When Petrol Fails.
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There is imminent risk that petrol is about to fail. We use the word " "in the sense of ceasing to be available, rather than in the sense of ceasing to exist. An executor of a will is held to " fail " either by death• or renunciation of probate. Petrol may " fail" either by cessation of supply or by renunciation of its use at the hands of users. It may, in short, fail to be commercially acceptable, except at prices which commend themselves to buyers, and this is the contingency which opens before us. Supplies of petrol are now in part failing by reason of their diversion to other uses, such as to the manufacture of high explosives or the enrichment of town gas from which benzole and toluol have been extracted, or by a statutory and preferential distribution. Another cause of failure may be a sufficiency of demand in the country of production, which state of affairs promises to supervene in America. Purchases of petrol, on the other hand, may in part cease, by reason of a transfer of consumption to another fuel. That is about to happen with a rapidity which we forecast will be surprising. We publish this week the fourth article of our series dealing with "Two-fuel Carburetters and Fittings," and we have in hand for publication during the next few weeks particulars of several more interesting and successful devices; details of these will increasingly satisfy our readers that they are about to be lifted out of the reign of depression which has until recently been established by the petrol situation. There are simple two-fuel carburetters.
We are ourselves well satisfied that the petrol menace is at an end. The satisfactory paraffin earburetter is an achieved fact, not by any single individual, but at the hands of several independent and competing manufacturers. It will be possible, in our considered judgment, before existing petrol contracts run their course, for practically every commercial-motor owner who so desires virtually to abandon petrol in favour of paraffin. We do not recommend that course headlong, but it is certain that the relative consumption of petrol may well, in any event, become as one to four of ,paraffin.
Petrol can now fail, in either sense of the word, without disturbing the equanimity of the petrol vehicle industry. This tumbling-down of petrol from its high pinnacle of sole possession will be an occurrence of far-reaching importance to road transport the world over, and not least of all to users of commercial motors in the United Kingclom. We have little doubt that the price of paraffin will be forced up, but it is obvious—the sources of kerosene being so much more numerous than those of petrol —that the future is now under control. We have ourselves been distinctly uneasy, during the past few months, as to the outlook for users of petrol-driven vehicles under war conditions, and it affords us unmitigated relief to be able to put on record in print the assurances which we have now penned.
The Petrol Shortage Solved.
The statements in the foregoing leading article will, we trust, convince'readers and supporters of our belief that the petrol shortage is solved. It is solved because competition not only looms ahead for the petrol importers, but is right .upon them. They will welcome it, as much as will users of cars and commercial vehicles, for two reasons : in the first place, motoring developments in the future will be such as to provide enough customers for everybody' and every fuel; in the second place, the petrol companies clearly do not enjoy being constantly in a state of disrepute• and bad odour with the average motorist. An incidental reason cannot fail to be the large4,share whichthey have in the oil-fields of the world, and the certainty that they will, therefore, enjoy a large proportion of the accruing benefits due to the increased market for paraffin oil, which oil has hitherto been sold principally for burning.
The solving of the problem of the shortage of petrol, by reason of its now being practicable to fit and use two-jet paraffin carburetters, must before long result in a general lowering of the price for petrol, even though it be at the expense of a slight increase in the price of paraffin. Paraffin is more widely distributed throughout and derived from the oil-fields of the world than is petrol, but the application to it of the inevitable fuel tax in this country will probably add a penny or more. per gallon to the selling price, apart from the duty, whilst the adaptation of distribution to suit practices which have been established in petrol distribution will add something more. Tanks which do not "sweat paraffin" will surely be forthcoming. The activities of the Petrol Committee of the Board of Trade will now have to undergo a distinct modification. The Committee will have to take into account the inter-effects of paraffin, and not merely the conservation of petrol. The increasing demand of the Naval and Military Services for petrol must in any circumstances be met, and the popularity of petrol with airmen will undoubtedly remain unaffected by the improved prospects for the regular use of paraffin on land and at sea. We refer elsewhere in this issue to the new powers which have been conferred upon the Board of Trade under the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act in respect of petrol control, and we welcome the announcement that representations have been made to the Admiralty as to the release of certain tank steamers for the transport of increased supplies of petrol. It was for such facilities that the Commercial Motor Users Association contended most strenuously in its memorandum to the Ministry of Munitions, which memorandum was in due course handed over to the Petrol Committee on its appointment. The tasks before the Petrol Committee should be considerably lightened by the increased demand ior paraffin which must take place. That new demand can only be met, of course, if sufficient tank steamers are kept available as the result of repiesentations by the Petrol Committee. Both fuels must be imported the same way, apart from a relatively-small production at home from shale deposits.
Every reader of this journal, who is a user of petrol, can bear his share in solving the petrol shortage, by promptly placing orders for one or other of the approved paraffin carburetters. Most of the leading commercial-motor makers in the country have already worked out such devices, to fit their oivri, engines, whilst in °the,cases there are available the two-fuel carburetters with which we are in the course of dealing in our pages.
The Status of the Char-a-banes.
Some owners of motor chars--banes are hopeful that the views which were adopted in our issue of the 11th ult., as regards their rights or lack of rights under the Local Government (Emergency Provisions) Act, may prove to be incorrect. We only -wish that it were so, for the sake of the traffic which passes in motor chars-h-bancs generally, and for the sake of the esteem in which we have previously been inclined to hold the County Councils Association. Prominent members of that association have administered a "stab in the back" to heavy-motor interests which will not soon be forgotten, and have done so close on the heels of a professed desire to come to terms by arrangement. This is scarcely the way to establish confidence, or to make progress towards a settlement.
We are told, on behalf of a particular group of char-h-bancs owners that they consider: (1) if charsh-bancs are omnibuses within the meaning of the Act, the routes along which they have been accustomed to travel in the past are not new routes, whether they have been used once a month or more frequently; (2) if the routes along which they have been accustomed to travel are not regular omnibus routes, the vehicles ipso facto cannot come within the meaning of the Act.
Our friends overlook the subtle effect of the drafting of Section 26 of the Act, with which disturbing feature we were particularly concerned ourselves when examining the position a month ago. We may, however, in view of the aspirations to which these particular owners cling, briefly summarize that point—the •" rock " upon which they are, in our judgment, doomed to be split. We pm-suppose their reconciliation to running on paraffin when petrol supplies are withheld.
An " omnibus " is defined as including "every omnibus, char-h-banes, wagonette, brake, stage coach, or other carriage plying for hire or used to carry passengers at separate fares." Such " omnibuses " may not use " any route which has not beerk regularly., used by omnibuses plying for hire within two years prior to the first day of March" last. The italics are ours. So long as a char-a-hence has been plying for hire, and doing so regularly according to the customary usage of a char-h-bance, there is no difficulty. The owner can continue to use that route. The bar, we must emphasize, applies to all routes where there has not been " plying for hire." Earlier " use'' of the route does not establish a right to exemption from the operation of the Act. It only does So if the earlier use can be proved to have been in fact "plying for hire."
We agree that a complication is introduced in respect of roads in the administrative areas of county councils, in respect of which the County Council does not possess powers to grant licences to ply for hire. The effect of that point may be extremely interesting, because it indicates the possibility of establishing a claim to have in effect been plying for hire, along such county-council roads, although in the absence of any licence to ply for hire on those particular roads. We have already dealt (11th May) with possibilities for booked parties.
The Dilution of Labour.
Many industrial readers of this journal are directly e concerned with any steps which have a bearing on the dilution of labour. This concern in the subject should be increased by the avowed desire of the Minister of Munitions, The Rt. lion. D. Lloyd George, M.P., to securestill greater coneideration at their hands for the claims of semi-skilled or unskilled labour working under supervision.
There are now 64 training centres in the kingdom at which instruction is given to persons desiring to enter factories which are engaged upon the production of munitions. The earliest of these were organized, by the Ministry of Munitions, with the assistance of the London County Council, and later instances have been due to the co-operation of other education authorities elsewhere. The training is in all cases free, but the student has to undertake to enter a factory at the close of the course. It was the writer's pleasure one day last week to participate in a series of visits, atethe invitation of the Ministry of Munitions, and to observe the train. ing which is given at a typical institution, which inspection was followed by one of a munition works, where the output is virtually due in its entirety to the activities of men and women who had been trained in the manner indicated. The output of this factory was no fewer than 12,000 eighteen-pounder shells weekly, the 400 unskilled and semi-skilled workers being under the control of 35 engineers of mature training. It is not sought to pretend that a mechanic can be trained in so short a period as six weeks, but the organization of the Training Section of the Ministry of Munitions aipas at the provision of opportunity for the intending workers to perform simple exercises in bench and vice work, turning, drilling and milling, so that the student may acquire elementary machine sense," and in addition some preliminary • idea of engineering factory conditions. It is found, in practice,-that a one-operation worker can be made in the time, and particularly so if—as is the case— the engineering works of which the management is • seeking help of the kind lends specimen tools.
We understand that students are being passed through the existing schools at the rate of about 1000 weekly. One London County Council Training Centre has supplied workers to 338 individual firms, one of which has taken 344 of them, whilst 18 firms have taken an average, of more than 20 students each.
We have no doubt that certain manufacturing readers of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR will put themselves into communication with Mr. J. Taylor, Training Centre, Ministry of Munitions, 6, Whitehall Gardens, London, S.W., if they desire to have their names added to the list of factories waiting for aid of the kind, or to be furnished with information which will enable them to establish training classes of their own.We already have information before us, concerning certain commercial-motor works, at which works the services of women were scouted as impracticable but a few months ago, as to the later successful employment of women workers, and as to the surprise with which their lightness of touch has proved them to be in some respects superior fte men for particular operations, such as the use of sensitive drills.
The claims of the Army and Navy are likely to be such, during the next few months, that the dilution of labour should not be regarded by any manufacturer as a graceful act of concession on his part. His -adoption of all possible means to that end will merely represent the exercise of necessary self-protection, although, of course, it admittedly coincides with the best interests of the country as well as of the individual. The case for dilution of labour may in any case be helped by employers who make a start, and who in doing so ensure by personal interest the willing co-operation of their older and more-expert employees,