1934-07-31 — Page 2

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IDEAL GARAGES OF

THE FUTURE

During the past few years many changes have taken place in the design of house, and all our big cities and towns are very rapidly expanding. A great deal. of thought has been given to the design of houses, to equipment, and to labour-saving devices, but very few builders seem to have given much consideration to the garages.

In the early days the car was housed in the coach-house; then cars became cheaper, motoring was no longer the pastime of the wealthy, and people with smaller. houses became. motorists. Their homes had no cosch-houses, and ears were housed in "portable garages" sometimes even in a

very rough shed.

Houses in some towns, however, are built so close together that there is no room for even a shed to take an Austin Seven, and 30. at intervals along the roads of our towns, old houses with their orchards and gardens have given way to rows and rows of lock- up', garages. or the comnthal garage with its pumps and ser- vice station, repairs, greasing and washing for the middle-class man who has not a chaufeur. But, gradually, builders

are realising

th: a garage is not only desir- able but

a necessity if their.

Unfortu- houses are to be sold. nately, most builders are conser- vative people. and the progress 's very slow.

Of the nine wonder. flat-rooted" "Houses of To-morrow" at the 1934 Daily Mail" Ideal Home Ex- hibition, only three had garages, and two of there were additions. They could have been taken away from the house and the design would have remained unaffected. "Houses of To-morrow" of £1,- 500-£1,500 with no garage!

Therefore, to the builders who had the forethought to realise the importance of the garage. and to include cre in their house of to-morrow, much credit is due.

L

These bullders are E and Berg, of New Malden, Surrey. On could not take away the garage from their "Sumpan”- house; it was part of the design.

This garage was designed by a motorist for a motorist, and contains

many labour-saving

features. The garage door is roughly at right-angles to the front door. This is not for effect, but has a reason, for by "this means the canopy from the bay of the kitchen can be continued over the front door to the garage, so that the owner can drive straight up to his garage, and, if the door is closed, can get out of his car protected from the rain 'or snow by the canopy and the lee of his car. Passengers,, can · alight, too, under cover and pro-" tection.

Sliding Door

The door of the garage is slid- Ing, so, that the car can be driven right up to it and it can still be opened. Also, it is more la- bour-saving than the ordinary type, as it does not need pegging back to prevent it blowing about in the wind. It 16 hung on wheels and can be opened by a child. B. 801 Afdam and Co., Ltd., BN- tannic Works, Haslemere” Avenue, London, 8.1.18. are the makers.

The garage is heated. by pipes. running from the central heat- the ng botter; thus, even in depth of winter, there is no dan ger cracked eylinder blocks. But that is not all, Mr. Berg, as a motorist, realises the impertance of the careful "warming-up” ̈ of the engine, and of the damage caused by congealed all. With these pipes heating the garage the engine is always warm and can be used safely for fairly quick, short runs to the post, oz shops. Also, it will start easily in any weather, and the battery can be reserved in winter for the head lights, instead of expending all its reserves first thing in the morning.

At the rear of the garage, ex- tending from the roof to the top of the garage back doors, which are just bigh enough to allow the car to pass through, is a large storing cupboard for tyres and sult-cases-

"Travelling trunks,”

says Mr. Berg, "belong to the car, and should be kept in the garage: 10. a clean cupboard protected from the dust and damp, and not in the loft

These doors at the bank are plain swinging ones, and the top bolts are of the spring-catch type with a chain, so that even the

shortest person can release them. They allow the car to run right

, through to the concrete wash,

situated at the rear of the garage... An Important point is that if two cars are kept the garage can be extended at any time with very little extra cost.

No Fumes

The garage has no communicat- ing door to the hall of the house, as experience has shown that " fumes from the car are noticeable in the house during hot weather it this door Atted. No, work bench is suppiled as standard. again as the result of experience. as it found that the ordinary householder" relies on, the...service. station for repairs.

There are three electric lights. One is under the porch, which also serves the front door, one in the garage. and one overlooking" the wash,

50 much for the villager of to-morrow," but what of the town resident? He will so the arch tects tell us, live in a block of fats. The recently completed flats at Richmond Hil Court, just outside Richmond Part, Surrey, are amongst the most mo- dern with regard to the garage accommodation. The building is shaped round three sides pra square, with Richmond Terrace as the fourth side, and the .cen- tre is laid out as ornamental gar- dens, with a hard terinis court for the exclusive use of residents.

Beneath the tennis court is the semi-underground garage in the charge of a manager and mecha- nics, where not only petrol and ol supplies may be obtained but all service repairs carried out. The windows to the garage are

· concealed in the side of the ornamental garden, and do not" detract at all from the beauty of the gardens, yet at the same time they are large enough to light the garage for all ordinary pur- poses.

An Hangar As Well

Looking further into the future. rn "American architect, George Fred Kerk, designed a house for the Chicago World's Fair which not only had the garage as part of the general scheme but also possessed a hangar for an aero-

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1934.

MOTOR JOTTINGS

AUTOCAR ROAD TESTS

Crossley Ten Torquay Saloon

There is undoubtedly a market for a small car at a rather higher than average price which will give a good performance, that possesses features of refinement in detail of a kind associated wish the more expensive medium-sized and larger cars, and at the same time provides a considerable de- gree of comfort.

From its introduction a year or two ago the Crossley. Ten was intended to meet these require- nient's and as experience of the "earler examples showed, and trial of the latest Torquay model sa-

had the effect of em→ › Toon has phasising, it does so very well in-

deed

41

This particular car was fitted with a preselector gear box, which is available as an option at an increased price. It can be said right from the commencement that from the performance point of view this type of gear box is thoroughly and completely justi filed on the car concerned. The well-known advantages of a pre- selector gear, namely, the rapidity and certainty of changing afford- ed, quite apart from the stmp- Hefty, help materially towards an all-round gain in performance on a small car in particular:

This is especially the case on the Crossley Ten, for it has a very willing," notably smooth-running engine which will go up to quite high revolutions without fuss, and therefore give good maxima on the indirect gears for anyone who cares to use them, so that through this form of gear change the very best can be made in an easy fas- hion of the engine's performance capabilities.

It is a car which, for its size. and carrying a roomy four-seater saloon body, gets along exception- ally well; a full load seems to make little or no difference to it, and reqütred ft will hold as much as 55 mph. easily and well; whilst at 40 to 45 mp.h the en- gine is most pleasingly smooth

plane. This house is a light-running, and is scarcely audible."

house" type of structure, being. round, with the staircase in the centre. The sketches show how the accommodation was arrang- ed,

Obviously, the days, of the con verted shed or coach-house aft numbered, but the average bull- der seems to be very slow to rea- lise the fact.-B.EA.

Knee Action Liars

When four wheel brakes were introduced some years ago ar obstinate automobile manufac- turer persistently ridiculed" "the Idea that four wheel brakes destr able. This short sighted manu- facturer spent thousands of dol- lars in newspapers and magazines advertising the fact that his com- pany would uit adopt the equip. ment until it was "perfected."..

In due course of time the manufacturer "perfected" a four wheel brake. It lasted exactly a year and was the most miserable makeshift ever devised for an automobile. Meanwhile a small coterie" of unscrupulous dealers.

guided by none too scrupulous factory representatives, fabricated stories of serious accidents which

were happening to cars equipped with four wheel brakes of more

conventional design.."

Naturally, Abraham Lincoln's famous adage about fooling some of the people some of the "time came into play; with the result that the obstinate manufacturer,

despite the convincing "facts" of" his propagands, experienced in- glorious defeat at the hands of the American public.

The car does not "speed in too marked a manner up normal gra- dients and "the longer kind of gradient which is just a little too steep for speed to be maintained on top gear can be taken very satisfactorily on third, on which the limit is a speedometer reading of 60, representng à genue 58 m.p.h., with about 54 as "a com- fortable maxium, This is a high figure for the type and size of car, which does not profess to be a sports model. Also, on second gear 35 m.p.h. is possible, and on first gear just over 20, and with these useful linity not only can the dri ver suit the gear ratio to the hill which is being tackled, so Keeping up the speed when required, but also a very useful getaway from a standstill, and after speed has been reduced for obstructions and other traffic, is possible, aided greatly, of course, by the preselec- tor change.

The particular self-change box- used is not noisy on the indirect ratios, and is pleasingly quiet with the engine ticking over in neutral. It is noticable that the drive takes up softly' when the pedal, is released after changing gear, giving actually a slight de- lay effect, almost as though there were an ordinary cluten between engine and gear box to soften the action, though in point of fact

"Careful checks have been made with eye-witnesses, highway..pat- rolmen and garages to learn the true facts. To date there is not one scintilla of evidence to sub- gtanflate the allegation that any type" of knee action design, or the steering mechanism connected

"

↑

there is not. The preselector le- ver is quite conveniently placed, and has a stop to prevent reverse being engaged unintentionally,

It is an engine which has scar- cely a vibration tremor through. out its range, and even on the gears there is not buzzing or harsh effect, as might be expect- kept ed, when the throttle is down to make good use of the speeds possible on quite high them. A timed run with the wind "following was made at 61-64 m.p.h.. the speedometer then re- gistering 66.

||

As a result of these combined qualities it is a small car on which a good average can be put up, for ft handles well, too; the steering does not require conscious effort and is light, the car is very rea- sonably steady on corners, even at speeds rather higher than most people use, and, a very im- portant point, it rides well with

out any pronounced fore-and-aft pitching, such movement as there is over surfaces which are not perfect being' mostly sof;...

Again, the brakes are powerful, reducing speed or making a quick stop in a way which promotes confidence, the action being that with light pressure on the pedal crdinary deceleration is given, and then towards the end of the pe- dal travel the brakes, come on ...really powerfully.

As to general points, the seats have air cushions which are very comfortable without being too soft, and which are of generous depth. The fröger seats are mounted on Leverol-adjustments; they give, good support to the shoulders, and the back seat has Leg à centre folding armrest. room is good for both front and back seats.

Enterior Anish is very nicely carried out, with polished walnut woodwork; there is a sliding roof, and the windows in the doors wind up and down with a lighter action than is usual. Safety glass is Etted all round. The wind- screen can be opened out wide;

hasan electric wiper with a single blade. Handles that are use- ful in closing the doors from in- side are formed in the woodwork, and are not separate additions. as usual, and there is a stout chromium plated "assist handle" for the front passenger.

Instrument board cubby holes of

1 useful" depth are provided, a clock, and a fuel gauge which was found to read accurately are included, there are pockets in the forward doors, two ash trays are Atted in the front compart- ment and two in the back. A net spring-spoked steering wheel is used.***

In the tail of the body is a use- ful sized luggage container and the spare wheel tyre has a neat metal cover.

11

The engine seems very reason- ably accessible for ordinary rout- fne attention. There is a com- plete fuse system guarding the separate circuits, and the tools are carried under the

bonnet:

in

bees was taking place from the hivê. We could only enshroud it a rug and then proceed to do vells and gloves for our drive home. Beveral of the rustics who met us as we slowly went along almost did a dive into the ditch........ They thought we were some new secret society going about dastardly work. I must say we felt rather foolish hot and bothered ourselves, and for days, afterwards I discovered solitary bees climbing up and down the upholstery of the car and even up my trouser leg. I sincerely hope my neighbour will.not want

our

with this design, has even re-any more bee carrying done for a motely contributed to an seci-

·dent."

The whole source of these my- Recurrence of this type of des- thical catastrophes seems to Dicable propaganda is now taking, spring from misguided salesmen place in connection with knee

(possibly they are downright action front wheel, suspension.

malicious) whose cars, are not Insidious rumours concerning

equipped with mee action, The failure of knee action mecha-**** pinch of competition, so deadly. nisms are now. golrig the to weak men, seems to stir up a rounds on every automobile row." No car equipped with this 1934 feature la exempt from the calumny that is broadcast by tongues which drip with compell- tive venom.

What Are the facts?

bile that can only vent itself by knocking a competitor

Every indication points to the conclusion that knee attion rumours are by products of sore- headedness, bull headedness and cut, and out lars.

very long time indeed.

́Life's Darkest Mönfent One of the tertia in the enter tainment after the annual dinner of a famous London arm was pro-. vided by a conjurer. For one of his tricks he asked for the assla tance of some

one from the andlence.

A man went up and while the audience waited for the conjurer to tontime the trick, some one in the front row called, "H! Don't you make in didappear, a our treasurer!!

AN INCIDENT OF SUMMER

Transporting A Colony of Bees By Car

Anyone who has carried a full colony of bees in a car will know the dimculties and excitement which accompany such a tricky business. It requires nerves of steel and a considerable amount. of good temper to bring the job to a successful conclusion.

So when my neighbour, who had acquired "bee fever", in early. summer, asked me if I would help bilra to fetch a colony from a place some twelve miles away. It required a great deal of forbear- ance not to say him nay.

In the, Arst place we arrived there too early, for the bees would not go into their domicile while the sun was so nice. So, after waiting about a bit. we set to with gauze and tintacks to cover the entrance. The first bang with a hammer set whole crowd in a fury, and those that were outside started to be so aggres sive that I am sure my friend "would have liked to drop the pro-'

ject there and then.

In the midst of what seemed like all the bees in the world we tled up the bive and commenced the perilous journey to the car, followed by angry legions apps- rently

very much questioning what we were doing with the happy home.

After tripping over a few rab-. bit-holes and such-like we got to the car and heaved in the hive Fortunately it was a big cer, but so hot was the work that we re- treated for some refreshment be-- Tore commenedig the homeward

run.

On arriving back at the bar we saw to our horror that amla- ture swarm was buzzing about therein and a slight leakage of (Continued on Pretions Column)

THERMOSTATIC CARBURETTER

CONTROL

For some time there has been a tendency to make the driving of a car as automatic as possible. For example, transmission systems have been devised to operate au- tomatically, cluthes also have been operated automatically. and 80 have radiator shut- - ters, the ignition control, and even shock absorbes, the degree of automaticity varying somewhat according to the nature of the mechanism, and the mearis adopted for operating it. For 1935 it is obvius that some degree of automatic control is to be in- troduced into carburetters.

During the last few years the R.A.G. carburetter has become firmly established by reason of the smooth running. rapid accelera- tion, and high power output which It makes available, and two new models have recently been intro- duced to give exceptionally easy starting, with, at the same time, no danger that a thoughtless dri- ver may run with a closed choke and so flood the engine liquid pet- rol, thus causing crank case dilu- tion and accelerating bearing and cylinder wear.

17

One model is known as the. R.- A.G. Thermostart de luxe, and it follows the well-known principles of the R.A.G. carburetter, but has in addition, a choke placed on the engine side of the main jet," whereas the ordinary band÷oper-" ated choke, of the standard tar-

ver-

buretter is on the external side of the main jet. Moreover, this choke, which is very simple in form, consisting mérély of tical side, is arranged to be oper- ated by a very neat and compact thermostat "giving a very defnite action. At each end of the top edge of this vertical side, there" is a small projection with which' the sliding throttle plunger of the carburetter comes in contact, the result being that when the engine is cold the slide, being in its up- permost position, holds the throt- tle plunger slightly open and cor- stricts the path of the mixture is- suing from the main jet. In fact, the mixture has to pass up and over the choke side, and in so doing it becomes highly vaporised, ensuring easy starting.

As the engine warms up, and... therefore, the cooling water also becomes warm, the thermostat. comes into action and first of all. withdraws 1. sliding plunger which allows the choke to descend sufficiently to close the throttle to the normal idling position. Fur ther rise of the water temperature results in the continued action of the thermostat causing the slid- ing choke plate to descend unul It 15 'completely withdrawn. Should the car be left unattended for a short time there is very lit- tle loss of heat of the cooling water, and, therefore, the variable. choke is not brought into action. so that on starting again the car- buretter does not provide a need lessly rich mixture. This is an important point, for should the temperature of the exhaust sys- tem be utilised to control the ac- tion of the carburetter, the re- veme is the case, for the exhaust system rapidly cools down, and, therefore, the carburetter would give a rich mixture until the ex- haust system becomes heated again.

A

The action" of this automatic- ally controlled instrument is very definite, and it undoubtedly re- sults in the carburetter, delivering a mixture which is sited to the temperature conditions of the en- gine, while a careless driver can- not over-choke the engine. very similar, model, known as the Leverstart de luxe, but with- out the, automatic control of the sliding choke plate, is also being produced for those owners who do "not care to have the automatic control, or who may find it dim. cult "to adapt the automatic con- trol to an existing engine awing to the lack of space for housing / the bulb of the thermostat. With this model a whistling noise re- minds the driver to open the choke. The price of both models is, however, the same, £6. Buch are due to Mr. M. C. Morris, who invented the original R.A.G. car- buretter, but it should be stated that the manufacturers, RÁG, Ltd... 121. Victoria Street. 8.W.1. are also continuing the produc- tion of the popular model without these refrements at £3,

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