MOTOR NOTES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16208, 4 December 1926, Page 9

MOTOR NOTES

MIDGET OARS’ NEW VOGUE IN ENGLAND. HEAVY LICENSE FEES BRING SMALL AUTOMOBILE INTO POPULAR FAVO'lj. LONDON, October 20. Teacuj) motors and baby carriage cars, with roofs below a normal man’s chin, stood in rows' when the Olympia motor show was opened to the public. Besides England’s midget automobiles were cars of every .size and price. Several new manufacturers made their first appeal to the motor-wise buyers. A general downward revision in prices and a market-wide improvement in standards of mechanics and comfort and equipment were the features of the display. But attention centred on the small cars. They are most of them smaller than the smallest American ear. There is a reason for the small car popularity. England imposes a tax of £1 per horse-power, and the sevens and tens are necessary in order to keep the price of a registration license below the price'of the car. The cost of licensing the smaller British ears for one year is not less than £7, and usually somewhat more. With this situation facing them, English motor engineers have performed wonders of ingenious designing. They have designed small high-speed motors eliminating all the waste of extra weight and unnecessary power. Tl>e cylinders of'the smaller cars are about the size of a teacup. Exactly, they are 2.2 nehes wide and the stroke of the pistons is 3 inches. 'These small four-cylinder motors spin at a normal speed of 3000 to 4000 revolutions per minute, about twice the normal road speed of the larger and bulkier motors. They drive over the highways comfortably at 3:1 and 40 miles an hour, and show better than 85 an hour on the racing tracks. Most of them hnvo two overhead camshafts to operate the Valve mechanism, and the racing cars are often 'fitted with super-charges, such as are used on racing airplanes. Pneumatic upholstery, pumped with air to the desired degree of softness, is standard equipment on some of the cars shown m the Olympic show. Balloon tyres are used almost entirely.

A typical midget automobile at the show has an over-all length of 9 feet and a wheelbase of pnly 6 feet and 3 inches. The trend between the wheels is 3 feet 4 inches, with a road clearance of almost 9 inches. The top of the windshield is only 4 feet 9 inches above the pavement. Bueh a car seats four people. The tyres arc 26 by 31 inches in size and the equipment includes four-wheel brakes, electric starters and lights, speedometer and an electric horn. There are three forward speeds, and one reverse. GASOLINE OUT OF COAL DUST. GERMANY >S HUGE REFINERY. lIOECHST -AM - MAIN, Germany, October 30.—Plans have been completed for the construction of the first large refinery for the analine dye trust, which will use the Bergius process to turn poor quality coal and coal screenings into gasoline, kerosene, and lubricating oils worth from twenty to twenty-five times the market value of the coal. %.

After months of conjecture as to the economic importance of the Bergius process, officials of the dye trust are understood to be confident that it will be technically and financially possible in the next few years to make 1 Germany independent of American and British oil companies, which now supply 75 per cent, of all the gasoline, 90 per cent, of the lubricating oils and 100 per cent, of the kerosene used in Germany. NOT SO OPTIMISTIC. Agents of the United States depart- ; meat of commerce are not so options- * tic. They believe that coal refining will greatly reduce the business of German-AmeriCan and Anglo-American interests in Germany, but will never drive out foreign competition. The huge refinery, says F. Znr Nedden, Berlin engineer, will be able to turn one ton of poor quality Ruhr coal into 330 pounds of gasoline, 440 pounds of lubricating .oil, 132 pounds of grease, and 176 pounds of kerosene. The production costs of these products will approximate £5; while the value at the refinery will average £9 at average present prices. The coal act-; ually consumed in the. process will cost less than 7s at the mines, which aro close at hand. HOW GASOLINE IS OBTAINED.

The production ebst, which includes labor, materials, interest and depreciation, is so low Zur Ncdden believes the foreign concerns cannot compete with the dye trust. The process, invented by Dr. Bergius fourteen years ago and used only on a small scale, consists of placing a mixture of powdered coal or screenings and tar into a huge drum, into which is- passed impure hydrogen gasi. Upon application of tremendous pressure petroleum is obtained. The fluid then is refined in the samo manner as petroleum.

CHIMES TO REPLACE AUTO HORNS. WASHINGTON, October 23. Chimes that play “Nearer. My God, to Thee," “Good-bye For Ever.’’ and other appropriate tunes for the benefit of pedestrians have been suggested to the Washington traffic bureau to replace the strident squawks of automobile horns. Dr. E. L. Scharf, editor of the National Catholic News' Bulletin, author of the idea, predicts if his plan is adopted, traffic cops will become music, devotees, able to distinguish a flat C in a horn's lower register. The scale of chimes is so extensive that, appropriate music could bo rendered for any purpose, Dr. Scharf declares.' THE ACCUMULATOR. ' t It is doubtful whether any Other accessory of the modern ear has received at the hands of experts so large a measure of scientific study and investigufion as the accumulator. When one compares the long and lasting and muleviating service which we now got from these appliances with the troubles which attended their use in the earlier days, we see how wide and far-reaching

has boon the improvement. We are: now seldom held up with ignition, starting, or lighting troubles which can be traced to faulty performance of the battery. Modern car dynamos are! now such reliable functioning rnach- j Lies that the battery can bo kept j 'charged under all conditions. The use | of dynamos of constant output and the i ingenious automatic-control devices—! generally of a very simple and fool- ■ proof nature—has made the charging' 1 of the battery a function which can bo | left to automatically look after itself, j The result is that the veriest novice i can undertake the running of a car j without any technical knowledge of its i electrical equipment. It looks after'

itself. The charging and discharging takes place under the best possible conditions, and the life of the accumulator is indefinitely prolonged. MOTORISTS' CAMP. first inTustralia. SYDNEY, November 17. New ground is being broken by the N.R.M.A., which is establishing near Shcilharbor, at the mouth of the Min j namurra river the first organised j motor camp in Australia.

The N.R.M.A. has secured an area of 250 acres in all, and intends to establish a golf links and later prob-* ably a hostel. j It is a picturesque locality, and the camping area includes a splendid surfing beach. It is expected that many thousands of motorists will visit the . camp when it is available. THE COMMERCIAL VEHICLE. j There is probably no other selfpropclicd vehicle on the road to-day which is worked harder than the commercial vehicle, irrespective of the actual duty which it performs. If it j be the light van. it is expected to ; operate all day long, whether in town , or country and almost every day in the year, in some cases receiving little or no attention. The city passenger bus, the town or country char-ivbancs, the haulage company’s vehicle, transport vehicles'—wherever encountered,' the ditty is hard and exacting, and all these vehicles must be on the road regularly to justify their existence for the pork they do and to pay reasonable profits. The longer they are on the road and operating successfully the bettor arc the chances of reduced over-; all costs of operation on a mileage | basis. Successful and economical;

operation largely depends upon correct, lubrication. No matter how good the materials that are used in the chassis, or how carefully each component lias been assembled and tested, these will be unavailing if due care be not taken to ensure that each part shall be in good condition and so maintained, and this can truly be said of every Vehicle on the road to-day. Correct lubrication plays a most important part in this respect, and only high-grade lubricants have the stability and character to provide the necessary oil film Jo protect all working parts Under the operating conditions and temperatures which prevail.