THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1931.
EFFICIENCY AND
SPEED
Ultimate Limits Yet to Be Reached.
"MARGINAL" DIFFERENCES.
A
From a scientific standpoint it is - pertinent to ask, since speed records are being broken every year, what is the limit of speed at which a man can go. with safety to himself 'and remain in control of his craft? large number of distinctions must be made before any kind of salin
be returned. factory answer ea The primary distinction is hetween the types of craft employed and the media in which they operate, writes a contributor to the New York Times. Landcruft have natural or artificial advantages over water- craft, aeroplanes have natural ad- vantages
over both types, and a rocket plane, if it could be operated beyond the stratosphere, would have advantages over all other types.
could be constructed; but eventually found that not only it would be would the speed not be increased but that an actual physical barrier to size would be created.
Destroyers and the Europa Compared.
THE CHINA MAIL.
future. The obstacles to be over- comic are similar to those for the liner; a lighter and more powerful engine, a streamlined hull that will offer the least possible resistance to the passage of the craft through water and alt, and a gross weight Lint is sufficient only to supply in- berent strength to the craft. at ita
maximum speed. We shall un doubtedly see motor boats going at 150 miles an hour, if not some time in the future.
more,
27-Year Unbeaten Record of Locomotive.
With
the railroad locomotive In the category of watercraft still science is in a quandary, The re- further differentiations have to becord for a long-distance run is 102.3 difference between miles an hour,, between Plymouth made. The
has stood since destroyer and a motor boat is less and London, and than might be imagined. The 1901. It is not beyond the ability destroyer is the fastest at the top of engineers to sit down and design of the bracket and the motor boat a locomotive capable of going at a is fastest at the bottom, the former | much greater speed. They night or forty knots and the might not use steam. That is not with about latter with 102 knols. The fastest the important consideration, The liners, such as the Bremen and the crux of the matter les in stream- Europa, have not yet execeded the living and in the roadbed, and were thirty-kant mark; except in short it not for these facta railroad com- Why is there this tremend-panies would be running, ter-hour Science informs us that when you spurts. increase the speed of any given ous difference?
schedules between New York and eraft the resistance Increases, not In the case of the destroyer and
Спісико, As a matter of fact, rail- the motor boat the majority of the road speeds might easily be more proportionately, but as the square, and that the power necessary to space in their hulls is taken up than they are to-day, without any induce the speed rises as the cube, with propulsive machinery. The change in design, if it were not for For example, if you take a motár liner has to be far more economical, the danger and expense involved. boat of racing design capable of for her business is to transport pas- travelling at 100 miles an hour with
sengers and mails. The destroyer.consider. The chief one would be engines developing 2,000 horsepower because of her relatively great the increasing tendency with an in-
requires and attempt to raise the speed to weight.
3 staggering
crease of speed for the locomotive to 200 miles an hour, you would dis-amount of
to push her jump its rails or to throw an in- power
water at even forty creasingly greater strain on them. enver that the resistance would be through the squared and that the horsepower knots. The muter boat is light and It is not hard to grasp the strain, required would be not 4,000 but as she speeds over the water her that the rails, ties and roadbed havo 16,000, unless the efficiency of the prow is in the air, with the result to withstand when it is considered that far less energy is needed per that at a speed of 120 miles an hour design were increased.
unit of weight.
the slightest unevenness of the track, the slightest misalignment of the rails cay have the most ap
But there are other difficulties to
feasible to
run
Factors That Govern Speed Including Friction.
In the race for speed over the Since a locomotive or an automo-j water all types of craft except the bile is subject to a given air density motor boat may be eliminated. It
alling consequences. To keep the that the and to a given friction on the road can be safely asserted
; rondbeds in shape for high-speed beds over which it passes, we can
problems in the way of getting trains would entail tremendous ruleulate that landcraft have liner to go at a speed of 100 miles
not commercially better chance of being faster than an hour are commercially insuper-ns of money, and it is probably in a able. That they will go faster is trains of present design at a very watercraft, which operate medium of greater density. Similar conceded by enginers, but if they much higher rate than present-day ly, an aeroplane, normally operating ever achieve the spoed of fifty miles in lesser air densities, with a fric an hour present-day engineering tion far less than that which either practices will have moved consider- landeraft or watercraft generates, ably further forward. The problem is always likely to be faster than will be to get a hull that offers a either of the other types. But we minimum of resistance, both below are bound to modify soch state and
motive mente, because the difference
in
design between the various types of craft profoundly modifies the eir cumstances of their performance.
Efficiency of design is then a con trolling factor in attaining higher speeds. If money were no object it ould be safely argued that bigger craft with far higher power units
|
above the water line, and develops a power that greater ratio of power for each unit of weight. It is estimated that 10 per cent. of the total resistance of a fast ocean liner is due to the air, But with the motor boat a speed
of 150 miles an hour is not at all improbable, although it is not likely that it will be attained in the near
BUYERS' GUIDE
MOTOR CARS.
ARMSTRONG SIDDELEY.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's
Rod. Tel. 24759.
BUICK-The Dragon Motor Car Co. Ltd., #3, Wong Nel Chang
Rond, Happy Valley. Tel. 30228.
CADILLAC Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel. 24755. CHEVROLET. Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel.
21759.
FIAT MOTOR CARA Gocke & Co., China Bldg., 7th Boor.
Tel. 22221.
MARQUETTE-The Dragon Motor Car Co., Ltd., 23, Wong Nel
Chung Road, Happy Valley. Tel. 30228. MORRIS-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel. 24769. OLDSMOBILE-The Dragon Motor Car Co., Ltd., 33, Wong Nei
Chung Road, Happy Valley. Tel. 30228. ROLLS-ROYCE--Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road.
24759.
Tel.
Tel.
STUDEBAKER-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road.
24760. WILLYS-KNIGHT & WHIPPET MOTOR CARS-Gilman & Co.,
Ltd., 4a, Des Voeux Rd. C. Tel. 28011.
'OUTBOARD MOTORS.-Rudolf Wolff & Kew, 64 Queen's Road
C. Tel. 22178.
MOTOR TRUCKS AND TRACTORS. CHEVROLET.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel.
24759.
G.M.C-The Dragon Motor Car Co., Ltd., 33, Wong Nel Chung
Chung Road, Happy Valley. Tel. 30228. DODGE-South China Motor Car Co., 33, Den Voeux Road. C.
Tel. 25644.
-
Tel.
MORRIS-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel. 24759. STUDEBAKER.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road.
24759. WILLYS-KNIGHT & WHIPPET TRUCKS-Gilman & Co., Ltd.,
4a; Des Voeux Road C. Tel. 28011.
MOTOR CYCLES.
B.S.A.--The Sincere Co., Ltd., Des Voeux Road. Tel. 27767, NORTON The Sincere Co., Ltd., Des Voeux Road C. Tel
27767.
MOTOR OILS.
Tel.
GARGOYLE MOBILOIL.-Vacuum Oil Company, King's Bldg. SHELL-Asiatic Petroleum Co., (S.C.), Ltd, Asiatic Bldg.
TYRES AND ACCESSORIES. ACCESSORIES.-Hongkong Hotel, Garage, Bueen's Road.
24759. ACCESSORIE-The Duro Motor Co., Nathan Road, Kowloon,
Tel. 56253. FISK TYRES.Gliman & Co., Ltd.. 4a, Des Voeux Rd. O. Tel.
28011.
INDIA TYRES-W. R. Loxley Co., York Bldga.. Tel. 22285. MICHELIN TYRESA. Gocko & Co., China Bldg., 7th floor.
Tel. 22221.
PRESTOLITE BATTERIES-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's
Boad Tel 24759. WILLARD BATTERIES, Gmass & Co., Ltd., 42, Des Voeux Ed.
C. Tel. 28011.
speeds.
Motoring Pace Faster Than "Man Can Think."
B-11
After a ride in the new Buick Eight – you'll understand why so many thousands of owners have bought Buicks with utmost confidence for twenty-five years!
In addition to Buick's stylish appearance and the Juxurious comfort — the new Buicks develop better than 80 miles an hour-faster acceleration — and that economy in fuel, oil and maintenance which has always been characteristic of Buick.
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It is asserted again and again thal one day an automobile will speed at 300 miles an hour. It is possible, but not immediately pro- Lable. When that speed is renchedi, however, it will be within striking distance of the maximum speed that man will ever be able to attain in auch a vehicle and still maintain control. The record to-day stands kill you by centrifugal force draw- fat 215.733 miles an hour, made ing off every vestige of blood from earlier in the year by Captain Sir the blood vessels of the brain. As Malcolman Campbell. Travelling at it is, a temporary loss of conscious- even that speed is next door to a new, called "blacking out," is ex- miracle. You may compare racing perienced by pilots
in turns at
in a car at such a speed to travel-speeds of around even 800 miles an ling in a projectile in which control
jis maintained by aligning sights on the car with overhead markers. It is impossible to sleer it in the
hour.
Robot to Control at Speed of 1,000 M.P.H. Engineers may at some time in
ordinary way because the speed is the future be able to design an aero- su great that actually it is some-plane that will fly at 1,000 miles an what better that twice as fast as a hour. If so, it seems safe to say nian can think. Or to put it an-now that it will be flown by an other way, it is about twice as fast, automatic pilot and controlled from according to Helmholtz, as it takes the ground by wireless; there will to co-ordinate brain and band not be any humans in it. For all Thus an object seen at such a speed ordinary commercial purposes the would not erler the driver's con-ultimate speed of aeroplanes will selousness until he was many yards probably rest at not greater than past it. Obviously there is a limit 300 miles an hour. But we are a to the speed at which a human can long way at present from saying drive a car, and that limit would that the speed of express transport scem to be stretched to its furthest aeroplanes averages 300 miles an at about 300 miles an hour.
hour in full flight. For military
In considering speeda for an auto-purposes the day may dawn when mobile in excess of 300 miles an 500 miles an hour is attained, but hour the physical barriers inter-flights at such speeds will always vening are formidable. They may be risky. It would be rash to say be summed up not merely in refine that even greater speeds will not ment of structure and efficiency of be attained by man in the air; if design and power plant, but in the they are they will be freak flights rather more tangible considerations undertaken by the daredevils of the of the tensile strength of steel, air, Five hundred miles an hour thermo-efficiency and resistance of looks at the present time to be fabrica to centrifugal force. From somewhere near the limit of spead the aspect of to-day, the deadline in the air. for automobile speed seems to be around 300 miles an hour.
Aerial Predictions by Unwise
Persons.
YOUTH AND A ROLLS.
With the aeroplane we have no such worries. Man has already
The story is told of a young, sped at the colossal speed of 867.723 couple who went on their honeymoon miles an huur in a seaplane and
to Scotland. They travelled in some higher speeds are indicated. It is kind of ancient contraption which confidently predicted by the unwise the husband could induce to go be that in the course of a few years cause he knew much of the ways of we shall be roaring through the air.
engines.
1
at speeds from 750 to 1,000 miles
They put up at a remate hotel; an hour. The engineer, taking a long view, might agree that such there, in a barn at the back, they found the decaying remnants of a speeds are possible, but the phyalo- logist would shake his head. Would very ancient Rolls-Royce. They ask- the human body be able to withed the landlord about it; and he said it was very ald, and that, if they stand centrifugal forces of a high would take it away, they could have order?
Everything would be perfectly it for £5.
"It would be fun to have, a Rolls, simple if we could be sure of grad-if only to say we had owned one. ually increasing speed at a rate no Besides, the aluminium and copper greater than the acceleration of gravity and having as increased then it are worth much more than £5," speed, if we could be sure of never they said, and bought it; and be, stopping suddenly, of never break-being a competent mechanic, by ing the momentum by a turn or by dint of much hard work succeeded In getting it away under its own aalight rise or descent in flight
power.
Most people have experienced a They wrote to the company about
sudden start in an automobile or s
too sudden application of the brakes it giving the chassis number, and while traveling at thirty or thirty-received a reply to the effect that five rifles an hour, and have either this ancient vehicle was the first of an important series which they been jerked sharply backward against the back cushion or thrown would very much like to have in forward against the wheel You their possession for exhibition pur have only to multiply this effect Pases. Therefore, would the pre thirty times to conceive, the fact sent owners accept in exchange the that at 1,000 miles an hour a sud-latest model New Phantom
It is a good story, but unhappily den stop might drive the bones of Your legs through your shoulders, the Rolls-Royce Co. cannot vouch
for Its authenticity. or a sudden swerve would instantly
114" Wheelbase Buick Models
118" Wheelbase Bulck Models 124" Wheelbase Bulck Models 132" Wheelbase Buick Models
11
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Buic
The BUICK 8
The Eights with Buick's Prestige
THE DRAGON MOTOR CAR CO., LTD.
Telephone 30228.
33, WONG NEI CHUNG ROAD, HAPPY VALLEY.
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SOUTH CHINA MOTOR CÁR CO-
Tel. 25644.
33, Des Voeux Road Central.
Tel. 25644,
1