A Service of Which London is Proud.
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TITST as, from happy experience, one expects and unfailingly receives from the driver and conductor of a London General omnibus an unequalled consideration and unvarying courtesy, so, at the annual dinner of the staff, one finds dignity, cordiality and a cheerful determination to give to London a public transport service which shall be a model to the world. Lord Ashfield is a most delightful chairman and he receives a measure of co-operation from his colleagues which ensures for the invited guests of the company a welcome of the heartiest description and sends them away happy to have had the pleasure of an evening in such enioyable company. It is a consummation not easy to attain, yet the administrative and operating staffs of the London General attain it with an ease that amounts to grace.
Approaching the seventieth year of its existence, the company is to-day doing its duty in a manner which has earned the universal admiration of visitors from overseas. Whilst the business is conducted with a view to profit-earning and a fair return to the shareholders upon their investment, there is ample evidence to show that an equal consideration is the convenience of the public. The work upon which it is engaged is regarded as an important ptiblic duty. Competition in the provision of these services for the public is not welcomed, not because of motives of self-interest (for the inroad that can be made by the independent bus owners into the pool of fares is extremely small), but because it is felt that the problem of dealing with the passenger traffic of London can only be met by co-ordinated effort. It is a fair argument and the directors of the company are entitled to advance it.
The power which is in the hands of the "combine," with its control of underground and deeplevel railways, its bus and tram systems, is enormous and the public is constrained (and, we go farther and say, is pleased) to admit that the power is beneficently exercised. Services are adequate, reliable and skilfully devised, they run to schedule at fare rates which are in every way reasonable. The public would, we feel sure, be the first to re-sent any official action (were any such action contemplated, which, we are convinced, is not the case) which should serve to show that the " combine" was not being treated with the utmost consideration and with a full appreciation of the excellence of the service provided.
Germany Builds Rigid-frame Six-wheelers.
ONE OF the most interesting exhibits at the forthcoming exhibition of motor vehicles in Berlin will be the 80 h.p. six-wheeled rigid-frame omnibus chassis built by a well known German manufacturer. This vehicle bears a close resemblance externally to the Goodyear design, in that the four driving wheels at the rear are situated as close together as possible without actually overlapping, but the design differs from it in laving individual cardan shaft drive to the two differential axles, and from illustrations of a completed bus which we have seen, the construction appears to be an eminently practicable one.
More important still is the fact that this vehicle is actually on the market, proving that the Germans are aware of the value of the sii-wheeled type of construction, yet in this country only one maker has made any serious effort to produce a multiwheeled vehicle of this type, and the one to which we refer, and which was described recently in the columns of this journal, is at present only in its experimental stages.
It is our firm conviction that, unless our designers get busy very quickly in developing the multi-wheel type of vehicle, we shall be left far behind in the race for supremacy in motor vehicle construction. We, as a nation, cannot afford idly to look on at the progress made by our competitors ; that will never help us in the overseas markets, where success is often achieved by gaining the first foothold, even if we hold our own at home.
Let us endeavour to lead the way instead of following others. As matters stand, we may eventually bring out new types of vehicles which are second to none, but meanwhile the market may have been spoiled or surfeited by our rivals, and we will then have to work against a barrier of prejudice—one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome, even if the material with which the fight is conducted he of the finest quality.
High-compression Engines for Commercial Motors.
WE ARE hoping that very shortly we May he able to give some interesting news concerning the developments of high-compression engines working on the Diesel cycle and of a weight, size and power output that make them suitable for use in the (propulsion of commercial motor vehicles. We have been in touch with the design and construction of, and experimenting with, these engines for some time, but the information imparted to us has been given in the strictest confidence, because it has not yet been determined which of two types that have been developed.is the better. Even now, we believe, this is still an open question and, probably, one that can only be determinsd after lengthy experience of the engines operating under service conditions. What 'we are hoping, however, is that the manufacturers (whose name, when disclosed, will carry conviction with it, we feel assured), will, within the next week or two, " release" the information that is now available.
The coming of the Diesel engine for commercial motor work would have a most important effect upon the fuel situation, whilst it would revolutionize transport in the overseas dominions of our Empire. There are large deposits of a brown coal in Australia and elsewhere from which a distillate can be produced quite suitable for burning in a high-compression engine. The makers of the engines we have in mind have aimed at the production of a power unit that can start on these heavy fuels from dead cold, and in this, we believe, they have completely succeeded B18
The Ubiquitous Motor.
rrHERE are remarkably few branches of modern -Iactivity on which the motor vehicle, or powerdriven road travelling appliance has not exercised a profound influence, as a means for expediting the wOrk in connection with them, and for promoting general efficiency, and its scope is extending almost daily. Not very long ago one was inclined to think of a motor chassis merely in terms of the lorry or passenger coach, but of recent years its applications have become so diverse as almost to baffle the casual inquirer if he be asked to give a list of the various functions which it can fulfil, and every improvement in chassis and body design opens up a new vista of possibilities.
In the article which occupies our centre pages, we illustrate and describe some of the many chassis, bodies and motor appliances which have been specifically designed to meet the requirements of certain branches of work for which standard designs have proved unsuitable, or at least not so highly efficient as the new, and although we have been able to draw attention to many interesting types, we quite realize that we have by no means exhausted their possibilities, and that there are actually hundreds of special motor-propelled vehicles and devices about which little is heard except by chance.