo blue eyes beam benevolently from behind horn-rimmed spectacles, and the noisome cap, pushed a little to one side, reveals a pate as bald as an egg. There is no sign of age in his movements, however, nor does the catchy tune, whistled somewhat off key, suggest an old man. There is something about the man that speaks of perpetual cheerfulness and a youth that will never be entirely lost. Everybody, from inquisitive toddlers to their equally inquisitive parents who are camping in the vicinity, come each day to watch him at work, and without undue familiarity but in the most friendly fashion all hail him as " Lu." Only a few know his name; for the rest " Lu " is sufficient, and they know that a call will bring him in haste whether it is a child that has scratched itself on a sharp shell and wants comforting or a complete stranger who is in difficulties with his car and wants an expert to trace the fault and fix it on the spot. Since his arrival in the district eix weeks ago " Lu " has gained a reputation for being able to fix things, and so one and all call on him to perform tasks beyond their skill, nobody realising that they are demanding the benefit of the study and experience of an engineer whoso work is famous throughout the Old World and in most of the New. A Retr.arkable Career. Secretly, " Lu " loves to be called upon to perform intricate adjustments with inadequate equipment. He has faith in his skill, and the unfortunate who finds his car will not start and calls upon the cheerful " Lu " to make the engine purr again would probably think twice before issuing such calm demands if he knew he was having his car adjusted by a man who has tuned and raced motor-cars and aeroplanes practically ever since such things existed, and is recognised as one of the leading authorities of the world on the subject of electro-chemical engineering. In tho district there are many opinions as to " Lu's " nationality, his speech being a quaint mixture of Australian expressiveness and Continental suavity. He was born in Vienna, the birthplace of many a famous inventor, but by now he is a true cosmopolitan, knowing the cities of the world—Paris, London, Berlin, Leningrad, Moscow, Pome, Milan, New York —as (lie average man knows the streets of the suburb in which he lives. A love of engineering was inherited from his father, at ono time chief engineer of the Austrian Government railways, and as a young man " Lu " 6tudied long and willingly, finally gaining high honours in scientific subjects at the famous University of Vienna. Many years of practical work followed in some of the most famous motor engineering shops of the world. Tho engineering methods of the countries where motorcars, ungainly creations of strange appearance, were still regarded with disfavour by tho majority of people, were studied by the young engineer, who was employed for many years in tho building and tuning of such famous marques as Mercedes, Austro-Daimler, Benz and Fiat, and also in the noted Bosch electrical shops. Liking for Speed. Motor racing was in its infancy, but already competition was growing among tho leading manufacturers, and it was while " Lu " was with the Benz people that the first Gordon Bennett race, across Europe from Paris to Vienna, was promoted. Teams of cars were entered by the rival manufacturers, and " Lu " was chosen to drive ono of the Renz racers, a fearsome monster in which no racing driver of to-day would care to travel at seventy miles an hour over winding, cobble-strewn roads, through cities and towns, for many hundreds of miles. The race nearly put an end to a promising career. On the final stage of the gruelling trip, " Lu " had his 100 horso-powcr Benz within a few hundred yards of the leader, when a huge farm waggon, driven by a sleepy labourer, came from a side-road in the path of the racer. A crash was inevitable, am! " Lu " spent some months in hospital with a fractured skull. The crash did not destroy ".Lu's " liking for speed, for within a few months ho was engaged at one of the first aviation factories established, tho homo of tho famous Taube aeroplanes. Here he learned to fly, qualifying in 1906, and since tlion his time has been fairly evenly divided between racing-cars and aircraft. He is a grandfather now, but last year ho flew his own aeroplane fifty-two thousand miles all over Australia, and with his two cars ho covered some forty thousand miles on the road. It is less than two years since ho broke tho Dar-win-Melbourno motor record by a margin of thirty-six hours, and even more recently he drove a super-charged | Mercedes-Benz racer seventy miles in fiftyseven minutes, to convey a doctor to an urgent case in tho Australian back-blocks. His Present Task. At present his task is even greater, that, of caring for the groat supercharged | engine of Mr. Norman Smith's car. One of his inventions is fitted to it, and " Lu " has spent many hours tuning and testing to ensure that the motor will do its work. There was a general exodus from tho garago when the Napier engine was started, but "Lu " edged as near as he dared to tho flaming exhausts, and for the first time on record removed his checker cap, the easier to place his head 1 alongside the engine he alone in the Southern Hemisphere fully understands and almost worships for its marvellous flow of steady power. He was so near that it seemed ho must bo singed by tho foot-long flames from the twclvo exhausts, but his expert ear was listening, not to the thunderous roar, but for any foreign noise that would indicate a fault. After several minutes he straightened up, grinned at all and sundry, and after carefully wiping his grimy hands on his still more grimy overalls, announced: " Goot, now she vill g°-" Ho was right, for within an hour tho world's ten miles' land-speed record had been broken by a margin of twenty-seven miles an hour. " Lu " celebrated that night.