THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1929
PRINCIPLE OF THE
SCINTILLA
MAGNETO
STATIONARY ARMATURE
“ROTATING MAGNET
Based on an entirely new principle of design and construction, the SCINTILLA Magneto offers the Motor Industry the finest ignition system engineering science has ever produced. Its permanent magnet, the most robust part in any magneto, rotates. The delicate parts, such as the contact breaker with its contact points and the armature, are stationary. ·
The characteristic of the SCINTILLA Magneto lles therefore in the complete Inversion of the systems hitherto known, and the numerous advantages of this magneto must be realised.
13
8
7
STOCKS CARRIED ALL MODELS & SIZES
SINGLE CYLINDER TO 12 CYLINDER
H.K. $65.00 TO H.K. $155.00.
THE HONG KONG HOTEL' GARAGE
26, QUEEN'S ROAD, CENTRAL. (THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD.)
UNUSUAL TRANSPORTATION SERVICE IN SUMATRA
An unusual transportation ser- vice which illustrates the rapid motorisation taking place in every section of the world, is maintained in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, by the Deli Railway Company.
was 7,300, compared with 6,000 during the corresponding period of 1927 and about 5,000 during the first half of 1926.
MOTOR BOAT TROPHY
Italy holds second place as an importing nation on the German market, and the bulk of these cars are of. Fiat make. During the firat six months of the past year this firm sent 2,860 cars into Germany, compared with 1,362 in the first six months of 1927 The Company operates three- and 1,129 during the correspond- Studebaker buses in daily serviceing period of the previous year. between two cities in the moun- Other Italian firmas followed withi tainous part of the island. From comparatively small shipments. sea level the route climbs to an The success of Flat on this mar elevation of 5,000 feet in the ket must be attributed to Its comparatively short distance of highly efficient commercial organ- 45 miles. In spite of the fact isation, that the Medan-Brastagi-road covered by the three Studebakers is one of the steepest and most
The gallant attempt of Miss dangerous in the world, the buses cover the distance in less than two. Carstairs, the well-known woman hours.
marine motorist, to bring back The satisfactory service ronfrom America the British Interna dered by "Studebaker equipment tional Trophy was unsuccessful recently led to the purchase of a through a stroke of fll-luck. The President Eight by the director of British challenger had had a speed the railway company for his own boat, "Estelle IL," specially built in Errland and fitted with a Bri tish 900 h.p. engine. This remark- able 21 ft. craft was shipped over to 'America for the races which took One third
place at Detroit - on September 1 Into Germany diting first six and 3.An the Best months of 1928 were 4 of Fiat however, aft construction, according to figures and Covering
use..
GERMAN IMPORTS SOMERIEPAS more
orted
months
THE CHINA MAIL,
FOUR SPEED GEAR
SELF CHANGING AND SILENT
UNIQUE INNOVATION
--
For nearly 80 years the best brains in automobile engineering have wrestled with the problem of devising a gearbox which shall be childishly simple to operate, silent in action and infinitely resistable to wear.
use when the control pedal is operat- ed.
When about to start away with the engine running, the short, selec for lover is naturally in the goutraj | Boskion on the steering wheël dial, It is then moved into the low or reverse position and upon the con trol pedal being fully depressed and released the car glides away. When or before it is desired to change up the short selector lever is moved into the medium speed position, but until the control pedal is again depressed Despite these efforts, however, and released the actual change of gear changing is sill sufficiently speed is postponed. Normal or high difficult to make an expert hesitate.speeds are operated in exactly the before guaranteeing to make perfect same manner, the act of changing changes of speed undor all condi- down following the same routine in tions. As for the beginner, gear that the desired gear or neutral la changing is, and always has been, first of all selected by placing the his or her chief trouble, and until short selector lever in the correct this operation is made as easy as position on the dial and the box is say steering or braking, the art of allowed to change fiself later by de- driving a motor car cannot be con- pressing and releasing the control sidered to have been reduced to its pedal. simplest form.
1.
Gear Silence
Tremendous Advances
Changes either up or down can be Now at last we can announce a made with startling repliity in dead tremendous and revolutionary ad-allence, the time taken to change vance made possible by scrapping gear being governed' by the time the old sliding gear kind of box and taken to move the selector lover and substituting for it a gear of the depress and release the pedal. As always-in-mesh internal type in many as fifteen changes in ton which changes of speed are made seconds were recently made in the automatically, the driver only select-course of a special test. With this ing the gear.
four-speed gear changing is a' real pleasure, whereas with the old types of four speed gear the best and fullest use of the book was seldom achieved because of the noise on the Indirect gears."
In this box the gears are concen tric and the tooth pressure is less than with the old type as more teeth are in more continuous engagement. The box made its first public ap pearance at the Olympia Show, where it was standardised on the 30 h.p. and Long and Short 20 h.p. Armstrong Siddeley models at an extra cost of £50 and £35 respective 17.
When running in the ordinary manner the control' pedal can be used as the clutch pedal and will only allow the gear to change itself when the selector lover has been moved and when the pedal has been fully depressed. When partly de pressed it always acts as a clutch pédal, although there is no clutch in the accepted sense of the word.
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No Fumbling
This new self-changing gear has long since passed its experimental stage. Plans for its development were announced as long ago as 1929 and the first model was actually on the road early in 1924. Slace then With this gear and this control one box has covered over 50,000 there can be no nervousness, no miles without any attention or_ad-"| fumbling, no taking the eye off the justment and many others have road, no missing the change or been subjected to the most searching crashing the teeth Imagine, for tests, both in Britain and on the Instance, a car so equipped ap- Continent. A Short. 20 h.p. Arm-proaching a steep, twisting hill on strong Siddeley fitted with the new self-changing, box was recently best ed successfully over some of the worst mountain passes in Europe.
New Sensation
To drive or be driven in one of the new self-changing Armstrong Siddeleys produces an entirely new motoring sensation and at the same tinte creates in one utterly new standards of car silence, accelera tion and age, of control.
The NEW BUICK
is the NEW STYLE
A triumph in individual beauty... a refreshing and radical departure from the tiresome commonplace style, a richer style, a more alluring style than the world has ever known!
Only one completely pow motor car style in the past twenty-four months-only one and
THE SILVER
tiful development in body. BUICK
a new
ine good taste. Here is a new ANNIVERSARY style aricharstyle amore Alluring style-than the mo- tor world has ever known. And here, too, is tremen- dous increase in power, in flexibility, in responsiveness oqutstanding sa to amaze even those motorists who have long been familiar with Buici's superior performance.
With Masterplaan Bados By Pilar
design-and, as the whole world realizes, it is the Silver Anniversary Buick with Master- piece Bodies by Fisher!
Here is an entirely new scheme of body lines and contours-arresting new color combinations-matchless new interiors- new appointments of comfort and con- venience unapproached by any other automobile of the day!
Here is true distinction wedded to geau-
That is why Anseries is according the Silver Anniversary Buick the most en- thusiastic reception every enjoyed by any fine car. That is why this beautiful new Buick has already become a country- wide vogue!
THE DRAGON MOTOR CAR CO., LTD.
Telephone Central 1248 or 1247.'-- ་ ། ་
33 WONG NEI CHUNG ROAD, HAPPY VALLEY,
WHEN BETTER AUTOMOBILES ARE BUILT.......BUICK WILL BUILD THEM.
POSITIONS STANDARDISED
high or fourth gear. Long before the hill is reached the driver had moved his selector lever into medium, knowing that he is faced with a steep and auden hairpin bend, He approaches the corner on high, and a second or two before reaching the gradient aimply "depresses and releases the control pedal. Instan- taneously medium gear comes into operation and the car roars up the The position of controls on a car steep pitch. Meanwhile the driver has now been standardised in Eng- To begin with it is impossible moves the selector lever to say, land. These are as follow: For for the passengers to tell on what normal speed, and, having br
breasted the pedals, the acceleration is gear the
car is running for the the worst gradient depresses and placed on the extreme right. The simple reason that all the gears are releases the pedal again. Normal brake lever is always on the out- equally silent. Even to a trained gear comes into operation Imme side of the gear lever, whether ear the only indication of an altera-diately and the hill is finished at placed centrally in the car or on tion of gear is provided by a slight speed and without passengers hav the driver's right hand. The rear change in the hum of the engine Ing realised that the gears had been lever moves right and back for top occasioned by a variation in Ita rate
gear, right and forward for third for second, in the case of three of turning.
Or consider the same car in speeds), left and back for first (or second), and forward-left for re- traffic. Picture the tremendous ac-
verse or first. When controls are' celeration and confidence that this placed on the steering wheel the new control gives the driver. Feel, throttle is on the right, openlig op the car leap forward as a lower gear wards, and the ignition on the left,
The second outstanding feature of the gear is the ease, rapidity and silence with which a change of speed can be made, The arrangement of the control is entirely different to, and much simpler and more con venient than, the ordinary kind. It merely consists of a pedal taking the place of the naust clutch pedal and one short selector lever mounted in a dial above the steering wheel. The dial carries marks which in dicate low (1), medium (2), normal (3), high (4), reverse and neutral positions for the short selector lever which replaces the usual long change speed lever control. The short lever selects the gear while the pedal allows the gear to change it self, a point of Importance being the fact that une gear can be selected. while the car is running on another, the selected gear only being put into
changed twice, so smooth and so allent had the operation been.
C. S. Staniland, who is well known as a racing driver at Brook- lands, has been accorded the signal honour of being selected as one of the three pilots for next year's Schneider Cup Competition.
is called upon and the throttle is advancing upwards. In time this opened up. Note how this surging will become standard practice on acceleration la maintained from a al cars. walking pace up to the speed of an express train, merely by using this wonderful gear control and allowing the engine always to operate under the most favourable conditions. Calculate the gain in average speed made possible by this silent, simple, self-changing gearbox. Forget the old craning, straining and fumbling for the levar in the new joy of A school of pedestrians has been this steering-wheel-gear-control, and established in Budapest; in Ameri count too as a new pleasure this ca, where 25,000 walkers are killed wonderful sensation of motoring in annually, the same idea is being perpetual silenice-uphill as well as considered. A handbook issued on on the level armoiresnių koothie.subject is entitled "Stay Alive!”
Car Burned in Love Tragedy?
ESSEX
SEDAN
$2,550 1929 Model
NOW ON VIEW
KIN CHEONG HONG
87. Connaught Road Central.
Telephone C. 6.
PUMP OBSTRUCTION
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORES WARNING
"It is clearly not In the public interest that while local and na tional funds are thus being spent. in widening highways and remov ing encroachments, authorities An official circular recently le should now permit a new form of sued by the Ministry of Transport obstruction standing sometimes on calls attention to the obstruction the very land which has been ac- caused in roadways by the erection quired, for widening the road of petrol pumpa. The circularum accordingly to state that points out that "while during the where land dedicated, as part of past five years many Local Autho the public highway is allowed to rities have adapted the policy rebe obstructed by petrol pumps or commended by Col; Ashley, there other similar Installations,” the are others who have not only per grants from the Road Fund to mitted existing pumps to remain wards, the maintenance and in- on the highways, but have also provement of the roads concerned lowed further Installations to be
erec
to the
polat fout that owing Increase of traffto
sums are being spent
widenin
more?
bads
will be leopardised.
“OAKLAND
SMARTEST CARVED
ON THE ROAD
biles imported