MOTORING & CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1297, 4 March 1915, Page 31

MOTORING & CYCLING

The Napier Cycle Club intend holding a reliability run from Palmerston North to Napier on Easter Saturday. • * • • The Hastings Fire Board has decided to purchase a motor car for the use of the firemen. * * ♦ The Postmaster-General stated in Chr stchurch recently that the first shipment of light cars for mail collecting and rural delivery work had just arrived, and would soon be working in New Zealand. Over 120 motor cars were employed in the rounding up of the South African rebels, which culminated in the capture of De Wet, now standing his trial for treason. * ■* * » Duray, the French driver, winner of second place in the last Indianapolis race, is now in military service with the French army. • • « • One thousand seven hundred and forty cars have been purchased by the French Government from American manufacturers.

The Sunbeam Motor Car Co., England, has announced a dividend of 15 per cent. Sjs * * * Germany is credited with having no fewer than 100,000 motor vehicles in military use. • * * » Three dozen triangular danger posts, to be painted a bright red, are to be erected throughout the Wairarapa. A dozen of them are to be placed on the Rimutaka. • • • • The United States of America has 1,735,369 cars on the roads. These figures include both petrol and electric cars, as well as a large number of steam vehicles. • • • • A motor cycle side car of the canoe type has been invented which can be detached from the frame by means of winged nuts and used on lake or river in the ordinary way. A paddle is neatly fitted, invisible when the side car is in use on the road. * * •* * The Argyll motor works, near Glasgow, which have been purchased by Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., the armament manufacturers of Newcastle-on-Tyne, are among the finest engineering works in Scotland. They were erected and equipped at a cost of about half a million pounds sterling in the year 1905. The purchase price has not yet been disclosed, but it is said to be about £150,000.

It is stated that a couple of Palmerston North carrying agents contemplate going in for motor lorries, this decision having been influenced by the high price of chaff and the big upkeep of lorry teams. Chaff has been quoted at £6 10s. per ton at Marton. The Canterbury Automobile Association held their annual run last week for the benefit of the children in the various Christchurch homes and orphanges when upwards of three hundred boys and girls, together with their guardians, participated in the outing. * * * * It is interesting to notice that, according to the report of an American aviator (Mr. F. C. Hild), who is with Ihe French aviat'on corps, some wellknown types of machines have been utterly rejected by the French Army. These are the Rep, Bleriot, Nieuport, and Deperdussin. All who were flying or learning to fly these types were ordered to transfer at once to Morane Saulnier (monoplane), or Henry Farman, Maurice Farman, Caudron, or Voisin biplanes.

A traffic problem in the garbage department of the City of Detroit has been met by the use of a special sixton truck equipped with the largest crane that has ever been ns‘allel upon a motor truck. This crane will lift 2% tons on to the truck. Most crane experts have heretofore contended that a one-’on crane was the largest that any truck could carry. # ~ * * The United States production of petroleum is 242,000,000 barrels, or 65 per cent, of the total production of the world. The American reserve is estimated in tens of billions of barrels, besides another vast reserve in the oil shales of the West. Oil exports amount to about one-fifth of the production, and these have been curtailed by the Avar. However, American manufacturers may now turn to the making of many by-products of petroleum which have been imported in large quantities. • • • ■ The Royal Naval Air Service armoured car units consist of four large-powered cars, fitted with Maxim guns in revolving armoured turrets, a one or three-pounder gun 'fitted on another chassis, a wireless equipment Wolseley car, two supply tender Talbot cars, and a Red Cross car, so that the whole squadron is a complete warship on wheels. In addition each squadron has a number of motor cyclists attached as scouts. The R.N.A.S. has now a complement of nearly 2000 officers and men.

A good deal has been heard concerning the British and German aeroplanes, but the great Sikorsky biplanes used by the troops of the Czar have been rather overlooked. These machines, invented by a famous Russian named Sikorsky, are by far the biggest aeroplanes being flown in the war —in fact, they are the largest in the world. They stand 16ft. high, and are about 100 ft. wide. The Sikorsky can carry almost as many passengers as an airship. Twenty men can be accommodated in the large passenger cabin, which is constructed of metal and contains numerous windows. In this machine three engines are fitted, which give a total of nearly 1000 horse power, for, owing to the Sikorsky biplane weighing in itself one and a half tons, and having so large a crew to carry, it demands high power to pull it off the ground and keep it in the air. The weight of Hie mach’ne has necessitated an elaborate landingchassis, composed of numerous springs and pneumatic tubes, so that the huge biplane can alight safely on rough ground at a speed of sixty miles an hour.

Mr. W. Dunn, of Auckland, lias taken delivery of a 8 h.p. Humberette light car painted grey and upholstered in brown, with nickel finish, from Mr. G. Henn'ng, of Auckland. * * * V It if. reported from Copenhagen that petrol supplies in Germany are getting short. The general commander of the German Ninth Army Corps at Hamburg has issued a statement that, as the supplies are now decreasing, it is necesary to limit the use of petrol otherwise Germany will be placed in a dangerous position. The people are advised to use alcohol instead. A traveller from Hamburg says that large quantities of petrol were recently removed from the Hamburg stores to Kiel, and that there is very little left in Hamburg.

Mr. L. Barriball,, of Waiuku, has purchased from Messrs. Holland and Gillett a six-cylinder 40 h.p. Hudson car. * * * * Roumania holds the honour for the earliest production of crude petroleum, having put it on the market in 1857. Two years later the United States produced its first petroleum, 2000 gallons. I aly was a producer in the following year, and Canada, within twelve months, entered the field. Russia followed quickly, and for years these countries were the sole producers. Russia is now second only to America. * * * * “The most curious car I rode in,” says Sir Frederick Treves, “was driven by a Belgian. It had once been very elegant, being a town car of a fashionable type, but it is now the colour of the earth. It belonged to a gentleman at Lille who fled from that town on the approach of the Germans. His present whereabouts is entirely unknown. In this flight he left his chauffeur, the Belgian, behind, but when in due course the chauffeur fled he very thoughtfully took the car with him, and after many adventures reached Boulogne and handed himself over to the British Red Cross Society, in whose employ he now is. He seemed little disturbed by the fact that he had taken the car out without his master’s leave.” * * + * Mr. A. J. Entrican, of Auckland, accompanied by a party of 'five, has been away on a fortnight’s holiday tour in his Wolseley car. He went through to Taupo by way of Cambridge and Atiamuri, and then on to Rotorua, where he spent a tew days. The tourists then proceeded to Tauranga, Waihi and Thames, returning to Auckland Via Te Aroha and Waikato. They found the roads rough and heavy in the Tauranga, Waihi, and Thames districts. They experienced no car trouble except a puncture, and were favoured with good weather throughout the run, which was greatly enjoyed. * * ♦ * The latest novelty in London streets is a coke and motor-omnuibus. It is one of the fleet of the National Steam Car Company and is running between Dulwich and Shepherd’s Bush. A really efficient car which can be run on an economical fuel such as coke m the place of petrol or paraffin marks an important advance, and the Royai Automobile Club has awarded the company the handsome Dewar Challenge Trophy for the most meritorious achievement of the year in automobile engineering. Instead of having a furnace fed with paraffin, the new omnibus automatically stokes itself with coke. The bunkers are inside the bonnet and surround the boiler. Thus not only is the coke kept dry and warm, but also it acts as lagging to the boiler and prevents loss of heat. It is a small vertical boiler, with the furnace underneath; and mechanical feeders, which may be likened to the fingers of a hand, pass the coke downwards to the fire. An ingenious device prevents clinkering. The bunkers, which can be easily replenished, hold sufficient coke for a run of 50 to 60 miles. On a trial trip to Brighton and back a lorry weighing, with its load, 6% tons, used 4461 b. of coke in 109% miles and ran 87% miles before it was necessary to stop for water. The average speed was 12 mi’es an hour.