THE AUTOCAR B 3ournal publisbeb in tbe interests of tbe mecbanicalll? propelleb roab carriage.

EDITED BY H. WALTER STANER.

No. 585. Vo1. XVTII.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 5TH, 1907. [PRICE 3D .

THE AUTOCAR.

(Published Weekly.)

Regls!ered as a newspaper for tran ~mission in the United Kingdom.

Entered as second.class ma'..ter in the New York (N.Y.) Po ~t Office,

EDITORIAL OFFICE :

COVENTRY.

PUBLISHING OFFICES :

20, TUDOR STREET, LONDON, E.C., ENGLAND.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

NOTES. . . . . . . . • • THE VENTILATION OF OLYMPIA . •

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USEFUL H1NTs A ND TtPs · To KEEP DRIVING CHAINS t N Gooo

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0«.DER-AccuarnLAT OR LEAKAGE (illustrated)-FITTING A FLOAT TO A TANK (illustrated) . . . . . . . . THE Srx·CYLI NDER LANCHESTER CAR (illustrated) THE T URQUAKD DETACHABLE R IM (illustra ted) TWICE A CROSS FRANCE (illustrated) 1906-A RETROSPECT . . . . . . . . . . . . AUSTRALASIAN 1 ,000 MILES RELIABILITY TRIALS (illus trated) ARE TYRE SECURITY BOLTS NECESSARY? . • . • . . MOTORING t N THE SNOW . • , • . . , . THE EFFECT OF RAC ING ON DESIGN (illustrated) A NEw At.:'TOMATtC AIR y _.\LVE (illustrated) ..

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T o THE WYE V ALLEY • • • . . • . . • . .. . . CONT INENTAL NOTES AND NEWS : THE CoNDITlONS OF THE GRAND

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PRIX-THE KAISER CUP-THE WINNING NUMBERS OF THE To,rnoLA . . . . . . . . . .. SIDE-SLIP AND S :(ID PREVENTION Cm,tPETITION l 1440 MILES JN A DAY To DARGAI BY CAR • . . . • • • . . • TH L :: >TOR CAR AcT OF r903 TO CONTI NUE . • CORRESPONDENCE • . • • • . , , , • THE RECOVERY OF £600 DEPO'ilT,. . • . • . • • •

How A PETROL ENGJ.NE W ORKS (illustrq.ted) . . . . . . . . T o Avorn FILLING THE PETROL TANK WITH \.VATER (illustrated) As OTHERS SEE Us . . . . . . . . COMPARATIVE CENSUS Of' THE PARIS SHOW THE LATEST 4 ,000 MILES TRIAL • • FR05T AN D WATER COOLING FLASHES • . CLUB DOINGS • •

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26 27-28

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30 31 31 . . 32 -33

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/ Notes. The Automob i le Club. When we recently suggested th e desirability of the Club organising a trial of paraffin carburetters, or other devices which wauld permit the us e of pa raffin , we mentioned incidentally that th e Club was not maintaining its positi on. This statement h as provoked conside rab le corres pondence , but we are only at lib e rty to publish the particular communication ll"hi ch appears in our correspondence columns t o-day. This letter indicates a point of very great importan ce, and one which we think should have the most careful co:1siderat ion of the committee . In substa nce it amounts to the assertion that the work of the T echn ical Committee is not carried out to the best advantage by the permanent officials of the Club. At the moment we express no opinion as t o the correctness or otherwise of this statement-we are not in a position to express an opi nionbut we say without hesitation that inaction of the Club in recent times shows that something is wrong, and vitally wrong, somewhere. There is no questi on that an enormous amount of enthusiastic and laborious honora ry work is accomplished for the Club by th e members of th e various committees.

In addition t o the supreme body, with 1rhich r ests the power of vetoi ng any de cision arrived at by any other committee, there are no less th an twelve committ ees . On one or other of thes e are found the names of some o.f the Yery best men in th e motor world . When we say b es t, ire use th e word in the all-raund sense, not mere ly in the social connection, though in many instances it appl ies there also. The memb eT s of the committees are in the majority of cases men who are thoroughly qualified for the work th ey un dertake. They are not only energetic and enthusiasti c, but they are thorough ly we ll up in the sub jets with which th ey deal. As this is so it seems evident that they a re eit her working in such a. way that th e best results are not obtain ed fr om their labours, or else th e ir 1rnrk is being negatived by th e incompetent and chattering minority on th e chief committee, or by th e internal administration of the Club. We ha1·e only to look back a littl e way to see where th e Club has failed. In the first p lace it appears to have prn tically turned oYer its legisla tion programme t o the Motor Uni on. Any in flu ence which it possesses in this respect is seemingly devoted to backing the U nion rather th an t o taking the initiative. It h as certain ly not acted as the mouthpiece of automobilists so far as the legislative authorities of this co untry are concerned. It is true that many of the most active members of the Union committees are also members of one or ot her of the Club committees, but, however this may be, the work is being done by the Union, which body is accordingly reaping all the cred it.

Then in the matter of trials-reliability trials- these have apparently been turned over to the Scottish Automobile Club and to the energet ic men who nm the Western Section. Beyond a hill-climb and the Tourist Trophy Race, the Club has done littl e directly t o promote competition . Turning to th e fuel question, we find the U ni on undertaking work which has hithe rto been done by the Club . On th e face of thin gs, the Club's record has of late been a poor one, but it is not so poor as it appears, for the reaso n th a t it is indirectly responsible for many of the most useful actions of the union. the Scottish cl ub , or any other affiliated club or organisation. The fac t remains, however, that it is not obtain in g, and it is not lik ely to obtain, credit fo r its partial and indirect share in these good works . If it is to maintain its usefulness. it must be somethin g more than a sorial club and a club which merel y runs a Tourist Trophy Race, issu es permits for competitions, and apparently shifts its higher fun ction s on to the ~houlders of other organisati o ns .

It should b e clearly understood that so far as we are concerned we have n ow and have always preserved th e greates t admirati on fo r the Automobile C lub, and we are willin g t o confess that it even amounts t o some-