Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/370

336 Some of these are disgracefully constructed. That at Coinbrook, on the Bath road, is an example of how they should be designed: that at Mortlake station of how they should not. Where the road crosses small streams the bridge is sometimes made in the shape of a sudden hump (the French call them donkeys' backs) instead of a gradual and nicely curved ascent and descent. These must not be attempted at high speeds. To drive fast over a trench, a bad railway crossing, or a bad hump, may result in broken springs, bent axles, and strained frames. The novice should bear in mind that cars are not designed for steeplechasing, and a broken horn of the front springs leads to the displacement of the steering gear, and possibly a sudden swoop across the road, into a wall, a ditch or—Eternity.

Side-slip.—We now come to another danger or difficulty, and that is side-slip the bugbear of the expert as well as of the novice. Under certain conditions all roads in towns become exceedingly greasy and slippery to a rubber tyre, so much so that if the brakes are applied the carriage, instead of stopping, merely travels on with the wheels locked, and on greasy asphalte will go almost as far in this fashion as with the wheels revolving. Drivers are, however, never likely to meet with accidents from side-slip if they will only drive cautiously. In town, if one keeps in the ordinary line of traffic, and proceeds at the same pace as the other vehicles, the result should be perfect safety, for one can always stop as quickly as the ordinary 'bus in London, even under the worst conditions. There is simply no royal road to get over this difficulty except driving cautiously, and driving at such a speed that it is only necessary to apply the brake in a very gentle form. If one drives at greater speed than this, accidents are bound to happen, and no one but the driver is to blame.

In regard to the different types of greasy roads, asphalte is probably the worst, though greasy wood, and chalk or oolite road, are almost as bad. Perhaps the chalk road is the most dangerous, as one comes upon it out in the country when pos--