News and Comment.
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This journal fosters, represents, and chronicles commercial motoring in all its branches: our regular weekly circulation exceeds 8,003 copies, exclusive of any extra mailings of special issaz.s.
The R.A.C. Trials will, as we anticipated when the conditions were published, receive the necessary support to make them a success.
There were 29 entries in hand on Tuesday last, and the Club officials ate acquainted with many other intending competitors. So are we.
It is not difficult to understand the apparent hesitancy of some makers : they wait to see who is entering, before taking their own decision, . in order that particular competitors may be kept in a state of uncertainty to the last moment.
It looks as though there will be sufficient entrants in all but class A (mcwt. loads), and the largest number of vehicles in any one class to date are found in class E (3-ton loads). There is one, solitary wagon (Savage) in class G (6-ton loads), and it is not unlikely that this vehicle will be transferred to class F (s-ton loads).
Axle Weights.
There should be proper arrangements for the ascertaining of the axleweights, as some steam wagons run the 8-ton maximum very close when fully loaded. The checking of weights will certainly occupy considerable time, and the two days prior to the start, for which provision is made in the rules, will become a bustling period for all concerned.
Latest Entries.
A total of 24 vehicles has already been reported in this journal, week by week. Entries to hand since the 2nd instant are :—Charles Burrell and Sons, Ltd., Thetford, steam tractor in lass H ; St. Pancras Ironwork Co., Ltd., London, 5-ton steam wagon in lass F; Wolseley Tool and Motor ,..ar Co., Ltd., London, 3-ton petrollectric vehicle in class E; Wm. Foster Ind Co., Ltd., Lincoln, steam tractor in lass H; and A. R. Atkey and Co., Ltd., Nottingham, 3-ton petrol lorry Ln class E.
A reminder was sent to every known naker and likely entrant, early this week, by Mr. J. W. Orde, the organisng secretary. Nobody will, therefore, lave any cause for complaint if they lave to pay the extra -E;s in respect of ;ach late entry. We shall be dis_ tppointed if the total does not exceed 40 )efore our next issue is published.
The Judges.
There will be eighteen judges for the rials, five each being nominated by he Commercial Motor Users' Assolation, and the Society of Motor Maneacturers and Traders, and eight by he Royal Automobile Club. The :.M.U.A. has already, as we reported n our issue of the 20th ultimo, appointed Messrs. Coventry, Lobjoit, nackenzie, Thomson-Lyon and Dr. iele-Shaw. The S.M.M.T. contern plates the retention of the services of one gentleman as judge, in order that he may be present throughout the trials, but neither the name of this gentleman nor of the other four judges who will attend as may be subsequently arranged are available for publication at the moment. The R.A.C. has appointed Messrs. Worby Beaumont, J. Lyons Sampson, E. H. Cozens-Hardy, Dugald Clerk, A. G. New, Colonel Holden, Colonel Crompton and Captain Dyke Acland.
The offices of the Scottish Automobile Club have been removed to 163, West George Street, Glasgow, at which address the honorary secretary, Mr. Robert J. Smith, C.A., will be found.
Merryweather and Sons, Limited, of Greenwich Road, London, S.E., has received instructions from the London County Council to fit an improved fcrrm of steering gear to three of the Council's steam-propelled, motor fireengines, at an approximate cost of '3(:) per vehicle.
The presidential address of Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw, F.R.S., which was given last week to the engineering and architectural section of the Royal Institute of Public Health, at Douglas, reached us too late for publication in our issue of the 4th instant. We congratulate Dr. Hele-Shaw on his capacity for dealing with the vexed questions of noise and dust in a fair and incisive manner. (See page 470.)
The special correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph," who is taking part in the mad-cap motor trip from Pekin to Paris, reports that some of the richest tea merchants in the district have decided, as the result of their inspection of such of the motorcars as succeeded in crossing the Gobi desert, to form a syndicate for the establishment of a motor transport service between Kalgan and Kiakhta.
Timber Supplies.
At a time when increasing difficulty is being experienced in respect of supplies of seasoned timber, it is opportune to note that Joseph Owen and Sons, Limited, of Stanley Road, Liverpool, has very large stocks of dried timber in ash, oak and other hard woods, both in boards and planks, suitable for builders of van, lorry, and omnibus bodies and wheels. This company also makes a speciality of every description of bent timber for van and other bodies. An increasing use of petrol-propelled commercial vehicles is reported from America, where the electric delivery van has hitherto been in the ascendant.
Extended Deliveries.
The reports from users of motorvans, which were published in our second " Great Van Number," on the 23rd May last, included some particulars of the delivery rounds that had then been established by R. Twining and Company, Limited, the well-known teamen of 216, Strand, W.C. A second Lacre van was delivered shortly afterwards, and the purchasing company has been able to make considerable additions to its points of delivery. The weekly rounds for the first van will be found on page 307 of the issue named above, and the performance capacity of the extra van may be gauged from the supplementary table now given.
Mr. Roger W. Wallace, K.C., gave evidence before the Fuels Committee of the Motor Union on the 21st ultimo. The first Chairman of the Automobile Club and Motor Union, in the course of his evidence, expressed the view that the process in view vill permit of the production of go-per-cent. alcohol at a cost of 3d. per gallon, in bulk, at the works.
Municipal Motors.
One of the latest deliveries of a steam-propelled, street watering-wagon
has been made by Mann's Patent Steam Cart and Wagon Company, Limited, of Leeds, to the Surbiton Urban District Council. Our illustra_ ton of this vehicle shows the wateringbody in position, but an interchangeable tipping-body for the conveyance of road metal is frequently supplied by the makers for alternative use. The Ealing Corporation has had such a Mann tipping-body in use for about two years.
A Successiul Smoke Appeal. • The prosecution of the Little Malvern Granite Company, Limited, in respect of the use of an Avelinpand Porter tractor, in April last, resulted in action by the Motor Union, at the instance of the Commercial Motor Users' Association, and their support of the appeal, at Worcester Quarter Sessions, last week, has led to the quashing of the conviction, it being held that the tractor was constructed on the principle of consuming its own smoke. It will be remembered that Mr. T. C. Aveling, Assoc.M.Inst.C.E., gave expert evidence at the original hearing, and we congratulate all the interested parties upon this important reversal of the magistrates' finding. The case should be as useful to owners of tractors as has been the appeal to Winchester Quarter Sessions in respect of a certain prosecution of the Isle of Wight Motor Express Company, Limited, in respect of one of its petrol-propelled omnibuses..