Openings and Progress in Canada.
Page 14
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Mainly from our Winnipeg Correspondent.
The Hudson's Bay Co. now has six motor vans in service, and has placed orders for further deliveries which will bring the total to 17. Its choice is divided between the White and the Franklin.
The T. Eaton Co., which conducts the largest departmental stores in the Dominion of Canada, is also turning to motor vans ; it is at present using two White twoton vans.
Water-Ballast Rollers.
The Barford and Perkins waterballast, gasoline rollers, of which the Street Commissioner's department has three in service here, are giving a very good account of themselves. With a change from the rollers to traction wheels, they prove very useful in the haulage of material to different points.
Have You a Canadian Agent?
In order to compete with American manufacturers, who are supplying the bulk of our motors, it is necessary for the English maker to make himself thoroughly familiar with Canadian conditions. If he he not represented by agents in Canada, he must get into touch with someone familiar with the situation, who can advise him.
Motor Ambulances.
Two special motor ambulances are in use here by local undertakers, one of these being an Ohio and the other a Kissell touring car, which has been converted by Lewis and Co., a local firm of carriage builders. Both machines have the interior heated by means of connections from the engine exhaust ; they are electrically lighted and fitted with wash basins, surgical outfits for first-aid, stretchers, etc. Winnipeg Store to Increase its Fleet of Motors.
Records kept by the J. H. Ashdown Hardware Co. of five motor trucks which have been in its service for nearly two years, show a big saving on horse transport. This company is to increase the number of its motor vans, A Criticism of British Methods.
A prominent automobile dealer who has now returned from a trip to England which he made for the purpose of inspecting the latest types of British motor vehicles, both pleasure and commercial, recently made the statement that the English manufacturer was too conservative, and that he would not study the local conditions of foreign markets. It was therefore, he said, impossible to arrange agency representation that would prove profitable to Canadian dealers. He pointed out that this was specially so in the case of commercial vehicles, which, to be of any use in Western Canada, must conform to recognized American specifications in the matter of wheel gauge of N in. and of ample clearance under the body and axles of the car. This is an absolute necessity in Western Canada, owing to the fact that outside the towns and cities, the roads are not built up in any way and have as a rule only the usual two cart ruts made by ordinary wagon wheels.
is the commercial-car market is practically just opening in Western Canada and promises to be one of very great importance, it would seem that the above criticism of English methods on the part of a Canadian agent is worth the attention of English manufacturers. Americans Getting In.
Considerable interest is being displayed in the commercial-motor wagon and the heavy self-propelled truck by the local merchants, and the city authorities of Winnipeg. Quite a number of sales have been made during the past month to some of the big wholesale firms, and the city of Winnipeg has added to its motor apparatus a new police-patrol wagon. This vehicle is an American GO ho., fourcylinder, water-cooled Speedwell, with a specially-built body capable of carrying 14 persons at one time ; it is fitted with a special ambulance outfit and two stretchers which are suspended in the middle of the body on springs and are attached in such a manner that they can be removed and hung at the sides of the van when not in use. Light electric delivery vans, for loads up to one ton, are also attracting a lot of attention here. Three Detroit electrics have recently been placed in service, one each by A. Macdonald and Co., wholesale grocers, the Winnipeg Paint and Glass Co., and the G. F. Stephens Paint Co.
Farmers and Gasoline Engines. (From our Correspondent in Toronto.) The advent of the motorcar on the farm in Canada has been full of significance. The farmer now uses a motor vehicle as a matter of common sense and economy. Many of the farmers' co-operative societies depend on the motor lorry for the quick collection of their produce. One of the greatest trade developments of modern days in this country has been that of the motor vehicle for the farmer.
The gasoline engine nowadays reigns supreme on many Canadian farms. The uses to which the engine is put are apparently limitless. Harnessed to a pump it supplies water from the well to the farmhouse ; shift the belting and the wood is sawn for the day in a few minutes. Then the roots are cut, the feed mixed, the oats cleaned, and, if necessary, the mangle turned, the cream separated, and the butter made. Whatever a man or woman can do, that ubiquitous engine seems able. to do. For a one-horse-power engine, which seems sufficient to run most of the machines about the ordinary farmhouse or barn, all that is necessary is 20 cents worth of gasoline. Supply the engine with the gasoline, and it will run for eight hours without attention,