THE AUTOCAR B Journal publtabeb in tbe tntereets of tbe mecbantcall\? propellet > roab carriage.

EDITED BY H. WALTER STANER.

No . 59r. VoL. XVIII. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH, 1907. [PRICE 3D .

THE AUTOCAR.

(Published Weekly.)

-- Registered as a newspaper for transmission in the United Kingdom.

Entered as second-class matter in the New York (N.Y.) Post Office.

EDITORIAL OFFICE :

COVENTRY.

PUBLISHING OFFICES :

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

CONTENTS.

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :?1 5-21 6 USEFUL Ht!'-l'TS A~D TIPS: STARTl~G A )IOTOR ON COAL GAS-

To PREVENT CARBON D tros1Ts- O N THE C ARE o F CHAINS -AIR LOCKS . . . . . . . . . .. . . WINTER MOTORING ON LA!'-1'0 AND SEA \ILLUSTRATED) , • DEATH OF M. SERPOLLET. I N THE HOUSE OF COMMONS SIMMS-BOSCH HIGH-TENSION MAGNETOS (ILLUSTRATED) • . AFTER THE FLORIDA MEET • . . • • . • . A STUDY IN STEERING CONNECTIO~S (ILLUSTRATED) THE N UMB ER OF CYLINDERS . . A GREAT REPAIR ESTABLISHMENT . • . . • . . • . . CONTl!'JENTAL NOTES A::-.'D NEWS : THE i\I ONACO MEETING

2 17 218

222 223 224-231

232

(ILLUSTRATED)-THE GRAND PRIX CIRCUIT-DUST LAYINGAN AMERI CAN B OOM- THE COURSE FOR THE KAISER'S Cur

(ILLUSTRATED)

. • 233-234

CORRE PO:SDENCE. . . . • , , • . •

. • 235 -240

THE \VORK OF THE A UTO:\IORILE A SSOCIATION . .

• • 241-242

POWER TRACTION 0:S ROADS FOR NATIO:SAL DEFENCE . . . • 242-243 THE SrnE-SLIP AND S..:10 PREVENTto:s Co)tPETITION 243 FLASHES . • . . • . • . 244-246 THE NEWCASTLE-OX-TYNE SHOW 247 THE MANCHESTER SHOW • . 247 SOME QUERIES AND REPLIES . . . 248 "FINALITY" IN .MOTOR CAR DESIGN. 249 AN ALLEGED MASTER PATENT UPSET 249 CLUB D01:,,,•cs. REVI EWS

"' THE AUTOCAR " SUBSCRIPTION RATES : British Isles, 16s. Abroad (thin paper edition), 22s. 8d. per annum.

j Notes. The Number of Cylinders. Elsewhere we report the discussion at the Auto­ mobile Club last 1reek on the question of ix 1·. four­ cylinder eng ine . The four-rylinder advocates were somewhat at a disadrnntage berause they had no leader . :\fr. Edge prepared th e case for the six-cylinder exceed­ ingly well, and someone ought to haYe had a similarly carefully prepared brief for the four-cylinder. H ow­ ever, despite this disadrnntage, the discu sion, like the paper which provoked it, wa absorbingly interesting. [n th e discussion many points in the paper were taken up and criti cised or amplified as th case might be, and 11·e do not propose to refer to them. H01re1·er, owing to the fa ct that the paper wa not circulated before the meeting, it was quite impossibl e for al l po ints raised in it to be ro1·ered in the di cussio n. Among those which were missed we might mention certa in references to the q uestio·n of ll" eight. We scarcely think the weighing of one four-cyl ind r car again t one sixnlinder ra r can bP acrepted as a final proof that the tiansmissi on of the four-cylinder rar must be hea1·ier through out than the six-cylinder; at any rate , it is only a partial proof. I. et it be ta ken a. acrepted that the gear box for equal powers ca n be made somewhat lighter for the . ix-cylinder th an for th e four-cylinder ; 1r rertainly do not see that it affects th e propell er-shaft or rountershaft as the case may be, nor can we see ho11· it afferls the bark axle. beca u , th e braking stra ins. that is. strains indured by sudden applications of the brakes are enormous a nc.l are unaffected b1· the number of cylinder . They are obviously greater than any trains which the engine can impose, ina much as in an emergency the car can be stopped in a shorter distance than it can be accel erated to the same speed . so that the argument does not hold good except in the case of the brakes being concentrated on the back wheels .themselves, and even then diffe rence would be 1·en · small indeed .

With regard to the vibration diagrams, when the engines were running light it was tatecl that the tyr~s in each ea were pumped equally. but as th e chas 1s 1·ibrati on 1ra recorded, and rightly recorded, in these diagrams . 11·e think some state ment should ha1·e been made about th e springs of the tw o car. . anc.l also whether spring checks were used or not in either case. We are not disputing th e arcuracy of these di,i!;mms. but it is ob Yi ou~ that a four-cylinder engi ne 11·hi,~h could not be persuaded t o run at Jes than 360 -e 1·olutions a minute 1rns not in th e best adju tment. Either it carburetter or its ':g111t1on-perhap. both-and other important adjustments must ha Ye been in a bad 11·[:y. and the irregularity of its running as rompa red with th<·

ix -cylinder ngine 11·as undoubted ly not entirely a questi on of th e number of cylinders. X o engine C'OL~l cl rl o itself ju tire in th e state of this one. The six cylinder engin e 1rnuld uncloul tedly be in proper tune and trim , and it is a pity that the four-rylinder was not equally 11·e ll attuned. The comparison of length fr{)ll11 the fr ont cdinder to th e dashboard is not altngether a happy one," beca use th P Renault is rn nsicl erably l01'.ger in thi resp et than th a1·erage four-rylinder engrne. The same remark applie!' to th e 1reight of the radiator. because the Renault is not a standard pattern at all, it being plarerl in front of the rlashbo1rrl and at the back of the engine . Jn fact. it may he regarded as an unnecessarily cumbersome way of dispensing with the pump, alth ough at th e same tim , it gi,·es somewhat better fa cilities for getting a t the engine in fr ont. It. may be interesting to add that the RC'nault had a bore of 130 mm. and strok e of qo mm . . whil e th e ~ apier was 102 by 102 111111.

It hould be clearh- understood we are not di puting th e good points of 'the six -c ylincl r. We are rather pointing out that in th e paper the four-cylinder engine did not rec ive full credit for its 01rn good points. So much is this the case. that we regard the comparative diagrams as bei ng littl e short of misl eading. We arcept them absohne ly as a true rec-ord of the heh;i \·iour of the two ca rs that were tri ed. Further, ir e arrept