1932-01-23 — Page 9

MOTORING

STORAGE BATTERIES

CLeBr

for maximum Power and Life suitable for all types of motor cora, trucks, mishus, cau be bad either dried *T fully charged with noid for immed. into use.

Reasonable Prices,

Hongkong Motor Accessory Co.

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OF

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SUPPLEMENT

WHEEL GRIP.

Appreciation Helps to Lessen Risks.

SOME CONSIDERA- TIONS.

|

OF

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

SATURDAY 23rd JANUARY, 1932.

Being The Official Organ of

THE HONGKONG AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION

MOTORING ON THE RAILS.

Pneumatics Which May Revolutionise Rail Travel on Continent.

there is no reaSON why there shoubl not be the same develop- ment towards balloon tyres as in ear history, Permanent ways could be t with much wider ratle, allowing the use of wide- section tyres, giving still greater comfort and allowing of heavier loads.

Braking Ease Another Good Feature.

Another god feature is the case of braking. With the normat

behind us were fourteen passen-Incrense of Comfort and Ease by could be brought to a standstill gers on Palhaan scats. We were

motoring on raila, writes W. F.

Use of Tyres.

operated Hispano-Suiza tour wheel brakes, and a direct hand- brake on the third axle, the train from its maximum speed in about 100 yards. With the pattern of intyre employed, the front tyres tend to dry the rails by suction, leaving

The chassis was a normal six. The passengers stated that they Three separate and distinct cylinder 30 b.p. Hispano-Suiza; the felt no shock and no anua cunser of loss of adhesion between driver was M. Mareel Michelin, movement of the car was visible tyre and rond are nearly always fe one of the members of the great externally. The wheel was after- ferred to by the use of one and French tyre firm. I had been inwards changed in exactly the same the man word, víz, "skliding."vited to take a seat by his side; way as on a car, The writer belleves that, falling for this reason to appreciate precisely. what skidling is, not a few motor- ists drive in such i mamer as to encourage the contretemes they seek to avoid on slippery roads.

Let is he said, therefore, that skidding, strictly speaking, implies

the war, and carrying so little For the present. French rail- ro-way companies are not interested that a wheel, of wheels, continues rather disquieting to realise that trallic that at one time it was pro- to move in its original direction the steering wheel was disconnect-posed to convert it into a high-it a train of the flispano-Suiza but either locked by braking ore, to look down on the sleepers Way. At present only three trains 2p, and this model has only been rotating at a slower speed than and the ballast, and to estimate 4 day run over it, and because of built to reveal the possibilities. is natural to a rate progress the height we were

the this light traffic no attempt hasFurther, there is a national regu- ever the root. For the sake of ground. We have become so used to been made, during the last ten higher than to for

tation which forbids any speci can say that only gripping a steering wheel and years, to keep, the permanent way

aimplicity we a locked wheel skids.

Skids and Sideslips. When ear slithers sideways usually the rear part only) it is not necessarily skilding; it is side- slipping a form of loss of wheel dhesion that is encouraged 10 occur when the wheel skids,

viz.

Bradley to the "Autoenr," speeding Comfort in undoubtedly across country in the neighbour-creased by the use of tyres. These hand of Chartres at more, than experiements were made ou a clan, dry bruke. seventy miles an hour.

local fine completed just before:

For the first few minutes it was

from

akimming over smooth, brond, sue in good condition. Despite this, The railway companies, how-

ever, are interested in faster and

u dead

clutch with a low gear in use, on French Xumple, a certain local Bide of M. Micholin, the engine useful lond of more than two tou. }

Seran.

faces that to run on rafls without the Hispano-Suiza train was by any steering gear was frightening, far the most comfortable I have mare economical haulage on the

ever ridden in.

local lines. and because of this But it is necessary to explain why we were motoring on the rail-,

Immense possibilities of in-a 24-passenger var has been built, rond track instead of on the high-creased speed are opened up by equipped with a 20 h.p. Panhard way. It is well known that a train this invention. The fastest train and Levassor sleeve-valve engine. only secures adherence by reason in France at the present time is This has five axies, all shod with of its weight. Adopt the ratios of one covering the distance of 96 pneumatic tyres on

detachable A side-slip is also likely to occur, weight per horsepower current ines from Paris to St. Quentin in whosis. one of the axles being under some conditions, if the third motor car practice, and the end 62 m.p.h. As i had opportunities chain. The coach has

1 hour 32 minutes, or at practically driven direct and the other by form of loss of adhesion exists. gine would spin its wheels and

wheel spin, which arises from

cels of observing, while riding by the remain stationary. To take one

weight of 4% tons, and carries the sudden engagement of the concrete

with a capacity for uld very rapidy be revved up to the petrol consumption is rather a slippery road, or from the aud

108

speed of 2,000 r.p.m., which was

vas less than that passengers has a dead weight

of a road vehicle den depression of the accelerator of 120 tons. But the train in equivalent to 62 m.p.h., and we carrying #1 equivalent lond. when similar road conditions exist. rarely filled to capacity: it is often could hold it at 75, and even 80 Maximum speed is 55 miles a caperially, but not only, on a low only half filled; not infrequently.ph. This, it should be noted, hour, and an average speed of Go was over one of the worst perma Because of the superior braking.

miles can easily the passengers number a dozen, ar j

be maintained, Wheel slip is not

a source of even half a dozen-no more than ent ways in France. With a big- danger unless the road speed is can be carried in a family touringer and slower-running engine, it is quite possible to run these fairly high; if it necurs when the car. Think of a passenger

carefully selected

and equipped petrni conches on local gear ratios, better body than the lines without signals, and also to ear is being started from rest no

weighing 120 tons! Under these an even harm disconcerting

aeroplane fuaclage in which our stop them not only at stations, but conditions, is it circum-

surprising that the stance will ensue, apart from the local lines are operated at a lossible to foresec, In the immediate sengers desire to be set down,

passengers were carried, it is post any wayside places where pas possibility, on a cambered rond, of a loss so considerable that the the driving wheels side-sipping

French Government is contemplat- future, pneumatic-tyred trains Whereas about thirty years ago Lowards the gutter.

ing additional taxes on motorists running at 125 miles an hour. In

other words, the train will be the pneumatic tyre revolutionised A akid, however, contains greater

faster than the aeroplane on all road travel, it will be interesting Michelin's reply to this is but lung trans-continental jour-rail trafic. The possibilities of possibilities of harm. It brings

to see if it can also revolutionise with it, for instance, greatly re-quip the trains with pneumatic neys.

this duced braking effect, for a locked tyres and reduce the weights to

Another interesting feature is doubtedly immense,

new application wheel skids along a slippery road

the ratios common itt motor more readily than a braked wheel er

remarkable silence of the! practice. After

Experi rotating at its normal speed in

ments extending

pneumatic-tyred train. Briefly, it nver Two is the silence of a high-class car! relation to that of the car. Then, years the scheme is au point, as too, a skiding wheel is very prone

porfect road. On was proved by the demonstrations the road we should consider this

running over to side-slip.

I was invited to attend on a little-result as quite normal; judged by

to meet the deficit.

cur

the

Applying those fundamental facis used branch line between Chartres railway standard it is quite ex- İ

to practial driving, the hints may be given:

Be Gentle,

following

Do not try to necelerate rapidly, or drive so that it may be necessary to me the brakes violently, un n slippery rond, particularly" on the side of a cambered road.

Engage the clutch as gently as possible when starting from rest where a side-slip might cause the car to hit something.

or

Try to avoid accelerating braking forcibly an a slippery cor-

nor.

If the ear cummenees to side slip merely because a curve of the road is being taken too fast, or another vehicle being overtaken on a slippery cambered road, do not apply the brakes.

and Rambouillet.

Testing the Possibility with Aeroplane Fuselage.

To show the possibility of purumntic-tyred trains, there had been built a duralumin aeroplane fuselage Btted with fourteen com- fortable seats and having a lug age compartiment bath front and Taar, on an ordinary Hispano- The steering gear had been dis- Suiza short wherilase chasis.

connected, although the wheel re- mained in place; the axle had been widened to suit the track of the rails, but everything else was standard, including the gear box. rear axle, brakes, and even the shock absorbers. Near the rear of the fuselage there was

another axle with a transverse spring.

The three axles were equipped

a railroad them, and equipped

Do not even release the accelera- with normal car type detachable for violently on a really slippery dise wheels having road at a corner or elsewhere, for lange bolted to this gives rise to an engine-brak-with special pneumatle tyres, ing effect that may cause the rear fatted to 85 lb. per square inch. wheels first to skid and then to side. The tyres, which are "straight alip.

sides," mounted on the standard

Keep four-wheel brakes, especial- rim of 26X4ln., are quite a

by the units of the pairs, back and type of 83X4in. It is impossible front, uniformly adjusted. If one to use a bigger section, for the back wheel is locked and skids, road width of the rall is only 24in. adhesion is hatred.

and the useful width less than

Do not awerve with the steering 2in. Another difficulty was that on a slippery road; anticipate the In case of puncture the wheel must need for changes of direction when not drop more than 5/16in., In ever possible, in order to negotiate order to clear the bolts and other an obstruction in a long and obstacles set within the rail. This gradual sweep.

result is obtained by mounting a Above all, drive slowly and order to demonstrate the effec-

wood xing inside the tyre. cautiously where the road surface tiveness of this device a trye was is or may be treacherous, and bear in mind, for one thing, that oil instantly deflated by the simple affective method of breaking

In

drippings at bus stopping places the valve stem while the car was and elsewhere are a potential cause running of skidding, wheelspin

at 66 miles an hour. and alde-Thore was a report and a puff of slip.

M. W. B. smoke, but nothing oleo happened.

are

-

LESS FOREIGN TRAVTL.

THE 1932 HARLEYS ARE HERE

Arrange for а Demonstration with the Sole Agents.

THE GASCON MOTOR CO.

2, Kwong Wah Road,

A NEW CAR?

THE SIMONIZ

Tel. 56243.

Kowloon,

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U. S. motor- HONGKONG MOTOR - ACCESSORY CO.

Foreign travel of ceptional.

ists has fallen off 25 per cent. These new trains have to adapt from last year's, the American themselves to existing rails, but motomobile Association reports.

'MUTER ON

SMOKING

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