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Passing Comments
Page 60
Page 61
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Combined Brake and Accelerator?
ATECHNICAL expert of the traffic division of the Zurich police has invented a combination brake and accelerator pedal. He claims that a vehicle doing 30 m.p.h. can be stopped in two-thirds of the normal distance, as recorded in police statistics, merely because the driver does not have to take his foot off the pedal. Translated into figures such as those given for the U.S.A. during the past 50 years, it is suggested that the alleged improvement would have saved some 800,000 lives there.
The inventor had discovered that what bothered learner drivers particularly was coping with the brakes, especially moving the right foot between the accelerator and brake pedals, and he estimated that in a few days' driving about 5,000 moves from one to the other and back would be made.
In his design the driver pushes down with the heel to accelerate and with, the ball of the foot to apply the brake. According to the Zurich police, many accidents Occur because drivers instinctively press on n22' the accelerator in an emergency instead of braking. If this be the case, there must be sonic curious drivers there. However, the invention has received the approbation of the national police and the Ministry of Justice.
Soot from Buses
A CCORDING to the National Smoke Abatement " Society, the buses of London discharge 31,000 tons of soot a year into the air. It therefore advocates the greater use of electrically driven vehicles and is against abolishing the trams, not only in London but elsewhere. The electric vehicles, of course, could not effectively be used for buses, but for retail delivery work. Incidentally, it advocates more electrification of the railways.
We wonder where the Society obtained its figures. A properly adjusted injection pump should give almost perfect combustion of oil fuel, and the exhaust should mainly be gaseous. A large amount of smoke would mean fuel wastage and bad running.
Will This Make Exports Jump?
ANOVEL way to popularize British: exports has been adopted by F. Perkins, Ltd. The company has purchased a successful novice show jumper and renamed it " Master Diesel," 'leasing it on nominal terms to the British Show Jumping Association This is believed to be the first time that an industrial company has owned a show horse in such circumstances. •
Operating Long-distance Oilers
SOME interesting points were brought up in the discussion of the paper concerning long-distance oil-engined buses operating in Europe, read recently by Mr. j. A. Steenman before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
One suggestion wag for a dial by setting which allowance could be made for limiting fuel injection according to the height of a vehicle above sea-level.
Another speaker criticized the considerable weight of the Continental coach to which the author referred. It appeared to weigh two tons more than the normal British double-deck bus, whereas for its passenger capacity it should be much lighter.
Reference has been made to the success of the exhaust obturator as a brake which could be used for long distances and thus avoid fading of the main brakes. One speaker said that there was no reason why additional engine wear should occur as cornpared with using the unit in gear, as is normally done in descending hills.
It seems from various comments by the author and others that our designers should pay more attentior to this simple and effective type of brake.
Bedford Van and „Square Engines
A CCORDI.NG to the Vauxhall chief engineer, the ri company would have developed square -engines long ago but for the horsepower tax. Incidentally, op the latest six.-cylindered unit of this type 50 lb. have been sawed. Provision for Using high octanefuels can easily be made by modifying the cylinderhead pattern. A large roof pressing for the new van described in this issue is produced in one minute.