NOVl':MBKk 23RD, 1907

THE AUTOCAR B 3ournal publisbei, in tbe interests of tbe mecbanicalll? propeuei, roai, carriage.

EDITED BY H. WALTER STANER.

No. 63 r. VoL. XIX . SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD, 1907. lPRICE 3D.

THE AUTOCAR.

(Published Weekly.)

Registered as a newspaper for transmission in !.he United I~ingdom.

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

EDITORIAL OFFICE :

COVENTRY.

PUBLISHIN~ OFFICES :

2 0 , TUDOR STREET, i..ONDON , E .C., ENGLAND.

CUN I t:; J'li FS.

..... ,;t847-848

N0TF.S USEFUL HI NTS AND TI PS (ILLUSTRATED) T ,u: STANDARD 2 0 H .P. S ix- CYLINDER C..\R { l LLUSTRATF-D) MR. C HARLES DAY ROSE, ~LP .. STATISTICS OF OL\,-YPIA . . M OTOR I NG IN M ALAYA (Co~TINUFD) D EFJ~tT1ox OF A TouRI'.\'G C AR .. ON THE ROAD: IMPRESS IONS OF OLYMPIA

849 . . 850- 85 l

852

S o r.1E CARS AND [TE MS OF INTERF.ST AT OLYMPIA (IL LUSTRATED ) . TH E MAD ISON SQUARE S1-ww

853 854-855 856-857 858-859 860-865

866

CORRESPONDENCE • • A R EVIEW OF THE PARIS SALON (ILLUSTl~ATF.O) THE R .A.C. AND TH EM.U . THE CERTUS F R I CTI Q'.\'-DRl VEN CAR TH E DUBLIN MOTOR SHOW TH E BEi.SiZE C ARS ( ILLUSTRATED) TH E \VESTINGHOUS£ CARBURETTER ( 11.LUSTRATED) .. TH E MOTOR UN I ON A~XUAL D1~:,,.'ER . . TH E FUTURE OF AUTO)lOBILl5)1 ..

867-871 872-877

878 879 879 .. 880-881

882

._ FLASHES

885-886

R.A.C . OFFICIAL TESTS-M OT'JR YACl·IT CLUB ANNUAL DINNER.. 887 A N A USTRALIA N HtLL- CLIMB-THE 1908 2 ,000 :\hLES T RIAL SSS SoMC R EMARKABLE PITRFOR)lA NCES AT 8ROflKLANOS 889 THE DENN IS FREE-WHEEL GEAR 889 SOME Qu1m1Es AND REPLIES 890 TH E EDI SON ACCUMULATOR: A PRO TEC.:.T 89r THE AusTIN CARBURETTER-A GAUGE AoAPTfi:R 892

W ith eve ry copy of th i s week's issue of he "'u oc, t1 is given a coloured supplement of Mr. C. D. Rose, M.P ., by Seymour Lucas, R .A. Should this su ppleme-nt be missing from any copies. subscribers are requested to communicate with the publisher s, Ili ff .! end So:is Ltd . , 20 1 Tudor Street. E. C.

.,·7·· , .. '"'"·· ... ~;~::••< = " , .. ·••om

·• THE AUTOCAR " SUBSCRIPTIO)l RATES :

A Biennial Moto~ow. Under the startling headl ine, "The End of Olympia, " the public were informed in the beginning of the week that an agitation in th e shape of a round robin to be addressed to th e Society of Motor i\fanu f acturers by the present exhibitors i) ray ing for a surcease of the annual show was in cour se of preparation. a nd had been numerously sig ned . As is not unusual with such sensational announcements, there is much smoke to \-en· little fire. It i true that such a docu ment ha been sig ned by a number of th e exhibitors, but, as \rill be found upon enquiry. not in the hop e of extinguishing th e exhibition, but of reducing the cost of exhibiting. The members of th e motor industry , th anks to th e sup inity and lack of enterprise on the part of the Royal Automobi le C lub at this t ime , ban their O\\'n exhibitions in their own hands, and they would be \\'orse tha n foolish-th ey would, indeed, be acting crimin ally-tmrnrd s themse lves were they to take steps \\'hich would at once open the door again, a nd \\'ide ly , to th e exhibition exploiter from which the in du. try has already suffered so severely. To drop the show for one year would be a fatal step, for so sure as thi s we re done, the New Olympia Co. would themse h ·es fill th e gap, or the Crysta l Palace Co. would aga in step into the breach. To support and fa ll in with such a proposal would be a mistake for the British manufa cturers ; indeed, so clearly do several of them recognise this that they suggest th e proposal has emanated from the imp01ting side. However this may be. it is not . and cannot be. to the interests of the home industry to jump shows now that they have forced t he foreign maker to shmY his be t cheek by jowl with them under the same roof and \\'ith equal facilities. A hiatus of a twelvemonth \\'ould send large numbers of English buyers to the P a ri s Salon , \\'hich rest assured the F rench makers, revelling in th eir Gallic commonsense and appreciation of values, will neve r hold up . But the arrest is not likely to happen for quite a whil e yet , seeing that in protest against the sweeping headline " I s Olympia Doomed? '' the press man age r of the New Olympia Co., Ltd . , writes that th e Society of Motor Yl anufacturers and Traders has actually booked Olympia for th e corresponding elates in 1908 and 190 9, a nd further has a n option on the Hal I for 191 o and 19 11 . So it is e \-ident that the re is no intention of making th e show biennia l or triennial as has been ' sto ed, though it may not remain open for so long as a fortnight again.

White for Night. So far t he disc us.sion ab out re d lig hts fo r bicy cl ists has res ulted in a ven- few of the wiser on es adopting a back light, but the , vast majority have not done so, an d they are not likely to do so unl ess they are compelled by law. Of course. there is nothing so _ good a s the red back li ght. but it woul ci be a grea t relief t o al l who used the roads at night if the flyin g cyclist could be seen rather more qu ickly when being overtak~n. For some reaso n. which \re do not attempt to explam, he or she is more difficult to see than a pedestrian, but eve rrn ne must haYe no ti ced that if a c \·cl ist is wearing a li ;h t suit or if his compani on ha.s a white belt or bl oise there is no difficultr whatever in seeing t he m a Yen · Io n/)' ,,a, off. even ,if the rar headlights are not hurn(n rr (j~ite \;,e l l. £ye n - moto ri st must have noticed this so0 o ften that \Ye ,rn nder the matte r has not been b rought up before. We believe if every bi cyclist were to have a \\'bite mudguard on. the back \1heel and a 1\-hite toolbag . \\'e should hear no more complaints about the invisibilitr of cyclists at night from t he rPa r. E,en a \rhite a rmlet would be an immense help, anJ as that would probably be the most convenient thinrr t o clo \re w grrest it. and we hope the suggestion will ~1ot be met with so much opposi ti on as has greeted the red rea r light suggestion. The opposition to the rerl b:ick li ght was pe rfectly natural. though equall y