News and Comment.
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This number is our seventh special issue in seven months.
It is addressed more particularly to THE MIDDLEMAN.
The previous special sections have been--" Indian and Colonial" (March 23rd), "The Brewing Industry " (April reth), "Laundry and Allied Trades" (May Ith), " Mechanical Haulage for Millers " (June 8th), " Motor Omnibuses and Public Service Vehicles " (July 6th), and " Market Gardeners and Fruit Growers " (August 31st). The Olympia Exhibition of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders will account for three additional special numbers, as was announced in our issue of September 2 ist. The last of these will take the shape of a Japanese supplement, prlitted entirely in the Japanese language; it will be sent to every important buyer in Japan. The next meeting of the General Committee of the lelotor Union will take place on Wednesday, the 25th instant, and not on the previous Wednesday, as was originally fixed. it was resolved, at a meeting of the public health committee of the Edinburgh Town Council held last week, to recommend the purchase of a motor ambulance van for the conveyance of patients to the Colinion Hospital. It is a sign of the times when a paper has to be read before the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, as was done last week by a Mr. W. Hunting, to protest that motorists are returning to horses. The ostrich again !
There will be two motor shows in the city of New York during the coming winter, both of which will take place in January. These will be the fifth annual show of the Automobile Club of America, and the exhibition of the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (Selden patentees). Commercial exhibits will be included at each.
Messrs. Robert Tucker and Company, 12, Coleman Street E.C. wish to purchase petrol engines suitable for the hauling of tramcars with a gross weight of four tons each. The indent they have received is for petrol motor tractors to take the place of mules on a 3ft. sin. gauge of metals weighing eolb. per yard. The steepest gradient is r in to for 125 feet, and the radius of the sharpest curve is So feet. A speed of 10 to 12 miles per hour is required on the level.
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Any user of a commercial motor who has not received a form of questions from the Motor Van and Wagon Users' Association is at a disadvantage.
Every owner of a motor van or otner vehicle should write at once to the Secretary, M.V and W.U.A., 16, Down Street, W., and ask for one.
The schedule has been drawn up so as to get together data to lay beioto the Koyal Commission on the Motor Car Acts. This programme neuet be supported. Mr. Sidney Straker wishes it to be known that he has no connection with any firm or company in the motor omnibus and commercial motor trade, other than Messrs. Straker and Squire, and the Straker Steam Vehicle Company, Limited, both of 9, Bush Lane, E.C.
The first general meeting of members and associates of the Society of Motor Omnibus Engineers was held at the Hotel Cecil on Monday night last, when the chair was taken by the hon. vice-president, Mr. E. Shrapnell Smith. Highly important developments were foreshadowed by the various speakers.
The response for the German Automobile Club's trials has proved even a worse fiasco than for those which were attempted by the A.C.G.B. and I. Only the Daimler MotorenGesellschaft, of Marienfelde, the Neue Automobil-Geellschaft, of Berlin, and H. Bussing, of Brunswick, have entered. The first-named company will be represented by a 25h.p. omnibus, to carry 26 persons, and by a 25h.p. van with a load capacity of 3,250 kilos. The N.A.G. has entered the following :-9h.p. delivery van, for 750 kilos.; 9h.p. military wagon, for 1,5oo kilos.; and a 26h.p. goods lorry, for about 6,000 kilos. with trailer. The last-named manufacturer will be represented by a 25h.p. omnibus to carry 23 persons. There are a few private entries. The extraordinary rapidity with which the new works for " Argyll Motors," Limited, have been completed, on the 6o-acre site one mile to the south of Loch Lomond, is a source of pleasure to us. The new company's prospectus was published in our issue of March 16th, and it seems hardly credible that so much has been accomplished in so short a space of time. We are glad it is the companys' inten tion to include a large commercial vehicle section. An interesting account of the
works appears in the current number of our contemporary, "The Motor," and we gather from this that the frontage of the buildings to the Alexandria—Balloch road exceeds 7oo feet ; the machine shop is 35oft. by 206f1.; the smiths' shop and the power house each 200ft. by 35ft.; the painting and varnishing shop 42oft. by 65f I.; the coach-building shop 42oft. by 3ooft.; and the chassis-erecting and earfinishing shop is 2oft. by Soft. The oetput of the works will exceed 2,000 motorcars per annum, and there are 1,000 machine tools on the premises. Every two workmen have their own wash-hand basin, and each operative is provided with a separate locker and overalls at the expense of the company. The works will, in our opinion, be the show factory of the world, and we only wish that the ii acres of buildings had been laid down exclusively to produce vans, lorries and omnibuses. The immense amount Of work which has been expended over the undertakingby the managing director, Mr. Alex. Govan, willingly and continuously assisted by the chairman of " Argyll Motors," Limited, Mr. William Alexander Smith, cannot be too fully acknowledged. The whole staff, too, has worked unceasingly.
Mr. Artaur Brampton, whose name will immediately be associated with a famous chain factory, in the course of a recent speech at Birmingham, expressed the view that more prominence should be given to the fact that motor construction already finds profitable employment for many thousands of hands in the Midlands. He felt that any temporary ebullition of popular prejudice could not do any permanent injury to so promising an industry. The motor wagon exhibits at the Brewers' exhibition, which will be opened at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, N., on Saturday the 14th instant, include machines by Fodens, Limited, the Yorkshire Patent Steam Wagon Company, and Jesse Ellis and Company, Limited. The five-ton Foden wagon will be fitted with a body that has been specially designed for Idris and Company, Limited, of Camden Town, the well-known table water manufacturers. It is expected that many fresh orders will be placed. Fodens, Limited, of Elworth Works, Sandbach, is doing a steadily-increasing business in steam wagons. Their principal representative, Mr. Charles Davies, had a very successful journey last week in London and the West of England, during which he took orders from Messrs. Edwin Harris and Son, contractors, Clyst Hydon, near Exeter, Messrs. Pellow Brothers, wholesale grocers, Bodmin, and Messrs. S. P. Mumford and Co., Stearn Flour Mills, Greenwich.
The mayor of Bradford, Alderman W. E. B. Priestley, presided at the Bradford Technical College, last week, at the opening meeting of the lecture course in motorcar engineering. In his opening remarks, the mayor said the object of the course was to encourage a new industry, and he wished to dispel the idea that they were going to educate only those people who could afford to go in for motorcars simply as a luxury. There was something far greater than that behind the movement, and they in Bradford recognised that the motor was going to be used in many branches of industry. He saw in the near future how the commodities of Bradford would be carried by motor power and not by horse power, which would be more economical, more cleanly, and more advantageous to the community as a whole. In the course of an interesting and copiously illustrated lecture, Professor G. F. Charnock, head of the engineering department of the college, said it was necessary to enter a vigorous protest against the assumption that motoring concerned only the wealthier few, and was incapable of conferring any benefit upon the public at large. In all directions of social and industrial life, the motor was creating a thorough re. volution in present practice and methods. As we go to press our Berlin correspondent advises us that the balance of entries for the German A.C. trials are made up by users. These eight machines are from the following owners : -Messrs. Garrett, Smith and Company, Magdeburg-Buckau, 25h.p. steam van; the Continental Caoutchouc and Gutt a p e rc h a Company, Hanover, 16h.p. Durkopp, to carry 3,000 kilos.; Herr esverwaltung (experimental department of the military transport department), Berlin, 2o-24h.p. N.A.G. army wagon with trailer, to carry 8,5ookilos., and 2021.h.p. Daimler army wagon, with trailer, to carry 8,5ookilos.; Automobil Verkehr G. m . b. H., Ge m s 24h.p. omnibus to carry r5 persons; Schuchardt and Schutte, Berlin, 4-8h.p, Daimler, to carry 75okilos.; Bohmisches Brauhaus, Berlin, roh.p. beer van, to carry 5,000kilos.; and H. Rosenthal, Berlin, 18h.p. Daimler van, to carry 3,200kilos. A full :report will appear next week. Upwards of j:,3,000 has already been subscribed to the special legislation fund which was started recently for the purpose of defraying whatever expenses may be approved by the joint committee of the Automobile Club and the Motor Union. Private subscriptions to this fund vary principally between one and five guineas. Further contributions should be addressed to the secretary, Mr. W. Rees Jeffrey's, at the offices of the Joint Committee, Albemarle Mansions, r, Albemarle Street, W.
The latest trade contributions include one of 4.52 los, from Argyll Motors, Limited ; „;15 from the London and Parisian Motorcar Company, Limited; Zio ios. from Aster, Limited; 1„:5 from Messrs. Leather Brothers, of Darlington ; and 42 2s. from the Sunbeam Motorcar Company, Limited. We hope to see donations from some of the leading heavy vehicle and omnibus manufacturers. There is no occasion for exceptionally large contributions, as a large number of smaller amounts will make up an equally useful aggregate and prove more representative. If every manufacturer in the country were to send only £10 tos., we are satisfied that the fund would be swelled to sufficient proportions.
During the last week of September the German Agricultural Society held its second series of motor van trials, the former occasion having been in 1e03. A detailed report on these trials will not appear until next year. Six vans in all were entered. They assembled on September 25th at the Miinchrinhof farm near Quedlinburg, in the Harz district, where all preparations had been made by Dr. Albert to carry out the tests in the most practical manner. The following vans were on the list of entrants :—Class I (for the conveyance of bulky goods) : A tractor from the Maschinenfabrik J. C. Christoph Actien-Gesellschaft, Niesky, Oberlausitz ; a tractor from the N.A.G., Berlin. Class II (for the conveyance of heavier produce) : A van from the N.A.G.; a van from the Daimler Gesellsch aft, Marienfelde. Class III: Both the Daimler 'and the N.A.G. companies had entered milk vans for this category. In addition to Dr. Albert, the jury consisted of Engineer Fehrmann, of the Berlin Zymotic Institute; Professor Dr. Fischer, Berlin; Captain Oschmann, of the Royal Ministry of War, Berlin ; Oberamtmann (one farming a crown-domain) Thiele, Selzdahlum ; Professor Wittelshrifer, of the Central Bureau for the Industrial Application of Alcohol, Berlin ; and the manager of the Implement Department of the German Agricultural Society. Classes I and II had to be taken under working conditions, in order to render a comparison possible between work done by them and horse-drawn vehicles and their respective costs. To this end Dr. Albert had made arrangements with miller Kratzenstein in• Quedlingburg, who supplies a large number of customers in the neighbourhood, delivering his flour, etc., by means of horse-drawn vans. The co-operation of Herr Trebert, a brick-field owner, was also secured. Herr Trebert has an important connection with local builders, many a load of bricks having to be carted over the exceedingly difficult roads which abound in the district. Each motor van had to make mountain trips, with long and steep gradients, and runs over the more level roads skirting the Harz Mountains, where the gradients are less severe. No milk was carried in the milk vans, as the jury considered the results yielded by the trials of 1e03 to be conclusive, for it was then established that milk, when sufficiently cooled down, could he carried hundreds of kilometres by motor vans without injury to its quality. Alcohol constituted the source of energy in each case, and for this purpose alcohol of eo per cent. by volume, with an addition of 20 per cent. of benzine, had been supplied by the Central Bureau for the industrial application of alcohol : lower strengths of alcohol are held by the makers to be of no value for fast-running motors. Every van was accompanied by a non-commissioned officer of the Military Transport Service, who acted as controller, and placed expert supervision at the service of the Society. Although, as stated, the ample notes taken by these experts will not be published for several months, the jury are able to certify " considerable progress in the construction of the motor vans compared with the trials of 1e03." All entrants went through the severe ordeal without any serious troubles. In outward farm, too, the vans were found to he a great improvement on their predecessors and thoroughly adapted for agricultural transport. In the published conditions an average of 5 kilometres an hour had been fixed for the goods vans, and one of ten for the milk vans, but these averages were easily exceeded. Nor are the working costs likely to turn out unfavourably compared with horses.