MOTOR NOTES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17130, 4 September 1926, Page 12

MOTOR NOTES

MOTOR TRAFFIC IX NEW YORK'

CITY THAT MOVES O.N WHEELS

Mr. M. A. Eliott delivered an interesting address on "Motor Traffic in New York" at the Citizens' Luncheon I hi].)' at Ralmerston North. Mr. Eliott stated tliat New York had a. marvellous trattic syst-cm based nj)on long, wide, avenues and short narrow cross streets. New York Jiad been called "the city of 'busted' hearts and bent mudguards." New York's trattic was a stupendous and staggering exhibition of human enterprise. It- moved very-fast when it moved and when it stood still it stood for long minutes at a time. The first fact that struck the visitor down in the heart of"; the old business section, where traffic was at its worst, was the entire absence of private motor-cars. Ninety per cent, of the traffic consisted of taxi-cabs and trucks. On Fifth Avenue. Seventh avenue and .Madison avenue, daring the business hour movement in the morning, there would be ti certain number of magnificent private cars rolling down town containing big business men. The very magnificence of these private limousines protected them. They moved with security amidst the throng of outlaw taxis and trucks. Comparatively few of the plain people risked their cars or wasted their time trying to thrust- a way through the central downtown traffic. •

"The street cars of New York are unbelievably comic," proceeded the speaker. "No little town anywhere has any thing so shabby, slow and worn out as New" York's surface cars. They move with incredit-able elowness, halting for traffic at every cross street, jammed with people, lame, lazy, or otherwise unable to walk. New York's mass traffic moves by tube or elevated railway. The Fifth avenue buses run up the main central thoroughfare, but at ten cents, and with so limited a route, they are not able to be considered as main factors in the traffic problem. New Yorkers suffocate underground or die of dust and disappointment riding high up in the air on the level with the second story of'battered looking slmus in order tliat the streets may be kept free for motor traffic. The streets are jammed with racing, stopping colliding cars that rawly sound their horns since it would be 'of little use. Nobody would pay attention anyway. Only one thing can be said >n lavor o* Ne.w York traffic; the brakes of '.he cars are certainly in good working order. "America" to-day can fairly be described as a nation on wheels. To-day the United States expetids £2,800,000 for its annual automobile bill. Its 20.000.000 cars for 115,000,000 people means that the entire population might be moved almost on instant notice by motor-car. The nation is on wheels in reality. It appears from records recently compiled that the average motorcar 10-dav in the United States costs £2OO, and there is also the cost for upkeep. Added to these figures is £50,000,030 and more, the values of ears exported. For America, is helping to place the world on wheels and the exportation of motor cars is slowly going to usurp in importance the buying of cars in America. The production of automobiles in the United SCites for the first three mouths of this year was 1,518.000. or more thaw one for every man. woman and child in New Zealand. " The, fatalities in the United States during 3925 totalled 22,500, an increase of 2200 over 1921. Level railway crossings increased from 1680 in 1924 jo 1794 in 1925. Over 250,000 motor vehicles were stolen in the United SUites hist vear, being of a value of £43.6QQ,OCC.' ;uid estimating: that 80 per cent were recovered, the Jons to motorists amounted to £7,000,000. " Pedestrians in .New York are of a special breed, produced by years of evolution. Yoit can pick at once the New Yorker from the stranger by his conduct in ciossing the streets, lie i* distinguishable by the manner in which he barges coolly out into the middle, of traffic, pausing /uul advancing skilfully and delicately, like a dancer, amidst the rushing cars." THE AYORLIV,S MOTORS. With a world population of 1,748.000,000 for 1925, there is an automobile owner in every group of 71 persons, or a total of 24,000,000 owners, according to estimates by the Department of Commerce in America, The United Slates has the greatest number of motor cars, and also the highest ratio of such vehicles to population, with one to every six persons. Hawaii has one to every eleven, Canada one to thirteen, New Zealand one to fourteen, Australia one to 20, Denmark one to 51, leading both Great Britain and France, where the ratios are one to ,55 and: one to 53 respectively. Argentina has the, .same ratio as Great Britain, namely one to 55. The hold which motoring hr<3 achieved on Scandinavia is indicated by the ratios of Sweden and Norway, one to 75 and one to 99 respectively. AH this shows the remarkable strides that have been made in the last few years in educating' foreign nations to accept motoring as a definite factor in their daily lives. At the opposite extremity of the ratio is Afghanistan, where only one motor car is in use for every 1,200,000 persons; Hejajz, which has but four cars, or one to every 225,000 of the population; Abyssinia, with one car to every 133,333 persons and China, which has a, ratio of one car for every 31,871 inhabitants. The Solomon Islands, with a population of 151,000 persons, possesses but two automobiles, while Liberia has 54, or one, for every 24.259 persons in the republic. Hidden in these figures there is a lesson, which we shall do well to take to heart (says the Automotive Daily News). It is this: England, one of the first nations to take up motoring, with a line highway sy.stem, with an automotive industry turning out an excellent product, falls far below Australia and Now Zealand, is surpassed by Denmark and equalled by the Argentine, every one of which'must , import- every vehicle it. uses. The answer is simply excessive taxation. Thousands of cars are rusting in British garages, because their owners cannot afford, to pay the taxes lint are levied upon them.

It is interesting to note thnt the num. her of motor vehicles in New Zealand shown by the returns to the end of July (his'year .give a total of 142,673.

500,000 A.A. MEMBERS. LONDON, July 2. The membership of the Automobile Association litis passed the third 100,000 mark. On Jnlv 6 last vear the membership reached ' 250,000. ' The association was started twenty-one years back, in 1905. by the nrovision of eight cycle patrols on the London-Brighton road. To-day the A.A. road ualrols are serving members on over 20.000 miles of roads, and their cycles, .motor eye'es. and day and night road service outfits are covering over 13,000,000 miles annually.

CAR-TESTING

AMERICAN CONCERN'S METHODS. ARTIFICIAL FLOODS PROVIDED. Unique methods of ear-testing are employed by General Motors Corporation of America. Testing grounds near Detroit extend to an area of 1125 acres, and include a speed track (with banked tnil's )nearl v v four miles long, a straightaway course nearly 1£ miles in length, a number of test hills with gradients ranging lip to 24 per cent., and ;i special section of concrete roadway which has parapets at the sides and can be flooded to a depth of 2ft. when it is desired to test- vehicles by drivinc them through water. Some of the testing methods and measuring devices employed were described in a paper read before the Society of Automotive Engineers, and these arc of interest owing to the thoroughness with' which ihe work is carried out. MEASURING SPEED.

The straight section of roadway, which is level, is used for acceleration, braking, and fuel economy tests, the car being always tried running first one way and then in the opposite direction. Measurements of spued are made in two different ways, one consisting of the orthodox timing over a given distance. As an alternative an apparatus is employed consisting of a bicycle whed mounted at the end of a hinged lever, which is secured to the car, this "fifth wheel'' driving a speedometer mechanism through the medium of a chain. As the wheel an 3 lever are very light, and the power required ' s almost negligible, it is said that there is'no measureable slip, and therefore no discrepancy is found to exist between the distance travelled and the. distance recorded. ACCELERATION TESTS.

For acceleration tests this "fifth wheel" device is employed to operate a cam which works a contact breaker and causes a spark to puncture a moving strip of paper. Two records are actually made, one row of holes representing Ift. movements of the car, while the second rowis made at 10ft. intervals. A clock mechanism makes .a third row of bolus at half-second intervals, so that, from the record of time and distance covered, acceleration and speed figures can be deduced. For braking tests the movements of a- sprung weight tire employed to operate u. pen across tin electrically-driven paper strip Special devices are employed for measuring the effort required to steer the car and to operate the pedals; the former is an interesting gadget consisting of a duplicate steeling wheel which is clamped above -the ordinary steering wheel and is operated by the driver. The movement of the duplicate wheel is conveyed to thef second wheel through plungers operation- against, springs and provided with slideable indicators which show the maximum pressure exerted in each direction. COMPARING VISIBILITY.

An unusual test is the one made to ascertain the visibility afforded by various types of enclosed bodywork. The car is manoeuvred until it faces a wall marked off in squares by chalk lines, and the driver, keeping his eyes ui a fixed position, marks out the locations of the obstructions on paper, which is ruled off to correspond with the marking of tha wall. Many other tests are carried out, and the extent of the undertaking ran be gathered from the fact that, the distance eovoml by cars tested on these proving grounds exceeds 200,000 miles a month.' Further apparatus is being made with which Additional tests will be possible. A SYNTHETIC FUEL. . AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS. The United! States Bureau of Standards is testing what is described as a new motor fuel, which the Petroleum Conversion Corporation of New York claims Mill increase mileage per gallon and reduce the annual cost of operating automobiles by millions of dollars. The fuel is said to represent experiments conducted over a period of five years, in which more, than £400,000 has been spent in perfecting a new process worked out by William J. Knox, for many years a chemist in the service of George We.stinghouse. Thj'ough this process, it is claimed, excellent motor fuel is obtained from petroleum. The new fuel, it is also claimed is not a petrol, but a benzol compound, benzol being developed through the direct application of heat «is a straight run of main product, instead of a by-product, as it is in all processes of cracking petroleum new in general use. Its component parts are 56 per cent benzol, 20 per cent naphthenes and 44 per cejtf unsaturated' compounds. It is claimed that with the new fuel the Ford, which now may he, producing seventeen miles on a gallon of gas, will, with slight changes, cover 21A miles to somewhat more than 2-2 miles per gallon. Increased mileage in other types of car.s will, it is said, be proportionately large.