Silent pictures
Page 29
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HOW MANY readers know that the Scammell mechanical horse was sired by Napier out of Diversification? At that time Napier • was famous for aero engines and was still remembered for its elegant 40-50hp carriages for the gentry.
Writing in Historic Commercial, W. J. Aldridge recalls that Napier produced a rudimentary three-wheeled tractor and twowheeled trailer in 1931 and then sold the project to Scammell. The following year Scammell in
traduced a modified version with an improved cab, the Scammell automatic coupling and Scammell semi-trailer. Its success was immediate, ,first with the railways and then with other short-distance operators.
Two mechanical horses are illustrated in Historic Commercial but the pictures, like all the others in the journal, have no captions and are as good as nothing. Happily the "guess what" policy on pictures has ceased in the latest issue to reach me.