HOW THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE IS FARING.
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Some Remarkable Figures Regarding Refuse Collection. Why the 8,000 Horses still Used for this Work Could Mostly be Replaced by Electric Vehicles. Details of Costs.
J)URING the past 12 months there have been several developments of an important nature concerning the employment of battery electric vehicles for municipal work, particularly in the re moval of house refuse and the collection of cleansings from the streets. In the main, the develop
ments have been satisfactory, and certain doubts as to the advantages of employing them, which began to show themselves in 1923, were for the most part dispelled. The market is not yet all that might be wished, but there are encouraging signs for the future, and there is no doubt that as proofs of the great advantages of the electric vehicle continue to manifest themselves, orders will increase.
• Some remarkably interesting statements regarding the collection of refuse in England and Wales were made in October last by Mr. J. Dawes,. 0.B.., M.I.Mech.E., at the annual conference of the Institute of Cleansing Superintendents, of which he was president. Incidentally, he is the Chief Inspector of Cleansing at the Ministry of Health and, therefore, has authoritative sources for his statements. According to him' the collection and disposal of house and trade refuse in England and Wales costs .-t7,500,000, involves the use of 8,000 horses, 2,000 power-propelled vehicles, and gives employment to 34,000 men, the total amount of solid waste prodied being approximately 11,000,000 tons. It will thus be observed from these figures that over half the total collecting work is done by 'horses, and here lies a large field for the exploitation of the electric vehicle.
We do not affirm positively that the whole of this large number of horses could be displaced so that a skying could be effected in every instance, but there is no doubt that the majority of these horses. could be dispensed with. The instances where saving might possibly not be effected are where short hauls are the vogue, for then full advantage cannot be taken of the essential qualification of the electric vehicle, i.e., rapid acceleration between stops and, coneequently, a, large increase in the average speed ; added to this is also the ability to run to and from the tip or destructor much niore rapidly than can be done by horses.
Every • municipal area presents its own peculiar groblems in this matter of refuse collection, and it is practically impossible to generalize, except in the matter of the number of stops to the ton of material, which is roughly 54, but when it comes to other
• factois the " carries 'I ,.vary from nothing, when the Lin may be right against the kerb, to as far as 200 yards, or 10,800 yards to the ton, whilst the hauls may vary from half a mile to four miles. At this juncture, it may be of interest to compare the merits and demerits of electric traction ai applied to this work. Dealing first with its virtues, the electric vehicle gives complete freedom from smoke and smell, a remarkable degree of silence, ease of control, which makes it simple to teach horse drivers in a short time, rapid acceleration from rest, simple maintenance, long life and ease of garaging, as an electric vehicle for its load capacity occupies remarkably little space, and in some cases where front-entrance cabs are used, the vehicles can be parked hub to hub. In addition, there is little danger of fire, and a high degree of cleanliness, even in the garage, where the oil droppings compare favourably with those of other types of vehicle. The weak points are restricted mileage (although this matters little in municipal work where the mileage seldom exceeds 20 to 30 per day)„ and the comparatively heavy cost of the batteries, although these are guaranteed for from two to eight years, so that the actual cost can be estimated with considerable accuracy. On long runs, and in hilly districts, the electric vehicle is also at a disadvantage
in the matter of speed as compared with other mechanically propelled vehicles, but there is this to consider, the electric vehicle seldom enters those spheres of activity which are considered the prerogatives of petrol and steam, therefore, its principal metier is in the supplanting of the horse. Comparing the merits and demerits, we are certainly of the opinion that the merits clearly outweigh the disadvantages, and this fact will be more strikingly apparent as the present congestion of traffic in cities and towns becomes more acute, as it must necessarily do with the increase in the number of vehicles employed, and despite all efforts which are being made to improve thoroughfares and to establish links and by-passes.
The electric vehicle has proved itself one of the fastest in heavy traffic conditions, and if it came to comparing the factors of congestion of an electric vehicle and an ordinary horse vehicle, we should place it at quite one to three.
Even when comparing the electric vehicle with the horse in respect of housing facilities, we find that the electric vehicle requires only from one-third to one-half the total space occupied by horse, wagon, bedding, harness, fodder, etc., and it has been shown that it is a bigger problem to care for the food supply of a horse than for that of a human being.
If we look at the matter from a sanitary aspect, there is, again, a strong argument in favour of the clean electric, which, certainly cannot be accused of providing breeding places for flies. Now we will consider the subject from the point of view of actual users of electric vehicles. Take, for instance, the City of Birmingham. Here, in the cleansing department, the unit of transport is either an electric vehicle with four men, or a four-wheeled horsed wagon with two men, according to local conditions, and what is known as the continuous system is employed, each vehicle commencing its work on Monday morning at the first house on the working Est, usually at a point farthest from the tip, and
proceeding from'house to house and street to street in the order of the list. It is obvious that this new system could not possibly be worked entirely by horses, as the distances of the outer areas in the 13 districts which have to beworked would permit the horses to make only two journeys. In all cases at Birmingham the maximum economical distance for the horse is placed at l miles. Two kinds of batteries are used in the Birmingham vehicles, the Edison and the Exide Ironclad. The first-named is guaranteed for eight years, or 60,000 miles, and the latter for two years, but as zegards the Exide Ironclad only one broke down after two and three-quarter years of service.
Some of the figures of costs are truly remarkable. Take, for instance, the case of High Wycombe: Here an Edison accumulator electric performed its work of collection at a cost, exclusive of capital charges, of 3s. llid. per ton, and inclusive of repayment of capital costs, interest and depreciation, of 5s. 91d. per ton. The cost of removal by horsed vehicles was 98. Hid, per ton, so that a clear saving of 4s. 2d. was effected, this being equivalent to £556 per year.
Again, as regards Norwich, figures compiled by the city engineer show that the cost of collection by electric is 4s. 1,1d. per cubic yard, as against
Gs. ofd. by horse and cart. Bla.ekpool also has achieved eminently satisfactory results, the cost of collection there being 3s. per ton less by electric wagons than by horses.
We could give numerous other examples where almost drastic economies have been effected through the employment of electric vehicles, but there are others where, despite the fact that the electries have proved slightly more expensive than horse transport, there has been no thought of returning to the old means, partly for the reason that the horsed vehicles could not cover the ground in the same manner, particularly in residential areas which are continually spreading, and partly because the work is performed far more rapidly and efficiently by the electries, and their speed assists in the prevention of a noxious effluvium remaining in the
streets after the passage of each vehicle. Again, in districts where cobble stones are utilized, the rattle of horsed carts is a disturbing factor in the life of the inhabitants ; this has been entirely removed where electrics have been employed. Kerbside control may do a great deal towards further popularizing the electric vehicle used for dust collection. Hitherto it has been practically impossible effectively to employ the driver for loading work owing to the time lost by him in descending from and mounting to his seat, but with the controls so arranged that the driver can drive the vehicle while himself walking on the kerb, practically no time is lost.
The advent of the electric tractor-lorry is also a development of considerable interest, as this permits a great increase in the amount of refuse which can be collected before it is necessary to proceed to the destructor or tip. The municipal authorities of quite a number of places in this country are now experimenting with these combined vehicles with, apparently, every prospect of success.