Our Despatches from the Front (Non 64
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How to Keep Your Engines Hot. Finding the Road by Gun-Hashes. The Real Size of Shell Holes in Roads.
WITH It.E.s IN FRANCE, nth October, 1915.
A Heat Economizer.
My latest "bus," a Peerless, is equipped with one of the heat-retaining bonnet and radiator covers that were issued last winter, and 1am finding it very useful now that nights, and sometimes days, are getting colder. My work, for the Underground Artillery" (RE. Miners) usually involves about six or eight short journeys at regular intervals during every twenty-four hours. By slipping the cover over the bonnet directly I stop, the engine is kept warm for restarting two or three hours afterwards, thereby saving labour and fuel. The saving of fuel is by no means unimportant, for as everyone should know, short journeys with long intervals are extravagant because of the amount of petrol used for warming up the motor. This petrol bears an appreciable ratio to the total amount consumed on a short journey. Drivers and owners in civil life might do worse than use these heat-retaining covers on pleasure and business cars and lorries. The varnish on the bonnet of • a nicely-kept pleasure car might suffer, but otherwise there would be no disadvantage attending their • use.
Heat-retaining Covers.
The covers we employ are made of waterproof canvas with a felt lining, and are .sometimes fitted with straps for fastening to mudguard stays or lamp brackets, although their weight would prevent them blowing up and allowing heat to escape. So long as they are airproof they need not be a very snug fit. To slip them on or off is the work of a moment. The cover encloses the radiator and bonnet right up to the dashboard and down to the mudguards or chassis side members. The cost of such a cover is so-on repaid by the saving in fuel if it be used between short and frequent journeys.
Mention . of heat-retention reminds me how popular is the fallacy that an engine which remains cool is to be preferred to one that
gets thoroughly hot. It is commonly forgotten that a hotengine is the more efficient, the only heat to be afraid of being excessive local beat.Therefore, ye drivers, try removint; the fan belt and tying up the fan in cold weather. On most cars you will get better fuel co surnption and your carburetter will turn over a new leaf, so to speak.
On Night Driving.
I see that Mr. G. M, Young, of Albions, comments on the use of lights on motor lorries out here, BLIO and rightly remarks that it is preferable to run the very slight risk of an enemy shell or bomb rather than the greater risk of ditching or collision But near the firing line (really near) we still drive without lights for two reasons. Firstly, so that the enemy may not be assisted in finding out what roads are used most, at what hours they are used, and to what extent. And, secondly, to avoid the inconvenience and risk to other traffic occasioned by the use of glaring lights. Personally I wish all drivers and riders would give up anything more than a glimmer of light for the latter
reason. Some of us have got so accustomed to driving without lights thatwe declare we shall be tempted to do without them aprc-',s la guerre. But On some very dark nights driving near the firing line is trying. Last night the darkness was SO inky that. I was compelled to make use of gun-flash-es to see what was on the road. The flashes were frequent, as no doubt the enemy realized to his cost The star shells, too., afforded some help ; but on a lighter night when one can see several yards ahead their brightness is dazzling and disconcerting. The trees planted only
a few yards apart along most main roads intensify the darkness, and one has to be ready for a very sudden pull-up to avoid troops or other traffic.
Road Damage by Shells.
Shell holes are troublesome when one does not know their location. I have read about shell-holes in roads that a horse could he buried in, but it would take a mighty big shell to make such a hole in a roadway. The hard pave roads only sustain quite slight damage from fairly large shells unless two or three strike in one place. Then it is difficult to get past, and so4ietimes we have to go up on the footpath. I have seen, in soft earth, a. single shell hole that would have • accommodated a 2-ton lorry, top included, but roads are too hard to be damaged to that extent apparently. One very dark night the driver of a lorry we had borrowed, who was unfamiliar with the road, missed a turning and drove into a barbedwire barrier, He lost no time in retreat, for the barrier saved him from driving the other two or three hundred yards to capture or worse.
A LORRY DORMITORY IN FRANCE.
20th October, 1915.
Lorry Dormitories.
I was pleased to read the correspondence from your contributor " Home on Leave," in which he wrote about the sleeping accommodation of lorries. This is a most important thing for a driver and one which he looks into immediately he takes over a fresh vehicle. I recently had the pleasure of driving a "J " type Thornycroft, and I found the front seat made quite a decent bed. My present machine, a Cornmercar, has ample locker space on each side of the tank, and there is, in addition, a large box at the rear of the chassis.
A One-string Fiddle Artiste.
I heartily endorse the opinions which have been expressed with regard to the versatility of the M.T. men, scattered as they are liroughout the area of operations. Just, a few yards in front of my lorry, for instance, is the proud possessor of a Oommerear, who is giving the latest in opera and ragtime, as I write, with the aid of a strand of wire, a. Fry's chocolate Lox, a stick and a complete bow, the whole constituting a one-string fiddle. We are sadly in need of a gramophone with records, as the i repertoire of our musician s by no means extensive and has long ago been taxed by the members of the company.
A Waring Wagon.
Some time ago I saw in THE CoAT.MF.RCIAL MOTOR, a note about. Waring's fleet of subsidized Ley
lands. It may be interesting to you to hear that close to my present position is one of that fleet which was mobilized so quickly in the period at the beginning of the war, when everything was so hurried and rushed. Despite past service, this_ machine is acredit to the makers and the men who have .handled it since it was placed on the road. Driving this car is one of London's oldest taxi-drivers, who little thought as he passed the same van in Oxford.Street 18 Months ago, that it would be his home and the subject of his attention to-day.
Carter, Paterson Thornycrof i s I saw nearly the whole of the Thornycrofts once in the possession of Carter, Paterson and Co., Ltd., previous to their being shipped in the early stages of the war, and I have made acquaintance with three of them since my arrival here. Many of the commandeered lorries can be still recognized despite the paint which hides the advertisements on their sides. My own lorry, for instance, at one time was one belonging to Waterlows, the printers.
A'f A FRENCH REPAIR BASE.
25th October, 1915. Scrapped Lorries Rare in France.
Contrary to the general impression, the life of motor lorries at the Front is not .proving very much shorter than in civil service. At the French repair depot to which I am attached near 111.11111111 about 25 miles to the back of the MUM ..11 front, we have three mobile repair departments for about 2000 vehicles. Our repair cases average 300 per month, this average being taken over a long period of almost stationary trench warfare and some very fierce fighting. In these three shops we undertake the entire repair work for an army, nothing
being sent further to the rear. Since the first few months of war scrapped lorries have been very rare.
Only Direct Shell Hits will Usually Scrap Lorries.
By the end of the Battle of the Marne we had got rid of all the crocks and had also captured a number of German lorries, which are still in service in our sector. Since then we have not made captures nor lost any lorries to the enemy or to the strap heap.. It is surPrising how much battering a motor lorry will stand before it becomes necessary to scrap it. There have been scores of cases of bodies shattered by shell, and of trucks partially destroyed by fire, but it requires a direct hit with a shell to make a truck unfit for further service. Fortunately, these direct hits are not very common. Our, vehicles comprise every French make and five American makes. On the wholo these latter are giving as goo4 service as the French machines. We had two English cars, which we picked up just after the Marne battle ; we repaired them and put thein into service, but when our Allies discovered that we had them they sent in a claim, and we had to return them.
Valuable Data for Makers.
It would be impossible fora motor engineer to obtain better Aperience than that furnished in the repair shops at the Front. We have an opportunity of examining every make under the most severe tests and of making comparisons which would be impossible under any other conditions. All manufacturers must benefit by war coachlions, but those who have their own engineers in the repair depots aro receiving exceedingly valuable technical reports. It is not too much to say that it would pay any manufacturer' to send one of his engineers to the repair depots in France and keep him there during the length of the war.
A Factory on Wheels.
Our entire shops are carried on wheels. Every lathe, drill press, grinding machine, etc., is mounted on a special trailer platform, and when it is necessary to move, two or three of these trailers are fastened up behind a lorry and hauled away. We have everything that can possibly be required for repair work, even to a ease-hardening plant, all mounted on wheels. Our equipment is as complete as that of the permanent stationary repair shops and yet we have almost as much mobility as the light repair vans travelling with the troops. Unlike the travelling repair vans, however, we do not attempt to work in the open, but secure some abandoned factory, courtyard, stables, or schoolhouse, which we use as headquarters. As we can work most effectively about 25 miles to the rear of the trenches, it is always possible to find sonic building or set of buildings with a suitable courtyard.
Unoiled Shackle Bolts.
While all our trucks have given good service, there is not one but is open to some imorovement. An objection which can be raised against every make of truck is with regard to the shackle bolts. It can be taken as a general rule that these are not lubricated at the Front, and without lubrication they are decidedly shortlived. It is important that the bolts should be of greater diameter and should be provided with some reliable system of automatic lubrication.
Lubrication Conclusions.
I have come to the rather surprising conclusion that the best lubrication system for service at the Front is constant-invel splash. Forced-feed lubrication has many more defects than is generally supposed. We have found that with the forced-feed system particles of metal and dirt are carried along with the oil and forced into the bearings to their detriment.