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THE COST OF HIGH SPEEDS
Sir Josiah Stamp's Views
ci
The cost of speed and Its ex- perimental determination were the twin subjects upon which Sir Josiah Stamp, chairman of the London Midland and Scottish
Itnes that Warrington Railway, spoke a Chamber of Commerce annual dinner last night.
"
Tremendous interest is taken - to-day in questions of speed. whether by sea, in the air, or on the land," he said, "and we are prepared to go to great lengths to secure the advantages that it possesses. In all directions there is the greatest concentration of scientific and engineering ability technical perfection to secure and advance in this way. I am bound to confess. however, that in the more concerned I am economics of speed, and I refuse to be excited by any additional until I know the. acceleration relative cost of obtaining it and what sacrifices there may be of other amenities of comfort and of safety
Air, Sea, And Road "So far as the air is concerned, the recent race to Australia has concentrated public attention on the question of speed, but in- creased speed involves engines of greater horse power, increased;
consumption, and lower
fuel paying load, and in the case of some of the aircraft now" operat- ed by railway air services an in- crease of 20 per cent, of speed would involve an all-in increase of at least 40 per cent. in operat- ing costs.
Sea
"When we come to the similar factors apply, and if we wish to accelerate the speed of.. one of our latest vessels by 20 per cent, the cost of fuel alone would be increased 100 per cent.
"On the road we now have such easily compassable high hundreds of speeds for the thousands of individual drivers on the same thoroughfare that is required for the humble pedes- trian. the cyclist, the flock of sheep going to market, and also the only access to school for thousands of children, that the cost of speed here is not so much a monetary one as a social one, and has raised one of the most acute problems coming under the general head of liberty in the modern State.
Railway Speeds "When we come to the railways we can consider the general average
speed for all-round convenience, or special speed for special trains. The latter may be of great spec- tacular interest and also some individual convenience, but on are already Hensely be run at occupied they may the cost of the convenience of the remainder,
54
"The cost of speed in train travel is a matter to which I have been giving the closest attention.
In the past two or three years my railway has specialised in
raising the general average ex- press speed over the line, and. I have sted 30 trains with ап 58 miles average speed of over per hour, eight of them running 60 miles per hour or more re- gularly. These eight represent a tocal daily run of practically a thousand miles, and in so far as they had corresponding. pre- decessors in 1914 there is an average increase in the speed of 10.2 per cent. The leader, run- ning at 64.4 miles per hour, is 17 per cent. better than formerly.
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1935.
MOTOR JOTTINGS
WHEN LAMPS "COVENTRY" OF AMERICAN CARS
LOSE POWER
Every motorist knows that there are nights when head lamps seem to have lost their power. One of the contributing causes of this effect has emerged during the re- search on street lighting which has been carried out by the Gen- eral Electric Co., Ltd.
A road that has normally a fairly "matt" surface reflects some of the light back towards the driver and spreads, a good deal of the remainder over- the hedges DI fences. Thus light comes from many different direc- tions and ensures that any an- lighted object is shown up in good time. On a polished road, how ever, or a dark road that has be- come wet, the reflection becomes much more Hke that from a mir- ror, and the narrow beam from a head lamp is reflected straight down the road with hardly any diffusion to the sides. This ex-
•plains why, on a polished arterial road, and on many tarted roads on a wet night, cyclists and pedes trians at the side are invisible 'until one is almost level with "When comparisons are being them. There is no diffused light. made with certain passenger trains before the war, people often lose sight of the consider- able extra train weight per pas- senger that is "now
Cost Of Acceleration
customary
when all the amenities of corri- cors, lavatories. dining cars, and the additional cost of lighting and heating make all such compari- sons rather artificial.
"What has been the cost of this acceleration so far? I am glad to say that any mathemati“ cal addition that might have been predicted" has been. to a great extent, offset by more economical coal consumption per mile, and
operating various economies. The question of still higher speeds is havlig my con- stant attention, and some time ago my officers started a series of special tests. designed to answer questions as to lation between speed, weight, and cost three variables that in business like ours, where the margins, with the greatly re- duced' fares, are now so fine, we have to welgh carefully.
the re-
"These tests consist in the main in running trains over long stretches of line at different-in- ercased, speeds with varying weights of train, with the object of determining the increased
WAKEFIELD
Castrol
MOTOR OIL
and so unless they are in the direct rays of the lamp they can- not be seen,
WEAK BRIDGES
The Minister of Transport, Mr. Hore-Bellsha, has informed the House of Commons that, with the concurrence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an additional pro- vision of £500,000 would be made available out of the Road Fund for grants to schemes for the re- construction of weak bridges and for other with which highway authorities are ready to proceed immediately. He is issuing at once grants at the rate of 75 per cent. towards 25 bridge schemes estimated to cost in all about £400,000.
urgent improvements
cost resulting from the Incre- ments of increased speeds. These results, combined with the know- Jedge gained from the remark- able and Interesting North- Eastern experiment a few days ago, ought to teach us a great deal about the added cost per in- crement of speed
*IF THERE WERE A BETTER OIL THAN WAKEFIELD CASTROL
SCOTT & BLACK-
I SHOULD USE IT**
SAYS
Winners of ENGLAND-MELBOURNE AIR RACE FLIGHT.
GEORGE EYSTON:-
Holder of many Records including WORLD'S FASTEST BABY CAR SPEED.
MALCOLM CAMPBELL:-
Holder of Many LAND SPEED RECORDS.
LT. AGELLO
Italian Air Officer, holder of the WORLD'S AIR RECORD at a speed 440 m.p.h.7
MR. & MRS. J. MOLLISON:-
Holder of many flying Records.
NORMAN (WIZARD) SMITH:-
Holder of BRISBANE-SYDNEY record driving Ford V8.
WINNERS OF:-
Isle of Man TT. Bace, German Grand Prix, Swedish Grand Prix, Belgian Grand Prix, Ulster T.T. Race, Italian T.T. Race, Spanish 1.T. Race Wakefield CASTROL MOTOR OIL was used on the first fight over Mount Everest by the French
on the World's record distance flight and on very many other record breaking achievements. Castrol is economical because its price is reasonable and its quality unsurpassable. ROBERTSON, WILSON & CO., LTD., Agents in South China for
Messrs. OO. WAKEFIELD & CO., LTD.
SCOTLAND
Falkirk Moves For
New Motor Factory
By doing everything possible to Induce the syndicate responsible for the production of the pro posed new all-Scottish motor car to set up their contemplated fac- tory in the town, Falkirk seeks to become known as the "Coventry" of Scotland.
-Overtures have been made to the influential syndicate respon- sible for the scheme to produce a medium-priced car in Scotland requesting them, when consider- ing the location of their factory, to keep -Falkirk's claims before." them.
Several prominent Scots busi- -ness ·ren are understood to be behind the enterprise, to manu- facture an all-Scottish car, and they have interested themselves in a novel type of car manufac- tured by a Drymen, Stirlingshire,
engineer, which experts have stat- ed possesses immense possibilities as it embodies features certain to appeal to motorista, -
Experimental Work
t
A sum of £10,000 has been rais- ed for experimental work, and the various developments in the scheme have been intensely fol- lowed by Dean of Quild Thomas Cassells, Falkirk, who, since the scheme was first mooted, held the view that in the event of a Scots being established car factory Falkirk should be the town select- ed.
The Dean or Guild, it is now revealed, has had this week ah Interview with the syndicate be- 'hind the scheme. Alluding to that statement Dean of "Guild Cassells, in an interview with a reporter yesterday, said that the meeting had been a very satis- factory one He was going to re- port to the Town Council on the meeting with a view to their tak- ing official action in the matter. There was no disputing the fact that Falkirk was ideally suited for the establishment of a motor car factory.
Castings were an important component part in the production of a car, and as Falkirk was the centre of the light castings indus- . try these could be manufactured locally. The town also possesses a strategic situation, being plac- ed midway between Glasgow and
Edinburgh, and this in itself was
a great asset. There was abund-
labour
ant power and water supply, while any amount of skilled could be secured.
PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS
An attempt last week by Sir W. Brass to have the new regulations which are to govern pedestrian crossings annulled, failed says a London correspondent. He cri- ticised the fantastic system of "beacons, balls or bubbles," and asked the Minister to reconsider the whole inatter:7.
Mr. Hore-Bellsha said that the necessity for pedestrian crossings was now admitted. The beacon was a sanctuary for the pedes trian At the moment another survey was proceeding over the" whole of the administrative area of London to review the position- in which the beacons were placed,
so that mistakes could be rectified. He was only making an expert- ment. Everything would be done which experience showed was of public advantage. The figures of the casualties showed that the experiment was working well
The matter was also raised in the House of Lords, where Lord Plymouth, on behalf of the Gov- ernment, said that the acid test must be whether these crossings would lessen accidents. The figures he had were encouraging. On the whole both motorists and Dedestrians had taken to the new regulations, but more active measures were to be
by way of prosecution : to- Lance with the regula ial studs from Paris their way as it. the painted crossli almost entirely in wet
Compli
+
FOR 1935
Despite the fact that manu- facturers on this side of the At- lantic have kept particularly quiet about their new models this year (writes a U.S.A. correspon- dent), it has been possible, never- theless. to gather and piece« to- gether sufficient authoritative in- formation to provide an in-i teresting review of the 1935 American cars.
It is now generally known that American manufacturers will re- duce the overall body height from three-quarters of an inch to as much as two inches, at the sande time increasing seat widths. Greater length will provide in- creased leg room.. An all-steel roof will be featured on many of the 1935 cars, thereby closing the, last vulnérable point in the armour of automobile safe?", and at the same time overcoming the drumming effect resulting from the use of a flat steel plate over the top of the body.
The use of narrow, higher radia- tors, and longitudinal Ines ́em- phasising the lowness of the body.
promises to be much in evidence- In 1935. Graceful reverse sweeps at the rear of the car will further the impression of length, while the divided rear window, bring- ing the rear panel back in a con- tinuous sweep from the roof line to the extreme rear tip of the body, will be favoured
The concealed tyre tendency will continue to increase in popu- larity. There promises to be a definite trend toward the removal of all accessories from the ex- terior, as engineers and designers are making a drive against pro tuberances and excrescences of all kinds.
י
NEW MOTOR BOAT TROPHY GIVEN
International Racing To Be Greater This Year
International motor boat racing is due for a busy time in 1935 if present plans for important con- tests both In Europe, with Ameri- can drivers competing, and in the United States with European dri- vers in the contests, materialize.
M. Paul Dupuy, the eminent French motor boat-racer, has off- cially announced, at a luncheon given by him to American motor boat racing authorities, the dona- tion by his wife of a $10,000 trophy to be competed for in Paris next July,
At the same luncheon tentative plans were made for European drivers to visit the United States to compete in the largest regatta ever held in this country at Det- it over the Labour Day week- end which takes in September 3. which is Labour Day.
During the luncheon a letter from Lord Forbes was read. It. supported the proposed Detroit programme. In past years the Detroit' regatta has amounted to
nothing more than the Harm- sworth Trophy race, with one Bri- tish boat and Mr. Gar Wood com- peting. Next year, according to present plans, drivers from abroad will compete in the 12-litre and 4-litre classes, international out- boards and other craft.
Endowed Trophy..
M. Dupuy, who captained the French outboard, team in the in ternational outboard races in Florida last winter, said that his wife, who was formerly Miss Do- rothy Spreckles, had donated the trophy in memory of her father, Mr. A B. Spreckles.. It will be known as the Spreckles Trophy and will carry with it a minimum ́ endowment of 150,000 francs in cash. Acceptance of it was rece-
There is likely to be a notice- able trend towards a full three- passenger width in the front seat. One manufacturer achieves, extra roominess in the front seat by ments in the engine, particularly eliminating the gear lever and the as a result of "changes in valve emergency brake lever.
Increased power output will be achieved on 1935 cars by refine
1
design, cam contour, improved combustion chamber design, and better combustion..
tved from the International Mo- tor Yachting Union of Brussels, "the parent body of speed boat
acing in Europe.
The Spreckles Trophy, which·.· will be a massive prize weighing. 150 pounds, in sliver, is to be turn--- ed over to the Canot Club of Paris to be delivered to the Internation- al Motor Yacht Racing Union on condition that the latter organiza- tion turis it over to a French. racing suthority.
Motor boats of any kind, may compete for it—inboards, out- boards and others. The one sti- pulation is that they must not weigh, with hull and motor com- bined in racing condition, more: than 710 pounds; that is, with. empty petrol and oil tanks.
Instead of the winner of the contest being the first boat over the Hine, the winner will be the boat. which covers the greatest distance during the two hours' duration of the race. The two? hour time must be run out.
Annual Event " The race will be an annual event, to be held yearly between' June and November 1. Mme. Dupuy will put up 50,000 francs. before each contest, to be distri- buted to first three to finish.
There may be three entries from each country, the owner and dri- ver to be of the nationality re- presented...
The course may be around two buoys placed 1,500 metres, apart, " or around three buoys each one Elometre apart. To prevent un- fortunate elimmation of contest- ants through striking buoys in rough water, such accidents will not cause disqualification."
In addition to cash prizes, a replica of the trophy will be awarded to the winner each year and the original prize will be per- petually open to challenge until ' It has been won for three years in succession by the same club, into whose permanent possession
it will then fail
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