COMMERCIAL MOTOR
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Officially Recognized by The Commercial Motor Users Association.
The Authority on all forms of Motor Transport. Largest Circulation.
Conducted by EDMUND DANGERFIELD.
The 1914 Manchester Show and "Showing the Name."
We wish to put on record our own complete a.pproval, having regard to all the circumstances and difficulties, of the graceful concession winch was made by the Commercial Vehicle Committee of the Laneas!iire, Cheshire and North Wales Section of the S.M.M. T., under the chairmanship of Mr. Henry Spurrier, Junr., governing director of Leyland Motors, Ltd., when the decision was taken to postpone the conunerciat .:otor Show for three weeks.
We do not for one momentwish to belittle or minimize the disturbance which that action has inflicted upon certain manufacturers, but neither are we ignorant of certain incidental benefits which have resulted in not a few directions. Of these, we may refer to the golden bridge of escape from. promises in respect of the inclusion on stands at Manchester of vehicles to a total number which would have made those stands look excessively overcrowded. The demand for delivery on the one hand, and the diverse explanations that can be proffered by manufacturers on the other, will relieve a. distinctly-acute, if somev hat-novel situation, and one which is not lacking in piquancy. We do admit, however, to the full, that the change of programme has caused upset at many factories, and in the apposite sales departments. It is no laughing_ or light matter, for a well scheduled sales organization to be Subjected to so considerable an alteration at such short notice.
We venture to think that the foregoing factors are genuinely appreciated by the private-car interests which received a rude shock When they learnt of the demolition of the exhibition hall at Rusholme. Tht lesser of two evils was undoubtedly chosen, in the
,course that was followed. Mamhester is inadequately provided, in respect of it choice of suitable buildings, for an exhibition of the kind. We now endorse in print the expressions or consolation, both verbal and written, which We communicated at the time of the disaster to the hardworking officials of the S.M.1k/I.T. There was much going to and fro, on their part and on the part of Lancashire committeemen, on the Sunday and Monday after the fire. All of these gentlemen deserved consideration, and we are glad that they obtainedkit from the "men in possession "—the commercial-motor branch. Their willingness to give way will not be forgotten, we trust, on some future occasion.
We look forward to the Show of next month, which will be opened on the 30th prox. and will remain open until the 7th February, with feelings and intentions to which expression has been given in our columns already, and which are therefore known to our supporters. Much has taken place, to the advantage of the movement, in Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and neighbouring areas, since the North of England Show of February last. Despite petty difficulties and ,a few summonses, the use of commercial motors grows apace. Much remains to be turned to account, arising from those developments and, extensions of service rendered,
We disagree with those members of the industry who affect to regard Manchester's shows as of no effect, and equally with those who tolerate it as something in the nature of an inevitable nuisance to them. The manufacturer who does not keep his name before buyers and prospective-buyers in large industrial areas such as those which centre upon Manchester, no matter how busy he may be at the moment, is incurring a load of potential regrets and losses. The touch which we enjoy with users of commercial motors enables us justly to put on record the following conelusion: when a man is ready to buy, whether he go to a show for the purpose or place his order at any other time, the makes from which he finally selects are those of which the names, by frequent re-petition, have become known to him, and accepted by him, as the relative few to which he should confine himself.
One reads much of the value of " showing the flag" in matters international: one is obliged to give adhesion to the view that like importance, from the business point of view, attaches to " showing the name." Manchester is a good place to do it.
Colonel Crompton' s Manchester Paper.
"We continue (pages 482 and 483) our summary of and extracts from the most-interesting paper which Colonel Crompton. recently read before the Manchester Association of Engineers. We observe that " The Manchester Guardian" of the lfith inst. inclines to the view that railway and tramway developments will find more acceptance at the hands of industrial Lancashire than will improved commercial motors. Our contemporary, in this connection, is disposed to take Colonel Crompton to task for his belief that it is either practical or practicable to drive a motor wagon into a potato field, load the vehicle, and carry the load direct to the consumer's door. Whilst Colonel Crompton admittedly introduces this example as an extreme case of application, we know that nothing of the kind can be achieved, except at prohibitive cost, by the use of either railway or tramway. The selfcontained and independent unit is alone capable of successfully tackling a job of the kind, or of achieving it. It has, so far, generally been of the horsedrawn type, but. motors can now discharge such duties more effectively in a number of instances. The suggestion that tramway developments will meet. the case of Lancashire is to our mind unworthy of further consideration. In all cases where this method of transportation is advocated by reason of the greater loads that might be handled, the railway is the proper system to be patronized ; in every other ease, when the claim is advanced that the tramcar can complete either collection or delivery, the idea is little better than chimerical.
Difficulties are already experienced, even with motor wagons which have a unit-load capacity of only four or five tons, in arranging that collection and distribution shall be undertaken more economically than with horses, and it is these terminal difficulties which remain to be fully surmounted by the motor carrier. How, then, can the tramcar, with its
obligatory srails and conductor connection with a power station, be employed '? Whilst we agree that the electrification of railway systems may simplify and cheapen and accelerate their working, no such improvements can deprive the commercial motor of its applications, and none can excel that modern means of conveyance in respect of either point-topoint speed or—in many classifications—inclusive charges. We admit that such electrification may help the railways, but they will continue to be hampered by the cost of terminal handlings arid re-handlings, arid by marshalling delays and depot congestion.
Returning to the subject of Colonel Crompton's paper, we are glad that he enforces the point of wider recognition for the function of the surface layer of a roadway to give a little under the shocks and stresses from passing vehicles. Such deformation, of course, must be followed by a quick return or "springing back" to the original condition, and must not be accompanied by cracking of the surface or crushing effect in the top layer or the foundation. Colonel Crompton is a strong advocate for both rubber tires and resilient road surfaces, but he is not a votary of reduced total weights, for which so many road authorities are tending to clamour. He prefers the use of multiple axles.
The Conservation of Fuel.
The U.S.A. is affording the world evidences of internal alarm concerning the exhaustion of oil wells, and its Bureau of Mines is especially anxious to point out to owners of oil-bearing territory how failures of flow may be avoided. We publish elsewhere in this issue (page 372) the summarized views of one of the leading American experts, in regard to simple methods by which the conservation of petroleum fuel may be assisted. This summary, in spite of its briefness, will help to show that the problem is one of vital commercial bearing and absorbing scientific interest.
There can be no doubting the effect of "the benzole campaign" upon petroleum interests at large. That
campaign is of generic influence. Its far-reaching nature is by no means limited to the original significatioa. of the word " benzole " in chemical and tardistilling circles. Little more than a year ago, before our sister journal "The Motor " consistently began to arouse public interest in the matter, few people thought beyond the relatively-limited sources of supply which are covered by gas works and coal-tardistilling practice. Those views, however, have been gradually expanded, as our contemporary directed attention to the resources of various collieries, and later to the potentialities of low-temperature carbonization. Incidentally, the production of spirit from shale, cannel coal and other shale-like deposits, has been recognized as of no inconsiderable magnitude, whilst the "cracking" of creosote and other cheap oils has received equal notice. Finally, as a special line of reserve, there is the stripping of benzole from town gas, which alone can yield 10,000,000 gallons of that spirit should necessity arise, to which Mr. Henry L. Doherty, of New York, drew attention.
All the varied potential sources of benzole or allied motor spirit have widened the horizon of the benzole campaign very greatly of late, and they have been of corresponding effect upon our petroleum friends. It is for these reasons, amongst others, that the greatest care is being exercised, not only in the tnited States, but in the European and Eastern oilfields, in order to eliminate losses due to waste of any kind. It is riot going too far to state that these precautions are being observed in anticipation of a period of severe competition, to the arrival of which every owner of a commercial motor will look forward with no feelings of regret. Benzole and its family connections will help to bring that day nearer. The conservation of available sources of yield, so that disturbance in the world's markets shall not occur, is no less important to the motor industries of all civilized countries than is the encouragement of B6
new processes by prizes, such as the one for 2000 guineas which the &MALT. still holds -open. No better encouragement, however, can in point of fact exist, than the knowledge that consumption is assured and increasing month by month. Another form of conservation remains, and that is found in the methods of the user. Let him pay heed both to miles per gallon and to self-starters.
Christmas Shoppers and Motorvans.
Here we are practically at the end of what has been undoubtedly a phenomenally prosperous year, and we are hearing on all sides that we none of us have any right to anticipate that this term of money-making will continue at its present pace—a somewhat disconcerting and, let us hope, unnecessary prophecy. As we write, there are signs that this will be a remarkable Christmastide at the end of this noteworthy 12 months —and, be it noted (and we touch wood while we write it), there is a " 13 " in the year..
Not only from the point of view of business are we favoured with unusual circumstances, but climatically we are once again being astonished, and this has a very considerable effect on our own particular industry. During a Yuletide while we are hearing accounts of wonderful rose-growing feats when snow should be on the ground, the usual accompanying difficulties of road motor transport are, to a very large extent, absent, so that from several points of view the great shopping festival of the year, which takes place with accustomed regularity at and about Christmas time, is likely on this occasion to be more remarkable than usual. We have seen that it is so.
The motor vehicle, in its various guises, is already playing, and will continue to play, no unimportant part in this combination of circumstances, all making for exceptional activity in the trading world. There is as great a tendency nowadays for shopping to become the work of specialists as there is in the case of those who eater for purchasers. Invitations are published broadcast for people to shop immediately after breakfast, to attend shopping matinees, and to depart from their more normal methods of buying both what they want and what they do not want. in order that the general speeding up of methods -may be accomplished.
We have often written recently of the great trend towards centralization of domestic shopping. The establishment of huge central stores, with their antennw-like organization of motor delivery covering hundreds of square miles around, has brought with it facilities which have rendered it an easy matter for the persuasive stores manager to convince the housewife that a day's shopping, even in a district far remote from her residence, may be turned into a. sort of joy day. And far fetched as this suggestion may seem to the mere marl, it is obvious that that atmosphere is very definitely being created for modern shops, at any rate in the big centres of population.
We are writing at the present after a. brief round ourselves of some of London's great " up-town " stores, and we have found them packed with eager purchasers, all of them depending almost entirely upon the advertised facilities for " direct delivery to your home" for prompt receipt of goods in time for the Christmas celebrations. These crowds have arrived in their hundreds and thousands by motorbus, or by combination journeys of motorbus and tube. Well-to-do shoppers, as well as those to whom the spending of a few shillings is a matter of great importance, nowadays patronize the motorbus more often than not to the distinct detriment of cab-owners' revenues.
So, taking it all in all, the present-day methods of making Christmas purchases, coupled with the present remarkably favourable climatic conditions and the necessity for crowding a great deal of shop gazing into a very few hours, owing to the lengthy nature of the holiday this year, have produced an exceptional state of activity in many branches of the commercial-motor industry, at any rate from the vehicle users' point of view. Delivery vans are -running till close on midnight, mails vans are carrying out all hinds of emergency services and are never running had loaded, heavy lorries are making additional journeys from market to retailer with loads which belie the painted declaration on their frame sides, taxicab drivers are finding the bulk of their passengers in gcncrousanood, and the motorbus services, following the widespread advertisement of the special shopping facilities they afford, are crowded with thousands of extra passengers.
Unduly Noisy Cabs.
On several occasions in the past we have written of what is known in Scotland "Yard's official phrasing as"undue noise." So long ago as 1907 we publisfasd an article on the subject from the pen of one who was then a prominent operating engineer in London naotorbus circles.
He ventured his opinion that, compared with the tube train, the tramcar and all kinds of horsed and steel-tired. vehicles, the motorbus was silent as the grave. And 'that was in 1907, when rack-and-pinion !Mal drives moaned legato dirges in all our streets, when squealing half-berried clutches jerked nerveracked passengers to their knees, when various gearboxes hummed in jerky periods, and when governed engines racketed their best to break loose from tortured frame members.
In these days of Silent Knights, of Lanchester worms, and of chain-driven gearboxes, for whose genesis there are more than one claimant, in such times as these, at the close of 191i, we find the London motorbus almost offensively quiet, a silent rebuke to the clattering milk cart and the hammering tramcar.
We are not at all sure that the present-day motorbus is not a shade too quiet for safety. In -the rough and tumble of traffic it creeps upon one without semblance of warning, should the driver, for the moment, be ignorant of one's efforts to reach the opposite kerbstone without loss of limb.
This silence is not quite so frightening, perhaps, since the fitting of those hurdle-type lifeguards. We instinctively realize that, while we cannot climb under the bus from sideways, it would be difficult to get out if we took a header under the radiator—and that, at any rate, would end the matter.
No ! the silence of the motorbus, though treacherous, is not so irksome as the blatant, unashamed noise of other road vehicles, and of our tubes. Of the very worst offenders we have little hope. The iron-tired milk van, with its two ill-assorted misfit ponies, its accoutrement of numberless jangling chains, and its jumping cargo •of empty churns, will, we fear, be with us for years to come. We shall not cease to be annoyed with them, but we have long ago decided to accept them as some of the traffic ills that flesh is heir to.
We must, however, prefer a definite grumble at one of our own particular protégés. It is time that we realized that very often the taxicab is a noisy intolerable nuisance.
• It is surprising how we grow used to bad noises, just as we unbeknowingly accustom ourselves to bad
smells. • We have hitherto failed to lay specific charge against the motoreab, but when a moment's thought is given to it, it should he at once realized that its gears, its engine, its final drive, and its brakes, to say nothing of its constantly-blown hooter, are very often noisy in comparison with other modern commercial motors.
In similar case is many a touring car. The engine is started -up and allowed to race intolerably, and
each gear changing thereafter is invariably a crashing finale to a crescendo scale of engine revolutions. It must be remembered that the taxicab is largely a night bird, and much of this agonizing pe,rfomianee takes place in residential districts in the small hours of the morning, when the man who has lost the last train is brought home. Some driver-owned cabs are operated with due regard to the ears and nerves ef the public, if incidentally care for the mechanism is the real cause. But in the majority of cases the raotorcab is noisy— not, as a. rule, when it is coasting or " crawling " as unostentatiously as possible, but when on any but its top and direct gear. Much of its business is done when it should, in decency, be the qinetes( vehible on the road, whereas the rubber-tired steam. wagon on the way to market in the small hours can notainfrequently give it points.
The Patents of the Year.
It will, of course, be noticed that we have, in this issue, made considerable attempt to summarize the happenings and the lessons to be extracted therefrom for the year that has past. In two pages we have en-j deavoured to pot the history .of the industrial vehicle during 1913. It may not then be inappropriate for us briefly to consider the progress of events in the Patent World, in so far as the one little section of that great sphere, which is of interest to our readers, is affected.
We are of opinion that the exceptional activity of the patentee, in respect of the attention which he has paid to the commercial vehicle and its various phases of occupation during 1911 and 1912, has perhaps not been fully maintained.
There has, of course, been no lack of new ideas and schemes, and there has been the usual crop, always so noticeable, of clever and frequently intricate solutions of problems of which the attained solution more often than not has proved to be not worth such painful achievement.
Enginesiand gearboxes and their components still hold the field with the majority of new devices particularly applicable to the commercial vehicle. The engine starter, a device which, sooner or later, will be a stne. /ina non with all internal-combustion engines for automobile purposes. is being improved and modified, and we have publi;ffied annumber of abridgments of ideas of this.kindesince New Year 1013.
Of sleeve valves and itheir driving gears there have also beewseVeral interesting modifications published. Attention, too, has been given to improved methods of lubrication andto fifrtherkattempts satisfactorily to solve the problem of efficient combustion of heavy fuel in high-speed vehicle engines.
Clutch mechanism remains much where it was last year, but, :inventors have again been busy trying to find a means whereby the ordinary sliding gears of the conventional gearbox may be otherwise operated.
When we write that other chassis components are not noticeable in the list of this year's interesting patents, we do not for a moment suggest that inventors have not given them any attention. Details of this kind have been modified and improved in number, but without startling constructional novelty.
There remains a crop of new ideas with respect to solid, cushion and resilient tires, and their methods of attachment and dismounting.
It may not he inappropriate to draw the conclusion, as to the fewer patents of specific interest to users of commercial chassis, that those professional and chronic inventors—and -we do not use the term offensively—wh.o have of late years made the industrial vehicle their own, have concentrated upon the, production of an accessory of which definite promise of big reward is known. We refer, in particular, to the desire expressed by the big omnibus companies for an efficient motorbus front lifeguard. That an amazing amount of ingenuity has been expended in the endeavour to meet the wishes of the motorbus proprietors in this respect is surely evidenced by the fact, to which we gave publicity but a few weeks ago, that up to that time the L.G.O.C.'s chief engineer and his staff had had submitted to them no fewer than 7500 different devices destined to serve either as efficient lifeguards, satisfactory anti-mud splashers, or practical top-seat covers.