AUGUST 14TH, 1909.
THE AUTOCAR B Journal pubh9beb in tbe interests of tbe mecbantcall\? propelleb roab carriage.
EDITED BY H. WALTER STANEq.
No. 72r. VoL. XXIII.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 14TH, 1909.
[PRICE 3D.
The Autocar.
(Published Weekly.)
Registered as a Newspaper for transmic::sion in the United Kingdom. Entered as seconj-class matter in t.he New York {N.Y.) Post Office.
--- ---··-- ---Three Ed,tions every Friday.
The THREEPENNY EDITION, pri.1ted on Art Paper. The PENNY EDITION, printed upon thinner paper. The FOREIGN EDITION, price :;d., printed on thin paper for tran.c.mission abroad.
Editorial Office :
COVENTRY.
Publishing Offices :
20, TUDOR S1 REET, LONDON, E.C., England.
CONTENTS. NOTl:.S
PAGE 233-234
USEFUL Hl:STS AND TIPS
. . 234-235
THE NORTH-EASTERN A.A. GYMKHANA (ILLUSTRATED) • • . . 236-238 THE BRUSSELS EXHIBITIO:-J. A COLLECTIV E MOTOR EXHIBIT.. 238 A D 1v IDED Hooo (!LLUSTRATior-;s)-THE MOTOR CAR I NDUSTRY
- A SIMPLE SCREEN J OINT (I LLUSTRATED) NOTES ON STEERING l\lECHANJSM ( I LLUSTRATED) . TAR-SPRAYING OF R OADS ON THE ROAD ROAD WARNINGS , ,
239
. . 240-244
244 · · 245-246
247-248
SCOTTISH J USTICE-AN A UTO:'lfATI C TYRE CARRIER (ILLUSTRATED) 248 THE POLICE TRAPS OF ENGLA!'JD (MAP) . • . . BAD ROADS AND POLICE TRAPS (lLLUSTRATED) • . O:-J THE TRACK-A Gooo GEAR GREASE ( I LLUSTRATED)
:\IOTOR UNION )ioTE5 . • . . . . BoDv DESIGN AND CoNSTRUCTlON • . THE KLAXON HORN (lLLUSTRATEo)-THE Ex111en10:- AT
OLYMPIA, ~OVEMBER 12TH TO 20TH- THE R.A.C. AND POLICE CONTROLS- ELECTRIC TYRE PuMPlNG {lLLUSTRATED).. • . THE EYQUEM ELECTRIC LIGHTING SET-THE R.A.C. AND THE
249
252 253 254
255
ROAD QUE;-,TION
• • • .
.CORRESPONDENCE (ILLUSTRATED)
• . . •
THE ROADS OF MANY LA:-; OS- SMALL CAR TALK .• l'LA.SHES REVIEW', . • < .:LUB DOING~
256 261-266
267 268 269 270
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Notes. Police Traps. It will be seen from an an11ouncement which we publish on another page that the Royal Automobile Club is about to set to work to collect evidence concerning the working of police traps, and it requests that all motorists wiil assist in its i111·estigation into the 1rnrking of what it dignifies by the name of " police controls, '' but what m::tc > ri :;ts more correctly designatt· police traps. If all police traps ,rere indeed police controls we should ha1·e nothing whate1·er to say against them, but as they are worked in the majority of instances they are absolutely unfair in their operation. r n the firs t place, there is no question 11·hatever that in nine cases out of ten the police timing is absolutely J11accurate. As oftPn as not it is rondurted bv one man only in the middle or at one end of the trap, and 1rhen t"·o men time 11·ith two cheao Swiss watches their timing is IITOng, and if a ll we hear be true, some of them are quite 11·ell a,rare of this, but as they must catch motorists somehow they set th eir watches beforehand and hold up the first unfortunate driver who comes through their control, and the chances are, whether he is doing nineteen miles an hour or thirty-nine, he will he lined just the same. On the whole things are better than thev ,,·ere. hut in the ua t few week a number of g ross injustices have been perpetrated in one or other of the twentv counties 11·hich ha,·e attained an unenviable notoriety for their methods of controlling traffic.
The idea of the Club is to obtain e1·idence both for and against the traps, so that a fair report upon their working can be drafted . \Ye ha,·e no doubt whatever that more than enough e1·idence will be easily availa hie to show that motorists in the majority of districts where traps are worked are unfairly treated, and there is no doubt that much of this unfair treatment, if not a ll of it, is due to the fa t that many of tlie !Jenches are composed of men who. really do not know what is or what i. not dangerous d ri,·ing. They know from their 011·11 experience that some motor cars are driven too fa. t and without proper con ideration, and beca use of this they assume that everyone who is reported b,· the police to have exceedecl the legal limit or to have dri1·en carelessly, must be guilty, and he is fined almost irrespecfo·e of any ev idence which he can produce to sho11· that he was driving properly and with due consideration, though if he were a wife beater, a drunkard , a horse torturer, or even a poacher he would he given the benefit of the doubt on evidence which some benches lind good enough to convict a motorist.
A Horseless Sunday. Our contemporary Jfotor Traction ha a very poor opinion indeed of the proposed Horseless Sund;iy. for which a special committee has been formed, the idea being to exclud-e horse traffic from a large portion of Westminsiter on a Sunday, and, ha,·ing done this, to run traffi c composed exclusi1·e ly of motor vehicle~ in the closed area. \Yhat this demonstration is to do is certainh- not made clear. Evervone knows that on Sunday 1:h:e great majoritv of ,the st.reets of London are more or less deserted by vehicular traffic, and what the Horseless Sunday Committee proposes to demonstrate by filling the aching void we do not know, and o far they have not told us. To be any good a demon tration must be a compa1ison, and our contemporary suggests that the exact number of vehicles pa sing through some much used London thoroughfare on a ,reek day should be chronicled, and that on the demonstra.tion Sunday the traffic conditions be as far as possible re-p roduced. This. of course, would gi1·e better demonstration as to the increase in cleanline s, decrease of noise, higher speed, absence of ongestion. and so on .
The great absmu ity of the proposed demonstration is that it hould he conli necl to rubber tyred vehicles.
