1931-07-28 — Page 2

PILLION RIDING!

DANGERS OF. SIDE-SADDLE

POSITION.

[BY CAMSHAFT.].

In spite of a recent fatal accident

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1931.

SPARKS

FROM THE PLUGS

SINGLE PEDAL CONTROL.

A CAR TO BE CONTROLLED BY A SINGLE PEDAL INSTEAD OF THE REGULATION THREE

BRITISH MOTORISTS AIRMAN AMONG

PAY £41,845,000.

HEAVIEST TAXES IN THE

WORLD.

Figures issued by the Society

CROCODILES.

THRILLING ESCAPE FROM

AFRICAN SWAMP..

Nairobi, July 20-Five hours) foundering for his life through a

RUSTLESS STEEL.

NEW METAL FOR BRIGHT

WORK.

Rustless stoel, which the, Ford Motor Company recently introduo-

new Fords, is a distinct innova- tion in the automobile industry

hf kililc"w! *

For more than a year, company cars were fitted with rustluss steel parts and were operated under nor 'mal conditions. Poriodically, €X«, parts from the company's research. Iaboratories inspected the parts. and found them resistant to wear,

not unconnected, with the position simpler methods of car control, show this. I will not indulge in too"; reveal that the British motoristi, he was forced to descind was the fed in exposed metal parts of the rust and tarnish or discoloration..

of the unfortunate passenger on the pillion seat of the machine from which she was

thrown, side-saddle pillion riding seems to be on the increase among Hong Kong motor

cycliate.

1

The dangers of this sort of thing cannot be too strongly emphasised. Pillion riding with the passenger sented astride on a properly con structed pillion scat can be as safe

Much progress has lately been made in the direction of safer and

writes Wilfred Gorden Aston in The Autocar. Take but a few ex amples: wo have witnessed the proving of the Armstrong Sidde

ley self-changing pre-selective gear box; the Mercédèa edition of & similar principle; the Daimler fuid Aywheel; the Studebaker free wheel, and in addition to these standardised things, many others in

control. Time will show that they aro wrong, or at all events, it can much prophecy, for cars, no less than clothing, are the victims of arbitrary and fickle fashion.

Motor Manufacturers and Traders

the most heavily taxed in the world

For motor vehicles, other than than mctor cycles, no leas

But that one pedal is enough for any car can now be rendily estab£47,843,000 was paid in taxes, in lished; First of all, we start off cluding £13,305,000 for petrol tax. with the throttle control that, by

The average works out as fol. some means or another, is in com-

lows:-- mand of the clutch, in conjunction

Ex. Fuel. Fucl.

£ £7.90 with a self-changing gear box or a

23.36 91.08 10.03 6.56

"and perhaps safer than solo riding,able. The Eillett and the Joseph the same pedal tako charge of a condition approaching the market-free-wheel. Then, we want to make but with the passenger sented side- saddle fashion the safety of the gears are notable. whole outfit is endangered; and, what is more, the passenger may be thrown from the machine by the slightest bump or wobble.""

Those developments that I have quoted serve various objects, but they are all alike in this one re- spect, that they aim at giving the driver of a car less work to do they aim at permitting him to keep his eyes on the road and to be free from any distraction and at ducing the amount of personal muscular effort for which he has to be responsible.

re-

braking. There is, mechanically, no difficulty at all in this problem. It can be solved along two lines, and for both of them, there is pre- cedent. Assuming that to make the car go faster we press the pedal down, then to retard it we must" allow that pedal to Beyond a certain neutral point its motion can bring into action a servo-system, which will apply the brakes. And these brakes will be hard on" when the pedal is fully

Iet back.

come back.

For thirty years or more drivera of motor cars have been taught, however, and their instinct now is, that to stop a car they must for cibly tread upon some agchey. And there is this to be said for such a principle, that muscular effort can

$

United Kingdom 17:19 Germany

14.98

Italy.

7.39

5.74

2.63

France

U.S.Ammia. Other facts revealed are:

...

The world now owns 35,781,995 motor vehicles.

Heading the list in the United Staten with 26,743,184.

The

crocodile-infested swamp into which thrilling_wedding-eve exprience of

Shell Company pilot

The aviator, Flight-Lieutenant Vines, was travelling from Mbarara to Entebba when engine trouble forced him to land in a papyrus

reed swamp near Lake Victoria. The machine turned turtle and be cathe deeply embedded in mud. It was a completo wreck.

Vines, though injured in the head, managed after great difficul ty to extricate himself. Realising that it might be many days before he was spotted by searchers and also that it would be impossible for. any machine to descend anywhere noar him, he bravely commenced the perilous journey across the swamp, firing his revolver from time to time in order, if possible,

to attract attention.'

The papyrus was so thick that sometimes he was able to progress

Absolutely resistant to rust tar- mish or corrosion, a damp rag in all that is necessary to restore ita original brilliance. There is no plating to ernek pr wear off since the lustre quality goes all the way through the metal and last for gen crations, desa

When the Ford Motor Company decided upon the use of rustless

steel,

AG manufacturer was equipped to produce enough of it. Therefore, to insure a constant and adequate supply arrangements were made with several concerns to

•

test, startling in its resulta, was made by the United States Bureau of Mines. A sheet of the motal, eight by twelve inches and 7/100, inch thick, was immersed in highly corrosivo mine water in Windburne, Field, the strongest cor- Tosive water in Central Pennsyl- Pania. A shout of ordinary steel with the same dimensions also was immersed as a check on the sample. under test.

Miners in this field have left

their shovels in working planes for n week or ten days and upon their return found nothing left but the

United Kingdom comes second only by crawling at full length manufacture the metal: according handles. There also have boon.

(but a very bad second) with 1,556,980.

In the United States there is one to every 4.6 of the popula tion; the United Kingdom kar one to every 2.8 people.

Petrol used by British motorists last year totalled a thousand and twenty-six million gallons.

There are 600,000 motor vehi. cles four years or older on the British ronde,

The average life of our cars is 7 years and the average mileage 7,000 a year.

When one's passenger is of the Inir sox, and is wearing a light summer dress, being seated astride on a motor-cycle may have its mo- ments of embarrassment for her, but that is nothing compared with the embarrassment you will feel if you have to give evidence at 'a Coroner's

The advantages that these things inquast, You, as the driver, äre in confer are so manifest that one. cannot but assume that the time is charge of the machine and are re- sponsible for the safety of your not far distant when some of them, passenger. Do not take that reapon or all of them, will hold sway, sibility lightly. "If she won't ride aving effectually displaced those astride make her take a 'bus, and cruder methods which we have if you wish to be polite leave the tolerated for so long for the sole bike at home and ride on the 'bus reason that we have become accus with her. Do anything, say any tomed to them. It is pleasant income to the rescue when mechn-motors outside the United States, thing to pacify the outraged foel-deed to see that in these days, when nicul aid has failed. Therefore, ings of your flapper: remember it there is so much talk of final there is, perhaps, more to be said would be much harder to pacify her zation" and "standardization" for a reversal of the process. To mother, if you had to tell her you in design, motordom has less pre.accelerate you will allow the pedal bad placed her daughter in the judice than ever, against the new casualty ward of the hospital; but iden. Under conditions in which don't allow your fairy to ride side competition is extremely keen it enddle: it is absolutely getting may well be that new ideas, even down on your knees and begging revolutionary new ideas, will be for trouble...

given a better chance than they formerly had.

THE LIGHTER SIDE.S Only Three.

to

come

Ninety per cent. of new cars sold are of saloon type. The United States, still has 64 per cent of the world's sales in while we have but B per cent. Canada je second with 12 per cent.. and France third with 8.4 per cent, Our exports last year exceeded Last our imports by £7.198,480. 1.657 fewer than in 1928 (the record

along narrow water: courses. Oc- ensionally he sank to his neck in the slime. Once he thought he was on firm ground, but suddenly it moved beneath him-it was a cro codile!

to the high standard prescribed in Ford specifications.

Before being its use was selited for it was subjected to many severa tests" by the United States Bureau -Friendly Kative Chief.

of Mines, by metallurgical and Eventually, after his five hours struggle, he staggered out, ex other scientific institutions and by hausted and almost naked, to some the Ford Motor Company, g native hute where the local chiof.¦ provided him with clothes and drove him to Kampala. The air- man was bruised but unhurt.

The Ford experiments wore con. ducted ever more than a year. Samples of the metal were subject: It took: 300 natives, carrying ed to a salt spray for 100 hours, spears and rattles on account of the dreaded crocodiles, two days to

the equivalent necording to engine. reach-the abandoned aeroplane, ers, of ten years of service under

The airman'a bride, whom he is

the most corros

corrosive marrying next Monday, is at pre. ; sent a guest of the Governor of

tions. There wasn't the slightest Kenya,

suggestion of tarnish of any kind, Other samples of the metal were subjected to the salt spray for 100 hours, the equivalent of 40 years of service. Still the metal could be

A few weeks ago Viues came down in the, saune inachine on the

northern frontier of Kenya. On that occasion he had a passonger with him. Both were isolated in tea" for three days" before being rescued.

!

numerous instances in which steel, pipes have been eaten through in from five to ten days.

Consequently this was a difficult test. Yet after six months foto! immersion the rustless steel" sheet. was removed and found to be ex- Actly the same weight as when first placed in the corrosive mine water. Long before the ordinary steel sheet had been eaten away to a fow ounces and had fallen apart.

The allor, of course, is more ex- weather condi-pensive than plated metals. But the economies of mass production have made its use possible on the low-priced Ford cars, featu

In the improved Fords, rustless steel has been utilized in the new. cowl strip, the head lamps, radia-

tor, hub and gas tank caps,

up against your foot. year we produced £36.528 motors the desert and had to exist on da- wiped to its original brillance with tor shell, rear Iamp, and the radia

There will be a neutral position in year). which the engine "ticks over," then, thrusting the pedal past this point will apply the brake.

It is not so very many years ago since thousands of Do Dion, cara were controlled upon this principle. Five Pedals Once Needed: Now

I drove one myself for many thou- Now, a new idea, cuts both waya sands of miles, and really, it was It serves to remind us of how con, very hard to find anything wrong There is a current story that aventional we have been in the past, with it. I remember that at the certain lady of the nouveau riche and it also gives us a jumping-off same time I possessed also another type went into 's motor showroom place for a prophecy. The fluid car of orthodox control, and it is in Nice the other day and said to fywheel has now effcetively shown a fact that I could go from one to the astonished salesman: "I want that a car, can be driven by means the other with no more difficulty to buy a rice new car, young man.of two pedals only in place of the than I now find in adjusting my Mine's got dusty." It is not yet regulation three. Bearing in mind feet to an accelerator in the middle known where the doctors have sent that a 90 h.p, Benz, which I used as compared with an accelerator at the young man to recuperate, from to drive year ago, had no less than the shock to his system.

five, am compelled to ask myself this question: "Can we not go a step farther and do all the con- Speed was halted by a tralle vonstable. In pulling up, his front In my view the answer to this

trolling business with one I' wheels crossed the whiteline, and question is definitely in the affirma- the policeman preremptorily order-tive. If that is the case and the ed him back. Speed lost his temper and abused him roundly.

Fearing that he would be arrest ed his wife leant. out of the car

and said in her sweetest voice, "Don't take any notice of him, constable, he's intoxicated."

The railway line was flooded, and the traveller was obliged to break his journey at a small town. He made his way in the pouring rain to the hotel; and said to the pub- tiean, "It is like the Deluge.”‚

The what I”

"The Deluge. Haven't you rend about Deluge " Noab and the Ark and Mount Ararat

"No," sir,” ̈ snid the publican, we have had no paper here for three days."

demonstrate that it is so-then the purpose of this brief article is to

last reproach against the internal- combustion engiño con be removed.

Protagonists of electricity and steam-driven vehicles used in the

the right-hand side.

Single-pedal control is feasible to-day, and it is to be recommended on many scores. The hands cannot.

plenty to do. If the horn can be be too free. Already they have

blown by foot: if the head lamps. dipped and swivelled by foot; the foot, why, so much the better! screen-wiper put into movement by

I would not go far its to sug. gest that the cuthorities at South Kensington should proceed to clear

space in their automobile museum

old days to remind us that with for a three-pedal car, but in & year petrol we could never have what or two's time, they might well start they afforded, namely, single-lever on the preliminaries.

th:

MOTOR RACING IN the true racing type: --Now that ing g and racing really fast cars of

BRITAIN.

THE NEED FOR SPECIAL

RACING CARS.

they have given up facing they have faded from the public eye.. and younger and more enterprising con cerns are winning the laurels that were once theirs.

We should like to see our Teäd÷ ing manufacturers, so many of whom have made, their reputations. While wo in this country have by racing, re-enter the lists with cented building racing cars. in ox the last ward in special racing cars. der to devote ourselves to the maes

We have little doubt that, fust as we have led the way in the air, we. production of standard models could take and hold the end other nations--notably the alert and ingainst the best racing cars that enterprising Italiane are realis; the world can produce. We even ing the full value of spectacular dare to suggest that, contráry, to The Chauffeur: I'm sorry, sir, performances on road and track, general, opinion, we could find men, romarks The Motor,” They care | capable of handling".' such ́ ́cara but the Mistress has taken the guarding against failure by build against the crack drivers of the Roll-Royce, Master Jack has taken ing special cars for the purposo Continent.

ERTE s taken the Bentley, Miz.

E their techser are being to warded with world-wide publicity. the Sunbeam and Miss Joan hasThere are many examplesgeven in just asked me to fill up the baby this country, of concerns that once car for her air:

guarding against failure by build

in order to dere op such cars, however, we must institute) Toad" racing on a fresh basis, such as the free-for-all" system that has prov

od so successful on the Continent.

ja damp cloth.

NOW COMING

MODEL 522c!

A fast car, a brilliant hill climber and with its marked. acceleration capable of keeping up high average speed. Separate Hydraulic brakes for front--and rear wheels. The four speed gear box is fitted with a silent Third", thus eliminating one of the most annoying noises. Further a special engagement system for the third and fourth speed renders more simple the passage from one to the other of these two speeds....

In town, owing to the silent running, the third gear may be kept almost continually engaged thus affording a lightning acceleration.

On the open road the silent third speed which is easily engaged in the high engine speed affords the most pleasant possibility of driving on hills, on curves and when overtaking.

FIAT

522c

522c Saloon 5 Seater de luxe $4,800.

For Service i

FIAT GARAGE:

350, Hennessy Road.

$5,300.

AGENTS:

A. GOEKE & CO.

SPARE PART DEPARTMENT:

CHINA BUILDING,

TELEPHONE 22221

FIAT GARAGE:

Hennessy Road.