Our Scheme for Eliminating the Horse. The Suggested Subsidy.
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THE draught horse (we regret to say it, for it is a pleasure to be able to see and admire a well-groomed and well-driven team) is anomalous in the busy streets of a great city. Its doom as a beast of burden in the shafts of anythipg heavier than a landau or a victoria used for the Park has long been predicted, but its vitality has helped It to confound all the prophets. The commencement of the railway era induced the far-seeing ones to rush blindly into print and to commit theinselveS to statements which many of them lived to regret. The coming of the motorcar found the scribes inore wary, for was not the horse, after 60 years of railway development, even more largely used Min ever? Besides which, the motor vehicles of those last few years of the old century scarcely foreshadowed the motor vehicle of to-day—brought, as it has been, to a high stage of efficiency, cleanliness, reliability, smartness and usefulness. Neither are we, at this stage of transport development, prepared to make any kind of a prophecy ! If the horse has to disappear from congested traffic areas, let us rather submit a suggestion embodying the means for accelerating his departure! But do not ask us to provide a whip for our own shoulders, to be taken from the shelves in 50 years' time to punish us for our imperfect prevision !
At long last (and it took over 25 years for the British nation—represented by the official classes —to override its innate conservatism) we have reached the point of encouraging the acceleration of the traffic. For 20 years we strongly repressed speed ; we trapped the advocates' of speed, we tined them, we put them in prison and tried to deal with the fast-growing traffic congestion by expensive street widenings, turning deaf ears to enlight ened writers who demonstrated the fact that an increase in traffic speed was equivalent in effect to doubling the width of the streets—and not merely a few streets, but every street !—and that the benefit could be gained in one day at the stroke of the pen instead of waiting many years for rebuilding to be accomplished.
Traffic speed has already increased as the result of a relaxation of repressive measures ; it could be doubled by the elimination of the horse, and thus, at another stroke of the pen, a distinct advantage could immediately be enjoyed by the whole of the business community. For the horse, set to draw heavy loads, is slow, and unfortunately it is seldom kept close to the near-side kerb, because the driver dislikes having to pull out to pass any and every vehicle stationary at the kerbside. Hence, it occupies the most useful part of the fairway, and is always to be found at the head of a line of slow-moving vehicles, all capable of a much higher speed, but all held in leash. The Commercial Motor has suggested the way to overcome the natural objection of a horse owner to sacri#ce the advantage of low transport cost which his use of animal traction gives him. It is suggested that the simple course4 of imposing a time limit and of paying a subsidy be tried. Let it be enacted that in three years' time horsed vehicles will be barred entrance to certain streets and roads, and, in order to accelerate the transition from horsed traction to mechanical haulage, Pt an owner be given a grant for every horsed 'vehicle so deposed, the grant diminishing to zero by the end of the third year. The Road Fund seems at once to be the appropriate source for the grants and the Ministry of Transport the body to administer the scheme. Can such a scheme not be put into effect?
Designing to Meet the Tax.
BOTH users and manufacturers of commercial vehicles have been exercising their minds in the direction of how best to reduce to the minimum the increased burden of taxation with which the user Is now faced, whilst the manufacturer is also considering the possible effect which this burden may have on vehicle production. Without in any way trying to evade what must be suffered by all, it is the natural right of the user to obtain as much carrying capacity as is possible within the limit of the tax for any particular class of vehicle. Just a few pounds In excess of a certain unladen weight will increase the tax of a comparatively light model by more than 50 per cent. Take, for instance, a 30-cwt. model. Many of these at present only slightly exceed 2 tons in unladen weight as a complete vehicle, and if this can be reduced to within the 2-ton limit the tax, instead of being £40, becomes £26.
• For many years we have pointed out the necessity for eliminating what merely constitutes superfluous weight by the further employment of lighter materials, such as alloys of aluminium, and by cutting out weight at unnecessary points by careful design, and it would appear that such a procedure will now be enforced in certain instances not by law but by sheer necessity. The influence of the new taxation will certainly be felt by the manufacturer in the demands for particular models, for the user will not be at all satisfied with a vehicle which must exceed, say, 2 tons, but is a long way from reaching the 3-ton limit. He will then feel that to buy such a vehicle would involve him in paying heavily in taxation for a load capacity which he is not employing to full advantage.
The Taxation of Six-wheelers.
9-1HE amount of the tax payable on articulated six-wheeled vehicles (whether propelled by petrol, steam or electricity) seems to be a matter of doubt if we may judge from the correspondence which reaches us from interested readers. As the result of difficulties which had arisen in the interpretation of the provisions of the law, a special clause was inserted in the Finance Act of 1923, Section 10, reading as follows :— Where a vehicle is used in combination with a trailer which has not more than two wheels
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in contact with the ground, and is so constructed and by partial superimposition so attached to the vehicle that at all times the weight on the rear axle of the vehicle exceeds the weight of the axle of the trailer, the vehicle and trailer shall for the purpose of determining the rate of duty chargeable under the Second Schedule to the Finance Act, 1920, but not for any other purpose, be treated as if it were a single vehicle used for drawing a trailer.
The definition exactly fits the tractor-trailer combination as we know it, and, as this weighs unladen from slightly under to somewhat over 6 tons, the tax on such a vehicle with an electrically propelled tractor would be £30 and on one propelled by an internal-combustion engine or by steam £60 per annum, plus the additional duty of £6 for the right to draw the trailer portion. The words in Section 10 which seem to be misunderstood are those in the last sentence, as quoted above. There appear to be two ways of reading this sentence, but the correct one would seem to be that the vehicle must be taxed "on the unladen weight of the complete six-wheeler, with the addition of the duty for the right of drawing a trailer." and we have decided to add those words to the note of explanation that appears in our published scale of Motor Vehicle Taxation. We shall be pleased to send to any reader enclosing a stamped addressed envelope a copy of this Scale of Taxation. On comparison, it seems to be the fullest andclearest that has so far appeared. We do know that a considerable amount of trouble was expended in its preparation.
High Speeds and Their Effect on Solid Tyres.
A S a result of the general speeding up of transLinort following the more extensive employment of pneumatic tyres, there is a temptation for the owners and drivers of solid-tyred vehicles to run these also at higher aferage speeds than were formerly reached, and some are then surprised to find that the tyres may in certain circumstances not stand up to the work quite so well as before. Nothing is more deleterious to a solid tyre than running it too fast, quite apart from all consideration of resulting damage which may be done to road surfaces and foundations. The constant ham: mering to which a solid tyre is subjected in such circumstances causes the generation of much heat, and this heat is apt to be retained within the mass of rubber and not dissipated in the same manner as occurs in the case of the pneumatic tyre, in which, incidentally, the heating is not so great. There is often also the additional heat derived from the brake drums, as with the higher speeds braking must necessarily occur more often and be more violent. Excessive tyre impact causes fracturing of the vulcanite base, and centrifugal force on the mass of rubber adds to the separating action between tyre and tyre baud. Impacts at speed may also momentarily quadruple the loads which a tyre has to maintain, and this alone may cause bulging and cracking. According to tests which have been made in America there is another factor which has to be considered, and that is the internal generation of • gases due to overheating of the rubber and its constituents. These gases form blisters within the tyre, destroy the affinity between tyre and tyre band, and may even cause bursts through the tyre walls. Driving at speed has another effect, again due to rapid braking, as this may cause the wheels to lock and thus assist in the development of flats, and once a flat appears the life of such a tyre is strictly limited.