Books

BOOKS

BLACK SMOKE

Henry N. Manney

by Phil Irving MBE Motorsport 6115 Gravois St Louis, Mo

Thanks to our old friend Lee Cowie in St Louis we have another nice book to review, this time Black Smoke which follows Rich Mixture (ho ho) and like the latter, is another amusing and informative collection of columns from an Australian motorcycle paper. Those readers who are into that particular period (including restorers) or just like to know everything there is about motorcycles will welcome this last book as Phil Irving dredges up all sorts of oddments from his encyclopedic store of practical knowledge. Besides musings on such matters as fads of early days, history of the twist grip, and other things you never thought that you needed to know but do, he also goes into observations on sundry geared-crank four-cylinder machines, the origin of the two port head for singles, two rare Velocettes, the ohc V-Twin Cyclone, the oil-boiler fourcylinder Windhof and quite a comprehensive bit on supercharging. Included also is quite a lot on Indians, for which he seems to have a sneaking fancy, and goes on to give a fresh look (from an inside position) on the monkeyshines which led to the Indian Motorcycle Co.’s last days. There is also a section on problems on the trails as seen by “bushwalkers” which we need like a hole in the head as that has got here already!

Phil Irving has impeccable credentials and is a bit cranky at times but who has a better right? His dissertation on the advantages of flatheads (or sidewhackers) gives rise to a lot of thought and is worth the price of admission.

A good read.