Evening star., 1935-08-11

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pied with silence in driving over
smooth pavements. With the coming
of more quiet engines and the elimi-
nation of other sources of noise about
a motor car, tire engineers have had
forced upon them the necessity of
taking the hum and thump out of
their products. One method of
achieving this has been to eliminate
the use of buttons in the tread de-
sign, substituting continuous ribs, or
at least going farther in the direc-
ton of a smoother tire. Contrary
to popular imaginings, the change
has affected the non-skid properties
of the tires but little.
The non-skin coefflcient remains
one of the mysteries of the tire pur-
Chaser's life. Regardless Of the wide
variety of ridiculous advertising
claims, the man who designs tires is
able to do but little in changing the
Coefficient of friction between tires
and pavement At the best, tires can
only be 10 per cent non-Skid and
under some conditions of paving and
weather the rubber may be able to
utilize only 2 per cent of the possible,
yet only theoretical, perfect friction.
The rapid change to be found in sur
face conditions under only slight va
riations in the weather which tend
to mislead the average driver are re-
sponsible for most skidding accidents.
One of the more recent contribu-
tionS of the tire engineer to highway
safety came somewhat inadvertently
with the designing of the modern low
pressure tire. When the necessary
broad rim was placed on cars to
accommodate these "Super-super-
balloons" it was found that they
eliminated one of the most important
causes of "shimmy' in the steering
gear. Higher speeds with greater
control are made possible by this
widening of the rim. This, coupled
with the practice of most of the large
tire dealers in offering service which
gives true dynamic balance to the
entire tire and wheel assembly, is one
of the greatest steps forward in driv-
ing comfort and control
On the subject of safety, mile
minute is fast enough for any one to
go anywhere at anytime on present.
day public highways, according to
Barney Oldfeld, veteran race driver.
Oldfeld, who has set more racing
records and driven more miles on the
highways than any other racer or
motorist. is making plans for ma
tional tour this Summer in the inter
ests of safety education.
The modern motor car is built to
60 much faster than mile minute"
Oldfleld pointed out. Even the lowest
priced cars will do rs to 80 miles an
hour without apparent effort.
"Today's automobiles are built for
sustained high speeds, but our present.
day heavily travelled highways are
not. There are only a few highways
in America today where the average
motorist can keep his foot on the
floorboard for any length of time.
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that mile a minute is fast enough
for any one on our present highways"
Oldfield declares that automobile
manufacturers built 80-mile-an-hour
speeds into the new cars for greater
operating efficiency and economy at
normal speeds. He emphasizes the
fact that they did not put high speed
into their cars as challenge to
heavy-footed reckless drivers.
An automobile capable of 80 miles
an hour top speed is built to cruise
at SIS and 60 miles an hour without
any strain on the engine or other op-
Grating parts" he said. "The high
speed engine is just loafing along
under wraps at a mile a minute.
Naturally, it uses less gasoline and oil"
Along the lines of accident preven-
tion, a leading oil company is about
to start a campaign against carbon
monoxide. Basing its argument on
figures which list 80 per cent of all
traffic accidents as "unexplainable, -
proportion of these accidents are due
to loss Of control by the driver be-
cause of poisonous gas from the en-
gine seeping into the car while run
ming. The claim is made that badly
adjusted motors send carbon monoxide
into the interiors of moving machines,
causing headaches, dullness and nau-
sea and endangering the capability of
the driver while travelling the high
ways. The company plans to contact
as many car owners as possible and
explain to them these dangers and
offer them gas-testing service for
their cars.
But the oil industry has other prob
lems A series of meetings for the
purpose of discussing the tentative
draft of proposed voluntary code of
fair marketing practices will be held
in the Fall, the American Petroleum
Institute announces.
The proposed draft of the new code
was placed before the directors of the
tpdustry's national trade association
by the institutes vice president for
marketing, c. E. Arnott. The tenta-
tive draft was prepared following a
series of hearings participated in by
members of the former marketing
subcommittee of the N. r. A. Plan
ming and Coordination Committee
and by representatives of independent
dealers, jobbers, refiners and major
interests from all parts of the country.
Invited to the Fall meetings, which
are expected to begin early in Sep
tember, will be representatives of all
marketing interests, large and small.
They will be expected to express their
opinions of the proposed code and to
make any suggestions and recommen-
dations for changes or revision.
AT the conclusion of the meetings
the draft, with suggested changes, is
to be returned to the institutes board
for approval before being sent to the
Federal Trade Commission for final
authorization.
The draft represents a moderniZa-