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WOMEN EXAMINERS FOR
LICENCE TESTS
Fair Sex To Test Each Others' Driving Ability
“The organization
which Mr-arrived when women who special.
Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport, is setting up for the purpose of conducting driving testa, which will become obligatory early this year, is to include wo- men testers. It is understood that their duty will be to test women applicants for motor licen- ces.
The Minister announced that
The number of sppointments will be in the neighbourhood of 200, with salaries for men of £217 to £258 per annum, with an ad- ditional £15 in London,
There will be a small number of supervising posts, including one at £500 to £600, subject to a slight temporary abatement.
The appointments, which will include some women, will be full- time and non-pensionable.
The 15.000 applications already received for these appointments will be considered, but applica tions received after December 19 are not entertained.
Rush of Applicants An examining board has been set up at the Ministry of Trans- port to consider the qualifications of applicants.
Already several thousand wo- men have applied. A Ministry
น
laelu automobile engineering are as well qualified as men to make auch tests. Women have a con siderable aptiture in automobile engineering."
The tests will be to all motor- ists who have taken out a driv- Ing licence since April 1. of last year and for those who are seek- ing one for the first time. It is expected that they will begin In April this year. What form they will take has not been an- nounced, but it is likely that they will include an examination in knowledge of the Highway Code, the ability to start the engine, move away straight ahead or at an angle, overtake, meet, or cross the path of another vehicle, stop the vehicle In an emergency, drive the car backwards into a limited opening, and show a knowledge of road signals and the ability to act promptly when they are given,
EUROPE-ASIA AIRWAY
official said they included typists Berlin To Shanghai
and private-car chauffeurs... and
a number had high educational qualifications.
When asked what salary would be paid to successful women ap- "AI- plicants, the official said: though the salary has not been fixed, it is likely to be slightly less than that offered to men examinera."
An official of the Automobile Association welcomed the project to recruit women examiners.
There is no reasons," he said, "why women should not carry out driving tests. The time bas
In 53 Hours
Nanking, Jan. 14. A plan of the Eurasia Aviation Corporation for the institution of an Europe-Asia Inter-Continental. Airway between Berlin and Shanghai has been approved by the Ministry of Communications, according to Mr. L Ching-sung, Managing Director of the Avia- tion Corporation, who is now on a visit. to the Capital,
When the German dovernment
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1935.
MOTOR JOTTINGS
NEW ROAD SAFETY
Pavement Fences Now Planned
A new road safety experiment. the erection of fences at the pave ment edge, may shortly be made on a small scale in London.
The London and Home Countles Traffic Advisory Committee is considering the recommendation of the plan to the Minister of Transport, Mr. Hore-Belisha.
The Pavement railings would probably be first tried at one of the traffic circuses, and in a busy street without shops, where there is not much unloading of vehicles. Gaps in the railings would coincide with the foot crossing- places.
To reduce accidents on the Great West Road at Brentford, Lord Trenchard, the Cominission- er af the Metropolitan Police, has suggested a division of the up and down traffic by a raised strip of grass, about four feet wide, with gaps every 50 yards or 50.
approves the proposal, a test flight' will be made next month, he said. An airplane will start from Bar- In and take the route over Greece and India to Shanghai. It is estimated that the entire journey, covering a distance of over 14,000 kilometers," will be done in 53 hours. If the test flight proves satisfactory, air service will be started in March, Mr. Li added.
It may be recalled that the Eurasia Aviation Corporation had originally intended to operate a Nanking-Berlin air service by way of Sinklang and Russia; but the scheme had to be abandoned owing to various complications.---. Kup Afin.
WAKEFIELD
U
MOTOR OIL
PRICES
OF"
WAKEFIELD CASTROL MOTOR OILS
HAVE BEEN SUBSTANTIALLY
REDUCED
ON ACCOUNT OF ADVANCE IN EXCHANGE.
BE WISE
CASTROL ISE
AND
ECONOMISE
Send for Price List and Green Booklet.
ROBERTSON, WILSON & CO. LTD,
Agents for
Moters 0.0 WAKEFIELD & CO. LTD.
The All British. Firm of Oil Manufacturer
LONDON CAR PARKING
Problem Solved
In opening the new Cumberland garage and car park in Bayswater. Street, W., Mr. Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport, according tɔ
emphasized "Engineering
the great traffic congestion arising from the presence of stationary vehicles on the roads.
"
In a striking phrase, he stated that a street is the most expen- sive garage in the world, men- tioning that the capital value of the land surface occupied by a single stationary private car of average size in a busy street in London was £20,000," The new- garage, which contains five park- ing floors, was designed by Bir Owen Willams, and is of parti-. cular interest as embodying & number of entirely new features.
It is built throughout in rein forced concrete, each floor being designed to take its full load with- stanchiont or out supporting pillars. Access to each floor is a special given by ramps, and
feature is that separate ramps are provided at the two sides for entrance and exit, the two ramps in effect constituting independ~ ent spirals; circulating through each of the floors To ensure an easy gradient, the second half öf each parking stage is half a floor higher than the first. An- other special feature of the gar- age is that both the rämps and parking accommodation are ranged to give an anti-clock- wise circulation of traffic. This is the reverse of the usual prin- efple, but it is stated that, before the design of the building was decided upon, careful and exhaus- tive experiments were carried out which established the fact that theerage driver possesses het- terntrol of his vehicle when he is turn to the left rather than to the right.
ar-
Lates; Devices Employed The ramps have sufficient head- room to allow any car to pass, but in the event of a car being .... loaded with luggage to an exces- sive. height, protection is afford- ed on the invisible ray system. If the ray be interrupted, two red discs light up, a "stop" notice is illuminated, and a gong is rung. To assist an owner in identify- ing the roof on which his car is parked, each floor has its ceiling striped with a distinctive colour, the owner's ticket being striped to correspond. The cars are park- ed in slight echelon and with the radiator facing the wall, so that they can be run into place, dir- ectly. To take a car out, it is only necessary to back a short distance, and at once drive for- ward to the exit, the manoeuvring space being always kept clear.
Ground Floor Amenities The ground floor is devoted to repairing and servicing, and also contains dressing and bath rooms for customers, a lounge, chauf- feurs rest room and changing rooms, accommodation for the staff, and a luggage depository. Passenger-operated lifts are pro- vided to all floors. There is a Elling station on the front at street level, and on leaving, a driven can either go straight into. the street or enter the station without going into the roadway. All floors are kept at a safe tem-" perature by an air-heating sys- tém, and are equipped with water connections for filling up radia- tors, and a compressed-att supply for inflating tyres. Water is de- livered at 353 1b. Der square inch 'on the ground floor for washing, and a quick-drying piant is also installed. The repair plant very complete and includes a brake-testing machine and tyre re-grooving plant;
CHARCOAL GAS INSTEAD
OF GASOLINE
Nanking, Jaï.
AN IMPROVED
ROBOT
Much has been heard of the weak points of the familiar red- amber green traffic light robots. Incidentally, in the south these are usually spoken of as "trafe
lights," but north of the Midlands they are generally called "robots"
AN ANTI-DAZZLE NO STAGNATION
IN CAR DESIGN
LAMP
Another inventor. Mr. Thomas Crawford, Jer.. of Glasgow, has been turning his attention to the dazzle problem, and he has evolved two head lamp attachments known as the Amplyte and Curt- silyte writes a
correspondent. V
These consist of a series of "baffle, cones, each forming part of a parabola, placed in the stream of light so that the reffector is be- cluded from direct view: A cut- The objection most frequently made is that drivers sighting a
out quadrant, the back of which robot when it is showing green do forms a reflector, is also Atted to not know how much longer the cut out useless rays and reflect green will last, and may have to them back on to the main bara- * stop hurriedly or finish the cros-
bola. The Ampllyte lamp has sing on the amber, however cau-
four baffle cones, which are fixed. tiously they approach the lights.
and Mr. Crawford estimates that The driver who rastly makes a dash for it in such circumstances
there is a loss of only an eighth may, of course, find himself in
of the driving light. The Curt- real trouble, but even the cautious ellyte is of similar constraction, driver may not escape being rambut the cores are divided so that med from the rear in stopping the two lower segments
can be hurriedly, or being charged with
rotated in an upward direction falling to observe the lights if the"
into the upper part of the lamp, amber comes an just as he passes
leaving the lower half of the the light. There should not", be such charges, as the amber is to
reflector in its original form to allow time for a vehicle to com-"
throw out a powerful beam on
been made.
plete the crossing, but they have the top of which is superimposed
a soft floodlight from the cones, i
你
On one of my trips to the Mid- lands (writes a correspondent), I was taken to see a model of an in- proved robot, designed by Mr. Frank Jenner, of Beacon Croft, Blackwell, near Bromsgrove. This has the usual red light at the, top and green light at the bottom, but between the two is a rectan- gular glass behind which there rotates
auxiliary indicator - actuated by the timing switch mechanism.
an
"th
This shows red and green panels which by their slow rotation" clearly indicate how much longer ...
the red "stop" or green "go" will last, but I gather that authorities do not like this use of green and red for "the time indicator. That objection is easily overcome, how- ever, for alternate amber and black strips could be used and the increasing area of amber would plainly tell drivers how much lon ger the green was going to last. Similarly drivers would know
Unfortunately, there was Bo opportunity to try these inimps out on the road, but the inventor has them in use and finds that he has quite a good driving light, and the drivers of approaching ! vehicles invariably dim proaching him.
when the red was going to change. and could be ready to move of, instead of losing time as is how too often the case." On many pe- casions the driver in front of me has been so slow in responding to the green that his has been the only car to cross before the lights have changed again.
This improved robot deserves trying out in tratic conditions, I believe it would prove very stic cessful.
Occasionally the idea gets abroad that motor car design is stagnating. If those who have It came into contact with a frac- tion of the tnteresting technical developments that are each week brought to the notice of various technical departments they would realise that so far, at any rate, there is no stagnation, and no sign of it.
We are, however, a naturally conservative race. and · motor' maufacturers generally are more conservative than most. This is only natural, for they have to: study the tastes of their conservative clients, and it' „would be quite porible for a car of unorthodox design to be a pro- nounced success from the techni- cal point of view, and at the game' time, in theatrical parlance, an utter. Hop from the commercial aspect.
Most motorists are now fami- "Bar with the method of operating the Wilson selfchanging gear bax, for even if they do not own a tar so fitted they probably have a friend with such a car. To change gear one moves the small lever carried on the steering column. in order to preselect the desired Bear and the actual change is made separately by de- pressing and releasing the gear- change pedal. · Until the pecuă as depressed and released, however, there is no actual response to the movement of the pieselector lever. When the pedal is actuated them. the actual change of gêne whl follow without boise or shock. In the Wilson gear box epicyclic gears are used.
This action is given exactly by a gear box of ordinary design which was tried out recently, by means of an ingenious control mechan- iam. This is, moreover, not com- plicated, and the box with its control should be very little, fif any, more expensive than say, a four- speed box having synchromesh. action on all forward gears. At the moment, no further details can be given, but it may be said that the box is a British produc- tion, and that It is hoped to dea- cribe. It shortly.
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