MOTOR & CYCLE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1923, Page 14

MOTOR & CYCLE

DRUNKEN DRIVERS. MAGISTRATE ON WARPATH. “Motorists who drive recklessly while under the influence of drink should be subjected to the extreme penalty of the law. There is no doubt about that.” This is the opinion of Mr. W. S. Arnott, S.M., who, in dealing with an offending motorist at the Burwood Court established a precedent that many consider might well “be followed by other magistrates in Sydney (says the Sun). The defendant, John Brooks, was fined £l5, in default three months’ hard labour; his license, which would not have expired until April 30, 1924, was cancelled, and he was disqualified from obtaining another license until 12 months after that date. Brooks was convicted of having driven a motor car while he was under the influence of drink. The evidence was that he drove at 35 miles an hour in Jersey Road, Strathfield, and knocked a cart on to the footpath, causing the horse to break away from the harness and bolt. Witness stated that the carter, Brooks, and his companion in the car had miraculous escapes from injury. The same motor-driver, before Mr. Arnott at the same Court a few days before, was fined £5 on a similar charge. He was given time to pay, and it was on that evening that the second offence was committed. “Of course,” said Mr. Arnott, “there might be cases in which, for the same thing a lighter penalty should be imposed. Every case must be taken on its own merits. If a magistrate were to make a sweeping statement regarding the proper punishment of all excessively fast drivers, he might appear inconsistent when he came to deal with specific cases according to their circumstances. “But, seeing the way some men drive about the streets, it is a wonder that there are not hundreds more accidents.” THE GYROSCOPE PRINCIPLE. If the expectations of Professor E. J. Christie, of U.S.A., are realised, methods of transportation will be revolutionised hy a gyroscope unicycle he is building with which he expects to attain a speed of upward of 250 miles an hour. With the machine, now being constructed under Professcr-Cur«stie’s direction in a Philadelphia factory, he not only proposes to smash all world records for speed, but has evolved a vehicle which, he claims, will not upset and has perfect steering power. The design of the gyroscope unicycle simply is that of a giant bicycle wheel with an exceptionally wide axle, to the ends of which supporting spokes are fastened. The wheel is 14 feet high, and on either side of its centre line arc 5001 b gyroscopes rotating at a speed of 90 revolutions a minute and propelled by a 250 horsepower internal combustion engine by means of chain drives. 7 UP ROTORUA WAY, -J* A Christchurch motorist after a visit to Rotorua writes to the Sun as follows: Away up in New Zealand’s “Wonderland,” where road metal is at a premium, the motorist does not expect to find good roads —at least not roads that compare with those of Canterbury. But it is wonderful what can be done with the aid of soft pumice rock. The road from Rotorua to Wairakei—so miles through weird and eerie country—should be a splendid motor road this coming season. Gangs of men are at work busily building up a splendid track. Just now there are bad patches owing to the recent heavy rains. But even now there are stretches where the throttle can be opened out, and the speedometer register in the vicinity of 40 to 50 miles an hour, for on the flat the pumice soon dries, leaving a hard surface —an ideal motor track. Careful negotiation of the tortuous curves on the road is necessary after leaving Rotorua, but the average driver with enough confidence finds little difficulty in getting along as very few vehicles are met with. GOODWILL VALUE. The experiences in U.S.A, regarding the market for cars manufactured in 1922 indicates how necessary it is for the motor trader to hold the goodwill of those to whom he sells motor-cars today. What has happened in U.S.A, must also occur in other countries, and those who conduct their business so as to retain the goodwill of those who are now buying cars will have laid the foundation of a business which will multiply a hundredfold within ten years even if no new list of clients is added to that alreadv created. Until 1922 the majority of cars turned out in U.S.A, went to new owners. Carefully made ■ calculations for 1922 show that out of the 2.000.000 ears turned out, 1,200.000 were bought by motorists who required new cars to replace their old ones. In 1917 replacement sales were valued at 279.022,000 dollars-, in 1922 thia trade : had increased to 850.000,000 dollars. Re- ; placement parts in 1917 were valued at 255.000.000 dollars, and in 1922 at , 550.000,000 dollars. These figures show ! that five years ago five-sixths of the , output went to new owners, but to-day the situation is entirely changed. The , value of a customer’s goodwill is there- j fore apparent. A motorist who gets j good service and attention will place 1 his future business with that business house. f

The announcement was recently made by the United ‘States (Rubber Co. that it had Been building tyres on a flat collapsible steel drum, subsequently bringing them to shape by _ inflation. This is the first time that this innovation has been called to the attention of the rubber industry. It is claimed that this new process overcomes the lack of even tension in the cords of tyres built on cores. Countless experiments were made ari[ resulting tyres dissected. Finally 1 <as found that, by building the tyrfe 'W on a collapsible steel the ford tension conditions were obtained #fter inflation. In the manufacture tyres by this method, the company uses its new web fabric, made of cords which have been impregnated rtitfi roMMr latex.

NEW STEAM CAR. THE PROBLEM OF FUEL. The increasing scarcity of petrol as fuel is a problem which future auto motive engineers must meet, and steam offers one solution. Much interest is therefore centred on a new steam car on the American market. The goal of producing a dependable organisation ha« been achieved; the car has been tested and subjected to every hazard of the road and weather. On this car there are no gears to change or clutch to manipulate in driving. The fire is turned on. by a single control valve lever at the dash. The burner is of the atomising type, and does the work required of it in a simple and efficient manner. There is no pilot light. The opening of the control valve at the dash completes an electrical contact to the lighting device, turns on the fuel, and the flame circles or swirls around the inside of the firing pot. The pressure under which the fuel is carried provides the chief force or blast which propels the circular motion of the fire and holds the nozzle out of the flame and heat. There is nothing intricate about the adjustments of the automatics on the burner. The viscosity of the fuel, whether paraffin, distillate or fuel oil, makes no difference to the burner. The oil may be changed in the supply tank without altering any adjustments. The new car has a 7cylinder, dohble-acting compound engine. It delivers high starting torque, and is astonishingly low in its. consumption of steam. Besides its economical features, it gets two expansions of the steam, thus bringing the pressure down close to atmospheric pressure and making it possible to get very satisfactory results from the condenser. It is said that the engine will deliver a mileage of several, hundred thousand miles of continual duty without overhauling. A very interesting feature is that the two or three quarts of lubricating oil in the crank case requires no change or addition in three to four months. In speed, the car attains sixty miles an hour.

A NEW VAPORISER. GOOD RESULTS OBTAINED. A rather extensive use is being made in Germany of the Schidlovsky vaporiser, adapted to normal four-stroke engines, and heavy fuels as paraffin, gas oil, tar oiL-and the German standard fuel tetralite, which is a derivative of naphthaline. Good results have also been obtained on a mixture of three parts gas oil and one part benzole. The Schidlovsky vaporiser comprises two separate float devices and jets for respectively heavy oil and light fuel, and '*'the vaporiser proper. So far as the floats and jets are concerned, the apparatus is similar to an ordinary carburetter built for petrol, and the mixtures formed in it are led to h barrel type throttle, or distributor. By means of slots in this throttle, either one or the other of the mixing chambers is put into communication with the vaporiser. This part of the device consists of an inner cylinder with external fins forming, with the vaporiser case, three annular chambers connected with each other by passageways. The internal cylinder, being directly connected with the exhaust, is very vigorously heated, while the annular chambers, maintained at a high temperature by the exhaust gases are filled with fuel mix- , ture which is complefojv vaporised and finally led to the inletSmanifold containing the throttle and slow running device. FRAME DEVELOPMENT. There is at present a noticeable tendency towards development in frame design says Motor Cycling (Eng.). The principal evidence of this is at present to be found in manufacturers’ experimental workshops, hut there can be no question that the London motor cycle exhibition in October will show a marked tendency towards a break-away from the conventional diamond frame which has been a standard feature of British motor-cycles for so long. On the score of reliability there can be no criticism of the diamond frame, for, in the ordinary rider’s experience a broken frame is nowadays unheard of. Nevertheless, reliability, although the first, is not the only desideratum of the ideal frame, and the recent Tourist Trophy Races have focused attention on the importance oL_frame design in its relation to the steeiihg .properties of a motor-cycle. For high powered machines the frame with duples tubes extending from the rear wheel shindlo to forward of the engine, and carrying the power unit cradle fashion, is already common-place. This design, however, while providing an excellent means of taking the driving and reaction loads incidental to a powerful engine, does not deal with the very important question of the torsional stability of the steering head, and it is on this point that attention is now being concentrated. If, as seems likely at the moment, there is no useful alternative to the tubular frame, the use of tubes of considerably larger diameter than those at present employed is to be commended, since the torsional stiffness of a tube increases rapidly with an increase in its diameter. We confess, however, that we §till have hopes that pressed steel will ultimately become the standard form of construction, because it lends itself so well to the incorporation of weather-proofing devices and the, enclosure of the mechanism.