Listen to your Flashers

A new sound has been born. It hails not from Liverpool nor from any other tin-pan-alley source, for this sound has a distinctly motoring note and comes from Crypton, the well-known workshop equipment people. The Crypton Beat, if I may modernistically refer to it as such, has its source in a not unattractive plastic box. 1.5 in. square, which can be fixed magnetically or by means of a strip adhesive. It is very simply wired into the flashing indicator circuit so that a high-pitched ” bleep ” is intermittently sounded in synchronisation with the flashing of the indicators.

Called the ” Atracta,” this transistorised bleeper has lived on my own dashboard for several weeks and I find it quite pleasant to live with. The sound is certainly not annoying and, particularly by day when the indicator Warning light isn’t as easily discernible as by night (my own hides on a stalk under the steering wheel), it is distinctly useful. Another of its values is a change in note, or even complete silence, should an indicator bulb fail. It will market through normal accessory outlets at a retail price of 45s.

This venture into the accessory field is a new one for Crypton, but the fact that they have formed a completely new division for this purpose may well be the initial breeze of future. winds. Who knows, we may soon have oil-pressure warning pips or even brake light buzzes.—G. P.