MOTORING & CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1358, 4 May 1916, Page 26

MOTORING & CYCLING

One of the leading English motor sparking plug manufacturers has just erected a plant that will be able to put out 10,000,000 plugs annually. This is only one concern, and conveys an idea of the tremendous growth of the motor industry during the last decade.

A Tasmanian motor cyclist in S. Stearnes has succeeded in reducing the five miles motor cycle road re cord, standing at 4min. 43sec. to the credit of J. Booth (Victoria). The new figures are 4min. 40 2-ssec., and were established on a Dunlop-shod 7 h.p. Indian, and Stearnes’ speed averages out at 64 m.p.h.

There are probably not many motorists who keep a record of the miles covered over a number of years (says the Waitara “Mail”). Mr. C. Sampson, however, has done this for the past five years, and the result is surprising, the total being over 80,000 miles, or considerably more than three times round the world —an average of 40 miles a day, reckoning seven days a week.

"When a case containing a Pullman motor car was unpacked by Findlay Brothers, Melbourne, a terrier pup was found curled up in the shavings beneath the car. The pup had apparently been nailed dawn when the car was packed in New York six weeks before. The sole food of the animal was evidently rats, as the bodies of two, half-eaten, were found in the car, while rainwater which had trickled through the crevices of the case supplied drink. The terrier was reduced almost to a skeleton, but revived when given milk, and soon frisked round.

The English war authorities recently permitted representatives of the leading English motor cycle concerns to visit the front in France, with a view to observing the conditions under which their machines are used and of consulting the riders as to how the machines are standing the wear and tear of the work of the war. The experience gained from these visits should prove invaluable to the manufacturers, for which the British-made motor cycles are doing wonderful work in the fighting zone. It is only to be expected that the severe war service will bring to light weaknesses and little details that need attention. Later on motor cyclists will derive the benefits of the strenuous trial English machines are now undergoing in France,

In contradistinction to the greater part of the aircraft engaged in the present war, which, in order to secure immunity from anti-aircraft guns, fly at high altitudes, it is learned, reports the “Scientific American,” that the Germans have devised and introduced into service an aeroplane that flies below the line of fire of these guns. It is exceedingly fast and flies so low that anti-aircraft artillery cannot be trained on it so that the shells will burst with accuracy. However, in securing immunity from these guns it comes within range of rifle fire and machine-gun fire, and as a protection against these it is heavily armoured. Flying close to the ground, the occupants of the new German aircraft are in a position to locate accurately the position of troops and masked batteries, and secure much military information of inestimable value.

Apart from an inclination to become noisy, the chief defect of a used car, say, one that has been in use for a season or two, is loss of power. This defect,’ if carefully traced, can be easily remedied without expert

assistance. The cause must be traced and the repair carried out with care to be permanently effective. Loss of compression is one of the chief causes, and can easily be traced. Pull the starting handle up, and if there is no leakage a decided effort should be required to turn the eng ne over. If any of the cylinders has little or no compression, the cranking will need no effort. Loss of compression can be caused by several defects. the chief of which is leakage past the valves. This can be remedied by carefully grinding them in until a good and even surface is obtained oil both the valve seating and the valve face. Another form of leakage of compression occurs between the piston and the cylinder wall. This may be traced to badly-'fitted or worn piston rings. A properly-fitted ring should fit its groove exactly, with no slackness whatever, but must be just free to move; it should touch the cylinder walls also evenly all round. To get the latter condition fulfilled successfully new piston rings should be ground into their cylinder. When removing the cylinders for cleaning the heads free from carbon, never neglect to remove the piston rings and clean their grooves thoroughly.

If this precaution is neglected, the carbon formed behind the rings will prevent their free action; they will consequently fail to make proper contact with the cylinder wall. With older engines, the cylinders may be found to ha ir e worn oval and the pistons also. The only remedy for this defect is to have the cylinders ground true and new pistons fitted. One of the most audacious acts perpetrated at Gore for a long time occurred on a recent evening. A business man who possesses a motor car had it stored for the night in a local establishment, says the “Ensign.” Between 6 and 7 p.m. is a quiet hour and most of the employees are away at tea. The car was taken away between these hours, and the owner going early next morning to get his car in order to carry out a country engagement found it gone. Inquiries failed to locate the where-

abouts of the car or the persons who took it. One afternoon some people who were motoring to a country sale saw the car under some trees near the fellmongery. The gear had gone wrong and the joy-riders, not knowing how to remedy matters, left it there. More will probably be heard of the matter.

A Maori named Rangi Moa met with rather a curious accident whilst in a five-seater motor car on the Wairoa road recently (says the Hastings “Tribune”). He had driven some passengers from Napier to Wairoa, and was returning to Napier with three more passengers. When about a mile on the Napier side of Wairoa the driver went to sleep, and the passengers, stopping the car, got out and left it and the driver on the side of the road. The driver did not remember anything after falling asleep until be was awakened on the bank of the Wairoa river by a policeman. When questioned, he said that he had a faint recollection of smothering at the bottom of the river. It is surmised that he started the car whilst asleep, and drove it off the road into the Wairoa river 30 feet below. Nothing has been seen of the car since.

BOVRIL.

THE BRITISH INVENTION THAT SUPERSEDED GERMAN METHODS

Presiding at the Annual General Meeting of the Bovril Company held in London on 22nd. February, 1916, Lord Erroll, the Chairman, congratulated the shareholders on the satisfactory results of the year’s working. Excluding Government orders, the sales had been the largest in the history of the Company a result partly

accounted for by the large supplies of Bovril purchased privately and sent out to soldier friends and relations at the front. The net profit amounted to £168,796, an increase of £31,211 over last year.

Brought out, as it was, under the auspices of perhaps the greatest of all British authorities on food chemistry Bovril marked an important step in advance of the then existing concentrated beef preparations, of which Lie* big’s Extract of Meat, orig nated by the well-known German Chemist, Baron Justus von Liebig was probably the best known. Bovril thus secured for British initiative and enterprise the leading place in an important sphere of industry—a position it has ever since maintained.

Mr. G. L. Johnston (Vice-Chairman) referred to the increased cost of raw matenial: “I recently looked over some notes that I made at the factory during the first year we manufactured —the year 1896. It may surprise you to hear that the cost of beef at the works at that time was under Id per lb. In those days the frozen beef industry was in its infancy in Australia and the Argentine; to day there are over 30 freezing works in Australia, while the frigor’.ficos of the River

Blate have dealt with over one million head of cattle in one year. All this competition for stock has helped to raise the pnice of meat to an entirely different level, and if you bear in mind that it takes many lbs. of beef to make one lb. of Bovril you will hope with us that the upward trend will not cont’nue too rapidly.”

For the period under review, Virol Limited had, for the third year in succession, paid a dividend of 12 V2 per cent., and increased the reserve fund to £27,500.