LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Hoods for Double-deckers. Orders for Agricultural Tractors.
THE INTERVIEW with Mr. Shave in a recent issue of The Camraercial Motor I found to be extremely interesting reading. It so happens that I know Mr. Shave Very well, as well as Mr. G. A. Green, the General Manager of the New York motorbus operating company, which no doubt attracted Mr. Shave as much as anything else he saw whilst he was on his recent American trip.
Pity the Outside Passenger.
Certainly the American licensing authorities do not seem to be at any great pains, as is the case with our own Scotland Yard, to bring down the weight of the individual chassis to the lowest possible limit con sistent with safety. Some of the American motorbuses are veritable Golia,ths. What particularly interested me, in the interview with the L.G.O. chief, however, was Mr. Green's latest attempt to provide adequate protection for the top-deck passengers on a motorbus. The ordinary ...London double-decker, which, after all, is a type,verynearly all its own, is a vehicle which most certainly does not ensure the securing of the maximunVinuinber of passengers in times when any competition for such patronage is prevalent.
When Strap-hanging Goes.
Nowadays, of course, anybody is glad to get a seat anywhere, upstairs or downstairs, out in the rain or cooped up in the, rather stuffy interior. .Let us hope, however, that the time will come again, very soon, when we shall be able to pick and choose our method of transport a little, and to make our own free choice as to whether-we will ride on the top or inside of a motorbus. Perhaps the same day, when it dawns, will give us some alternative to. being jammed at risk to life and limit, on the end platforms of tube trains, Mr. Shave's tale of a "packer"
" for tube trains is entertaining, providing that his news a such an official does not spur our own Underground officials to make similar appointments!
. Only Half Accommodation Used.
This question of protection for the top-deck passengers of a motorbus is an all-important one, both for the passengers and for the owners. In wet weather, the ordinary double-decker is crowded inside and empty out ; when the season is hot, passengers inside are rare, and there.is a wild scramble for the outside seats in the,open air. Seldom are the;conditions such that the demand for seats inside and outside is about equal, except in these terrible times when seats anywhere are at a premium. Mr. Green appears to have hit upon a simple and practical means of covering the top-deck passengers when necessary. He has an exaggerated pattern of the familiar Cape-cart hood mounted suitably over the tor seats, and I.imaline that this is a very practical method of dealing with the problem.
Hoods to be Tried Here.
Mr. Shave does not.say what have been his conclusions as to this arrangement, but he promises that experiments will be tried. I know as a fact, from my own experience, that Scotland Yard has been requested over and over again to consider' scheines'for the bettet protection of outside passengers, but they have-hitherto laeen•oltsessed with the probable instability of amachine so fitted. I think, in particular, they have been afraid of the effect of wind pressure on the additional surface. As a matter of fact, such effect would not be a very noticeable one, nor would the inherent stability of the comPlete machine be adversely affected to any considerable extent -by 'the provision of such a light structure as that adopted by Mr. Green in New York.
A " C.M." Scheme in 1907. ._ The Commercial Motor has always been alive to this necessity, and if I recall aright, so long ago as .1907 and 1908, The Commercial Motor called attention to this particular need, and invited suggestions from its readers for practical' solutions to the problem. I believe I could, as a matter of fact, lay my hands without difficulty on an illustration which recall as having appeared in these pages about that time showing a device—a removable one, corresponding in the main to the weather shields, of canvas structure, on uprights employed universally on steamship-bridges. -This would not entirely have protected the passengers from rain, but it undoubtedly would have provided an excellent weather screen. The principal advantage achieved would have been that the wind actually strikes well away at an acute angle upwards from the edge of such a shield. It is to be hoped that, now the attention of the public has been drawn to a practical solution in another city service, something will very shortly be contrived that will increase the travelling comfort of the doubledeck motorbus passenger to a very considerable extent.
Orders for Agricultural Tractors.
Very excellent work, has undoubtedly been done by those responsible for last year's trials of agricultural tractors. Seldom has a young industry received more adequate and soundly technical assistance than has that concerned, with the production and sale of the agricultural motor, and now we are treated to the spectacle of two great associations more or leas openly competing with each other for the honour and digtinctiontof organizing the annual concaurs for machines of this class.
We have all, no doubt, read with very considerable interest the exhaustive and informative report that has been issued with regard to the results achieved at Lincoln last year. It will be interesting to decide as to whether we are able to link with this any reliable reviewtof the actual progress that has been made to date with the education of the user, or the prospective user, of this clam of machine.
Certain it is that manufacturers themselves, if indeed they have any very considerable interest in the matter, are inclined`at present to hide their respective lights under their respective bushels. Generally speaking, the man who is not a farmer or who is not otherwise interested in agricultural produce is strongly sceptical as to the early widespread use of agricultural tractors in a country like our own. Moreover, there are not a few agriculturists of note who still, as a result of their own practical experience, have little use for the small tractor or, indeed, for anything oii a smaller scale than the double-engine steam plough and cultivating outfit. If they have a desire for improvement,-, not a few of them would suggest, as a substitute for their existing well-tried plant, either oil-engined hauling machines of similar capacity to the steamers they have hitherto employed or, alternatively, a suitable motor-propelled tender, whichwould supply steamers with fuel and water even -on journeys necessitating the crossing orrough fields and country. The-Lincoln trials undoubtedly resulted in considerable encouragement to the user, but there is still a great deal of opposition and criticism to be overcome.