THE MOTOR WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23057, 7 December 1936, Page 2

THE MOTOR WORLD

By ACCELERATOR

Items of news—short descriptions of tours, the state of the roads, etc., comment, or inquiries—will be welcomed by Accelerator.

CONCOURS D'ELEGANCE More than 80 entries were received for the Concours d'Elegance, which was organised under the auspices of the New Zealand Motor Racing Drivers Association at the Ellerslie racecourse on Saturday last. Many private owners entered their cars, in addition to 16 Auckland firms which exhibited the latest models. There were 30 different makes represented, including the products of many of the leading British and American factories. Cars of all types and sizes were scheduled for display, ranging from small models, costing in the vicinity of £2OO, to expensive machines, listed at well over £IOOO. The entries included both open and closed cars, family models, sports machines, and one or two of the luxury type not yet common in New Zealand.

A NEW WAY WITH OFFENDERS The Dusseldorf police do not believe in doing unnecessary labour when it comes to motoring offences. They wait until they have secured a good number of transgressing motorists and pedestrians: Then they send out the summonses, ordering offenders to report on the same day at the same time. All the sinners are herded in a long room, and a professor drones out a lecture on road lore for over 60 minutes. Much of the lecture consists of the rules of politeness applied to walking and driving. Offenders appearing for the first time feel they have escaped fairly lightly until they reach the door to go home, when an official demands a fine. Those who cannot pay must simply attend lecture after lecture until they can. DRIVING IN RACES Although §9 people out of every 100 can be said to be capable of driving their car to its destination with a certain amount of certitude, there is not one person in every thousand drivers who really knows how to drive or can be said to approach remotely the skill necessary before becoming a successful road-racing professional. Professional drivers will tell you that the rarest man in the world is the one who can drive by instinct. Yet the pilot of a racing car in a road race must be an instinctive driver.—Sir Henry Segrave. THE FIRST COMPLETE CAR Certain facts in Mr St. John Nixon's book, "The Invention of the Automobile," are questioned by a contemporary, which points out that Etienne Lenoir, a Belgian, made a horseless carriage by fitting a gas engine upon a chassis in 1862. Lenoir's first specification was taken out in 1860. and was for the employment of gas (used for lighting purposes) in conjunction with air and ignited by electricity as a motive power. He anticipated the use of hydrocarbure in his specification, but his patent was for a gas engine, as it clearly states. Mr H. O. Duncan, who is the authority relied upon by this critic, states in his ""Vorld on Wheels" that "the honour of being the first to invent a complete motor vehicle belongs,to Karl Benz." WATER IN TYRES An interesting development in connection with the use of giant pneumatic tyres for agricultural tractors is the use of a certain amount of water inside the air tubes to provide the necessary weight on the 'riving tyres to enable them to transmit the full engine power to the tractor draw-bar. Experiments have proved that effective results are obtainable by filling pneumatic driving tyres of tractors three-quarters full of water, and inflating the remaining space in tyres with the normal operating air pressure. The use of water, instead of extra wheel weights, as is the custom with agricultural tractors, not only improves the draw-bar pull, but also reduces bounce when travelling over rough roads. As long as the volume of water directed into the tube by means of a special valve coupling does not exceed the quantity recommended, there is no ill-effect on the life of the pneumatic covers or tubes. MODERN BRIDGE TRAFFIC The huge bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland was opened last month. There are six lanes of motor traffic. Thirty-two alarm boxes have been installed at intervals across the bridge for use by drivers whose cars stall at any point. They are to break the glass and turn a key inside, upon which a State highway tow car will come to' the rescue. Two such cars will be stationed at' all hours at East Portal, on Yerba Buena Island, approximately halfway between the two cities. The bridge is lit by sodium-vapour lamps, rendering headlights not only unnecessary, but a possible hindrance to safe driving. There is at present, however, a complication in that the State highway ordinances have no provision for dimming of lights; on the contrary, drivers in California must keep their headlamps going at night. The authority, however, has probably circumvented the position, and no doubt traffic is proceeding as planned. COLOURS IN ROADS

Green, pink, and amber-coloured roads are to be experimented with by the Ministry of Transport in Great Britain. The announcement of the search for the perfect coloured road for night driving is made in the report issued recently on the experimental work on highways (Technical Committee) for the year 1935-36. It shows that road engineers can now make roads of any colour, and that a light coloured road would save many lives at night and help to eliminate the dazzle problem. The report states that 'l2 experimental sections of light-coloured roads have been laid in Sheffield, and are to be kept under observation. , The new variegatci coloured road carpets are to be laid in Buckinghamshire. Experts will decide on the best colour for night driving. The experiments will also decide which is the most durable and efficient colour. Many light road surfaces are excellent when new, but gradually become dark with wear. Artists who have been taken into consultatidn have suggested that yellow will prove the best colour from the point of view of visibility. Green roads may prove restful to the eye, but their value after dark is problematical. SEAT VENTILATION A point to which it is high time some serious attention was paid is the effective ventilation of motor car seats for hot-weather driving. Every motorist knows how warm and sticky leather seats become in summer, and how they cause the clothes to adhere uncomfortable to the body, and it seems a rather ridiculous thing that some simple and effective method of overcoming this trouble cannot be devised. There is. of course, already on the market a special ventilated seat cushion and squab, which can be dropped straight on to the ordinary seat. Both the seat and squab are hinged together, and consist of an open-work lacing of seagrass or cane over a number of horizontal coil springs, the purpose of which is not to give flexibility, but to provide a satisfactory open space between the two laced sides of seat and squab. This really seems quite a good solution of the problem, and as the device has a total thickness of not more than three-quarters of an inch, the seating position is not altered. Another solution may lie in that new seat design seen in a 1937 model the other day. The seat is a tubular con-

struction with a shallow cushion, flexible and comfortable, but with a large air space between seat and floor. GOVERNORS AND SPEEDING Compulsory fitment of governors to control engine speed is still agitating motoring circles in America, and fuel has been added to the fire by certain happenings in the State of New York. It is related that one speedster who drove up a hill at 55 miles an hour stepped on the gas at the top and went down the other side at 70 miles an hour, lost control and hit a wagon, costing three lives, is driving again bv virtue of a special dispensation granted by the State Commissioner of Vehicles. His car has been fitted with a governor limiting him to 25 miles an hour. Five other drivers who were in accidents have been similarly allowed back on the road.

In granting permission to the six convicted motorists to drive with governors on their cars, the Commissioner acted under a State law giving him discretionary powers. Use of governors is by no means new. But in only two of the American SlatesAlabama and Kentucky—is their use provided for by law. Alabama's statute provides for governors on vehicles more than 36 feet long. In Kentucky motor trucks and semi-trail-ers must have them, fixed at varying speeds from 25 to 40 miles an hour. A common type of governor is a simple valve device affixed to the carburettor to regulate the intake of petrol. Another type of control acts upon the transmission. For years many of the big truck-operating companies have equipped their vehicles with these mechanisms, and some of the largest bus lines in America also employ them for economy purposes. Opinion as to their use to allow convicted drivers back on the road, however, is very mixed. The president of the Chicago Motor Club says that if placing a governor on a car will reduce accident, "by all means let us do it." The president of the American Automobile Association, however, Mr Thomas P. Henry, of Detroit, says that the experiment is fraught with dangers and serious complications. "It is thoroughly un-American to penalise all members driving a family car simply because one member has run foul of the law. Experience has shown that mechanical governors can readily be tampered with. The whole effort is, in my opinion, in the wrong direction, since it is directec at the. car rather than the driver."

The Automobilist, the official publication of the Automobile Legal Association, characterises the agitation for governors as unwarranted and absurd. It would reduce power and ability to accelerate when emergency requires, thereby causing accidents. Governing to low speed would increase road-moping, and cause cutting out of line, thereby increasing hazards. Speed alone does not cause accidents. It is this last view that ultimately will probably prevail. If all cars were governed it would be another matter, but if all cars are to be governed it would be simpler and cheaper to build cars of low power in the first place. It is futile, however, to contemplate motoring going backwards. If it is not considered safe to allow a man to take the wheel of an unfettered car the man should not be allowed on the road at all, not even in a fettered one.

WHEEL BALANCE Some years ago, at about the time balloon tyres and front wheel brakes made their appearance, a widespread trouble with cars was front wheel wobble, and an occasional variation was that strange malady known as wheel tramp, in which each front wheel left the ground alternately for a considerable distance. It was recognised that the addition of such masses as brake drums and big section tyres to the front wheels had a great deal to do with the trouble; but even engineers had difficulty in putting their fingers on the actual cause, and for several years the employees of service stations had to face the wheel wobble problem. Nowadays, however, much more is known about the peculiarities of front wheel behaviour, and not nearly so much is heard of wobble and tramp. Careful research finally brought to light several contributory causes, and careful re-designing of the steering system and the elimination, as far as is possible, of unsettling centrifugal forces has worked wonders. It has been learned that one of the most important things, if wheel wobble is to be avoided, is to have the front wheels in careful balance. If there is only half an ounce of excessive weight at any point on the periphery of the wheel or tyre, the force it will exert when the wheel is revolving rapidly will be astonishingly heavy, and possibly severe enough to induce a very bad wobble in the front wheels.

Most manufacturers, realising the importance of wheel balance; specify certain limits within which the wheels must be true, and supply their distributors with gauges and jigs on which wheels may be tested for balance Compensation for any lack of balance is made in various ways, one being to fasten small pieces of lead to the wheel in order to offset a heavy point on some other part of the wheel Many sports models, equipped with wire wheels of racing type, have balance weights screwed to several parts of the rim, and, as these weights consist of a number of washers, their number at each point may be varied in order to obtain perfect balance.

But it may be taken for granted that a new car is delivered with its front wheels in good balance, and it is only when the tyres have been removed for repairing a puncture, retreading, or replacement with new ones, that this balance is apt to be upset. Tyres, as a rule, are well made, with an even distribution of rubber, but it has happened that in the process of manufacture an excessive amount of rubber has been applied to the case at one point, and this sometimes is sufficient to throw the wheel badly out when it is revolving rapidly. As balance in the rear wheels is not nearly so important as it is in the front ones, a simple solution of the problem, if it arises from this cause, is to change the faulty wheel with one of the rear ones.

Otherwise, the wheel must be taken to the service station and carefully balanced on a proper jig. There is perhaps more risk of tyres of big cross section being out of balance than there was with the narrower section tyres of a few years ago, and the motorist is wise if he has his front wheels tested for balance every few thousand miles. Apart from minor faults in maunfacture, bad balance may be caused by uneven wear.

Wheel wobble may still be produced by looseness in the steering connections and the steering gearbox, wrong castor angle caused by the springs settling down, and worn king pins. Correct wheel balance, although very important, is by no means the only thing necessary to prevent wobble. It is considered by many experts that one of , the most important steering developments of recent years is the production of steering systems for use with independent front springing, which uses a divided track rod, the steering effort being exerted from the centre of the rod instead of from one end. as in conventional designs. SAFETY DEVICE An automatic' signalling device, which seems to possess definite possibilities, is now being tested in Baltimore, United States. Recognising that many drivers are unaware of the speed at which they travel around curves, the inventors of this new device have designed it to ensure that motorists observe a safe speed. The apparatus is electrically operated on lines similar to the system used in some automate traffic signals employed Ft intersections. It consists of three major units—an illuminated road sign, which shows the safe speed for negotiating the turn; a traffic light with two faces suspended high above the centre of the road, and showing two illuminated discs facing the traffic travelling in each direction; and a sound detector which is embedded in the road in such a way that motorists must pass over the sound chamber. This sound chamber is rectangular in shape, and it contains a microphone, which picks up the sound of the tyres passing overhead and converts the sound waves into electrical impulses. These are conveyed by wires to timing mechanism, which in turn operates the signal lights suspended centrally over the road at the danger point. If the motorist passes over the sound detector at the safe speed as shown by the illuminated sign at the side of the road, the traffic light will turn from red—" Stop "—to amber—" Slow "—before he reaches it, thus informing him that he may proceed. Should the driver cross the sound detector at a dangerous speed the indicator will remain red, and he will have to stop and wait for a predetermined time—presumably set by automatic mechanism within the device—when the signal light will change to amber, and he may go ahead. Failure to take notice of the warning conveyed by the signal will result in a heavy penalty. 'Another feature of the device is that when a line of closely following cars approaches the sign at the prescribed safe speed, the signal will display the amber light until a gap occurs, when it will revert to red;

The habit of many motorists of cutting blind corners is recognised in another feature of this new signal, for the detector in the other approach to the curve warns motorists of the approach of cars from the opposite direction.

The device thus allows motorists to negotiate the curve at only the safe speed, and also warns them of vehicles coming in the opposite direction. Most of the fatal accidents in country districts are caused by incompetent drivers, often unwittingly, taking corners too fast, so that their cars are thrown off the road by centrifugal force. It is considered that this new signal, in principle, is a very important contribution to the task of making the highways safer, and it will be interesting to see the result of the careful trial to which it is how being subjected. Presuming that it does everything claimed for it, the only objections to its extensive use on country roads seems to be the obvious one of expense. It would be hoping for too much to see it in use on every blind main road corner. There are, however, certain notoriously dangerous curves where its use would be a very great blessing to the motoring public. PUBLIC RELATIONS The numerous points at which a motor manufacturer makes contact with the public are indicated by figures issued by Morris Motors, Ltd., the largest British car concern. This company makes every effort to familiarise motorists with its production methods. During the last two years no fewer than half a million people have studied Morris production processes at first hand by visiting the factory, attending film shows, and so on. Motorists have visited the Cowley works individually and in organised parties from all over the British Isles, and have even come from so far afield as Scotland, the Channel Islands, and the Continent. The programme of works tours is already complete for some months ahead. The Morris film programmes in Great Britain alone have been visited by 270,000 persons. The Morris cinematograph department has just been equipped with new projecting apparatus, and the five complete units now louring the country have appointments each week until June. 1937. TOOL KIT ACCESSIBILITY About the worst feature of modern cars is the tool kit (remarks an expert), which is generally poor in quality, comprises only the barest necessities, and is stowed away in some place where it is thoroughly inaccessible and involves disturbing passengers or groping about in the fastnesses of the Tear trunk in order to get at it. Manufacturers apparently work on the theory that modern- cars are so reliable that the owner rarely has occasion to use the tools, which is true enough as far as serious adjustments are concerned; but if the tools were housed in a place where they can easily be reached the owner would have some encouragement to rectify immediately such small loosenesses in the controls and bodywork which soon develop in every car instead of waiting until they become so loose that they cause bad rattles. Apart from this, a long country tour in the best car is rarely unaccompanied by minor troubles to the wiring and parts of the body, and it is a great convenience if the small tools are easily accessible. Surely in even the cheapest cars it is not asking too much that a special pocket be arranged in one of the doors or the back of the front seat to accommodate a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a small adjustable spanner, and a plug spanner. This would be appreciated by every motorist, and the tools would be used on minor adjustments much more frequently, to the car's benefit, than they are at present.

A very neat arrangement which is just about ideal was seen recently on a small English car of rather high quality. A shallow drawer was arranged beneath the facia board, and when pulled out this disclosed the small tools, each lying in a specially shaped feltlined recess in the drawer, from which they could instantly be taken, while the arrangement was such that it was impossible for them to rattle about. This brings us to another point. In most cars all the tools, including the larger ones, such as the jack, pump, wheel-brace, and engine starting handle, are simply thrown into some sort of compartment at the back or under the seat, where nothing on earth short of wrapping them all up in hessian and jamming them into the compartment will stop them from bumping about on rough roads. Recently what was thought to be serious looseness in the rear shackles was traced to this causa.

In cars of good quality it is customary to provide clips to hold these bulky tools against the walls and floor of the tool compartment, and in some cases the admirable scheme is adopted of housing them in the space between the engine bulkhead and the instrument panel, where they are instantly accessible when the bonnet is lifted. This is the best arrangement of all, and is one which could be adopted by manufacturers of production types. The cost would be small, and the convenience of the idea would be greatly appreciated by motorists. Whatever policy is adopted, however, manufacturers should study the tool-kit question more than they do, giving it better accommodation and improving the quality of the various implements.

SPARKS On condition that he bought a slower car, the Slough magistrates have decided to remove the licence suspension of Tommy Fair, the boxer. * * * Some drivers in Ken' and the neighbourhood who have left their cars unattended have found them hours later in some lonely lane jacked up and with all the wheels removed. * * * A motorist, asked by a Highgate policeman if he was f he master of a car which was standing in the road, replied: " I'm the owner, but not the master. At least, not yet." * =;: * So greatly has the population of Arizona taken to the use of trailer caravans that there has been a slump

in house rents, and the Chamber of Commerce has been asked to see what they can do about it. * # * The solicitor defending a bus driver, summoned for not allowing free passage to a woman wheeling a baby in a pram at a crossing, contended that a baby in a pram is not a pedestrian. The magistrate dismissed the summons. ** * , Britain's first travelling post office was available for public use at outdoor events in October. This solves the old problem of what happens when an irresistible force (of public, opinion) meets an immovable post! * * # It is stated that 500,000 motor vehicles in Great Britain must have new windscreens fitted before the end of the year. This is to comply with the Ministry of Transport regulation which makes safety-glass screens compulsory after January 1, 31937.