MOTORING & CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1416, 14 June 1917, Page 24

MOTORING & CYCLING

Over 100 members of the Pioneer Motor and Sports Club, Chr stchurch, are on active service.

A woman taxi-driver will soon be seen threading her way amongst the busy traffic of Wellington streets, the City Council granting a license to a lady applicant last week. There is already a taxi-driver of the gentle sex in Featherston.

Dazzling headlights were responsible for a motor-car accident near Wangaehu the other day. It appears that a party of Palmerston residents were returning from Wanganui races in a motor-car when another car carrying dazzling lamps was met, making it impossible to see the road. The driver of the Palmerston car, who says his speed was about four miles an hour at the time, put on the brakes to pull up, but h s wheels skidded on a stretch of clay on the side of the road, with the result that the car went over the bank, falling a distance of six or eight feet, and turning completely over on to some swampy ground. Some of the occupants were able to get from beneath the car. and they enlisted the help of other motorists, twenty cars being at the scene in a few minutes. The car was raised and the other passengers released as soon as possible.

“There is no doubt that dazzling headlights on motor-cars are a serious danger to the public,” said Mr. L. G. Reid, S.M., when a number of drivers of motor-cars were before the Wellington court for having the headlights on their cars in too bright a condition when passing through the streets of the city.

News has been received in Australia to the effect that Captain Albert Ball, D. 5.0., M.C., who is widely known as Britain’s matchless airman, is reported missing after an aerial combat with the Germans on May 7. This young Nottingham aviator, who is just out of his teens, has earned a reputation as the most daring and wonderful pilot known to the aviation world, and his record of bringing down no less than 42 enemy aeroplanes during the war has gained him lasting renown. Captain Ball’s chief exploit was his routing of no less than 12 German machines. He smashed up three of them. There were three separate attacks. Ball first smashed one of two German ’planes, and then attacked two groups of five. He is an officer of the Notts and Derby Regiment, afterwards transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.

According to Reuter’s correspondents in France, Captain Ball disappeared on May 7, on which date he engaged four Albatrosses. The distinguished young aviator had thrilling fights with German machines on two previous days. He was patrolling on May 5, when he s'ghted two enemy machines. Being low he made off, climbing steadily, but when the Germans were close to his tail he swerved and slid underneath. He turned his machine gun on one opponent, who fell. Meanwhile a second German was seen approaching and firing steadily. Captain Ball returned the fire, and a collision was inevitable, when the enemy collapsed. The Britisher’s engine was hit, and Ca.ptain Ball was soaked with oil, but he dropped, and saw both the Germans lying wrecked. On May 6 Captain Ball encountered four red Albatrosses of a new type. He dived straight for their centre and broke their formation. He then slipped under the nearest, firing at it until it fell. The three others bolted. Besides these encounters, Captain Ball had many thrilling airfights. Recently he was the one Britisher who engaged and destroyed three German ’planes behind the enemy lines. He was also in the battle in which five Britishers fought 26 Albatrosses on May 6 at a height of two miles. The fight ended in two of the Germans falling in flames, three

others crashing to earth, and the remainder fleeing with breathless haste.

The United States has an organised army of 236,000, with a total of 20,538.347 available. Mobilisation operations are expected to be completed in a minimum space of time, as no secret has been made of the fact that the American military authorities have been preparing in antic pation of a break with Germany, and their mobilisation scheme is much further forward than is generally thought. The United States have always been noted for the alacrity with which they proceed with any project once decisive action is determined upon, and if American sources of information prove rerable. a powerful army will early be at the disposal of that country, with which to make their debut in the greatest war in the world’s history. The resources of the United States are enormous, and the entry of the American nation into the war against the Central Powers promises to be of a far-reaching character.

So great has the popularity of the motor car become in America that the transportation service supplied by petrol-dr’ven vehicles has outreached that given by the entire

steam railroad system of the transcontinental lines and the urban and inter-urban electric roads of the United States. This very significant idea of the colossal aggregate out put of American motor manufactur ers during the past few years is founded on the assertion of Mr. Alfred Reeves, general manager of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce. Taking his figures from the bureau of Railway Economies, Mr. Reeves states that the steam railroads carried 1,053,000,000 passengers in 1914, with but small increase in 1916, an average distance of 33 6-10th miles, or a total of 33J passenger miles, carrying a revenue of £140,080,000 on this service. By com parison the 3,250,000 passenger automobiles now registered in America, averaging 5000 miles a year, which is a conservative reckoning, and. three passengers per car, gave a service of 48,750,000 passenger miles, worth £1,950,000 on the railroad basis of two cents per mile, or 200,000,000 more than the railroad passenger service.

A patented attachment for enabling an engine to be easily started has been placed on the market in England. It comprises a short length of small bore pipe, the lower end o: which is connected to the drain tap open ng of the float chamber by means

of a T piece, thus allowing the drain tap to be refitted, and a tap attached to the inlet pipe between the throttle and the cylinders. The tap can be controlled from the dashboard when desired by means of a steel wire and push button. Before starting, the tap is opened, and allows petrol to be drawn from the float chamber into the cylinders when the engine is cranked round, and closed again when the engine has commenced to fire. The fuel is then supplied as usual through the jet of the carburetter. The device does away with the trouble of priming the cylinders, and in those cases where no prim’ng caps are fitted, it avoids the removal and replacement of the sparking plugs, or other means of easy starting. A further advantage is that the whole of the petrol is contained in the main petrol tank, an auxiliary tank for prim ng being unnecessary.

It is an interesting fact that when the bicycle began to be fully valued from a utility point of view the interest in the pastime seemed to decline. It is difficult to say whether the one seriously influenced the other, but we certainly do think that utility cycling was one of the factors which led to a loss of interest in the pastime, more especially when the machine was taken up by all classes in the community. The average well-to-do person is inclined to be snobbish, and is apt to abandon any sport or pastime which is taken up by the masses, and this, we should think, must have had a considerable effect on pleasure cycling.

In connection with the proposal to establish an “Anzac Memorial Highway” in Australia, one of the deserved features of the undertaking is the provision that the construction of the highway shall give employment to the soldiers on their return from the war, while, later, the road will afford them facilities for settling on the land. Already offers of monetary assistance have been received, some from motorists, who have a double interest in the memorial highway, one desiring to build a bridge where necessary as a monument to two relatives lost at the front. That is the sentment it is hoped to cultivate; others, no doubt, would be willing to erect inscribed slabs on

bridges in their respective localities, and thus perpetuate the memory of their townsmen who went and fought and died on the service of their country. In fact, there is no limit to the ways and means by which the highway could be made to serve the laudable purpose of its conception.

In a paper read before the Coventry Engineering Society (England), Mr. E. A. Watson, M.Sc., brought forward a point which illustrates how we were exploited by the German magneto makers before 1914. The German policy was to recommend various sizes of magnetos for the various sized engines. The expert was convinced that this was and is entirely unnecessary and was merely a little device on the part of the Germans to profit by our ignorance, for, believing the tale, we were content to pay considerably higher prices for the larger magnetos. Eight or nine years ago, when the ClementGarrard cars were winning in many of the British competitions, it was a matter of general comment and wonder that the cars were fitted with small magnetos, which showed that Mr. C. R. Garrard was right in his contention —though few would believe him at that time —that there was

no need for such large magnetos as then commonly fitted, but that one size of magneto is practically suitable for any size of engine, which, of course, means much cheaper production.