Cycling and Motor Notes

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 60

Cycling and Motor Notes

BY DEMON.

The OtugQ Motor Club’s annual meeting and smoke concert and presentation of prizes took place in the Savoy Tea Rooms during- the month, and was well attended. Over 5C now members were elected, and as the club is now recognised as one of tho livest bodies in tho Dominion, it ought to he able to claim an additional IGO new members before the end of the coming season A reliability trial is spoken of for Labour Day, and the course suggested is to I'imaru and return, the same as last year. I believe one of tho members has offered a valuable trophy for a competition for light oars, which ought to produce a good entry, as the loads up north are re ported to be in good order just now.

The good work which the Motor Club did towards mending the Main South road at Look-out Point has already shown beneficial results, .md the load now only requires a few days’ rain to enable the metal and earth to bind together. Signposts have also been erected at dangerous points on this and other roads, and are a decided improvement. I hear that at least four new members have joined the club solely as a result of the members’ efforts on Look-out Point.

A number of new motorists have been elected to the Motor Club’s Committee, including Messrs M'lndoe, Moody, M’Alister, and King. 1 wonder if presentday riders realise how motor cycling con ditions have improved as compared with 10 years back. In the old days we used to see such riders as the Bell brothers, the Sievwrights, Stuart White, etc., all riding machines with accumulator ignition, most of them with round belts, which pulled out every few mihs, and it was thought a wonderful performance if one made a nonstop run to Henley. With the coming of thp magneto and large Y belt or cnain drive, however, things have changed,- and the way the present-day small-powered machines romp up the hills is good to behold.

nounced .ts intention to tax petrol 4d per gallon as well as an extra 10 per cent, on the value of cars, the local Motor Club got to business and protested, in common with a number of other clubs. It has been decided by th? Government to withdraw the tax. Motorists do not object to pay their fair share of the great war expenses this country has been put to, but the proposals were rather over the odds, and would have given the sport a serious set-back if they had been enforced

Apparently, through the carelessness of a driver rn allowing bottles to fall out of his cart, a part of Crawford street, near the Education Boarld offices, was a mass of broken glass yesterday. One had only to glance at the many sharp, pointed pieces lying around to realise that they would inflict severe damage on any pneumatic tyre which might pass over them. Mr A. K. M'Dougall (captain of the Otago Motor Club) and Mr Oakden (the secretary) had their attention drawn to the danger, and inspected the locality. They intend to bring up a report to their club on the evil of allowing glass in such quantity to litter a public highway. Petrol is proving the white life-blood of the armies now engaged in the titanic struggle in Europe. From the north of Scotland to the Dardanelles tho whole country is studded with military motor cars. The greatest congestion of them is in Flanders.

The war has boon a triumph for two kinds of car types, says the Daily Mail (London) —types as far apart as possible, — the expensive English car and the cheap American firm that made it has supplied to cally any strain, and the other is so cheap that when it breaks down badly it can be thrown away. At tho beginning of tho war the French would not requisition the big English makes of car, even when they were offered. Of the 50 or so Rolls-Royce in Paris at the outbreak of tho war not one, it is said, was taken. But .French admiration for the best type of English car is shown by the fact that General Joffre, General Foch, and M. Miller'and, and the War Minister, now have each two RollsRoyces. and M. Poincare has used the same English make in his tours to_ tho front. Very large numbers of American lorries are used in France. One contract for 4000 American motor lorries was signed in LondoiT by one of the Allies, and the _ same American firm what made has supplied to England an average of about 200 cars a week since the -war began. There have been few improvements in cars evolved by the war. Motor lorries with the drive on both pairs of wheels are common; t hey are more satisfactory on bad ground. The armoured motor cars are fitted with double steering, back and front, so that they can retire quickly without turning round. The groat wastage of the army motor cars, is in tyres. If an efficient substitute for the rubber tyre could l bo found it would reduce tho army’s gigantic motoring bill by about one-half. The first annual balance sheet issued by the Melbourne General Motor Bus Company (Ltd.) discloses some very interesting figures. First of all the total distance run by the fleet of 31 buses, during the company’s financial year was 1.258,813 miles, making an average for tho fleet of 3448 miles per day. The daily mileage per bus worked out at 111* miles, and 40,606 miles per bus per year. These figures must bring home to the general public a failidea of what a tremendous amount of work the up-to-date motor vehicle is capable of. Tho passengers carried during the year prove conclusively the need and popularity of this tj-.pe of conveyance. All fold, 5.795.404 people wore carried, or nearly five times tho total population of Victoria — over 10 times the population of Melbourne and suburbs,—and this during a year when traffic has been considerably affected by the war. The takings amounted to £65.319, whilst the garage wages totalled. £29.472. Petrol, oil, and grease cost £14.997, tyres £7735, and repairs and renewals £4722. T (“Camshaft,” in tho EveningNews) am told that certain Christchurch

men intend to “have a go ’ at the Government with a view to getting it made compulsory to have swivelling head-bghts on motor cars. Their idea is that the lio-hts on a car should be connected up witn the steering gear of the car, so that t e beam of light will be swung round and will thus better illuminate the track of the car, and enable the driver to see any obstacles ahead. Any driver of a car with fixed lights will know that he w be right round a sharp corner before bis track ahead will bo completely lit up, but with swivelling head-lights this is all obviated. There is certainly something in the idea. Brake bands will not last indefinitely. nnd as soon as they show signs of wear, fust the moment the rear wheels do not slide together when the pedal is depressed, examine the bands. In many cases the wear may be compensated for by adjustment of the rods, but frequently the band is worn too much on one side, causing it to make only partial contact With the drum. Should the bands not hold because of oil or o-rca.se on the face, a kerosene bath soon v. ilfmake them hold tightly. After a country tour in the rain it will be found the brake bands are covered with dut, some of which soon makes its way under tho band and cuts the drum. A good Cleaning will prevent this. The repainting and varnishing of a car body, savs a writer in tho Motor, is a work * that is quite outside the range of the average amateur’s experience and skill, and in cases where a properly-finished body is required there should ho no hesitation in having the work done at the coachbuilder’s. It would bo time, money, ana labour lost to try to approach tho class oi work done by tho skilled craftsman. At the same time, it is often the case that a car body is. not worth having so much time and monov spent upon it. although it would bo worth while to endeavour to improve its time and weather-worn appealance. It is quite practicable to do this i. some time and care be given to the opeialion. Experience, however, is the only guide as to tho best way to carry out the details of the operation, and the most that

an article on the subject can do is to convey some general hints. AT THE FRONT. REPAIRING THE OARS. The following interesting letter has been addressed to “Motor Traction” (Eng.) by an Australian officer with the mechanical transport section of the Army Service Corps. He writes from France, and, as will be seen, deals with new repairing facilities which have been provided at the front. “This war looks as if it were going to run another winter, much to the regret at icast of everyone who put in last winter in the firing line. This conviction has been borne on me forcibly by the preparations being made by the British army. I refer now particularly to the establishment of a new ‘repair unit’ recently laid down at ——, and popularly known as factory. Iho large factory has been taken over by the army and converted into a repair depot, promising to rival the Paris works started early on in the war. ' “The machinery thrown idle by the world struggle has been wire-netted off, and the remains of the space, probably measuring up five acres, devoted to the rejuvenating of war-worn lorries, buses, cars, and motor cycles. At first glance one could easily mistake the place for the erecting and assembling departments of some large English works —the chassis are all laid out in bays, each make being kept to individual sections of the works. 'Even the khaki touch, inseparable from the army enterprises in France, is entirely absent, the 300 odd artificers being clothed in dungaree blues. “Traversing the aisles, one meets many well-known identities of the English motor world, particularly among the directing officers—B of the Daimler, and H— — from Leylands, and a dozen others all doing their ‘bit.’ Had they been consulted, the last job those officers would have chosen is the one they so efficiently carry out —a „ job which, lacking excitement, calls for close application, skill, and continued confinement indoors. But the genius at the head of the huge transport problem of this war has »

perfect faculty in the (selection of the right man for the right place; hence it is found true, rather an anomaly, that this new enterprise of the army is quite as well managed as the best of private enterprises. “Attached to each mechanical transport company in the field is one or more ‘mobile repair shops.’ Though wonderfully fitted out, it is quit© obvious that the scope of these workshops is limited to overhauls and the replacement of email parts such as can be turned up in a 4in lathe, _ or forged in a portable fire. The bigger jobs are of necessity turned over to the stationary repair units, of which the one under notice is the second to be established within the British lines. “Mention of winter recalls some of the trials of a convoy officer doing a job of work on the unspeakable pave roads of Belgium and Pas de Calais, Northern France. I remember being in sore straits with 10 lorries, the first of which had bounced off the hard stone setts into a bottomless sea of mud. Impossible to go back and make the journey by_ alternate route with the other nine, impossible to get one of the remaining lorries past to help pull out the submerged tenth, and utterly impossible for the submerged one even after off-loading to pull itself out of the grave self-dug in its efforts. “Tableau!

“The effects were not lessened by an occasional shell bursting near by, by the vision of an irate colonel anxiously awaiting ammunition for his batteries, and least of all by the remarks of drivers of other warlike vehicles that throng the roads just back of the front, held up in rear. “I do not claim my idea to have been original, but I have never heard of its being done before or since. The second lorry in the line happened to be a War Office subsidy typo with the usual radiator guard bar across the front. Moreover, it was a big five-ton Daimler, so I conceived the idea of pushing the offending lorry from behind. It worked like a charm. In a few minutes the road was clear, and the ammunition was delivered not more than one hour late.”

WOMEN WORKERS IN FRENCH AUTOMOBILE FACTORIES.

As is well known (writes H. 0. Duncan, in the Autocar), every able-bodied man in Franco between certain ages is liable to be called up for active service in the army to defend his country, and, as a result of the war, this has naturally had an important effect upon the supply of labour in every workshop throughout France. All the large firms now making motor cars or shells for the army have turned their attention to women workers, and, as an example, Messrs Dc Dion Bouton have actually over 600 women in their works, a very larger proportion of the 2800 hands employed. A large number of the women are working on lathes as turners, but there arc a certain number occupied on the automatic machinery, others in making shells or in the inspection shops.

The difficulty experienced in employing women on lathes, or on automatic machinery, is that in nearly every case it is necessary for a first-class mechanic to prepare the tools and fit up the work the women are to turn out, which is considered a great loes of time, as during this period the women have practically to look on, with the idea of eventually learning to do this important work themselves. This loss of time has to be accounted for, and, in consequence, the wages are less than uual, being 4d to 6d an hour; but, nevertheless. a woman can earn very excellent wages under these conditions when working at a lathe or on an automatic machine. It is possible that women workers will thrive and increase in French .engineering works after the war, as there will undoubtedly be a considerable reduction in skilled mechanics available, and many of the faps will be eventually filled by women ands in all motor car factories throughout France.

It may bo said that the De Dion Bouton Company have always employed a number of women in thou* works, especially upon the automatic machinery, and there are in consequence several first-rate “mechanics” among them who have been in their shops for years, some of them being capable of looking after as many as three machines at once. These particular women have now proved extremely valuable in teaching others their trade, and have passed from ordinary workers to instructors and even to chefs d’ateliers where only women are employed. At first it was thought to be rather a difficult problem to employ women on lathes, but a special instruction shop was set apart for young women with the necessary aptitude to learn this particular work, and even the heads of the firm themselves were surprised at the speedy manner in which the majority of these women learnt to operate a lathe.