Cycling & Motor Notes

Otago Witness, Issue 3347, 8 May 1918, Page 44

Cycling & Motor Notes

BY DEMON

1 am acquainted with, a smart young traveller for an Adelaide motor tyre firm (says an Australian writer). Recently he saw a somewhat jagged cast horseshoe lying in the gutter. Ho picked it up, carofully spat on it, and cast it over his shoulder. I said, “Why did you do that? “For hick,” was the reply. “But you threw the shoo into the roadway, ’ I said, “ and some motorist may come along and burst his tyre on it.” “It may be ray luck to sell him a new tyro,” was the sly retort. The automobile has, in the truest sense, been one of the groat inventions of civilisation. It has altered for the better conditions of life in almost every country on earth. Yet ail the time it was doing this it was being designed for pleasurable performance rather than for the useful work which formed the major reason for its existence. If motoring were merely a luxury now, as it used to be 15 years ago, then the annual output of cars in America would, perhaps, be 100,000 or less. The world has taken a luxury offered to it, and used that luxury as a necessity. Speaking recently in regard to the remarkable flight of a Handlcy-Pago biplane from London to Constantinople, Mr Basil Johnson, of Rolls-Royce (Ltd.)., Lngland, said that when the war started the automobile firms which turned their attention to engines for aircraft very naturally looked on an engine of 100 horse-power as “a useless, cumbersome, noisy, and very heavy monstrosity used either for racing ‘ stunts ’at Brooklands or for the ‘nut to swank in London.” It was natural, therefore, that to design an air engine of 100 horse-power that would be light and small was considered by rnost designers a problem of quite sufficient magnitude for them to solve, and it was also considered by those designers that such a highpowered engine should be ample for all reasonable purposes. It was at this time, however, that Mr Royce struck out on a line of his own to produce a motor of considerably greater power, as he believed the Rolls-Royce factory could produce an air motor of this high power which would be sufficiently light to be used in an airplane. He set to work forthwith, and produced the 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce engine, which gives over 350 horse-power. The record-breaking flight of the Handley-Page biplane was made possible by its two RollsRoyce engines. standard method of power transmission on motor cycles, and it is found that sometimes the front chain gives out first, and at others the rear and longer one. It is not always realised that a low-speed chain is subjected to greater tension than one at high speed, and that it is not tension that decides its life. The shorter chain is subject to less tension than the main drive, yet it frequently is the first to go, because of the higher speed at which it runs. Periodical adjustment and constant lubrication, however, are necessary if a fair amount of service is expected of them. Owners of cars and cycles have need to be watchful of their vehicles, as thefts of motor cycles and cars left standing in the streets arc becoming rather frequent, instances being reported from nearly all of the leading cities in the Commonwealth (says the Australasian). In the United States oar-lifting has become quite a fine art, the number stolon throughout the country running into thousands. We have become accustomed to hearing of stolen bicycles, and in the State of Victoria alone the number thus lost to their owners in one year exceeded 900; very few of the machines were recovered, for they are so quickly altered by the exchange of parts and repainted that the original user would not recognise any portion if he saw it. Members of the cycle and motor cycle trade complain that the penalties inflicted where thefts were proved against accused persons are so light that they fail to- act as a deterrent. The traders declare that the magistrates do not look upon the offence as being serious; if thefts of cars and motor cycles become more numerous it is to bo hoped that the punishment will fit the crime. The American authorities estimate that the Gormans have 1000 aeroplanes in operation on the western front on any single day, but they argue that as Germany has standardised practically since the beginning, it is impossible for her to continue increasing her production to the extent needed to keep pace with the Allies. An accident in which two occupants of a sidecar outfit were killed by an aeroplane crashing down on to them recently occurred in Canada. As it happened, the two men wore air mechanics of the Royal Flying Corps, who were preparing to go to the assistance of the pilot of this aeroplane. as they had observed that it w 7 as in trouble. BRITAIN’S MOTOR TRADE. RESULTS OF THE WAR. The figures of the motor car trade of the United Kingdom for 1917 have now been published, and show a considerable decline as compared with _ 1916. Last year only 5552 cars and chassis wore imported from abroad, as against 8115 in 1916. When compared with pre-war figures, the decline of the import trade is even greater, as will be soon by the _ following statement, which shows the imports in each year since 1913, the last year of normal

The average value per car in 1917 was £555, as compared with £lB3 in 1916 and £255 in 1913, whilst the corresponding values for chassis were £638, £271, and £235 respectively! It will bo seen that the average value both for cars and chassis was much higher in 1917 than_ in the previous year, and as the importation of all motor cars has been prohibited (except under license), it seems nrobable that the rise is clue to the fact tbat the majority of the cars and chassis imported last year were either for Government or trade purposes, and not private cars Nothing is known as

to the origin of the cars imported last year, but in 1916 practically all the cars and the majority of the chassis came from the United States, and it is probable that that country supplied most of those imported last year also. Motor car tyres and tubes to the value of £1,162,000 were imported last year, and other parts of cars to the value of £2,168,000, the figures for 1916 being £2,207,000 and £1,491,000 respectively, and for 1913 £2,557,000 and £1,220,000. Alt - gether the total value of the import trade in cars, chassis, tyres, and parts last year was £6,694,000, as compared with £5,448,000 in the ■ previous year and £7,511,000 in 1913. In the case of exports of British cars, there has been a continuous decline in the number of completo cars exported each year since 1913, whilst, as regards chassis, the number exported last vear was greater than in both 1915 and 1916, though less than half what the figure was in 1913. The following statement gives the actual figures for the last fivo years:—

As regards values, the average value per car was £475 in 1917, as against £482 in 1916 and £315 in 1913. The corresponding figures for chassis were £582, £474, and £377 respectively. The value of tyres and tubes exported last year was £1,107,000, as compared with £1,109,000 in the previous year and £709.000 prior to the -war, whilst '"other parts" to the value of £689,000 were also exported, the corresponding figures for 1916 and 1913 being £755,000 and £788,000 rospectivclv. The total value of the export trade was "thus £2.896.000 in 1917. as compared with £3,421,000 in 1916 and £4,359,000 in 1913. . . THE WAR AND MOTORING. When the war is over the motor industry will still be with us, bu£ it will be a different industry, according to the Motoring Age, published in America. True, the car will have four wheels and an engine and pneumatic tyres, but our mental attitude towards it will have changed. Perhaps before the war h over several of our national characteristics will have changed. When the war is over We will have a new attitude toward the car we are going to buy. It is more than possible that wo will to an extent have followed the atttiude of the French or British buyer of the past, who has been more interested in the maintenance cost of a car

than in the first cost of it. Before the war many of the European buyers had a certain income to live on, and they could buy a car, providing its cost of maintenance could practically be guaranteed. When the war is over a very large percentage of our citizens will have learned lessons o; economy and thrift. They will have learner! how much science is necessary to live on a certain income, and before they decide upon a certain car it will be necessary to give them some rather definite con- • ception of how far a set of tyres will run. how many miles the car really will go on a gallon of petrol, how many years the car will run before the main bearings of the engine have to bo renewed, how many miles of travel the universe! joints will stand, and how many miles of travel otherparts will stand without renewal. SHORTAGE OF PETROL. TAXI-OWNERS' PROTEST. CHRISTCHURCH, May 1. A deputation of taxi-owners "and drivers waited on Dr Thaeker, M.P., this afternoon, and complained that their supplies of petrol had been stopped. Dr Thaeker sent the following telegram to the Minister of Munitions and Supplies:—"Taxi-owners here have had their petrol stopped; it s said to be owing to Government contracts. Please advise me urgently the true position.'" The Board of Trade is inquiring into the petrol question, but the results of its deliberations have not been made known. The investigations of the Board of Trade concerning the distribution of petrol are not confined to Christchurch, and the board is obtaining evidence on the subject from other centres by telegram. ACTION BY THE BOARD OF TRADE. CHRISTCHURCH, May 5. "The Board of Trade, which has been en gaged investigating the shortage of petrol, has decided to issue a request to the two largo companies engaged in the business to conserve their supplies as much as possible, and supply only retailers carrying on business with those doing essential work. The power of discrimination will bo left to the companies themselves, it being understood that supplies will bo limited to the quantities usually taken by the customer. The companies have intimated that they arc prepared to act in accordance with the board's request. The board has impressed upon taxi-men the need for entirely eliminating joy rides. An intimation has bcor. received from the authorities instructing Duuedin traders in petrol not to sell motor spirit to anyone outside of their ordinary trading limits. This meanc that orders received in Duncdin from, say, Christchurch. will not bo executed. Otherwise no instructions have been received in Duncdin, so far as can be ascertained, restricting the purchase or use of petrol.. The position here to-day is that the consignment of spirits which oame to hand recently was sold immediately on arri-

val at the wharf, and that, as far as is known, local importers have no intimation of,any further shipments coming forward in the meantime. Pair stocks are held in Duncdin by those who require petrol for commercial purposes, and also by private owners of cars, many having taken the precaution to laj r in stocks when the supplies were more plentiful.

trade: — Complete Chassis. Year. cars. Total. 1913 ,. .. 6,820 7.058 14,778 1914 .. .. 7,530 6,649 14,169 1915 .. .. 16,655 3,841 20,496 1916 .. .. 5,109 3,004 8,113 1917 .... 625 4,927 5,552

Year. Complete cars. Chassis. Total. 1913 .. .. .. 7,597 1,234 8,831 1914 6,054 1,436 7,490 1915 3,279 483 3,762 1910 2,483 566 3,049 1917 1,572 606 2,178