A New Development in Home Fuel Supplies, .
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WE ARE importing about 330,000,000 gallons of motor spirit per annum, whereas common sense tells us that we ought to put ourselves in a position to be independent, so far as is practicable, of all overseas sources of supply, and particularly of alien sources. At present such a, course is not entirely practical, but a great deal can be done to . encourage home production of fuel, and one is impelled to wonder whether the promises concerning low temperature carbonization of coal will be fulfilled under the improving post-war financial conditions. This process, of course, depends mainly upon the consumption of coal gas and coke. Without suitable outlets for these products of carbonization, the cost of distilling volatile oils suitable for internal-combustion engines would be prohibitive. In gas production in this country about twenty million tons of coal is consinned each year, and if all the gas plants were converted to the more modern process, discovered by the late Thomas Parker about 1903, a yield of sixty million gallons of rectified benzoic, as well as a very large quantity of fuel oil, would be possible. But such a conversion is only partly attainable, and all one can hope for at present is the slow but sure adoption of this or any other new system which is capable of proving its economic worth..
An opportunity for providing this evidence in a new form is presented by reason of a contract ,which has just been entered into by the Nottingham Corporation with a company which has been responsible for the development of low temperature coal carbonization, under which contract a plant neW being set up at Nottingham will carbonize about a thousand tons of coal per day and will supply to the -Corporation's mains two million cubic feet of gas per day. The distillation plant will produce daily 3,000 gallons of rectified benzole and 6,000 or 7,000 gallons of Diesel oil. From each ton of coal 13 cwt. to 15 cwt. of coalite will be obtained, and this will be sold as a smokeless house hold fuel. I There are other by-products, with which we need not here deal, nor need we go into the. processes of carbonization, distillation and extraction, the whole of which are treated in an article which appears in the current issue of The Motor.
It is claimed that, if other Municipal authorities will. look into the system when it is in full operation . at Nottinghatn, it will be found that gas of a .better quality than that now generally procurable can be supplied at a price below their own cost of production; whilst the main and by-products, in the way of benzoic, Diesel oil, lubricating oils, grease, sulphate of ammonia, smokeless fuel, and chemicals should materially help to reduce costs of those materials in the open market.
Edmonton's Return to Electric Vehicles.
WE ARE glad to observe that the newly elected Urban District Council of Edmonton has had the good sense to decide upon the re-employment of the fine fleet of electric vehicles belonging to this municipality, taken out of service about a year ago as a result of the political agitation of certain. membere of the council which was in office at that time. We commented very strongly upon the retrograde step when it was taken, and published an article based on inside information and containing proofs, which could not be refuted, that the employment of the electric vehicles had not only had a most beneAcial result on the dust collection work of the borough, but actually carried it out at an average 'cost per,ton-mile of nearly as. less than could have been achieved by the use of horsed vehicles. • Before the electric vehicles were put into operation about four years ago the council had as many as 50 complaints concurrently on the inefficiency of the dust-collection system, which, at that time, was performed by outside contractors, and it was as a, result of this general dissatisfaction that, after collecting reports from many other municipal areas vhere electric vehicles were employed, the council cocided to purchase five electric vehicles of 2-ton 6apacity and to build a well-equipped garage, complete with charging plant. The fleet was in use for nearly three years, and it did excellent work, whilst the bill for replacements a,nd repairs was almost negligible. Even after standing idle for nearly a year the vehicles are but little the worse, and it is expected that the whole fleet will be brought into service again in the early part of this month at a cost of roughly £700, which is the amount required for renewing the old batteries.
Accuracy in Manufacture.
THE accuracy with which commercial vehicle parts are manufactured is of prime importance 1! to the user. To begin with, strict interchangeability is essential if spare parts are to be fitted ,.. without undue trouble, but, in addition, the durability of the chassis as a whole depends upon the accuracy with which mating parts fit together. , The war was responsible for a great advance in accurate machine-shop methods and the use of gauges, and the principles underlying production *ithin standard limits are now fully understood. It. is clear, however, that the finer the limits the greater will be the cost of the part concerned, so that any method whereby the tolerance permitted in the machine shop can be increased without affecting the quality of the product ia to be weicom.ed. Obviously, if a part is to be made and passed in accordance with set gauges, then the accuracy of the gauges largely controls the machine-shop limits. Thus, if a finished shaft must be within onethousandth of an inch above or below a certain size, and the gauge can only be guaranteed to be within half a thousandth, then only haj a thousandth is left as the grinder's allowance for that part. With dead-• accurate gauges, his allowance would be doubled and the cost or loss materially reduced. Dead accuracy is an impossibility, but much can now be done to implove the setting of the gauges. In this connection, we were very impressed recently with a new measuring machine produced by a British concern, which makes the commercial measurement of gauges, to an accuracy of tenmillionths of an inch a practical possibility. Such machines make possible a very desirable reduction fn manufacturing costs without in any way sacrificing the quality of the product.
Needless Purchase Delays.
ONE WOULD have thought that it was clearly understood in the commercial motor world that the McKenna duties did not apply to vehicles, chassis, or parts which would be employed in the transport of goods or for certain passenger uses, but it is apparent that there is some confusion in the ininds of users and potential buyers of vehicles, because quite a number of orders have been held up or postponed until after July. So far as the carrying of goods is concerned, buying departments will not reap any benefit from the with. drawal of the duties as from August 1st, because they have only applied to private cars and to such passenger-carrying vehicles (chassis and parts are embraced in the word " vehicle " for the purposes of our remarks) as are not employed as omnibuses or ply for hire on the public highway. Hence there is no point in delaying a purchase, particularly as to do so would largely imperil the success of the year's operations. In the case of passenger-carrying vehicles which are to be engaged on private hire work and on the imported parts of which, therefore, an import duty would have to be paid, it will be found that the importers are prepared at once to make concessions, whilst British manufacturers are fully alive to the conditions of the market and are ready to meet the added competition which may thus he introduced into their dealings with their, customers. , Revelations in Engine Design.
IT is almost certain that in some commercial vehicles the engines are not being employed to the best advantage. Information which affords ample proof of this has lately come into our possession, for in certain instances standard engines, after having been used in a certain size of chassis, have been transferred to chassis designed to carry heavier loads, and they then appear to exhibit quite different characteristics from those which were formerly noted. , This is probably due to the fact that formerly these engines were not being utilized at their best speed. With the lower final-drive gear ratio necessitated on the heavier chassis, the normal running speeds have been altered so that better power results .combined with economy are obtained. This question of the best engine speed is a problem of very considerable importance, and yet one which has proved a stumbling-block to many designers. It may be thought a simple matter to settle the question for any particular size of vehicle, but it is very difficult to lay down any arbitrary 'law, and the final result, if satisfaction is to be ensured, is to find a mean between the gear ratio giving the utmost economy and that which takes best advantage of the _ power curve of the engine. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, even engines themselves differ, although they may be of the same model and similar capacity, and it is manifestly impossible to do other than provide the approximately correct ratio. Yet, in our opinion, the matter stilt requires a full investigation. A particular type of vehicle may be doomed to embody an engine not really suited to it just because this particular type of engine was fitted in the first instance, and no experiments have afterwards been conducted to ascertain if improvements can be effected in the correct relationship of the power unit and the remainder of the chassis.