France and Commercial Motors.
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Second Illustrated Report of the Trials now Completed-(continued frem page 4131.
We followed the competing vehicles in our account of last week to Amiens, where the depot in the 1.1 lotoie Gardens was admirably arranged. It will be noticed from the illustration to the right that the military wagons were all flanked by a trellis of laths bound securely together with steel wire, and fastened to stakes in the ground. After the close of the second day, amounting to 187 miles for the omnibuses, the three tricycle-carriers, and Nos. 5 and 33, and to to5 miles for the other machines, there were two further mishaps to report. Neither of the De Dietrich vehicles in Class II A came in, but the large De Dion-Bouton omnibus, whose driver had neglected his lubrication on the first day's run from Paris, arrived during Sunday, after repairing the engine and gear. Accordingly, of 65 vehicles entered for the trials, 57 had started from Paris, 53 had completed
the first day's run to Compiegne, and 52 had reached Amiens. Here we left therm Crossing to Le Havre on Thursday night last, we were given many accounts of incidents connected with the motor-boat races, but they are dealt with in entertaining fashion by our contemporary, " The Motor Boat." We were in company with Lt.-Col. E. Crompton, C7.B., Mr. W.
Worby Beaumont, M.Inst.C.E., and Mr. Douglas Mackenzie, A.M.T.M.F.., as members of the deputation to represent the Motor Van and Wagon Users' Association. At the last moment Mr. Everard R. Calthrop, and the secretary, Mr. W. Rees JefTreys, were unavoidably detained in town. The Central Hall formed an admirable 'storage place for the competing vehicles, whilst it proved convenient, too, for the many visitors who attended to examine them. Baron Zuylen, the Marquis de Dion, M.
Moreau (president of the local committee), M Famechon, I.umet, Long-uentare, Sautin and others quickly took chargo of us, and proved unceasing in their attentions. We found the two De Dietrich omnibuses (Nos. 43 and 44) in their places they had rejoined the cavalcade, as had the De Dion (No. st) earlier in the tests. Under Article 7 of the rules, any competing vehicle which has not reached the end of any day's run by 4 a.m. the following morning loses its position for any award, but has the right to continue in the trials and to be exhibited. There were, therefore, 54 vehicles on view. and a careful inspection was made by the English delegates both before and after the deieuner. The official banquet took place at the Restaurant Frascati, when close upon one hundred of those interested in the tests sat down under the chairmanship of Baron Zuylen. In addition to the gentlemen named above, the company included General Lambert (representing the Minister of War), NIM J. Siegfried and Brindeau (deputies for Le Havre), M. Maillart (Mayor of Le Havre), Captain Feist (representing the Minister for the Colonies), the presidents and vice-presidents of the local chambers of commerce, and numher of nmrchants in the town. In responding to the toast of the visitors, Colonel Crompton referred to the great advantage of mechanical transport in saving the lives of animals, particularly in time of war, and expressed the hope that Baron Zuylen and many of those present would attend the English trials, which were to begin on Sepiember 21st. At 5 o'clock the following prizes were formally presented at the exhibition :—Bronze objet d'art, given by the Chamber of Commerce for the first omnibus to ar rive at Le Havre, to Eugene Brillie (No. 54); two Sevres vases, given by the town of Le Havre for the second omnibus to arrive, to the Mors (No. 53); third prize to the Krieger (No. 46). Awards for tyres : A vase, given by the society for the fetes, to Maison Thorillon; a silver-gilt plate, given by the town of Le Havre, to Falcunnet-Perodeaud; a silver-gilt medal, given by the mayor of Le Havre, Societe Ducasble. Award for wheels : A jardiniere, given by the society for the fetes, to the Arbel disc wheel on the Krieger (Na. 46). It is of interest to mention that the A.C.F. is most assiduous in its measures to pay compliments to the local organisers, and not only the competitors received some recompense, but all the leading workers at Le Havre, as at Compiegne, Amiens, and Dieppe, were given a souvenir in the name of the French Club. Other entertainments and receptions took place in the evening.
We availed ourselves of the express train leaving Le Havre at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning, and arrived at the Rouen dep6t shortly after io o'clock, to find only the Gillet-Forest (No. 4), the Aries (No. 23), and the Clement (No. 30), of Class Ill B, and the Delalmye military wagon (No. 91) already in position there. This depot had been arranged by the Rouen Chamber of Commerce, on the Gaston Boulet Quay, at the foot of the transporter bridge, which is similar in construction to the one recently opened between Widnes and Runcorn. It consisted of a huge single-storey shed, which had been admirably enclosed by stout canvas sheeting, and afterwards splendidly embellished with flags and other decorations, as will he gathered from the several illustrations. We were received here by
the Rouen local committee, headed by M. Leblond, the mayor of that city. In the classification for vehicles carrying more than 2,000 kilos., the German Daimler arrived first, with its usual regularity, having travelled from Le Havre at an average speed throughout in excess of 12 miles an hour. Only a few minutes behind it, and having occupied exactly 15 minutes longer in covering the trip of 55 miles from Le Havre, came the Turg-an petrol lorry (No. 12). There was then an interval of ihr. 26min. before another vehicle in this class, the De Dion-Bouton (No. 8), reached the dep6t. Subsequent arrivals reported two mishaps on the road. The Cottereau lorry (No. 28) had collided with a horse-drawn vehicle near Caudebec, with the result that the front axle and springs were displaced and a front tyre nearly ripped off. The two vehicles remained lucked together across the highway for close upon an hour and a half, with resulting delay for the competitors who came up behind them, but the Cottereau driver successfully restored the vehicle to a running condition, and wired on the tyre where it had been pulled from the rim, the whole repair being much to his credit, and the vehicle's arrival in the depot early on Sunday morning was somewhat unexpected. The other mishap was rather more serious, this being a failure of the steering rod of the small GardnerSerpollet omnibus (No. 47), which occurred while the vehicle was running down a winding hilt between Totes and Neufchatel. The omnibus mounted a bank at the side of
the road and capsized. the driver having his shoulder dislocated, and the eight passengers being severely bruised. As each machine arrived at the Rouen depot the fuel consumption measurements were taken by M. Longuemare, assisted by M. Lumet and other officials of the French Club, whilst the military vehicles were taken in hand by the commission of officers in the customary fashion and with a wonted thoroughness. It was only on this run that any vehicles, other than the omnibuses in Class V A, and the military wagons, were recorded in respect of fuel consump
Lion, this being in accordance with Article g of the rules. No specially striking result from the standpoint of economical consumption was recorded. A large number of people attended the Rouen exhibition, and a huge grand stand had been arranged, running the whole length of one side of the enclosure, for the purpose of welcoming the various bouts arriving from Le Havre in connection with the Maritime Fetes arranged by the French Touring Club. A reception was held at the Town Hall the same evening, and the whole of Sunday was devoted to various functions, which concluded with a banquet at the Hotel de l'Angleterre and a display of firework,.
Our party had now diminished to two, Mr. W. Worby Beaumont, M.Inst.e.E., being the only other English delegate who proceeded as far as Mantes to represent the Motor Van and Wagon Users' Association. This was the penultimate stage of the trials, and already there was that indefinite yet unmistakable sense of pleasure which attends upon the mere fact that the end of an undertaking is close at hand. The drivers, upon many of whom the'early hours and hard driving were already beginning to tell, appeared to be somewhat more cheerful as they departed from Rouen on Monday morning. This may, to some extent, have been accounted for by the later hour which was sanctioned for the start that day. It had been approved by the committee to take place at 7 a.m., whereas on nearly all the previous occasions it had been at least one hour earlier, but the road from Rouen to Mantes is of a fairly level character, and the distances were only 49 miles for the goods vehicles and 85 for the omnibuses. We took the train from Rouen, through Gaillon. Vernon and Bonnieres to Mantes, in the knowledge that the road ran for some eight or nine miles close to the railway at the particular points where we should pick up the vehicles. This proved to be the case, and it was interesting
to witness the running of the goods vehicles without experiencing the ioltings which are inseparable from a closer acquaintance, although a local train on the chernin de fer de l'Oues1 is not exactly an ideal mode of travelling! Forty miles in 4 hours is the customary practice, and this allowed of our watchtng the heavy wagons and omnibuses without any undue excitation of the retina. We do not quite know why the French Club did not arrange for a certain number of light cars to follow the trials, and to leave the various towns some two hours later than the competing vehicles, as
as repeatedly done by the Liverixiol Self-propelled Traffic Association in connection with their several competitions in the years 1698 to 1901. As it was, no means existed of getting along the road other than upon one of the competing niachines, which meant considerable discomfort and a restricted scope tor observation.
At the depot at Mantes, which town is of historic interest in connection with the France-Prussian war, the vehicles were " parked " in the beautiful Ile de Mantes just beyond the bridge over the Seine. A number ol people had driven out from Paris—only 32 miles distant—to welcome back the participants in the competition, rand their interest was certainly not second to that of the natives. The first section to be completed here was that for the military " fourgons," and th.! traditional awe with which these vehicles were regarded lost no degree of its accustomed reverence. It was distinctly amusing to feel that one rae an imminent risk of a prod from a bayonet did one attempt to approach these sacrosanct motors, which were surrounded by wire (not barbed, we hasten to add) in addition. Again the German Daimler was first, the Turgnn petrol lorry second, and, this time, as though to compensate for its unfortunate encounter with a hippomobile on the previous run, the Cotterenu (No. 28) was third, these "three being in the classification for vehicles carrying more than two tons (2,000 kilos.). In the omnibus section, the Mors (No. s3) kept pride of place, with the big Gardner-Serpollet (No. 48) second, and the Eugene Brillid (No-54) a good third. The consistent running a the first and third of these machines has been one of the prominent features of the trials.
We shall have occasion, at an early date, to deal al some rength with several of the vehicles which have been competing in these trials, but general impressions can be given now. Nothing arose during our second visit to lead us to vary our conclusion that the French mechanic possesses a misconceived notion of the necessary qualities which go to make a good driver for goods vehicles. Time after time did we see competing vehicles with steel-t■ red wheels travel over very had stretches of pave at is miles an hour ! In at least a citizen cases one could detect the latent signs of structural failure in the wheels of these machines, evidence of slackness being clearly visible to those who have had occa sion to fear for the worst when such indications became appermit in the first few weeks of a vehicle's life. We did not wonder, therefore, to see sacks over some of the wheels in the Mantes depot and the drivers saturating them with WaLCr in a vain endeavour to tighten up the spokes and felloes which had better been nursed by prevention. Then, again, one was able to get hold of zit least half-a-dozen slack nuts on many of the wheels, except where both the nut and the bolt had disappeared through shearing in one or two cases. Doubtlessly French drivers and French manufacturers will learn the lesson which was inculcated at Liverpool in 'SO, for it is certain that they must abandon the idea of high speed as an essential factor if they wish to command success in commercial motor undertakings. it is only after several years of repeated warning that English drivers have :11>preciated the importance of going slowly over had stretches of road; in short, of making the pace where the load is good and of going, if necessary, at only two miles an hour where the road is bad. The urgent cause for makingthis essential difference in their methols of driving must be learnt by our French cousins without delay. Further, on the subject of
wheels, a large number of French makers are using those of the artillery type with the spokes pocketed at the relics end and fitted with adjusting and locking nuts to take up any slackness, this system. being applied almost universally even with solid rubber tyres. A bad feature in the design of some of the vehicles is the use of very small driving wheels, several of the machines being fitted with rear wheels measuring only 31in. in diameter. This served to cinphasise the contrast between one or two vehicles which had unusually large driving wheels, and some of which were fitted with steel tyres as thick as 'Pe Nearly ;ill the steel tyres on the competing vehicles were too narrow to be legal in England; in fact, only two vehicles, the N.A.G. (No. 9) and the Turgan steam wagon (Na. 13) had the necessary legal minima, and even then it is an open question whether the sin. steering band on the former vehicle might not render it illeged as it stands, although, of course, that is easily removeable. Several other vehicles were legal, so far as English regulations go, in respect of their driving wheels, but we clearly see that the use of the
majority of the competing machines on macadam roads under winter conditions must, with their present wheel dimensions, be attended by serious difficulties. The Arbel disc wheel on the two Kreger vehicles is strong and simple in construction by the employment of pressed steel. The brakes, generaily speaking, are ol ample strength and surface, though some of me lorries had carried away their band brakes betore the end of tare tout Lb stage. One po.nt ot particular novelty was the art angement of the brake gear on the rear axle or the Laul auaitt train (No. 14 In this case the heads of the Lemoine bands are coupled to arms from the rod carrying the shoes which bear upon the front of the rear wheels, which arrangement results in a doublebraking action as soon as tIse. driver applies this brake. The arms, which are forked, are also arranged to be encircled on one branch by the ordinary spring in compression to release the shoes. We have never seen a combinatoa of this kind before. Mention of the Latil system also reminds us to point out that the pull front the fore-carriage is not taken through the frame of the wagon, as a stout wire rope connects a vertical pin passing through the front axle to a hook held in a bracket on the back axle.
Transmission, except in the steam and electric vehicles, is invariably of the sliding toothed-wheel type as regards changes ot the ratio of gear between the engine and the road wheels, but there is a majority of machines using chain drive in preference to ceirdan. Sonic of the chains are too light for their work, though we noticed, With satisfaction, a free use of chains by leading English makers such as Hans Renold. the Coventry Chain Company, and Brampton Brothers. An interesting modification of the Renold type of chain is that known as the Fiat, in which the extreme outside members of each alternate link are made solid instead of toothed. The semi-circular flange so formed serves as a guide to keep the chain on the toothed wheels. In two systems a belt drive is employed from the engine to the first shaft in the gear box.
The frames are of all varieties—armoured wood, tubular, pressed steel and steel channel. The armoured wood, which ' varies in depth from 4in. to 81in., appears to be chiefly favoured, and in most cases there are neat steel cross bearers. Several of the wooden frames which had very light flitch plates were sagging to the extent of a couple of inches at Mantes.
We have little occasion to find fault with the springs, and some of them were certeinly of a very excellent type. We particularly noticed the long flat springs on the Cohendet -lorries (Nos. 15 and 16). the back springs being no less than esin. long and the front springs only am. less. There are 13 leaves in each of the back springs. Mention of these machines reminds us that it is only fair to state how much better they have done in the trials than we had reason to anticipate from their performance on the first day. It will be recollected that we observed these machines undergoing various small adjustments at Compiegne, but we are satis
fied that these were only of the nature which any good mechanics would bestow upon the vehicles under their care during a stoppage to obtain water, as is rendered necessary for these two vehicles from the fact that they have no radiator. Each tank has a capacity of about 55 gallons, and the makers estimate that gall, is evaporated per mile. The tyre question is certainly no more settled in France, ae regards the use of rubber, than it is in England. The variety of equipment of this kind proved very great, whilst the tyre which was given the award at Le Havre is of a well-known American type, with transverse metal bars every Inca of its length to take the very considerable pres
sure of the circumferential wires. Probably the most striking feature which came under our notice was that of the different degrees of heating which were to be detected. The greatest generation of heat appeared to occur where the tyre was pretty deep on the rim, and a succession of comparisons which we made indicated that, for equal weights, the thinner the mass of rubber the cooler the tyre kept in running. One of the direct comparisons we were able to make was between certain tyres only min. deep, and others 2iin. deep, and we agree with Mr. Worby Beaumont, ho first drew attention to the matter many years ago, that a very thin tyre is preferable to a thick one, presuming a reasonable width. Where the tyre does not stand up much from the rim, there is obviously less leverage and less internal work on the rubber from oscillatory movements, arid this view confirms the facts actually recorded. The Sirdar tyres on the Mors omnibus (No. 53) appeared in perfect condition at Mantes, where we left the vehicles on Monday night last, and we are pleased to record this in recognition of the enterprise of Mr. MacLulich in sending them over to the Continent. One more point of interest is that the lack of uniformity between the widths of the two members of a twin-tyred driving wheel attracted our notice. We found that the inner tyres next to the frame on each side were half an inch wider than the two outer tyres. The idea, possibly, is that the inner sides of the driving wheels get a better bearingon a cambered road surface. One other tyre calls for specific mention—it is the Le Francais. This consists of a series of rubber blocks, each block being about Oin. long by 3in. broad, and varying in thickness between min. and 21n. The blocks, or pads, are individually secured under a series of plates, which lap over one another and over the bases of the moulded rubber blocks, each plate having two 5-16in. rivets passed through it, the nuts being alternately inside and outside the rim. These tyres proved to have worn very well as regards splitting, only two of them being divided out of 118 in use on five driving wheels. Vehicle No. 2 had two rows of rt pads on each driving wheel ; vehicle No. 8 two rows of 13 pads; and vehicle No. 44 had the off-side driving wheel fitted with two rows of mm. The greater wear on the rearmost end of each pad was to be detected on inspection.