MOTOR-CARS AND USE.
Motor Vehicles and Motors. By W. Worby Beaumont. Vol. IT, (A. Constable and Co. 42s. net.)—The second volume of Mr. .Worby I3eaumont's monumental work on Motor Vehicles and Motors deserves as much praise as we allotted to the first volume, which was issued six years ago, and has already gone
into a second edition. This fact, for a work of its size and price. is the best evidence that it has met with thorough appreciation from the public. The art of motor construction has made such great advances within the last four or five years that Mn. Beaumont, who at first contemplated the issue of a supplement to bring his earlier volume up to date, finds it necessary to devote as much space to them as he previously thought sufficient for the whole industry up to 1900. He calculates that in this country alohe about four million pounds' worth of motor vehicles will have been produced in the year which ended last month, and this is not likely to be an overestimate. Already the motor-car, which in 1900 represented the last word in construc- tional skill, is lagging far behind the present achievements of the engineer. Even the most casual observer must be aware that the average car now seen on the roads rune more quietly and swiftly than was the case six years ago, and that it is much rarer to see it broken down on the roadside. A whole nee/ branch of the motor industry has been initiated by the appear- ance of motor-'buses and other forms of heavy traffic. Mr. Beaumont deals at length with all these developments. His book contains a full account of the most representative cars and heavier vehicles, and includes a niimber of very useful general chapters on such questions as cooling arrangements, the relation of vibration to turtling effort, skidding and its pre- ventives, the efficiency of transmission gears, &c. It is amply illustrated, chiefly with working drawings, and, in conjunction with the earlier volume, forms the most complete description of the motor industry which any competent engineer has yet given us.—The Motor Year-Book, 1906. Edited by H. 3fassao Buist. (Methuen and Co. 'Is. 6d. net.)-,--The Motor Year-Book, which Mr. Baia edits for its second year, has already made itself indispensable to all practical motorists, and contains a survey of the past year's developments from the pens of several acknow- ledged authorities. Mr. Berriman's long article on recent improve- ments in donstruotional detail is alone worth the price of the volume to all who are on the look out for a new car.—The Happy Motorist. By Filson Young. (Grant Richards. as. 6d, net.)—Mr. Young's Happy Motorist is a collection of slight but agreeable essays) in which he gives some practical hints to the novice who desires to buy and drive a car, and writes very grace- fully on the pleasures of the road. All who possess his " Com- plete Motorist" will be glad of this interesting appendix.—Ths Art of Driving a Motor-Car. By Lord Montagu. (The Oar Mut, trated. 1s. net.)—Lord Montagu's booklet should be in the hands of every one who aspires to drive a motor-ear with the maximum of pleasure ahd safety to himself and the minimum of inconvenience to other users of the road. It is a compendium of practical hints, drawn from an unusually wide experience, and couched in plain but emphatic language. No better guide could be chosen by the beginner, or the driver who feels that he might improve hie handling of a car, and so conduce at once to his own economy and the general happiness.
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