CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3205, 18 August 1915, Page 58

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

BY DEMON.

The neglect of certain little details in the anatomy of the bicycle goes to prove that procrastination is not only the thief of time, but the thief of labour as well. Take the case of a slightly-leaking cycle tyre air-tube, for example. Day after day tne man who suffers it must spend a minute or two in pumping it up to a ridable degree of hardness. Occasionally, perhaps, when time presses, this inflation is neglected, and the tyro suffers in consequence. The constant necessity of using the pump becomes a nuisance and an irritation, which, strange to say, are endured rather than a quarter of an hour should bo expended to end them and to put the tyro in proper condition. In many instances a few minutes spent in the investigation of the trouble will suffice to remove it, for probably the majority of tyre leakages arc to be located in or about the valve. Not infrequently (especially if the valve has been long undisturbed) the rubber sleeve will be found to have cemented itself against the sides of the valve body, and will refuse to bo withdrawn with the plug In such a case it is necessary, if further trouble is to bo avoided, to completely remove all the perished rubber from the interior, and—a point which is often neglected—thoroughly to clean the stem before fitting a new sleeve. —-Dripping oil is not only unpleasant, wasteful, and unclean, but it indicates that there is a loose joint, a leaky pipe, or a faulty connection. It is a pretty good rule that whatever is abnormal is wrong, in the case of a motor, at least and should be corrected. Tho little leaks should not bo

neglected. Thick oil should not be used in cold weather, as it will congeal, while thin oil will serve even in extreme cold. An interesting insurance case has arisen in England. The motor car driver was insured against claims for accidentally injuring any person. He knocked down and injured a woman with relatives, but no dependents. woman sued for, and was awarded, £SOO damages. The motoristcalled upon the insurance company to pay. The woman died from disease before the money was paid over by the insurance company. She left a will bequeathing her property to various people; but as the will was made before she met with the accident, the amount recovered as damages was. of course, not mentioned, therefore could not be willed to anyone. The question is, Must the insurance company pay the money and, if so, to whom? Must the insurance company pay the insured motor-driver, and if he is not called upon to pav over the money does he keen it for himself? A defect to which manv cars are liable is that of excessive noise in the differential gear, generally accentuated when the car is ch'mbing a evade with the low gear in operation and the engine running fast. This trouble is naturally only exnerienced in the case of cars that have a bevel drive, using a small bevel pinion and a large crown wheel. Where we have a worm drive no trouble of tb s kind is found. The noise is generallv due to had meshing of the engaging wheels—a common defect arising from their being toe far out of engagement with each other. In most oases flu's is on account of the wear in the thrii=t hearings both on the shaft winch carries the small bevel pinion, and on the main bearing -winch carries the differential gear cases to which the crown wheel is bolted These bearings have to take up considerable end thrust, due to the bevel wheels endeavouring to crowd away from each other. Normally provision is made to take im this wear; but even so, it is an adjustment that rcouires to be performed very delicately, and is not- the kind of work that the ordinary motorist can undertake; indeed, it is not an adjustment that one would leave to the average all-round repair shop. • Few motorists realise how much neglected tyre cuts cost them a year. Fully

half the burst covers one inspects are traceable to ingress of moisture, grit, >eto. into gashes or holes in the rubber tread. This eventually leads to a loosened tread, rotting of fabric, and the inevitable shortening of life of cover. Probably the chief reason of neglect by motorists to plug the cover holes that permit water reaching the canvas casing has been the need of a sure, simple, and effective plugging compoundsomething that would bo not only certain m its results, but cheap and easy to use. The Dunlop Rubber Company, which has boon experimenting in this direction for some considerable time past, now announce that it is marketing an ideal outfit which will enable all motorists to not only plug cover holes, but repair all their punctured tubes, permanently and quickly. _ The latter alone moans a considerable saving to motorists for it obviates carrying so many spare tubes when touring. Another advantage is .that motorists and motor cyclists can in their spare time easily overhaul their covers and tubes without the necessity of haying to send same to a tyre depot for minor repairs. Thousands of good tyres are now ruined annually in this country through want of a little attention and a proper outfit. The forecasts in the American press that world’s records would be established on the new Chicago. Motor Speedway have soon been verified, for the opening event has provided sensational figures. The Chicago Derby, a 500 miles race, drew a large field of 21 of the fastest cars and drivers in America, and provided a magnificent struggle. The winner proved to be D. Resta, who won by over three minutes, and covered the ‘‘soo” in the almost incredible time of shr 7min 25sec, equal to an average speed of 97g miles an hour. A Sunbeam (Eng.), driven by Porporata, was second in shr lOmin 50scc, whilst Reichcnbacher, on a Maxwell, was third in shr llmin sse really wonderful performance. Of the 12 drivers who comleted the full course 10 averaged 90 m.p.h. or over, all thus bettering De Palma’s world’s competition record of 89.8 m.p.h. established in America only a few weeks back. A crowd of 80,000 people witnessed the race, and so great was the rush to the Speedway that the railway service was paralysed. The Chicago track, with its wooden surface, proved a great success, and easy on tyres, ns may be judged from the fact that s‘x of the drivers to finish never changed a tyro. Grant (Sunbeam), who finished fifth, went right through the contest without a ston of any kind. D. Resta, drove a Peugot. four-cylinrEr (overhead valves) 3.'62in bore by 6.67 in stroke. The total prize-money for the event under notice was £IO.BOO. The winner’s performance is absolutely the world’s best. H. G. Hawker, the Victorian aviator now. in England, recently established a new British altitude record by flying to a height of 20,000 ft, which means an altitude of over three and a-half miles. It took Hawker an hour and a-balf to accomplish his flight. He used an 80 h.p. Sopwith biplane, p, similar make of machine to that used by him in Australia. Motorists often think that because a t’’n of benzine is not quite full they are getting ‘‘short measure.” An interesting test in th’’s resoect was recently carried out bv the Auckland Automobile Association, which arranged with the inspector of weights and measures to lest a number of tins of “Shell” benzine taken at haphazard. He renorted that the quantity hold in each tin of “Shell” tested was quite correct. The British Imperial Oil Company, in commenting on the matter, point out that the fear of some motorists that they were not getting quite pH they paid for was not unreasonable. The explanation that a 4gnl tin will really hold move than 4 gal of benzine, but a certain amount of space is left in the tin to allow for expansion of the spirit. WHY THERE XS NO BENZOLE;. Everybody who uses benzole knows that all through the war there has been great difficulty in obtaining supplies, although the reason has not been very apparent. The cause is explained authoritatively in the Motor, and is due to the shortage of high explosives, of which toluene, obtained from benzole, is the important ingredient of the explosive tri-nitro-tolueno (T.N.T.). The toluene has to be extracted from the benzole, which takes a considerable time, and the Government has taken oyer all supplies, which are not released until the toluene is recovered from the benzole. Presently, however, there will he large quantities of toluene-free spirit. Benzole without toluene has not quite so much power, and tends to freeze at the jet in even moderate temperatures 'its freezing point is 34deg F.), but is otherwise a perfectly satisfactory fuel, and, in fact, rather better for the engine. An interesting point is that the Motor benzole campaign has so largely increased its use that, at the outbreak of war, the available supply had been more than doubled, and the importance of making benzole one of our great national industries is thereby brought home to motorists. ARMOURED CARS IN ACTION. The manner in which British armoured cars are being utilised against the Turks and the Gormans in South-west Africa is related by correspondents with the British forces in those campaigns. In the attack on the fortified position of the Turks at Achi Baba on June 4 it is stated that eight of the armoured cars of the R.N.A.S. participated despite the had_ road surface. Timing their attack to coincide with that, of our first line, at noon the oars, four on each road, dashed up to the firing-line. Crossing our trenches on bridges laid across for them, they went on jolting and rocking over the pitfalls sown in the ground, and so clean up to the enemy’s trenches. Here farther progress was impossible, as the oars could not leap the deep, wide caverns the Turks had carved in the ground. They accordingly halted, and opened fire with Maxims on the fleeing Turks. The cars on the right road found the way blocked by a parapet almost as high as the turret, the Turks having foreseen that an attack of some sort might bo made along the road. The motorists had difficulty in bringing their Maxims into play, and naturally" the cars made conspicuous targets. As soon as tho Turks had recovered from their surprise at the appearance of this now enemy, bullets began to ping against tho armoured sides of the oars and shells began to fall round them. Being unable to advance farther, and our men being now well in advance of tho cars, the latter reversed hack to the road, and withdrew, shells falling between them as they drove back along tho roads. One car was hit and the top of the turret knocked off, but nobody was killed. The total loss was a few men wounded.

All the cars -were brought back, only two being damaged. The description of the work done in the action of Trokkopje, in German South-west Africa, on April 28, is not dissimilar. In this instance the R.N.A.S. cars were placed on the right to cover any possible attack from that quarter. The narrator, who is an officer in the section, goes on: “At first the Germans did not know what to make of us; but once they got wise to what the cars were, they concentrated a_ whole battery on them, and gave them fair hell. I counted over 40 shrapnel bullet marks on the armour of one car alone, while a German Maxim got on to another and properly peppered it. A few bullets and stray pieces of shrapnel came in through the gun ports, but did no damage. My casualties —or casualty—were limited to one man rather severely wounded in the arm by a shrapnel splinter. The cars then went out in advance of our trenches, and succeeded in preventing the enemy from developing his attack, forcing him away from the railway, and inflicting some loss. In particular, we knocked out a German machine gun, killing the officer in command and a corporal, and disabled the gun, which was afterwards brought into our camp.” WHAT THE WAR WILL TEACH. If the war teaches us to pay due honour to our mechanical pioneers, it will, I think, do much to raise the mechanical standard of the nation. Not only is the inventor getting a very much better chance at the moment, but many thousands of young soldiers are being taught the elements of self-help .where the petrol engine is concerned. The flying schools are everywhere busy, as we know, and transport drivers were never more in request. Not only is this the case, but in every camp the soldier is being instructed in those activities which result in actual achievement. Thousands of clerks may never have used a hammer until they went into the army. There have been hundreds of motor cyclists who had but the vaguest idea of what to do when their engines failed them, but arc doing it now under the menace of shrapnel. If necessity be the mother of invention, then surely is an llin shell a relative of an inspiring character when encountered upon a lonely highway. The boy who docs not mind much if ho is “ missing ” upon a lonely British highway is greatly interested in the fa<st when he discovers it in Belgium or upon the shell-swept highways of Northern France. Lightning repairs, we are told, have been effected by youngsters who hardly knew a sparking plu"- from a carburettor six months ago. I have seen gouty old gentlemen develop a nimbloness in the face of the enemy which their friends would have deemed incredible, and the way they have swung starting handles under the stimulus of bombs is not to bo described in measured terms. All this makes for good, and we shall reap its benefits ultimately. It is well that the next generation should bo educated to a quick perception of mechanical advantage and to the possession of that manual skill in _ which many of us have been so deficient in the past. Confidently may we say that ribaldry will not attend the pioneer of the future, and that the man who can contribute something to the common stock of the mechanical idea will not go unwept and unsung. The need of such men will ho great in the face of the devastation which must be Armageddon’s heritage. Wo shall begin anew upon a sure foundation of knowledge which the war has bequeathed to us, and among its best lessons will be those which have taught us to be ashamed of the ridicule we bestowed upon the Instruments of the national salvation.