1933-11-21 — Page 2

Page

MOTOR NOTES

BRITAIN'S LOST AIR RECORDS

Is Supremacy Worth Regaining?

records The world

in flying ..held by Great Britain have all been taken from her by foreign countries. Although a teverish undesirable. race for records is and could not be justined or either national

scientific? grounds the successes of our rivals and the methods adopted attaining them must be

.for

studied."

or

85

to the A problem arises share in the cost of these great enterprises to be borne by the Sta the manufacturer, and the individual. It has been suggest. subscription ed that a national should be promoted for the pur- pose of raising from £100,000 to £200,000 for the cost of a renew- ed British attack in the records. The recent history of world records, established by Britain and then beaten by other coun- tries, is as follows:

SPEED

Britain-Flight-Lt. G. Stain- forth. in Sept., 1931. 407 m.p.h. Beaten by Italy in April. 1933. Agello. 424 m.p.b.

DISTANCE (Straight Line). Britain. Gayford and Nicho- "letts. Feb., 1933. 5,309 miles.

Beaten by France in Aug., 33. Rossi and Codos. 5.857 miles:

ALTITUDE

Britain.-C. F. Uwins. Sept. 18. '32-43,976 feet.

..

Beaten by France on Sept. 28, 33. Lemoine. 44,820 feet. -

The British long distance re- cord and the speed record were made by the Air Force. The cost of the speed record was defrayed by a gift from Lady Houston.

The world altitude record made a year ago for Great Britain by the private enterprise of a British firm.

MILLION FRANCS PRIZE

1

I

speed

French beaters of world records in altitude and other performan- ces also have the inducement of big monetary rewards for success.

The Italian victory in was an Air Force enterprise. Test Great Britain cannot tirely upon past laurels. is direct national gain from the winning of world records. what is even more important,

80-

There

But,

each success adds to our technf- cal and scientiac knowledge and enriches the whole field of aero- nautical » activity.

24

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1933.

WOMEN RULERS

OF THE ROADS

The Best Buyers

At OlympiaTMTM

(Speulal Air-Mail' Service)

London, Nov, 1.

THE ROAR OF LONDON

STREETS

Distressingly Loud And Strident

Second day at Olympia demon- strated anew the emergence of women as the future,"rulers if the road. writes a correspondent... I wandered down the long be

Obviously there are too many of wildering avenues and watch the them, writes a correspondent, and synchro- they are of the wrong kind, distress dista side, discussing

with earnest salesmen. ingly loud and strident, jumpy, mesh while their menfolk busied them-mechanical, aggressive. Even so, Belvės with making prolonged I stress at the outset a fundamental and thorough tests of back-seat distinction between necessary and

unnecessary "noise. cushions,

woman

B

These same men a year or two

to - xnar), used

Another ago

driver! "every

"time small gloved hand from another window offered them tacit advice

upon the peril of cutting in.

With the advent of clean, safe,

TOWARDS 500 M.P.H. and simple motoring. the art of The effort towards still greater driving has no longer its exclusive appeal to masculine vanity. Soon, aeroplane speeds must be costly. and it demands organisation and I reflected, men will drive only when necessary; and then the re- study which are quite beyond the firm or means of any private

action will set in, and women the individual. I suggest that' will clamour to be released from

the bondage

the Air Ministry immediately recon-

of

wheel--a stitute the high-speed fight as pleasing fantasy.

:: But

pro- a, unit, with the goal of 500 miles

blematic future as the slave of the per hour 33 an important inci- dental object, but mainly for car, as a buyer in 1933 she is scientific purposes.--

winning golden opinions.

seem

whatever

woman's

I was reading the other day one of thong hair-raising scientific books which describe how the whole un iverse is creeping to its annihilation or bid us imagine a million nebulae on the rim of an expanding soap- bubble; and needing refreshment and seeing a bunch of grapes on the table began to eat a few. I came to a bad one, and, in my distraction as I paced up and down and thought about the nebulae, I all but threw is into the street. Imagine a rotten grape falling from a third storey window on to a frequented London pavement! I meditated in horror on the crime I had so nearly com- mitted, only to recollect that not so long ago the street would have been a natural receptacle for such trifles. I have walked along streets in provincial France where the words "Gare a vous" were liable to be followed at any time by dirty water discharged from door or window, as there were zo sinks or drains except the road, and, after all, that discharge waa unlikely to hit more than one person, and "In many households it is the would probably not hit anybody wife who really learns the practic-as all; whereas when a modern al day-to-day technique of car chauffeur fires off his klaxon in a owning. The husband goes into quiet street hits everybody within town each day by train and only a hundred yards radius; there is drives at the week-ends. The no possibility of escape. women are far less "wooly" ja and stating their requirements. less sceptical abont the advant-. ages of new features they are prepared to try things out."

The altitude and distance. re- Much better than men to deal cords also cntail considerable with," was the verdict of one expenditure, and it would

salesman yesterday. "Women ask questions which are that in their case the Air Minis- practical try should at least offer to co-always to the point. If a man is operate with private firms.

mechanically minded he tends to get theoretical, and a possible deal sometimes ends in just an- other discussion of mechanical principles.

The inducenient of big prizes does not seem to be so fruitful in this country as it is abroad Next year prizes amounting to nearly £20,000 are to be won for В flight

from London to Mel-

boume. So far as the writer is

aircraft aware, not one British Brm is designing with a view to winning the biggest of the prizes

this in

and a competition. foreign victory appears to be inevitable,

exhibition of cars which not only . tend to drive themselves but to The successful French attack sell themselves. "on the world distance record was Yesterday's distinguished

induced by the French Air Minis-sitor was the Duke of Gloucester try's

million

vi.

Business was again brisk yes- terday, especially among the more popular makes of car. An order every five minutes" was the proud He arrived be--and very astonished boast of ofer of an award of one a keen driver.

one stand, and everywhere one francs... The machine fore the doors were opened to the with which it was accomplished public, and when people began to heard expressions of confidence pour in at ten o'clock he passed that this year's show was going It is an on his tour of the stands almost to break all records. unrecognised.

(Continued on previous column).

belonged to the French Air Ministry, and was lent for the attempt.

"If there were a better oil

than Wakefield Castrol

I should use it".

George Egston-

says

Holder of many Records including WORLD'S FASTEST BABY CAR SPEED. Malcolm Campbell –

Holder of WORLD'S LAND SPEED RECORD of 272 m.p.h.

Lt. Angello:-

Italian Air Officer, holder of the WORLD'S AIR RECORD at a speed of 423 m.p.h

Stanley Woods :-

Winner of the Isle of Man Benior T.T. Race and Swiss Grand Prix.

Mr. & Mrs. J. Mollison-a,

Holder of many Bring Records.

Monsieur Lemoine:-"-

Famous French Aviator, HOLDER OF WORLD'S ALTITUDE RECORD.

Rorman (Wizard) Smith—

HOLDER OF BRISBANE-SYDNEY record driving Ford V6.

C. J. P. Dodson!--

Winner of German Grand Prix and Ulster Grand Prix.

Percy Hunt:

-

Winner of Belgian Grand Prix.

E. A. Mellor

Winner of Dutch T.T.

Wakefield CASTROL MOTOR Oil was used on the first flight over Mount Everest; by.

the French on the World's record distance flight and on very many other record breaking achievementa.

Castrol is economical because its

reasonable and its quality unsurpassable.

"ROBERTSON, WILSON

Agente in South China for

CO., LTD,,

MESSRS, C. G. WAKEFIELD & CO., LTD.

LULLABY AND "ALARUM

|

MOTORING HINT GAS BALLOON IN

Popping In The Carburetter

Popping

carburetter In the when an engine is cold, or before it has thoroughly warmed up after a cold start, is not neces- sarily an indication of some de- feet, writes a correspondant. AB a rule, under these conditions it is brought about by the driver endeavouring to accelerate the engine, too rapidly, which in turn

accelerator too far or too quick- 1y. "

When this unduly rapid or ex- tensive depression of the accele- rator occurs the mixture supplied weakened, by the carburetter is and the reduced proportion of petrol vapour in it causes it to. burn 30 slowly in each cylinder that it is still burning when next. the inlet valve opens; hence the "aring-back" or popping in the

sweet sake should still be growing implies that he has depressed the

Are the "bloods" who among us go about in crackling" cars our young revolutionaries, our budding

There is

a kind of Hitlerites? brutality of importance and egoism in their mannerlessness which is most un-English; they take a mean advantage of the English virtue of tolerance; it wil soon be driven to exasperation and will rise and extinguish them. To be waked at three in the morning by a young gentleman who comes back from a dance, klaxons for the night porter, slams four doors, and removes his car in roar of thunder is a hate fully European experience in this free country.

carburetter.

to enrich the

Buit sometimes popping will occur with a cold engine no mat- ter how alowly the accelerator be depressed. This usually implies that the carburetter needs slight adjustment-Le.. starting and slow-running mix- ture-although if it does not allowed to idle a few minutes it occur after the engine has been may be better to overlook it, fo1 | (Continued on previous Column) the reason that the adjustment will" afford greater economy when the engine Ls warm.

་

carburetter

Popping in the carburetter is usually considered to carry. not a risk of fire, unless the car-

buretter or petrol feed is defec- tive, as evidenced by flooding, or leakage of petrol within the bon- net. The present writer kuowa of no instance of its having cau- sed a fire where no "free" petrol has been present.

An inlet valve operating slug- "gishly, probably through guminy oil and carbon on its stem. will :ause popping, sometimes only with the engine cold and some- times under all conditions. The best remedy, is its removal and cleaning.

though "penetrating or squirted on to the yalve stems while the engine is idling will often disperse the gummy oll and correct the trouble. Para-

94

to

STRATOSPHERE

Soviet Experiment Is Successful

There is one field of aerial enterprise which Great Britain has neglected. A Soviet gas balloon recently ascended to a height of nearly twelve miles. thus breaking, the record held by Prof. Piccard. This ascent had scientific for its object certain investigations.

There is still in existence a

British stratosphere. balloon pro- fect. It has been held up by the untimely death of the late Eus- whose brother, Mr. tace Short,

M Oswald Short, is equally desirous of fulfilling this ambition. Oswald Short, however, has found attention entirely absorbed his

business at his aeroplane works at Rochester, and has reluctantly been compelled to postpone the stratosphere enterprise.

by the increasing demands

30

severely handicapped as regards ballooning by the fact that the sea is at no great distance, from any point, and of late years the covering of the country by a vast network of power lines has pro- ved an additional deterrent.

Great Britain has always been

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You will think I am neurasthenie about noise. Not" at all I have slept for weeks in a corner room encircled by electric trams, with the overhead wire just on a level in should not be used for this with my open window. The screech purpose-not freely, at all events and grind of the wheels, the dinowing to its being able of the driver's bell, made a most mingle with the crankcase, oil in original lullaby: but after a night modern engines: years ago. when or two they were quite efficacious engines were differently designed. Few noises are insupportable if one it was permissible. is interested in the operations that produce them or if one has heard them so long that one knows all they mean and acquiesces in it. I like the stiff cough of the huge excavator that starts its labours on a plot rear by at seven every morning. I am even exhilarated by the road-breaking machine. Only the other day six men were hand- ling the drills side by side in Con- naught Square, with a noise of earthquake one really expected to see the chimneys shudder; but it was a noble shindy, not altogether unlike something out of Beethoven'a Pastoral. To enjoy these more exceptional sounds, however (I in- clude among them the electric steel- drill, which in the city woodpecker, drumming in the better times ahead), one needs to listen; mere coexistence to think, or rest, while they are going on-is unattractive. My alarum, where I am living now, is the excavator, my lullaby the motorbuses The noise produced a elon quaters by the starting of a modern two-decker is something utterly beyond my feeble descriptive powers; it is like a thousand of Dante's most hated enemies in a crescendo of torture, Luckily this does not reach me. Oxford Street roars parallel near by, and the 'buses turning out of it pase to my right along a "one-way" at distance of some fifty yards. There is also an automatic signal, so my 'buses, come in waves Imagine, then, my head on, my pillow (I get se near the open window, as I can); the floating roar begins to soothe me a little, it merges in my mind with another more familiar, more natural sound; then, suddenly, traffe is released along my side street, two or three huge buses heave by, with, thud, thud, thud of changing levers and a scream or swish of wheels, which disappeara in a moment into a shadow silence. Time and again I have fancied I waa. listening to big breakers" on Babingle beach, when waves and wind join in a climax and the pebbles are torn up and the water shoots, thunders, and hisses, Bo vivid is the illusion that now, even in the daytime, the sullen roar has changed its quality for my unGON- scious reception, and the power of

it mingles with happy memories of seaside holiday?

KLAXONS IN THE NIGHT

But I revert to my original remark. Unnecessary, noise is hate ful, and we have far too much of it. Few people realise how lond the normal noises are. I lifted my hond in Oxford Street the other day and saw that within dye yardı of me five Walsh miners were singing at the top of their voices; I had not beard a note It is deplorable that,

with that for a basis of nächs Sevildthe

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