HIGHROAD & BY-ROAD

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17916, 11 January 1930, Page 19 (Supplement)

HIGHROAD & BY-ROAD

ROAD QDISCOURTESIES - SEASON FOR CARE. ,■ ADVICE TO MOTORISTS. At no time of the year is the practice of safety on the road more imperative than during holiday -periods, the safety department of an Australian motorists’ organisation points ou);, in appealing to motorists to abstain from doing any of the following discourteous and mostly Illegal things: Take comers on the wrong side. Cut in or to cut things too fine. ' Assume that the road is clear. Overtake at corners, bends, cross roads, road junctions, or anywhere without the certain knowledge of a clear road. Turn into or out of a( road except slowly. Drive so that one cannot pull up clear of any possible danger. To assume that ii warning signal is heard if no notice be 'taken of it. To descend hills quickly. Force one’s way through groups of persons boarding or alighting from tram cars. Drive too close to, or too fast past, other road-users. Leave a vehicle on a bend, or anywhere where it may be an obstruction to other traffic. Do These. On the other hand it is courteous and considerate to: Keep well to the left. Overtake only after making sure that the road is clear and after giving warning'. Listen for warning signals from the rear, and to signal-on overtaking traffic, if the road ahead is clear. Use the horn with discretion. ' And exercise care in passing all animals.

THE FIRST MOTOR-CAR. INVENTED IN 1879BY MR GEORGE B. SELDEN. “How much am I offered for this 1877 Selden Model?” How humorous this would sound if it were announced by an auctioneer at one of our presentday motor auctions, and yet only fifty years ago this Selden car represented a revolutionary step in the history of transportation. It was in the spring of 1879 that George B. Selden, a young patent attorney of Rochester, New York, filed an application, for the historic patent No. 549,100, which, in the opinion qf Judge Hough, of the United States Circuit Court, was so fundamental and far-reaching that it covered every modern and commercially successful car driven by any form of petroleum vapour. At the time, many people thought young Selden was crazy. As he passed even his fellowtownsmen looked at him with mingled expressions of anger, reproach and pity, yet to-day, motorists of all nations are honouring the memory of the man whose “fool tinkerlngs and greasy pipes” resulted in trie world's first automobile. Time has shown how extraordinary was his inventive skill, and' how Important was his contribution to human progress and happiness. On this fiftieth anniversary occasion much attention has been focu-ssed upon Mr Selden’s hopes and struggles. 01 the many dramatic events in connection with the development of the pioneer automobile, probably the most interesting is the memorable day when Mr Selden first got his "gas buggy” to run. Let the inventor tell the story:— • “So it happened,” he wrote, “that on May 11, 1878, the three-cylinder engine was ready to run. But we could not run it in John Greenwood’s building, even with kerosene, without violating his insurance policy, so I moved it to Fred Michel’s, who carried no insurance and laughed at the risk. There in a littie corner fenced off from Michel’s shop I got the machine to run, and I saw that I had solved the road-engine problem—a light engine relative to its power—and that ultimately my principles musl succeed.”

But, though the inventor had succeeded in getting his.engine to operate, there was much to be desired in the ■way it operated. It spluttered and coughed and wheezed. It was erratic and temperamental and would stop suddenly. And its exhaust gases were highly offensive. Mr Selden became discouraged. As his troubles continued, he rsache'd a point where he was actually ready to abandon his gasoline engine. He knew the chief difficulty lay in the animal and vegetable lubricants then in use. They did not .possess the proper qualities for an efficient lubrication job on this newtype of internal combustion engine. When things looked darkest Mr Selden learned that his friend, Charles M. Everest, then associated with his father, Hiram Bond Everest, ,in the management of the Vacuum Oil Company, had produced a new kind of lubricating oil—an oil made from petroleum. This oil, forerunner of the present day mobiloil, proved the turning point in Mr Seiden’s plans. It lubricated his engine with high efficiency, eliminating the problem of oil decomposition and offensive exhaust smoke. In 1915 the inventor said:

“In a broad sense, the mineral oil 1 secured from the Vacuum Oil Company, subsequent to the final mechanical experiments on my motor in 1878 was the pivot upon which the practical success of the motor turned To-day all automobiles use lubricants of similar character. I doubt that they could be operated without such lubricants.”