CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 46, 19 September 1918, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

{ The introduction of the detachable, wheel on motor cars served to mitigate in no small measure the inconvenience, of having to repair a burst or punctured tyre on the roadside. A spare wheel and tyre is now usually carried for use in such an emergency, but one of the most irksome features of the roadside repair still remains, for no matter how' rapidly one may twirl off a deflated wheel, the fact remains that the car has still to be . jacked up, and on a rutty or muddy road, this is invariably a troublesome, I and at times even a difficult, process. I Since the War began, however, more than one invention has been marketed which bids fair to do away for ever I with one of the most unpleasant fea- ■ tures of tyre repair or replacement on, i the road. The latest device is ai hydraulic jack, which promises real . relief from this trouble,, although the initial expense may for a time be too heavy for the motorists who at present I , have to study the matter of car upkeep, especially in view of the almost, prohibitive cost of petrol. The mode' of operation of the hydraulic jack is as follows:—Four inverted jacks are j permanently fitted to the car—a pair., Ito each axle—and are worked from a | central mechanically operated upmp.l On the dashboard of the car is a switchboard with five plungers—one for each jack, and the fifth for returning oii to the tank. In the event, of tyre trouble, the driver simply stops the car, presses a plunger, and the corresponding jack shoots out, and raises the deflated wheel, almost inj stantaneously, from the ground. If desired, any two wheels, three, or ' even all four wheels can be lifted at once. The operation is said to be amazing in its simplicity, and almost i uncanny to watch. It is an English patent, and is to be marketed as the ' B.G.P. Hydraulic Jack.

The motor equipment, of an American Army division has been fixed at 4 closed cars, 3 seven-passenger cars. 29 five-passenger ears, 10 light single-seaters, 112 motor-cycles, 10 light motor trucks, and 313 three-ton lorries. When the American Army in Franco get up to full strength, the automobiles incorporated in same will run into some amazing figures.

It is often said, at the present | time, that the world in general is about to enter upon a real motor age. The war, although apparently a serious check to such an epoch, in some ways has brought it considerably nearer by widening the commercial possibilities; to a gigantic extent by extent by training thousands of new drivers, mechanics, and factory hands;, ' and by presenting to millions of jother men a' very- practical-object k s fi'- ' son of Avhat motor vehicles of all kinds J can do in moving, feeding, supplying ; ammunition to and linking up vast armies in the field. The full significance of all this, as concerns civilisation in general, will only appear some | years after the war has ended, but then there will be the stupendous fact of all the chief nations of the world building and buying motor vehicles in their millions, and, above all, looking for fuel on which to run them.

It is true that there are probably very large areas, the oil-bearing possibilities of which remain unknown; but, also, there are even larger areas through which the use of the motor will eventually spread.

Of late there has been the reassuring statement from America of "plenty of petrol," and no doubt, osving to the enterprise of oil companies in new areas, the increased output obtained by means of cracking and •such economies as enclosing the head of the oil wells to collect the gas, the fuel supply is at present sufficient to meet the enormous military requirements of the Allies, and could, in fact, allow a larger quantity to be allotted for more general uses if ships were available to carry it.

But what of the supplies after the ] war? There remains the broad fact j that the motor age will include a j vast amount of traffic on the land, on and in the sea, and in the air, and one lias only to compare these witli the extremely limited scope covered by previous the growth of the motor engine and its fuel is one of the biggest and most revolutionary movements the world has ever seen. The eventual .solution must be tin- use of low grade oil. At present only from 10 to 15 per cent, of petrol is obtained from crude, oil. The future demand can only be met by using a larger proportion of the crude oil—a problem thai the carburetter designer ha s not yet properly mastered.