MOTOR BANDITS 



5554 



MOTOR CAR 



enclosed. A third type, the motor 

 generator or rotary transformer, 

 is also largely used. Open motors, 

 that is machines in which the 

 armature and field magnets are 

 exposed to the air, are used where 

 there are no special reasons for 

 having those parts protected. 



Motor generators or rotary 

 transformers are employed where 

 it is necessary to change the cur- 

 rent as originally generated by 

 the dynamo, e.g. alternating into 

 continuous, or to change one volt- 

 age into a different strength. Thus 

 a motor receiving a current of 10 

 amperes at 2,000 volts from its 

 dynamo, may actuate another 

 dynamo on the same axle hi such a 

 way that the latter will deliver a 

 current of 200 amperes (theoreti- 

 cally) at 100 volts. 



Electric motors are the agents by 

 which, universally, machines of all 

 kinds are electrically driven. A 

 number of motors may all be actu- 

 ated by the same dynamo or 

 generator. Motors are installed on 

 two principles, direct connected 

 and transmission connected. In 

 the former, each machine has its 

 own motor directly connected to 

 it ; in the latter one motor drives 

 a line of shafting on which are 

 mounted pulleys or wheels from 

 which the machines to be operated 

 are driven. See Dynamo 



Motor Bandits. Gang of 

 criminals who terrorised Paris and 

 the surrounding suburbs from 

 Dec., 1911, to May, 1912. Seven 

 persons were killed, a dozen per- 

 sons seriously wounded, and a score 

 of robberies carried out by the 

 criminals, who never hesitated to 

 use firearms, and escaped from 

 their pursuers in motor cars on a 

 number of occasions. The leaders, 

 Bonnot, Gamier, Dubois, and Val- 

 let, met their deaths after desper- 

 ate sieges at Choisy-le-Roi, where 

 Bonnot and Dubois were dyna- 

 mited in a garage, April 28, 1912, 

 and Nogent-sur-Marne, where Gar- 

 nier and Vallet were besieged in a 

 villa by 1,000 troops and police, 

 May 14-15, 1912. 



The first murder took place in the 

 evening of Dec. 20, 1911, when 

 three of the criminals in a new 

 motor car which they had stolen 

 intercepted a bank messenger 

 named Gaby, in the Rue Ordener. 

 He was shot dead in the brightly -lit 

 street, his satchel confiscated, and 

 passers-by held off with revolvers. 

 By Feb. 27 they had been joined 

 by Bonnot, " the demon chauffeur," 

 and on that day shot dead a police- 

 man on point duty by the Gare 

 St. Lazare. On March 25, 1912, a 

 new motor car, being driven from 

 Paris to its owner at Nice, was 



stopped on the Chantilly road. The 

 chauffeur was shot dead, and his 

 companion escaped by feigning 

 death. The bandits then drove into 

 Chantilly, where they held up the 

 bank, murdered the cashier and 

 bank clerk and two members of 

 the public. Twenty-six members 

 of the band figured at the trial, 

 while four leaders had already per- 

 ished in the two sieges. 



given a forward or backward pitch 

 by moving a lever. Where the 

 engine is of considerable power, 

 a reversing gear is commonly 

 interposed between crankshaft and 

 propeller shaft. The direction of 

 revolution of the propeller relatively 

 to that of the crankshaft is altered 

 by shifting the reversing lever, 

 which in its mid-position discon- 

 nects the shaft from the engine. 



Motor Boat Diagram showing plan and section of a boat, length about 35 ft., 

 beam 6 ft.; developing speed of 28-30 knots with 150-h.p. motor. A, 3-cylinder 

 motor; B, reversing gear ; C, C', C". universal coupling joints giving flexibility 

 to the shafts; D, propeller shafts; E, thrust bearing or block; F, motor-man's seat 



Motor Boat. Small vessel pro- 

 pelled by internal combustion 

 engines or electric motors,as distinct 

 from steam-driven vessels. Small 

 open pleasure-boats of all kinds, 

 and lifeboats generally prefer four- 

 stroke petrol engines, as these are 

 ready for action at a moment's 

 notice and their fuel is cleanly. 

 Powers range from four h.p. for 

 motor-dinghies up to several hun- 

 dred h.p. for racing craft, especially 

 for those of the hydroplane or 

 skimming-boat type. For decked- 

 in boats, engines burning paraffin 

 or heavy fuel-oils are most suitable. 

 Many of these engines work on the 

 two-stroke cycle, and in the larger 

 powers 100 h.p. upwards are 

 slow-running. Heavy fuel marine 

 motors are being widely adopted 

 for coasting vessels. 



Propellers driven by engines of 

 moderate power in many cases have 

 reversible blades, which can be 



Reversing gears are either of the 

 epicyclic train variety or of the slid- 

 ing-pinion motor car type. Large 

 engines are generally made rever- 

 sible, and drive the propeller shaft 

 direct through a fixed coupling. 

 See Boat ; Hydroplane ; Internal 

 Combustion Engine ; Seaplane. 



Motor Boat Reserve. British 

 naval force formed for service 

 during the Great War. For it 

 several hundreds of motor launches 

 were added to the fleet, these being 

 wooden-hulled petrol-engined craft. 

 They were officered and manned by 

 the Royal Naval Volunteer Re- 

 serve, and used for patrol work, 

 smoke screen making, as at Zee- 

 brugge, April 23, 1918, and such- 

 like auxiliary purposes. After war 

 ended such of the launches as were 

 not required for naval purposes 

 were sold and the personnel de- 

 mobilised. See The Motor- Launch 

 Patrol, G. S. Maxwell, 1921. 



THE MOTOR CAR AND ITS MECHANISM 



Bight Hon. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu 



In addition to this major article there are entries on Carburetter ; 



Clutch ; Gear ; Magneto ; Sparking Plug and other accessories. See 



also Internal Combustion Engine and plate of Motor Car 



The credit for producing the 

 first self-propelling road vehicle is 

 usually given to Nicolas Cugnot, 

 who in 1768-70 conducted some 

 very moderately successful experi- 

 ments with a primitive steam car- 

 riage. The best speed attained was 

 4 m. an hour. Richard Trevithick's 

 steam vehicle, which in 1802 

 travelled from Camborne to Ply- 

 mouth, marked a decided advance 

 in design, and attained a speed 

 of 9 m. an hour on the level. In 

 1803-4 he ran a steam coach 



on the London streets, 103 years 

 before the motor 'bus, as we know 

 it to-day, came into use. 



Some really practical vehicles 

 began to appear in England in 

 1825, made by Gurney, and by 

 1836 the road steamer had been 

 developed sufficiently to arouse the 

 determined opposition of railway 

 and stage-coach companies, who 

 combined to kill the new com- 

 petitor. Various laws were made, 

 and in 1865 it was enacted that 

 every road locomotive should be 



