Historical notes ...
Page 24
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I, TOO like Mr May (CM October 15} and Mr Buglass (CM November 5) think of Commercial Motor as much more than an operators' journal. In fact since the demise of The Automobile Engineer in 1970 to a controlled circulation magazine, have been relying heavily on CM for information on all aspects of commercial vehicles including broad aspects of design.
A book of reprints of special issues including the first could be very interesting as a general reference. For car enthusiasts Autocar has already done this in Motoring Milestones and other publishers have had various attempts at it. The difficulty however with this approach is that fixed volume might not satisfy all enthusiasts.
I would like to see a monthly or occasional page of historical notes with dates of leading CM articles of the day and if CM is not able to provide a service for reprints then also an occasional review of organisations, including museums, who can produce photocopies.
It is always an advantage, and saves time and research fees, if actual reference dates can be quoted. This should be of even greater help to people living outside the UK such as our readers in Alberta.
Although the value of reviewing the past may not be generally appreciated, the need to keep abreast of present and future developments is no doubt of vital importance. On this front few would doubt the value of CM but this service could be further improved.
It is not possible to assimilate all the information in regular "weekly dosses". Could the journal be rearranged so that each article of one page or more could be separated from the rest of the text so that the reader could retain those articles in which he is particularly interested in a subject order of his own choice in a loose leaf system of some sort. Those generally supplied to hold full copies are not suitable for such a scheme.
This could be achieved by a more flexible placing of articles and advertisements so that no article begins or ends back to back on the same sheet of paper. It might even give advertisers more scope than at present.
Combined with appropriate historical reprints, this could provide the reader with a really dynamic reference fully in tune with the technological age.
ADRIAN HALL, Liverpool.