XVI. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



stance, we have nickel steel, with an elastic limit of 70 

 tons per square inch, chrome vandium spring steel which 

 will permit twice the working exiension in a spring that 

 •can be endured by an ordinary carbon steel spring, and 

 a host of other alloy steels with peculiar properties for 

 the particular service for which they were produced. 

 In addition, machinery has been perfected for obtaining 

 extreme accuracj^ of workmanship in machining parts 

 of engines and motor cars in general. For instance, 

 liardened steel balls for ball bearings are guaranteed to 

 be accurate in diameter to within one-ten-thou- 

 sandth (.OOOlin.) of an inch. In fact, not only do we 

 owe to the internal combustion engine the whole of the 

 motor car industry, but mechanical engineering gener- 

 ally has advanced in innumerable waj^s in response to 

 the demands of the motorist. The mechanical achieve- 

 ment represented in, say, a modern racing car, is to say 

 the least of it, rather surprising. We lake a flimsy-look- 

 ing engine, mount it on a springy platform, make it 

 •develop very considerable power by getting, say, twenty 

 explosions per second behind a piston, which is subjected 

 to, say, a thrust of two tons each time, and let the whole 

 power station on wheels fly along at speeds of approach- 

 ing 100 miles per hour, or higher than the fastest steam 

 locomotive. Of the value of motor transport little need 

 be said, as we see its use extending every day, and we 

 Tiave now the motor car, motor lorry, fire engine, tractor, 

 railway autocar, motor cycle, and a host of other pos- 

 sible applications of the ever-ready little engine. 



Australia with its immense distances affords a wide 

 field of usefulness for all kinds of motor transport. Few 

 station homesteads are without their motor cars, and the 

 motor tractor is beginning to be widely adopted, especi- 

 .ally in dry country, where the steam traction engine is at 

 a disadvantage. For railway work it appears most prob- 

 able that certain classes of traffic can be better handled 

 by the railway autocar than by the steam locomotive, 

 and experiments in this direction are shortly to be made 

 •on the Queensland railways. Where the traffic does not 

 w^arrant the use of long trains, a single motor coach can 

 be used to advantage, the cost of working being less, 



