Bill Conoulty

Thomas William Conoulty (1899 or 1901 – 1961) is an

Conoulty did not turn to automobiles, though, until 1927 and to competition automobile racing until 1929. Prior, thereto, he was, instead, famed as a motorcyclist and motorcycle racer. He set many Australian speed records on his 500 cc Douglas (motorcycles). In early 1923, Bill became the first person in New South Wales to attain a speed of 100 mph on a motorcycle. In 1925, he set a grass track record in Deagon, Queensland of 101.6 mph that stood for 18 years. In front of some 5000 spell bound spectators at Maroubra Speedway, he set a track record of 92.6 mph during a neck and neck race of 2 Australian leaders of an international assemblage of racers.^[2]

One of Conoulty’s novel and peculiar inventions was a tractor, powered by a gasoline fueled internal combustion engine, but, that could be used indoors without hazarding the carbon monoxide poisoning of a building’s inhabitants. Such a tractor was used in the late 1930s to haul a trolley of heavy soiled linen carts at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. He also devised one of the earliest "Globe of death", where a modified Austin 7 and a Douglas motorcycle traveled in opposite directions.^[1]

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• Bill Conoulty