SEPTE?.IBER '.2N0 1 1905.
THE AUTOCAR B Journal publisbe~ in tbe interests of tbe mecbanicall\? propelleb roab carriage.
EDITED BY H. WALTER STANER.
No. 515. VoL. XV.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND, 1905. [PRICE 3D.
THE AUTOCAR.-
(Published Weekly.)
Registered as a newspaper for transmission in the United Kingdom. Entered as second-class matter at the New York (N.Y. ) Post Office.
EDITORIAL OFFICE :
COVENTRY.
PUBLISHING OFFICES :
20, TUDOR STREET, LONDON E.C., ENGLAND.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
NOTES : FUTURF. TENOENCIES-THK PROCESS OF EVOLUTION-HINTS
AND TIPS-THE TOURIST TROPHY . .
265-266
USEFUL H1NTS AND T1Ps. By Liellt. Windham, R.K.
. .. 267
POSSIBILITIES OF THE TOURIST TROPHY RACE (dlustrated) SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCES SOME TOURIST TROPHY CARS (illustrated)
THE PYRENEES CUP WINNERS ...
268-269 ... 269 270-274
274
GENERALITIES. By RuLUlan
275
A NEW SPRING WHEEL (illustrated!
276
CONTINENTAL NoTES AND News (illustrated): THE PYRENEES CuP-
ToURING IN SwtTZERLA1'0 - THE LIE.GE EXHIBITION-ELECTRIC VEHICLE TRIALS... 277-280 THE WEB SPEED INDICATOR (illustrated) 280 SOME QUERIES AND REPLIES 28! A LIVE AXLE CAR (illustrated) 282 C ORRESPONDENCE: THE Ne.CESSITY FOR A PAID MAGISTRACY-UN-
REASONING PRKJUDICE-ANDOVER MAGISrRATES At-10 MOTORISTSSMOKY CARS- MOTOR CARS NOT WANTED-PRIMARY BATTERIESTRADERS AND THE ROYAL COMMISSION- MOTOR YACHTS-TAXATION BY HORSE-POWER- MOTOR CARS BY RAIL-CARBURE.TTERS-THE ADVANTAGES OF PNEUMATIC T YRES-WHERE ARE THE POLICE?TROUBLE WITH FRENCH AGRNTS-EXAMINATJON~ FOR DRIVING CERTIFICATES-THY. CJRCUMVl!.NTJON OF POLICE TRAPS-ENGLAND AND THE G.-8.-SUMMARY OF OTHER (ORRJ!SPONDENCE 283-286 TOURIST TROPHY OTES .. . ... 287 FLASHES... 288-290 T H E TRAIL OF THE UNCONSUMED (continued rom page 209). By. A . E.
S. Craig .. .
29!
OCCASIONAL GOSSIP. By 1 • The Autocrat"
292
ANOTHER REMOVABLE RIM AND TYRE (illustrated, .. .
293
FOR COLONIAL READERS .. .
293
CLUB DOINGS: CLUB FIXTURES-NOTTS. A C.-EDINBURGH M.C.-
LINCS. A.C.-BRITISH :\lOTOR BoAT CLUB-KENT AND BLACKHEATH INTER-CLUB MEET-IRJSH A.C.- C LUB!; ANO THE LEGISLATIVE DEFENCE fUND - MANCHESTER MC. - HULL AND DIS'fRICT A.C. ... 294
"THE AUTOCAR " SUBSCRIPTION RATES : British Isles, I6s. Abroad (thin paper edition), 22s Sd. per annum.
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Notes. Future Tendencies. As we have said more than once within the last twelve months, the autocar has no\\· reached so satisfactory a stage of development that i:(reat mechanical changes are not likely to be made suddenly. That is to say, improvements are only accepted a.s such after long and exhaustive trials. and then they are gradually embodied in the vehicles as circumstances permit. People used to imagine that it 11·as unsafe to buy a car because some wonderful improvement would be made within the year which \\'Ould render the car almost worthless before it was many months old. As a matter of fact, even when the car was at its crudest, and when improvements were being made very rapidly, no such sudc!en depreciation in the value of vehicles ever took place, but it is practically impossible now.
It must not be imagined that we assume for a moment that the motor vehicle has reached a stage of finality; ,re think nothing of the kind. We only wish to < 1ssure those who are hesitatiug about acquiring a car that they need ha,·e no fear that any drastic changes will suddenly put their cars right out of date. So far as can be seen at the present time, the development of the car as a whole is proceeding on absolutely the right lines. In the first place, the engine is Leing made more and more elastic; its range of power is continually being increased. and ll'hile the engine can be run very slowly and almo t ,rithout a sound it is also made to pull ;·ell ,rhen required at a Yery low rate of revolution, as well as when running at moderate or high speeds.
J t is not very long ago that the petrol engine, like a common gas-engine, had practically only one rate of speed. The first improvement was to make it run fa ter, and now it has been made to work well at slow speeds, at high speeds, and at intermediate speeds, ,rhil e, as ,re have said, the distance or range bet"·een the two extremes is continually increasing. At the same time, the engine may be taken as the most highly developed part of the car. Not only o, it is the part which has been most quickly developed. It has become almost like a docile thing of life, a mere touch of hand or foot being sufficient to quieten it down to a few revolutions per minute or to excite it to its fu ll po1,·er and speed. Yet it was but a coarse barking gas engine when the first motor engineer conceived the brilliant idea of putting a gas engine in a cart and feeding it with petro1/
The Process of Evolution. The clutch, too, is undergoing development. That is to say, it is being rendered more and more elastic. In the beginning, if the clutch slipped much, its leathers were burned up or it was otherwise temporarily put out of action; it either slipped or gripped with unpleasant ferocity. Not only so, but it required constant attention and adjustment to keep it at work at all. Nowadays, the average cone clutch can be slipped a great deal without suffering material injury, while the metal-to-metal clutches, either of the cone or plate form, are actually run continuously in oil, and the best of them may be slipped to almost any extent without damage. Perhaps the crudest part of the car is the sliding change-speed gear, and yet we find that many of its main objections have been overcome by the elasticity which has been given to the engine and clutch.
Many attempts have been made to supersede the sliding gear, but none have yet met with overwhelming success. That is to say, no other form of gear is at present so widely used as the sliding type. However, 1·ery great attention is being given to epicyclic and gears of the gradually progressive type, so that it would at least appear that a considerable measure of 11·hat may, for want of a better term, be called elasticity is also likely to be given to the gear, and
