NATURE 
457. 
THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1907. 
Motor Vehicles and Motors: their Design, Construc- 
tion and Working by Steam, Oil and Electricity. 
By W. Worby Beaumont. Vol. ii. Pp. xvi+677. 
(London: Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1906.) 
Price 42s. net. 
V [HEN we reviewed the first volume of this work 
on the motor vehicle, we pointed out how diffi- 
cult it is adequately to review encyclopedic matter, 
which in this instance occupies 660 pages of letter- 
press, accompanied by upwards of 400 illustrations. 
Mr. Beaumont has, in this second volume, supplied 
many of the omissions and corrected some of the 
mistakes which existed in his first volume, so that 
now the two volumes, taken together, form a valu- 
able work of reference, not only for the general 
public interested in the motor movement, but of con- 
siderable value to professional engineers. 
In this second instalment, after a short introduction 
pointing out the rapid development of motor 
engineering during the last two years, Mr. 
Beaumont devotes the first half of the work 
to descriptive matter dealing with motor vehicles 
of all kinds, commencing with the lighter motor- 
cars and going on to the heavier vehicles and 
electrically-propelled cars. We do not propose to say 
much on this portion of the book. No doubt those 
who are interested in any particular make of car will 
turn to the description of that car, but to the general 
reader the whole of this portion of the work savours of 
a dealers’ catalogue, and is somewhat wearisome to 
read. The few pages dealing with modern American 
vehicles show that these vehicles are interesting, as 
they depart rather more widely from the conventional 
types than is the case with the Continental and British- 
made cars. 
With chapter xxi. the really interesting part of the 
book commences. In this and the following chapters 
the author summarises the advances that have been 
made in the design and in the various components 
which are now accepted as the necessary fea- 
tures of a petrol-driven vehicle. In chapter xxiii. 
he gives us in a compendious form his methods 
of computing the h.p absorbed in propelling 
motor vehicles, but we notice that on p. 349 
he repeats the coefficient for air resistance 
which he originally gave on p. 49 of the first 
volume, namely, that the total air resistance of a 
vehicle varies as the velocity squared in miles per hour 
multiplied by the exposed cross-section of the car, 
multiplied by the coefficient o.oor7. It must be »oted 
that this coefficient is only about two-thirds of the 
value of that which was obtained after careful experi- 
mental work at the National Physical Laboratory by 
Dr. Stanton as that of flat-fronted solid bodies msving 
through columns of air the cross-section of which is 
very large in relation to the solid body that moves 
through them. We think that although Mr. Beaj 
mont explains this low figure by the fact that it wor!’ 
in very fairly with his computations as to the actuat | 
HO. 1950, VOL. 75] 
h.p. exerted by cars of all classes, both in hill-climb- 
ing and on speed trials up to 
miles an hour, it be admitted that 
more accurate experimental measurements must 
be made to ascertain whether this extremely low 
figure of 0.0017 has ever been approached by any 
form of solid moving through a column of air even 
in cases where great attention has been paid to the 
form of the solid, especially to the stern lines, to use 
nautical nomenclature. Jt appears probable, there- 
fore, that the table vi. on p. 
considerable correction. 
The author in chapter xxiv. gives us very valuable 
and interesting notes on the influence of the vibra- 
tion and even turning effort of the propelling engine 
on the stability of the car when it is driven rapidly 
round sharp bends of the road. We think that in 
this chapter he is substantially correct in his views, 
and the matter is of great importance, and has 
hitherto not received sufficient attention from the 
designers of these vehicles. 
With chapter xxv. he commences his descriptions 
of the heavier class of modern self-propelled vehicles 
applied to commercial purposes, such as the carriage 
of goods, omnibuses, and other public-service pas- 
senger vehicles. This part of the descriptive matter 
is very full, but from the nature of the subject is 
incomplete, as in no branch of the industry have 
there recently occurred such great changes, and these 
changes are likely to continue to occur as the type of 
public-service vehicle is yet very far from perfect, and 
is likely to be greatly modified in the immediate 
future; in fact, it is not too much to say that most ot 
the vehicles described in chapters xxv. to xxviii. will 
be obsolete in a few years’ time, particularly when we 
consider the extraordinary results which are now ex- 
pected from the adaptation to these vehicles of highly 
superheated steam produced in flash or semi-flash 
boilers, for although in chapters xxix. to xxxi. the 
author gives descriptions of the various forms of 
steam-driven cars made by Serpollet, White, Turner- 
Miesse and Clarkson, and others, these really relate 
to the smaller class of pleasure car, and not to the 
public-service vehicle. 
Chapter xxxii., which deals with the highly im- 
portant and dangerous question of the skidding of 
self-propelled vehicles on our greasy streets, is -dis- 
appointing, as the author gives no indication of the 
direction in which improvement is to be expected. 
He does not even touch on the highly interesting 
matter of how much depends on the skill of the 
drivers and of the power rapidly acquired by them 
of controlling the side-slip or skidding by a certain 
rapidity of action and correlation of hand and eye 
correcting the tendency to skid at the earliest stage, 
long before the brain has had time to consider the 
matter and to apply a corrective effort. 
The chapter devoted to carburetters is interesting, 
as it shows that much ingenuity has been applied 
to this most important organ of the internal com- 
bustion engine, yet little or nothing has been done 
Ton the question of the day, namely, the utilisation of 
+ heavier oils for these engines. Until this is done 
xX 
competitions 60 
must far 
350 is likely to need 
