MOTOR & CYCLE

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1923, Page 14

MOTOR & CYCLE

DEFECTIVE HEADLIGHTS.

ASTOUNDING RESULTS FOLLOW EXAMINATION. According to investigations recently made in America, the automobile headlights or. ID out of 20 motor cars are defective to the extent that they jeopardise the life and limb of other carists who meet and pass them. Official representatives tested out the deadlights of cars in the district of Columbia —these cars are very typical of the general run of automobiles used throughout the entire country —and found that 95 per cent, of them were so imperfect in one way or another as to endanger the safety of other motor car owners who chanced to meet them on the open highway-

in this day and age when most countries—where automobile traffic is heaviest—enforce stringent regulations about the design and adjustment of headlights, the fact that in the neighbourhood of 16 out of every <2O sets of headlights violate regulations through the carelessness of the car owners and drivers, is astounding, In the arts and industries, we are constantly reading about the formulation of new safety codes for this or that trade. The resources of science are yoked to the task of taking the doubt and danger out of hazardous occupations. And, at the same -time, motorists, as a class*, are promoting a menace in highway travel by neglecting to maintain automobile lamps in the most serviceable and efficient condition. The results of the headlight search and research are startling when we understand that 73.2 per cent, of the lamps ■ tested were out of focus. If the figures are impartially representative—there is every reason to believe that they are—you may expect to be nearly blinded by the unsatisfactory lights of 73.2 out of every 100 motor vehicles that you meet. Not only is the man who drives a car with faulty lamps a menace to all those he meets or passes, but he also is a course of danger to himself and the o«cupants of his car. The lenses of his lamps may be so dirty that they only throw half enough illumination on the roadway—-52.8 per cent, of the headlights examined were suffering from dirty lenses. As a consequence, the driver may guide his car into the ditch or over a steep embankment just because his lights so dim that he could not see where he was heading. Of all the cars inspected, 46.7 per cent, had headlights that were hot correctly tilted; 40 per cent, had dirty, rusty or dented reflectors, the lenses in 35.8 per cent, of the cars were twisted in the headlamps, while in 23.6 per cent, of the cases the headlamps were not parallel. Dirty lenses and reflectors simply reduce the average efficiency of the headlamps. However, they become dangerous when they do not transmit sufficient light to the roadway to make driving safe. Headlamps that are not parallel are extravagant profligates of light, as rays which should be reflected down the road serve only to illuminate the surrounding scenery. Lack of focus, twisted lenses and lamps titled upward result in a waste of light and throw a blinding glare in the eyes of the approaching driver. Headlamps that are titled too far down light the highway for only a short distance in front of the car. They produec a narrow zone of illumination about 80 feet deep extending from 20 to 100 feet ahead of the car, depending on the degree of light. When corrected, they should produce a broad zone of light extending from 40 feet in front of the car to 250 feet or more down the road

WAIKATO MAIN ROADS. * The following notes on the Waikato roads published in the New Zealand Herald may be of use to motorists going north:— Razorback.—A little loose metal on the hills, but otherwise good. Rangiriri Hills.—Dry, but rough and uneven for first two miles. Some holes, quite deep, unavoidable. Huntly to Ngaruawahia.—Still somewhat bumpy after Huntly and beyond Taupiri. Last mile good.

Rangiriri to Huntly.—Keep to right bank of river, i.e., don’t cross the river at Rangiriri. First three miles very wavy, rest metal and good. Mercer to Mere Mere Hills.—Being metalled, about one-quarter distance done beyond bridge over Matamarua creek. Rest of road somewhat cut up through heavy carting.

GENERAL. That New Zealand riders would, generally speaking, do well in Australia. is the opinion expressed by • Phil O’Shea, on his return from the land of the Cornstalk. There are, he said, more backmarkers in Australia than in New Zealand, but the middle and limit handicap men over here could more than hold their own with the same class of riders in Aussie. It is a curious fact, says the Dominion, that whereas the Wellington City Council apparently plans to spend about .€50,0000 on stirfacing five and a half miles of road, Mr. C. Skitrop estimates that the Hutt county can do forty-one and three-quarter miles for £106,671. Mr. Skitrop’s bituminous surfaces will apparently have an average width of about 18ft, and the Hutt Road will be wider, but with every allowance that one is forced to the conclusion that either Mr. Skitrop’s scheme is hopelessly inadequate, or, if it is not, that the City Council’s is inconceivably extravagant. There is only a limited amount of money in this country for good ' roads, and it is folly to squander it. One of the most important principles for ensuring comfort in driving a motor car and one of the most generally neglected, concerns the part of the floorboard on which the heel of the left foot is allowed to rest. The general tendency of the beginner is always to keep the heel too far back, so that, if one begins to give either pedal its full length «of travel, soon one reaches a position in which the foot and leg are strained unduly, and “something begins to happen” only when this unnecessary strain starts. To avoid this the study of heel position is especially recommended. Again, if the heel position is wrong in respect of the right foot controlling the accelerator pedal, and pronounced inequality of the road traversed will cause the* ball of the foot either to raise, or lower, the accelerator pedal momentarily, with the result the engine

will not do itself justice, and jerky driving will ensue. An American statistician calculates that with an output of 5,000,000 cars annually, the number in use should soon be 35,000,000, and states that no such number of cars can be used in a country that has only 21,000,000 dwellings and 25,000,000 families. This is countered by a New York paper with the statement that there is no reason to expect any limitation to the motor industry in America by reason of a limitation in the number of dwellings. The advice of the wife of a Boston banker, given to newly-married couple some years ago, has not been refuted. She said: “You will get more happiness, health and service out of a motor-car than out of a dwelling. Rent a flat and buy a motor car.”