Passing Comments
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CORONERS sometimes make ill-advised statements
regarding motor users and place undue weight upon police evidence, but when they themselves are subjected to inconvenience by the police the boot is often on the other foot. Recently, while motoring to an inquest, a coroner was stopped for the purpose of scrutinizing his licence and some delay appears to liave been caused. He felt much inclined, he said, to take proceedings against the police for obstructing him in the conduct of his official duty as coroner
FIRE can result from most unexpected causes. . In a notice to aircraft owners and ground engineers the Air Ministry draws attention to the possibility of fire occurring due to the generation of frictional electricity during refuelling of tanks. Petrol is a poor conductor and frictional contact with another insulator will induce a static. charge : a rubber filler pipe or a chamois leather filter is particularly conducive to this effect, and a spark of sufficient intensity to ignite inflammable vapour may be produced. WHATEVER else may be said of red tape, it cer tainly alleviates unemployment. The numerous new forms specified under the Finance Act have resulted in the London County Council engaging a greater number than usual of additional clerks to deal with the issue of Road Fund licences. This authority alone has taken on about 260 extra employees.•
T N a series of tests recently carried out by the National Physical Labdratory and the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Birmingham, on oils prepared particularly for use in summer and winter, respectively, it was shown that at freezing point the power required to turn an engine at a reasonable speed was approximately 50 per cent. greater with a summer-grade oil than it was when a special winter-grade lubricant was employed, the power being reduced proportionately in the case of intermediate oils. With oils tested in a vehicle with a temperature maintained at 32 degrees F., after a 50mile road test that ensured proper distribution of the lubricant, it was found that with oil ranging from winter to summer grades the average engine speeds recorded during three seconds' application of the starter' were respectively :-133, 1)3, 72 and 61 r.p.m.
THE habit of the "hotel Christmas" is spreading. Many of the smaller country inns, even, offered special Christmas programmes for their guests, and the number of motorists who take to the road for the holiday seems to increase every year. There is no reason why coach patrons should not follow suit. A Christmas tour by coach, with accommodation in cheery quarters every night, would attract many people. The suggestion might be noted for next year.
ASITUATION which is in one sense Gilbertia.n, but not so humorous in another, arises under the section of the Road and Rail Traffic Act whicoh prescribes that records must be kept by owners of vehicles and their drivers. The point is thai: there are a few drivers with long service to their credit who can neither read nor write, and if the regulation were to be carried out to the letter such drivers, although excellent at their own work, might lose their employment. The matter has been brought to the notice of Mr. F. G. Bristow, secretary of the British Road Federation, who suggeAs that, in such a case, it might be found possible to permit the driver's mate to keep the records, on which the driver could put a cross indicating that he was responsible.