Motorings.

Southland Times, Issue 18834, 29 May 1920, Page 9

Motorings.

(By "Spark.”) . To tnose who have electric lighting sets on their cycles, a writer in the Motor Cycle fives four points to which the unaccustomed user should attend: 1. Keep your cells tilled up with acid to the correct level; 2. Don’t take it for granted that the dynamo is charging; to inspect the ammeter by night a mateu must usually be struck; 3. Carry a complete set of spare bulbs; 4. Carry a spare length of fuse wire. Contrary to popular supposition, short circuits are extremely rare with lighting sets. A petition to Parliament, promoted by tbs various automobile organisations of Great Britain, points out that the use of benzols is restricted only by the shortness of supplies, and that, whereas in 1914 the production of benzole in Great Britain was t:i,SbJ,OOO gallons, derived principally from coke oven works, in 1918, 180 gas works were equipped with scrubbing plant, which yielded a lurther supply at the rate of about 10,000,000 gallons ■ annually. Last year the output from gas works bad fallen to approximately 3,500,000 gallons. It is estimated that more than 30,000,000 gallons of benzole as motor fuel could be produced from the existing gas works of the country if scrubbing were universally adopted, and it is with a view to rendering it obligatory upon gas undertakings to extract this benzole that the petition is being promoted.

Thu device prescribed below has been produced to enable a motor lorry to turn within its overall length in a conhned fepace without the excessive amount of manoeuvring at present required. It consists of an attachment to the front of a standard type lorry comprising a kind of jack mounted on a pair of small rubber-tyred wheels. To turn by use of the device the car is stopped, and the speed lever put into neutral. A hand lever by the driver’s left hand is then moved into one of the four notches in a quadrant and this connects up the engine to the jack by means of a dog clutch through a worm gear, and this causes the wheels to come to the ground. The front of the lorry then slowly rises until the road wheels are quite clear of the ground. This disengagement of the engine is then automatically effected, when the driver moves the hand lever to “left” or ‘right", which causes the engine to be connected up to the jack wheels, and these slowly rotated, moving the lorry round in the required direction. It is not pioposed at present to manufacture it as an attachment to existing lorries, but to produce a contraction which can be incorporated in future models of existing designs with but little alteration. The motorist in England was particularly hard hit throughout tbe war. Now that most of the restrictions have been lilted, and he is allowed —if he can afford it—to travel where he likes, be is met with another set back. It has been proposed that his car should be taxed on a basis of £1 per horse power per year. The projrosai has raised an outcry from all classes of car owners. The man who uses his car for business, or who can only just afford to run one for pleasure, is particularly loud in his protestations. Previously the taxation was, as is the case in New South Wales to-day, based on a sliding scale, cars being divided into some halfdozen classes according io power, the heavier powered cars meeting with a heavier rate in proportion to power than the lighter. To take a few instances of the effect of the new proposal a Ford owner would have to pay £23 per year, a Vauxhall £23, a Talbot £26, and a Rolls-Royce £49. All the motoring bodies in England have taken the matter up. A (tart of the Prince of Wales’s luggage that will particularly interest motorists during his Aust: alian visit is the three Crossley motor cars that were shipped from England to Melbourne for tbr> use of His Highness and Stalf. All three vehicles are of tbe same power, viz., 25.6 nominal h.p. and ate of the -nine 'model that was used so extensively by the Royal Air Force in France. A striking feature is the particularly high ground clearance—nearly a foot —which enables the roughest of country to be negotiated without risk of undergear striking objects. The power unit, is a 4-cylinder engine. 4sn bore x. ojin stroke. Aluminium pistons a;e used. A four-speed sear box gives a wide range for all classes of work, the final drive being by helical bcvc-1 gears. All valves are enclosed. Sixty miles an hour is attainable by the touring models. Detachable wire wheels anu ‘-Railroad” Dunlops are fitted to all throe vehicles. Two of the cars are fitted up with roomy touring bodies —tbe colour work being a shade of mole. Tbe third car, is for city use and night work a fine limousine that seats six. It is painted dark royal blue with black facings, whilst the interior is finished off with grey corded cloth. All essential fittings for comfort are provided including electric light, etc. It :s a handsome vehicle, that weighs clos« upon 38 cvvt. All told the three cars look up to the work that is ahead of them. Most motorists have noticed how keen docs arc on motoring, and frequently we see the family dog perched on the running hoard nr on one of the scats, and sometimes even between the mudguard and the bonnet, and at all times keenly alive to the pleasure of moving rapidly through tho air. A writer in Motor Life (U.S.A.) deals with the subject pretty fully. He declares that “dogs arc motor mad; they are daft on the subject of speed because for countless centuries, speed was the only thing that kept dogs alive. By speed alone did the wild dog and wolf overtake and pull down their -ptev. But for that speed they must h.rve starved, and that same speed came ;o lie associated in their minds with the i(, v „ and thrills of the chase and the chase W success meant a full meal to them, and jis failure entailed starvation. Speed meant food. The greater the speed the greater the chance for food. This knowFdae, carried on through a thousand genera* r o ,’ lc is enough to account for the modern dog’s speed craving. Speed meant safety to the prehistoric dog—safety from the stronger, larger and fiercer beasts. Speed alone saved him. Is it unnatural that speed should become his hobby? Tho .speed of the ordinary carriage affords scant allurement for the average dog. He profers to run ahead rather than nde as a ■la-senger. Then came the automobile. For the first time in his life the dog find* himself riding in something able to satisfy his speed mania—to travel in something riiat can move faster than himself and to keep up the pace ten times as long as he could. Can we wonder that he look* upon the motor-car as his long desired goal? Any normal dog will leave tho ‘-nuggest fire-side to follow his master for a walk. He is always cantering ahead or to one side, coming back now and then to slow moving human, and rushing off once more. He is gratifying his craving for motion—but the fastest motion attainable he has at last found in the motor-car and be is perfectly happy.