Cycling and Motor Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 3197, 23 June 1915, Page 58

Cycling and Motor Notes.

BY DEMON.

Most of tho leading English bicycle manufacturers have decided to increase the prices ot their cycles by 10 per cent. This measure is rendered necessary by reason of tho increased cost of material, and is much to be preferred to any reduction of quality, which was tho only possible alternative. Successful experiments have been carried out in England with a view to obtaining a successful electric tail-light which would derive its current from the magneto. A fitment known as “Krisco” has now been marketed which is claimed to give satisfactory results. Tho “Krisco” is manufactured in a self-contained form, and consists of a low candle-powered lamp, held on one end of tho tube, covered witli red bull’s-eye glass. The rest of the fitting is contained in a nickel tube, which terminates in a two-way switch arrangement. The eliding switch arm can bo placed in three positions. In one tho magneto is connected up to tho lamp, there is an “off” position, and a position for enabling the current to be taken from a small dry battery which is supplied with tho outfit, when tho machine is standing with the engine not running. The “Krisco” is attached to the carrier of tho machine, care being taken that a good metal contact is made. A motor cycle radio telephone and telegraph sot has recently been devised by a New Y ( ork inventor for use by armies on tho march or in the field. Tho equipment is contained in a metal sidecar attached to tho motor cycle. The transmitting power is approximately one kilowatt, with a resultant radius for tho wireless telegraph of 80 to ICO miles, and about half that distance for the radio telephone. Current is supplied to the telephone or telegraph by a high voltage direct current generator connected directly to an independent motor cycle engine contained within the side-car. In this connection mention should bo made of tho fact that the wireless equipment comprises a complete unit entirely independent of tho motor cycle. It can bo readily detached and pushed by hand or loaded upon a waggon and transported over rough ground. An extra wheel is provided, which can bo attached to either hub of the sidecar or to the front or rear of the motor cycle. The antonnre is supported by a light-weight metal mast of tubular construction. The form is telescopic, so that the mast, when collapsed, can bo easily strapped out of the way on tho side of the car. ——A new type of sparking plug for motor engines has been invented by an English company. The plug has a tubular central electrode which carries a block of quartz serving the purpose of a window through which one can observe the “colour” of the explosion in the combustion chamber. A dark purple spark shows tho mixture to be correct; a light blue or white explosion signifies that it is too weak, while a red colour indicates too rich a mixture. By simply detaching the quartz “window” and substituting a milled nut, the plug is transformed into a “priming” plug, through which gasoline can be injected directly into the combustion chamber.

On account of the terrific speed attained in the long-distance American motor car contests, it has been almost impossible for the driver and mechanician to speak to each other. To overcome this difficulty several of the contestants in the Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prix used with success a combination face guard which embraced two speaking tubes, one extending from the mouth of each person to the ear cf the other. This enabled them to converse without slowing up. The first motor Maxim gun used in any army was constructed for the 26th Middlesex (Cyclists) Volunteer Corps in 1839, then commanded by Major C. E. Liles. It w r as mounted on a light pneu-matic-tyred trailing gun carriage drawn by a 2| h.p. Do Dion bicycle, and took part in the Easter manoeuvres at Aldershot in that year with great effect.

New York is to have its motor racing Speedway. The track, which promises to bo faster than the groat motor track at Indianapolis (U.8.A.), is to be two miles around, 80ft wide, and banked up to a height of 24ft at the turns. The surface will be of cement, and it is anticipated that ears will be able to maintain a speed of 110 miles per hour on any part of the track. A grand stand to accommodate 100,000 spectators will be erected. The Speedway is to be erected at Brooklyn, just outside New York.

A novel motor car race meeting was recently held in America, the course being a four-mile circuit on the frozen surface of Lake Superior. As the principal race — an eight-mile event—was won in Bmin 28sec, it does not look as if the competitors had much trouble in getting a grip on the slippery ice. Most of the drivers used nonslipping chains on their tyros to enable them, to hold the corners. Ten thousand spectators witnessed the meet.

A speed limit for cars has been adopted for oars at the front. The service lorry is limited to 12 miles per hour. The object is to place some restraint upon the manner in which the life of these vehicles is shortened by needless speeding. All cases of broken springs are inquired into, and where breakages are found to bo due to excessive speed - the drivers are severely reprimanded the first time, and for a second ‘‘offence” court-martialled.

An English provincial paper is responsible for the following paragraph: “The copper famine has become so grout in Germany that even the wiring from old cars is being stripped to melt down. In fact, high prices arc being paid for c Id cars simply for the copper wire and platinum points they contain. The search for nickel (required for making bullets), has resulted in thousands of sparking plugs being seized to get the piece of nickel wire out of them. Not less serious is the great shortage of carbons for arc lamps and searchlights. The position may bo gauged when it is stated that the German Government Is paying good prices for carbon deposit out of car engines from which to make carbons.” Surely some wag has been pulling the editor’s leg.

it is usual for the maker to assert that it has never had any oil; but in order to counteract this, it is not necessary to give more than is required by the design of tho car or the manufacturers’ instructions. —— Tyros are not intended to be used as snook-absorbers, but should bo kept “board hard, without side flexure when tho ear is moved, or they will rapidly disentograto. It the springing is then harsh, it is cheaper to have it attended to by having lighter springs, or fitting shock-absorbers, than to ruin tho tyres in a few thousand miles.

. They say necessity is tho mother of invention, and a night or two ago 1 (says a northern writer) found I had run right out of oil for my push-cycle lamp. As 'fc Xiappenod, a little time before I had washed out the crankcase of my motor cycle with kerosene, and had kept the resulting mixture of used engine oil and kerosene in a bottle. As a last resource I put this un-pleasant-looking stuff in tho lamp reservoir, and found to my surprise that it burnt splendidly ! Motor cyclists may or may not find this tip of some use. the Tcv. D. Hart Davies, so well known in the English motor cycling world sends to “ Ixion,” of the Moto Cycle, details of a novel testimonial. “ Ixion ” says; A baker of bis acquaintance has long used a 6 h.p. twin and side-car on his daily rounds, and it gave him such faithful service that when his wife presented him with, a son and heir, tho happy pair decided to name _ the child after the motor bicycle. Ao, sir, the bicycle was not an O.K. nor a Royal Ruby, nor a Triumph nor a Radco, nor an Indian, nor a Clyno, nor a Sunbeam. James or Douglas would have, been all right, but, as it happens, the machine La question was a Rex. Our American correspondent remarks that for the child’s sake it was well the father didn’t own a Bugmobile. The infant in question is probably the first human being to be called after a motor bicycle, and it is an odd coincidence that a motor cycling parson officiated at the christening. Perhaps Mr Davies will inform us whether it is being roared on petrol or benzole?” THE ÜBIQUITOUS BICYCLE. There is a stage in every mechanical invention when evolution seems to bo arrested and improvement to find no scope save in tho minor details of mechanism. The bicycle appears (says Cycling, England) to have reached such a stage at the present time, and it shows no signs of any coming developments which will take it appreciably nearer to perfection. It is possible to find in this circumstance a cause for regret, since important modifications of design tend to keep up an interest in the pastime which otherwise might flag, and to promote that friendly rivalry between the champions of different types of machine which gave an especial zest to cycling in earlier days. The modern bicycle is undoubtedly a wonderfully efficient machine, remarkably economical of tho power put into it, demanding simple and natural effects only for propulsion, and singularly easy of manipulation in the difficult traffic of to-day. It is,_ indeed, so excellent a vehicle that one might readily accept a pretty general opinion that it has reached the meridian of evolution, and settle down contentedly to the conviction that it will never improve. It is only natural that to-day tho manufacurcrs are shy of experiments in bicycleconstruction. At one time novelties in design were a paying policy, but the peculiar conditions of that day rule no more. Yet it was through these experiments, fantastic though many of them were, that the evolution of the bicyolc was speeded up as ; t never has been since. “ Standardisation ” and a refinement of “ process" work have given us a machine of wonderful value for our money; but they have, alas! rendered it next to impossible for the groat manufacturers to make a clear _ departure from prevailing principle or design. The result seems to be that, whilst we are getting a machine which in its present form can hardly be excelled, developments in the construction of the bicycle which might be more valuable are hindered or postponed. To the majority of the present-day cyclists the bicycle is a business vehicle only, a utility machine which, _so long as it serves its purpose satisfactorily, is good enough in its present form. Their attitude does little to further the evolution of the bicycle, even if it does not tend to hinder it. It is the sporting element among the cycling community which must keep the flag of progress flying, just as it did in the days which saw' such great evolutions in the frame and mechanism of the bicycle. Old cyclists who remember those days and the spirit of them are apt to complain that the present is not like the great times when ordinary and safety were neckband neck in the pace for popular favour, and threewheelers also were well in it. Even when tho ordinary seemed to have reached its perfection, they will tell you, there wciq constant varieties of low-built machines coming out, and almost every tricycle had an individuality. . The seventies and eighties cannot come back and it goes without saying that the drastic revolutions in the structure of the bicycle as those which then took place can hardly occur twice in the history of that machine. But the mantles of the enthusiasts of those days have surely descended upon the keen cyclists of to-day, and we must depend upon the enthusiasm of the present generation of wheelmen to_ keep before the manufacturers the just claims of the bicycle to mechanical and structural improvements, and to remove the fear that in tho present fixity of design lies evidence that the skill and genius which were onco directing towards perfecting the bicycle are now being monopolised in the consideration of another form of traction. THE OLD DAYS. Adventures with horses must be extremely rare in the story of to-day (writes Max Pemberton). I remember few within my own experience for many years. Very rarely in remote tho leaders of a w’aggon team will jest with John Ploughman as the car passes him, and may even make a slight detour via tho nearest bank; but it is generally more playfulness, and the horse which is absolutely frightened by the car is found with difficulty upon any British high road. How different it used to be in tho early days I Then every quadruped was an adventure. U°K S went for tyres, cows charged tho ball from imaginary goals, sheep bleated, pigs waited upon circumstances, horses shied or bolted

as tho occasion seemed to require. I well remember driving from London to Broadstairs in the year 1897, when certainly 50 per cent, of the horses encountered outside London indulged in some form of acrobatics to our disadvantage. We had to stop not only the oar but tho engine frequently, and the timidity of the various drivers was an unpleasant tribute to tho novelty of our appearance. The more ignorant would saw at their horses’ heads or apply the whip vigorously long before the car approached. Others leaped out and got at the quadruped’s head while we were yet far off. A few only faced us boldly, and with one or two spoken words quieted the suspicious animal. At that time undoubtedly man’s terror was greater than that of the horse, and there were many country folk who fled to any refuge when they first heard the hum of the lively Panhard.