AUGUST 1ST, J/JOF,

THE AUTOCAR ll 3ournal pubhsbeb in tbe tnteresta of tbe mecbantcalll? propeUeb roat, carriage.

EDITED BY H. WALTER STANER.

No. 667. VoL. XXI.J SATURDAY, AUGUST r sT, 1908.

lPRICE 3D.

The Autocar.

:Published Weekly.)

Registeri::d as a newspaper for transmission in the United Kingdom.

Entered as second-cla!:s matter in the New York (N.Y.) Post Office.

:Editorial Office :

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CONTENTS. :-.10TES .USEFUL HINTS AND TIPS THE 15 H .P . CHAINLESS PANHARD ( ILLUSTRATED) • . -ON THE ROAD , • SHELSLEV \VALSH HILL-CLIMB (ILLUSTRATED) THE MOTOR UNION MEETING AT HARROGATE (ILLUSTRATED ) , • 51GN-POSTING THROUGH TowNS ROAD WARNINGS THE ROAD AS A PLA YGROUN'D . SMALL CAR TALK CONTINENTAL NOTES AND NEWS (HE SIMPLEX SPEEDMETER (ILLUSTRATED) • • THE GRAND PRIZE OF THE A.C. OF AMERICA OVER THE ALPS TO VENICE (ILLUSTRATED) . .

:\.N INTERESTING CAR (ILLUSTRATED) THE DAIMLER SCHOLARSHIPS • • DEATH OF MR. CECIL EDGE .• THE FOUR INCH RACE-:\1AP OF THE CoURSE JN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS • • MOTOR CARS AND PUBLIC HEALTH . . ~CoRRESPONDENCE 'THE DusT TRIALS (ILLUSTRATIONS) • • .. A. SPECIAL Two4SEATED CAR • • .ALLEN-LIVERSJDGE DE~ONSTRATIOS FLASHES • • ON THE TRACK • . AERONAUTICS • .

.CLUB DOINGS

P AGE 163-164 . . 165 166- 168 . . 169 I i04 I72 . . 173

• • I /3 174-176 . . 176 . . 177 178-179 180-181 . • 181 182-1 84 . . 184

• . 185 . . 186 . . 187 . . 188

188 189 -193 194-195

. . 196

• . 197 198 4 200 . . 20 1

• • 2 0'2 .2 0 3 4 104

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Notes. The ust Trial~ In stating the ob · et of the dust trials held las t week ~1t Brooklands, the oyal Automobile Club suggested that with the advent of a practically dustless motor ,·ehicle much of the present opposition on the part of the public would be removed. From what 1ras observed at the trials we fear that the millennium as typefied by so desirable a motor vehicle is still a long way off. It cannot 'be said that much promise is shown by any of the specially fitted apparatus carried by the experimental cars on Tuesday week. We fear that the wish is father to, the thought with all who claim anything really tangible for what was then demonstrated. Nothing, -except perhaps• the Wayman and Matthew's contrivance made what appeared to be a comprehensible difference to, the unaided vision. The numerous photo_ graphs, cinematogra.phs and others, when they come to be closely scrutinised, may tell a different tale, but after all it is no comfort to th e man choked by a dust cloud on the road to be told that it looks nothing in a photograph. What was made apparent by last year's trials, and what has been fully emphasised by the many tests of last week, is the fact that the wheels are first responsible for raising the smother, and all that low frames, irregular body shapes, and oYerhanging hoods do is to produce vortices and whirls into which the dust already whirled aloft by the wheels is sucked. As was shown last year when a clear track was left for the wheels, the dust laid between them was not raised. The suction of the body does not act downward, and the body will only, as it were, catch dust which has been thrown up to it. It will meet the dust halfway, but it will not actually raise it from -the road. This point was really ne1·er satisfactorily settled till the 1907 dust trials.

To sum up the results of the trials which have been he ld during the last fe 1r years, we may say that the foll owing points have been fairly well establis~ed. The most dustless car is the one with the smallest tyres . disc wheels, good height from the ground with few or no projections downward. and there should preferably be a greater clearance at the back than at the front. Such things as petrol tanks low-slung across the back, are undoubtedly a disadvantage, because they produce a displa ement so low down that they suck dust at lower speeds tha n the body would commence sucking it. After all. provided there is a. reasonable clearance beneath the car, the matter appears to depend in the main upon the size of the tyres. Wha.t we want now is a small tne ll'hich shall be as durable and comfortable as the ·large ones we are compelled to use. This will unquestionably bring about some improvement. T ust now much has not been settled because no trials have been made to cover this point, and we earnestly hope that, small as the advance may appear to be, the Club will persevere and continue to hold its dust trials every summer.

Although the ideal is the dustless road, it is an ideal which we cannot yet reach, and one in which we are not particularly interested in reaching as motorists, but we are most anxious for the dustless road because of the comfort of other road users. Because we have not yet succeeded in makin11: a dustless car we must not be dis• couraged, and the Club is entirely. right in conti:rning to give close attention to the matter, fo r even if the advance has been small up to the present time, certain principles have been definitely established. The problem is getting to be better understood, and despite the number of unsuccessful inventions which have been brought out to· render a car dustless, we have no more reason to assume that success will never be achieved than we have to assume that no more improvements of any sort will be made to motor cars in the future.

Future Experiments. There are still a great many instructive and useful experiments which should be carried out in connection with dust raising. Even the best photographs of the dust trials do not really show the currents and eddies,