Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/114

84 (3) By means of a pit sunk in the ground, by which a man finds himself comfortably situated below the car. This pit may be small, and the carriage gradually advanced in order to reach all parts of the machinery, or, what is best, it may be a long pit, so that the car can be examined throughout its length. This method will be evident to all as the best.

A well-built motor-house should cost nothing in the upkeep, beyond the painting of the doors occasionally. A cheaply built motor-house implies an annual expenditure combined with vexation, and after a few years a patched-up place is the result.

The writer has given great attention to motor stables. It may not be out of place, therefore, if the methods adopted at Broomhill, near Tunbridge Wells, are described in detail.

The stabling consists of five long narrow rooms, one made to contain three small cars, another two large ones, the third two small or one very large car, the fourth room a small car, or may be used as a cycle house; and the fifth room will accommodate two moderate-size vehicles, or can be used as a washing-house in bad weather. One of these resting-places is somewhat modified to enable repairs to be carried out.

This latter house will be described, since, if only one shelter existed, it should be so constructed. It is twenty-eight feet long, ten feet six inches wide, walls eleven feet high. The whole construction is fire-proof, with the exception of the ceiling, which is tent-shaped and match-boarded, having a long skylight on the north side in order that the direct sunlight may not enter. The skylight is Mellow's patent glazing, which never leaks and does not require to be painted. The glass is one quarter of an inch thick to resist a hailstorm. Some years ago a hailstorm of extraordinary violence occurred around Tunbridge Wells, and glass to the extent of thousands of pounds was broken throughout the district. Many of the hailstones measured over an inch in diameter. The experience at Broomhill was that all glass a quarter of an inch thick