Motor Notes

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19828, 30 April 1927, Page 10

Motor Notes

THE CAR AND HEALTH ADVOCATE OF THE OPEN The following entertaining article is from the Motor. It is entitled ‘ 1 Good i Health and Closed Cars/’ and is ostensibly by “one of the early motorists. - “A few days ago, for the purpose of increasing my life insurance, I visited quite an eminent London physician, who, after he had overhauled me, started to chat on generalities, and, chancing to see my car, which I had left outside, he observed that it was quite a change for him to see any one driving an open car at all, and specially so in cold weather. “ ‘You don’t agree with the use of a closed car?’ I asked him. ‘For general use,’ he answered, ‘certainly not. I myself use one for purely professional work, but when I am out for pleasure I invariably use my other car, which is an open tourer, and, to De frank, it is not very often that I put up the hood. As for the side screens, I suppose they are in the car somewhere, but I have never seen thm, nor do I want to see them. ’ “Now, it is not often that I find an advocate of open cars. I appreciate one myself, but I am quite ready to admit that I am, and have been for several years, in a glorious minority, so much so that people rarely travel with me, as I never put up side screens and very rarely the hood. But now I had a real live physician on my side, so I asked him if he considered the increase of disease in any way due to the very general use of closed cars. “Well,” h? said, “you are asking a very comprehensive question, and it is not easy to give a direct answer to it. I do think, however, that people generally (men and women) have become very* lazy since the war and very much inclined to coddlo themselves to an unncessary extent. Yon can see it on all sides. I know young men, who, before the war, were up in the morning early, took a cold bath, and spent all the time they could out of doors. To-day these same men, who are anything from 35 to 45 years of age, are quite different. They will not get up early, they must have warm, water to wash with, and if they do go out (which they avoid in bad weather if possible) they muffle up and ride in a closed car. Now, just imagine what chance the healthy ones of a party of four or five have got in a closed car, when one of them is sneezing and coughing microbes of one sort or another. In an open car one does have a chance of dodging the microbes! ’ ’

“Many, I should imagine, will cordially endorse the views of the physician. A doctor should know what he is talking about when on such a subject, and, now I come to think of it, the only cold .1 have had this year has been the usual Olympia one, but many friends who are wildly enthusiastic over their closed cars are frequent victims of colds and bronchial troubles, so much so that it seems to me that the ‘comfort’ they all speak of must be somewhat over-estim-ated. Which is best —have the comforts (?) of the closed car and plenty of colds, or have plenty of breeze in an open one and keep free from colds? “For me, the open bus all the time.”

AN INNOVATION MEW TYPE OF SEDAN A British body builder has introduced a now type of sedan in which the rear seat is backcri? up against the front one so that it faces towards the rear. It is claimed that passengers occupying the rear seat escape the distraction and nerve shocks which ordinarily spoil motoring for some people, and that they became entirely uncon-’

scions of the risks of the road and enjoy a peace of mind unknown to them in motoring before. Again, to the nervous it may be some comfort to reflect that in the case of a. head-on collision they aro thrown not forwand, through the glass. To give a better view of the fleeting landscape, windows arc cut into the curving rear quarter panels of the body. The American railway observation car is said to have been the inspiration for the idea.

THE RUBBER AGE USES IN MOTOR PRODUCTION. In recent years many new uses have been found for rubber in automobile production, and there arc good reasons for believing that the applications of this material will be developed still farther.

In the days of low-speed engines and rough roads roost of the shocks experienced by motorists resulted from road obstacles, and even then the most effective shock absorber was a rubber product—the pneumatic tyre. With the increase in engine speeds and the improvement in roads there has been a shifting of the relative importance of sources of vibration, and to-day various unpleasant forms of roughness and noise have their origin in the engine. In the four-cylinder type we have the unbalanced secondary force and in engines more than four cylinders we often have torsional vibration at certain critical speeds. The occupants of the ear knew of the existence of these vibrations only through their transmission to the chassis and then to the body, and if such transmission can be prevented the actual engine vibration becomes much less objectionable. It is for this reason that rubber cushions are now widely used for engine supports, rubber or rubberised fabric spring connections are coming into use, rubber centres are inserted in clutches to prevent the transmission of irregularities in crankshaft torque, and rubber cushions are placed in the propeller shaft connection to prevent the transmission of irregularities in the torque impressed on that part. Even the steering gear is now in some cases provided with a floxibile member of rubber or rubberised fabric to protect the hand and arms of the driver against road shock

DAZZLING LIGHTS SHOULD DRIVERS DIM? Probably no topic connected with motoring has caused more argument than whether dimming of lights when passing another car or not is dangerous. Writers both overseas and in Australia seldom agree on the point. Lights may be dimmed merely as an act of courtesy, but the point is, does it prevent or minimise the eh an cog of accident, or does it add to them? The answer seems to be that if the lights of a car are exceptionally bright it would be a good idea to dim when approaching another ear, but if th e lights are of no great power, leave them alone. In the former case dazzle could eas.ly cause an accident—an instance occurred recently when a ear crashed, through the driver being dazzled bv an approaching car—but with medium powered lights there is little like’ihood of danger if they are left oa. There is no doubt that some ears have lights ranch more dazzling than others—some are almost blinding—so the best way of settling a knotty point seems to make a standard power for lights, and see to it that the light given oat is not .so bright as to cause dazzle.

“FOOLPROOF”

A NEW GEARBOX interesting expebiments Interesting news comes from England to the effect that a firm of motor manufacturers is experimenting with a foolproof gear-box which is designed to make gear-changing practically automatic, even in the hands of an unskilled driver. In a recent issue of the Autocar this new gearbox, which is now being tested on a number of experimental cars, is described as follows: “There is the usual clutch pedal control, but in place of the gear lever, a small level, similar to that used for ignition and on the steering wheel, works over a miniature quadrant having notches corresponding to the four gears and to neutral. “All the driver has to idjo is to put the lever on the steering wheel in first speed, then take out and let in the clutch, accelerating the engine sufficiently to move the car from rest as usual. “The movement of the clutch pedal brings the gear into engagement. It follows from this that if a car is coming to a corner at top speed, or if it is known that a hill is being approached, all the driver has to do is to put the small lever in the third speed) notch or the second speed notch, as the case may be, without touching the clutch pqdal, when the car will continue on top speed until the exact moment when a change is required. At that point the act of declutching and letting the clutch in again brings the selected gear into use. “In the same way, when the ear has moved? off on its first speed, the gear lever may be placed in the second speed notch long before second Is required. ’ ’ In America they have had automatic speech changing devices designed along these general lines, but the complicated contraction and other faults have prevented their adoption. It may he that the English device has avoided the troubles that have always been inherent in this type of unit and it will he interesting to await the result of the experiment.

THE RAUCOUS HORN PARIS SEEKING QUIET MOVE FOR BETTERMENT Paris is hardly the city to which one would turn for the best in motor control, but Paris is at any rate taking up one question which long ago might well have occupied the serious attention of both civic authorities and the public generally all the world over. This is the “noise” emitted by various types of motor horn. A police committee in Paris has decided that i experiments shall be made in order to discover which notes of motor horns iare least annoying to the car. ! From time to time horns with something approaching a musical note have appeared on the market, but these have never become popular with car owners. The primary object of the horn seems to be to “clear the street.’’ There are no “beg-pardons” about it; rather a peremptory demand to “get out of the way.” It is probably this, more than any other factor, that is responsible for the continued hostility that unquestionably exists on the part of a large section of people against the motorist. Ono naturally resents being made to “jump” a hundred times a dav.

There is no real call for noisy horns Tn city traffic. Many drivers make quite unnecessary use of this weapon of torture, for. in a great many instances, it is nothing less. Out on the country roads there may be a certain amount of reason in the emission of raucous sounds which indicate the approach of a fast-travelling vehicle. The noise is meant to travel, and is not “let off” just in the ear of the person for whom it is intended. .But. in town a polite request to take notice or move aside is all that is required. and; generally speaking would probably be more effective. Consideration for others may not. be the most valuable asset a man can possess, but, it is certainly one of the most appreciated. and is essential to a rational state of existence. Whether the movement in Paris -will load to the accomplishment, of anything worth while remains to be seen. If the inquiry is limited to horns already in existence it is not likely to achieve much, but if it results in the prosecution of research that will produce a horn with an effective warning note, yet one which does not jar the nerves of all and sundry, it will prove a real blessing to mankind. The noise ami bustle of modem life is taking heavy toll in the form of shattered nerves and in this the motor plays a prominent part. It would be interesting to know from eompetant authorities how much is due to the constant “honking’’ to which everyone is subjected. The proportion must be considerable.