The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-30

Gasoline propelled railroad cars are now Icing used on three lines oper- ating out of Philadelphia, Pa.
 Illinois, with more than 9oo.o00 automobiles, has 100000 more cars than are owned in any other coun- try.
 In standard makes of tires there are approximately IS pounds of rub Der compound, 3.75 pounds of cords, and 16 pounds of steel wires in the beads.
 Newark, N. J., has squad of mo- tor policemen known as 'sThe Se- cret Ten" They use their own auto mobiles, wear civilian clothes. issue summonses for traffic violations and report licenses for subsequent sum- monses.
 Frank l.. Driver, a wire manufac- turer of Harrison, N. J., has a record of driving an automobile 13 years without an operator's license. This was discovered when he was arrest ed on a charge of failure to obey traffic signal.
 A new automobile safety fender for automobiles has been designed, which will pick up without injury 20-pound baby or 300-pound man. It is released by the slightest touch, and requires no action on the part of the driver.
 A study of the hazards of gasoline made by the bureau of mines has re- suited in the suggestion that all mo- tor gasoline be colored red as safe- ty measure designed to guard against it's being mistaken for wa ter, kerosene or other colorless liq- uid products.
 Experiments are being conducted using rubber as paving material hi f, inches thick and Az inches wide by l2 inches long, are made of old automo- bile tires ground up, properly com pounded and nodded separately un- der high pressure.
 More than 1000 men and women are employed by Pennsylvania auto noble division for registering motor vehicles and issuing tags and certlfl- cates of title More than 9SS,500 tags were issued this year for passenger cars and commercial tags have gone to 76.000.
 For every mile of public road in the United States there are 4.6l auto mobiles. In the total mileage of pull lie roads, Texas, with 167,OOo miles, leads. Other states, well Up Tn the list, are as follows: Oklahoma, l34,- 263: Kansas, 128552; Missouri Ill., 520; Minnesota, 107, 7,103; North Da- kota, l06,523, and Iowa, 104,0S2.
 One of the newest types of silent policemen" to warn motorists at dan- gerous street intersections and bad curves is a convex green glass lamp protected by stout iron framework, protruding a few inches above the road. The lamp produces an effect of heavy mist, making visibility LOW and the motorist is startled to see apparently on the ground round dull glow.
 The National Motorists association. with S74 automobile clubs in sup port, is developing program unoer W hich it will ask Congress for such legislation as will solve the auto mobile problems of tomorrow as well as today. An important feature will be the urging of highway approprla- tfons for durable roads, not merely mileage. From every section Of the country come reports that les1sla- ton for highways to meet present needs will fail to provide adequate roads for the future.
 The Pennsylvania Motor feoeratlon has sent to its 62 affiliated clups circular urging pedestrians walking on the highways, especially at night, to face the traffic by walking on the left side of the road. After careful study of the situation, 1t mas been found that in most of the cases when cars strike people on the hlghWays at night the driver is partially pilno- ed by the headlights of approachlns cars and, swinging to the right fails to see pedestrians It IS con tended that if persons waking on the roads would face the tratflc they would be better able to avoid pelns struck, and also would be seen soon CT by the drivers of ears approachlng in the opposite direction.