OUT AND HOME.
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By "The Extractor."
Wood-Milne Latest.
Gas compressors are being unearthed from, many parts of the country, and some brisk business is being done in them. I hear of plants being laid down in several important centres so that everything should beready for the Wood-Milne and other rubber cylinders as soon as deliveries are made. Meanwhile, the Wood-Milne people have had to deal with 5000 letters, amongst which are definite orders for quantities from the principal manufacturers, motor agents, and owners of fleets of commercial vehicles throughout the land. Whilst I was there a Rolls--Royce arrived from London, in spite of telegraphic protests, the driver intimating that he should not return until the cylinder was fitted. Meanwhile the Wood-Milne arrangements are being carefully completed. They have a perfect avalanche of .orders to deal with, and patience must be exercised by. purchasers. Fortunately, they have great resources, and I gather further that they are considering the question of granting 'licences to others to manufacture. As I suggested a fortnight ago in connection with rubber cylinders, it is now thought.that the best position for the cylinders is on the roof of the vehicle. It is further thought that 800 lb. pressure will be most suitable.
Never Again.
A well-informed man on engineering matters whom I met in the train the. other day, voiced a discovery which I pointed out was hopelessly wrong. When the war came he said the motor papers showed a great, immediate decrease in their advertising pages, due obviously to the cessation of German advertisements. I. should say that little more than 5 per cent. of the publicity pages of this, and similar motor lournals, came from Hun sources, and those usually 3n connection with solid tyres, a branch of our in C56 . dustry which has since been tackled in such wonderful fashion by the British makers that we shall never need the German-made tyre again. German lorries never made headway in this country before the war, the Milnes-Daimler, the only one to gain any prominence, having sunk to a fifth-rate Position.
Hope Springs Eternal, etc.
Experiment and tests with the Macintosh rubber cylinder for scompressed gas are going forward satisfactorily, and that is all that can be said at the moment. When they are ready we are promised an opportunity of examining and trying the cylinder. I hope personally to try the effect on the BedfordBuick,-which I still hope to use for some of my business journeyings by that or other gas-driven means. Macintoshs are, rightly enough, determined to test their cylinder completely before putting on the market or even giving any description of it.
011a Podrida.
The gas managers of Lancashire had a meeting last week in connection with the gas fuel question.
Lookers, Ltd., lave made many improvements in gas container equipments. No likelihood of leakage here.
Brannen and Co. have made further improvements in their gas carburetter.
An interesting paper entitled " Farming by, Motor" was read and discussed last week at the Royal Hotel, Bristol, the occasion being one of the regular meetings of the Bristol Rotary Club. Mr. A. E. Johnson A.M.T.A.E., Manager of the motor department of the Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works, was responsible for the paper, and we hope to give some details of this in an early iseue. We gather that three centuries ago mechanical ploughing was foreseen to be possible.