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PAST demonstrations of alternative-fuel vehicles in this country have been organized by the producers of the equipment or fuel. Their objects have been, directly or indirectly, to influence the Government towards offering a helping hand. With this end, convincing evidence that the apparatus was practicable has been put forward repeatedly, and the advantages to the country of diminished dependence on imported fuel have been persistently emphasized.
This time, the semi-trailer, which formerly had the parking brake screwed hard on, put itself in front of the mechanical horse. In other words, the Government staged the demonstration—a producer-gas show, Seemingly, it was the general public and the consumer, rather than the interests directly concerned, that the Ministry of Mines (the Department responsible) wished to' get at," because those to whom the vehicles were demonstrated were Pressmen, representative of a greater number of lay than technical publications. The demonstration was held at the London Fire Brigade headquarters on Thursday of last week, and followed addresses by Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd, Secretary for Mines, and Sir Harold Hartley, chairman of the Fuel Research Board. Some 15 producer-gas vehicles were demonstrated.
Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd announced that a Committee, having, Sir Harold Hartley as its ahairman, and comprising representatives of the Fuel Research Board, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Ministry of Transport and the Mines Department, together with officials and technical officers of the Gas Light and Coke Co., L.M.S., London Transport, McNamara and Co., Ltd., Pickfords, Ltd., and Thomas Tilling, Ltd., had been formed some time ago and had now evolved a design for a producer plant specially suitable for the quick conversion of motor vehicles in
an emergency. Tests had been made by the operators named above and the Fuel Research Station.
It was proposed, he said, to make the design available to concerns able and willing to undertake manufacture. The S.M.M. and T. were ready to co-operate in the necessary contacts. The design would be issued free.
Most of the foregoing was contained in a statement the Secretary for Mines had circulated in the House of Commons the preceding day (November 8), when he had also announced concessions relating to the use of alternative fuels for road transport, which were intended to stimulate the use of home products.
He gave the three ensuing assurances :—That there was no intention on the part of the .present Government to impose, within the next five years, taxation on homeproduced coal, coke or gas when used for road transport. That in the case of services of national importance there was`no intention of rationing these fuels. That the Minister of Transport, in consultation with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was taking steps to allow the exclusion of the extra weight of producer-gas plant from the unladen weight of a vehicle for purposes of taxation and of the Road Traffic Acts, when such extra weight put the vehicle into a higher licence-duty or lower speed-limit category.
One of these concessions was forecast in our issue dated October 14, and at least some of the others this paper has urged on numerous occasions.
• A Ru.n On The Road •
The. addresses were given at the Mines Department Building,. in Dean Stanley Street, and most of the party was conveyed to the demonstration in a London Transport A.E.C. double-decker running on gas, the plant, built to the official design, being mounted on a trailer. The performance of this bus up the slope of Westminster Bridge was not impressive.
As can be seen from the accompanying pictures, a wide variety of vehicles and plant arrangements was displayed. Nearly all the producers were to the Government specification, but at least four proprietary units were represented.
A Bedford tilt van operated by McNamara and Co., Ltd., had H.S.G. gas apparatus. A Scammell tractor in the service of Pickfords, Ltd., was equipped with GohinPoulenc plant. On a Thornycroft platform lorry operated by the Gas Light and Coke Co., we observed a Dupuy producer. Encased in a mesh housing was a Belay plant on the back of another London Transport A.E.C. bus. '
Claiming no originality for its design, the Committee responsible for the official producer has presumably based the plant, on the available proprietary designs that have been regarded, as a result of their performances, most favourably. • It has worked on very different lines, however, from those followed by at least some of the producer-gas pioneers. Whilst the latter have aimed at developing something that was able to compete on level terms with petrol and oil, enjoying only the lower cost of solid fuel, the former has set about producing an appliance merely to keep the wheels turning when petrol supplies have dwindled.
sp Just For Emergency •
Clearly, the Committee's primary aim was simplicity, and it emphasizes that the design is for easy manufacture and quick conversion of existing vehicles. Hence, its recommendation that the trailer be used in preference to body shortening or fantastic entanglements of equipment, such as some of its members have indulged in, Inducing dry air, the producer is of the cross-draught type and, we believe, has no refractory lining. Surrounding it, with an annular air space between, is a water tank with corrugated exterior to promote heat dissipation. This is solely for tuyere cooling.
From the producer, the gas goes to a series of cooling tubes, in which the larger dust particles are deposited. These tubes contain no purifying material. Thence it passes to the scrubber, packed with oil-damped coke and, from this, via the mixing valve, to the engine.
Details of the valve are not available. We understand that it is of simple construction and -automatically maintains the air-gas proportions within limits sufficiently close to be tolerable, in the opinion of its designers. Initial draught for starting the fire is created by running the engine on petrol, no blower being provided. Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd stated that the official producer was suitable for anthracite or low-temperature coke, and that the specification of the fuel was regarded as a matter of considerable importance. We understand that one clause of the official specification limits the tar content to only 1 lb. per ton. We cannot guarantee the authenticity of this, not having yet seen a copy of the specification.
In his address, the Minister paid a tribute to those who had been engaged in research in a private capacity, some of whom have been concentrating on producer-gas vehicles for many years. In the official statement, however, the committee merely acknowledges " indebtedness to experience." He spoke of the " very praiseworthy work" they had done. We were a little surprised, therefore, to find that none of these independents had been invited to the demonstration.
We have heard it suggested that the production of a Government design will be a " nasty, knock" for those already engaged in making or marketing plant, but we question, this view. If they can offer something better, which should not be difficult, they stand to gain; that is, provided that they are allowed to buy materials, There seems, however, justification for their feeling sore on other grounds. For years they have sought Government aid, largely with patriotic motives, and have left no stone unturned to bring the attention of appropriate authorities to the fairness of their requests and to the wisdom of diminishing our reliance on imported fuel. Much money and time have been spent on these private endeavours, which have brought little reward. Doggedly, the pioneers ,bave persisted in the face of obstructionist officialdom. They foresaw the present need.
Is it astonishing, then, if they now say: " Had these concessions been granted earlier, we should 'have been infinitely farther advanced to-day, and there would have been no need for this Committee "? They might even question a need for it at all.
The public taxpayer, too, is entitled to a grumble. It is his money that has been spent on this research, which could well have been done in the ordinary course of events by the manufacturers, who would have been building producergas vehicles, which hauliers would have been buying and operating if they had been able to do so on a fair basis.
Perhaps it is fortunate that the majority of the population is unaware, or has forgotten, that producer-gas vehicles (goods and passenger) have been in service in
various parts of the country for long periods, that in certain coal-mining -districts and other places big moves have been afoot to popularize producer-gas vehicles, that on numerous occasions the matter has been raised in Parliament and demonstrations to Members staged outside, and that producer-gas vehicles have been entered (at the expense of tl‘eir makers) in War Office trials and have performed to the approval of the military authorities.
On April 6, 1938, Lord Ailwyn said, in the House of Lords, '' I would venture to advocate that energetic action should be taken by the Government to encourage certain forms of transport to operate on producer gas now, while the blessings of peace are still with us, and not wait until a crisis or an emergency arises," and, in the same speech, made reference by name to the H.S.G. producer-gas lorry as a specific example of " an eminently suitable " form of transport.
" It is a repetition," he said later, " of the same old story—a handful of patriotic men spending their lives and substance in research and experiment and, finally, producing a gem of inestimable worth and of immense potential value to their country, ignored, left to struggle along
single-handed until their fortunes are exhausted . . I
do beg the Government really to get down to this question, the importance of which seems to me to be so obvious that I marvel at the inaction and the complacency shown in regard to it." Finally, Lord Ailwyn, referring to the Falmouth Report, said (" with considerable reluctance "); " Perhaps it was not altogether for the benefit of the country, or in the public interest, that such a Committee should have had among its members no representatives of the coal interests, while having as its chairman one who, from his position on the Fuel Research Board and on the Advisory Council of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, is of necessity closely related to the oil policy 'of the Government, while having as its scientist one who is very closely _associated with an oil company, and while haying as one of its secretaries the Director of Petroleum, whose duties as such are presumably in effect to watch over our oil imports."
Paradoxical as it may seem, whilst we have the road for ever Up against the railways, coal is downtrodden by oil interests.