Opinions from Others.
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The Editor invites corrcspmtdence on all subjects connected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should be on one side of the Paper only, and type-written by preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility for the views expressed is accepted. In the case of experiences, names of towns or localities may be withheld.
Subsidized Petrol Lorries.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
0,4e9j Sir,I agree with you, that the War-Office scheme is unattractive to owners in many important respects, and particularly by reason of the artificial nature of the proferred bonus. You, Sir, appear to be the only writer who has appreciated the subtlety of the Treasury in holding out what appears at first sight to be a bonus of 25 per cent., whilst at the same time providing that the bonus shall not be payable in respect of any new machine. This flaw is a serious one, and seems to me to be in keeping with Treasury niggardliness in all such matters.
Another important point, as you say, is the matter of payments and allowances for the drivers and porters. I think that a driver should be paid 78. (id. a clay at least, and that suitable allowances should be made for the wife and children of any such driver, while the man is away, of not less than 10s, a week : furthermore, there should be the same emoluments and pension for such a driver as would be paid to a iegular soldier, pro rata with the daily rate of 7s. 6d. Additionally, 1 believe the scheme will be a failure, so far as its appealing .0) the men goes, un
less they are promised a gratuity of, say, at the end of the war if it be a short one, or of, say, £10 if it be a long one.—Yours faithfully,
"1w CHARGE OF EIGHT."
Tire and Wheel Standardization.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
11,4301 Sir,—We are much interested in the remark given in your journal of the 28th September re standardization of tires and wheels. We think it would be a most excellent thing, both for users and manufacturers alike, and we see no reason why it should not be carried out.Yours faithfully,
TI1E SIRDAR RUBBER CO., LTD.
21, Crawford Street, W.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,4311 Sir,—I fully iipm.eciate the facts, as stated by you in THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR Of the 28th ult.' in connection with thca standardization of wheels for commercial motor vehicles. I am further of the opinion that a great deal of work can be done in that direction, both with profit to the manufacturer and to the user, and, in drawing attention to the question of standardization, you have touched a very important subject which should have the consideration both of the Commercial Vehicle Committee of the S.M.M.T, and the manufacturers of cars and tires, with an advantage both to themselves and to the user.—Yours faithfully, H. G. BURFORD. Humber Works, Coventry.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,132] Sir,—We have read with very great inte,rest Mr. T. Blackwood Murray's letter, giving the views of the Albion Co. with regard to this subject. Our company was one of the first to adopt the steel wheel, and very early on we experienced this difficulty. We took it up with all the tire manufacturers, in order to arrive at the sizes to make our all-steel wheel patterns. We got very little encouragement from the tire companies, and we then took it up with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders-with a like disappointing result. We then fixed on our own sizes, and have adopted the principle Mr.. Murray has evidently been working upon, viz., ot having the same inside diameter for tires of different sections. It is also important to point out, in this connection, that the War Office have adopted certain standards, and that, in all probability, when their final subsidy scheme is made up, these sizes will be absolutely insisted upon for all vehicles which are to carry the Government subsidy.
We write this letter to endorse all that Mr. Murray has said, and in the hope that the matter may very shortly be taken up by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, with a view to standardizing a reasonable number of sizes on the lines suggested, which we are quite certain will be to the advantage f everybody concerned.--Yours faithfully, Leyland. P.P. LEYLAND MOTORS, LTD., C. B. Nixoat, Secretary.
The Use of the Governor
with Commercial Motor Vehiotes.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,433j Sir,—Your correspondent, •• Not Convinced,does not I fear put up a very convincing case for the abolition of governor control on commercial vehicles. He seems to think that a throttle controlled by a governor can never open more than a certain extent for a certain engine speed. Thus, if the governor be set to close the valve when 750 revolutions are attained, he states that at 190 revolutions the throttle will only be a quarter open. Surely, he. means that it will then be three-quarters open, for the throttle opens as the speed drops to bring the revolutions up to the maximum again ? The ordinary governor overrides the hand control, of course, at high speeds, but at low speeds the engine revolutions are determined by the hand throttle, and the governor only comes into action when the engine speed exceeds the maximum desirable.
The racing of an internal-combustion engine is always harmful, and in the case of moderate compression and moderate speed the racing of industrial engines is not. necessary nor desirable. If the engine be small, it certainly must be run at near its maximum axium speed, but the governor is not going to prevent this ; by maximum speed, one means the highest speed at which the engine is designed to work continuously. Obviously, there is another maximum speed, obtained by opening the throttle to its widest with the engine running light, and it is precisely to prevent this speed being approached that a governor is fitted.
After all, it is entirely a matter of governor setting, and the best compromise is obtained by setting the governor to cut out a trifle late rather than early. If the governor be a good one—responsive but not given to " hunting," it will provide gas to suit the requirements of the moment. There should be no need to race the engine preparatory to loading it, if it.be in good order and the gears be suitable. There will be a drop in speed, as the load is taken up, but this drop will be quickly corrected by the governor valve opening as the revolutions fall, and with a duffer at the wheel the take up of the drive will be better done with a governed engine than without. To the driver of a pleasure car, accustomed to the responsiveness of a high-speed engine, the governed slow-speed motor would not commend itself, but it must be remembered that the cases are not the same.
Your correspondent should study the Albion Syst en). In this, the governor is set to cut out ia any desired speed, so that—the control lever once set-the engine maintains a constant speed under all conditions as far as its power will allow. The fact that there are probably more Albion industrial vehicles so fitted running than any other make, and that their engines possess a wonderful record for durability, would seem to show that the majority of users have been convinced of the merits of a well-designed system of governing..Yours faithfully, " GLASWEGIAN."
The Daimler Train.
The Editor, TEE COMMERCIAL Murcia,
11.434] Sir,—In reply to the letter Of Mr. R. J. Williams (No. 1,421, page 80, of the 28th September), the Daimler train is worked under the same Legislation as the steam road locomotive weighing 14 tons, permitted to draw three trucks and a water cart, speed four miles per hour, and in towns two miles per hour. This low speed is very difficult to gauge, with the result that five to six miles per hour goes unchecked. A licence is necessary, in usual working county, costing 110, and £5 for each other county— or 2s. 6d. per day through any other county to be traversed. Froth this, Mr. Williams will see that the Daimler road train is by no means on sufferance. This opinion may have arisen from the fact that the Daintier Ca, in the early days, tried to run the train with one of their usual pleasure-car factory number plates, a proceeding the Worcestershire County Council was unable to countenance.
Many road authorities are anxious for the use of light axle-weights: they would do well to consider the use of this train for the transport of road metal, and I believe a corporation in the Midlands has already placed an order for one of these trains. A 15-ton load is a very usual delivery for brick works, etc., and this train with all trailers driven can deliver and shunt over fields and unmade roads where it is usual to deliver bricks, viz., on the site of new buildings where the approach would prevent the easy handling of such a load by locomotive and trucks, or by steam wagons, as suggested by Mr. Will ia.n1S. Mr. Williams will agree that a 5-ton steam wagon re quires a well-made road for it, to be run successfully, and difficulties soon arise if the steam wagon is run on such roads as the ordinary horse arid cart has to deal with in delivering bricks on the sites of buildings.
The Daimler train scores in the further following points : (a) no stopping for water or fuel ; (b) greatfacilities for running backwards or forwards into awkward places ; (c) no delay in raising power, etc.
Yours faithfully, T. C. AVELINO. Birmingham.
Low Petrol Consumption.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,435] Sir—Under "One Hears" in this week's
COMMERCIAL MO-TOR, you state that some manufacturers of heavy vehicles intend to make an attempt to beat the recent consumption record made by the Rolls-Royce car in its run to Edinburgh and back. I wish to draw your attention to the fact that the " Thomas Transmission" lorry in a recent 2,000-mile trial beat the ton-mileage obtained by the RollsRoyce car, and this was done over an extraordioarilysevere. route, as indicated in the R.A.C. report published at the time.
It would be interesting to know exactly how many 'operating levers were used on the Rolls-Royce car in connection with their carburation have been given to understand there were four levers, besides the ordinary throttle control. Perhaps you could enlighten me on this point? If this was the case, it an .hardly be said that the trial was run under ordinary everyday conditions. I may state that, in the trial of the " Thomas Transmission" lorry a Claudel-Hobson carburetter was used with simply the ordinary single-lever control without any extra air lever whatever.Yours faithfully, KEN. -T. T.ROAlSON.
Chiswick, W., 6th October, 1911.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
Sir,--We should like to call your attention to the advertisement appearing on the cover of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR of October 5th, inserted by Messrs, Commercial Cars, Ltd., with regard to the statement underneath the photo that " The only British Industrial Petrol Motor Wagons supplied to the Imperial Russian War Office, adopted after competitive trials of the utmost severity " were of their make, as this statement is entirely misleading, we ourselves having taken an order from the Russian War Office for a three-ton lorry, about three months back. Also, we should like to point out to you that in your notes " One Hears," on p. 87, you state that several makers hope to beat the Rolls-Royce record of 57 gross ton-miles of work over the road per gallon of petrol. It will probably interest you to hear that, on official test for the Crown Agents lot the Colonies of one of our lorries, we managed to obtain 60.5 gross ton-miles of work over the road per gallon of petrol, and we trustthat you will give this statement prominence. We tested three vehicles for the Crown Agents, and the figures on above bases were 57, 59, and 60.5, making an average of 58.8i gross ton-miles of work over the road per gallon of oetrol—better than the Rolls-Royce by 1.76 : o urs faithfully.
SIDNEY STRAKER AND SQUIRE, LTD. Nelson Square, S.E.
• L'he rwrCilied ti4are_i aro : Rolls-Royce, 5T-07: Thoma--; 15•0441. Tile St mice r-S: tit ire ligureg tieserve 'rely prominence. It was to the int,f iltions .1 certain other Le ;Ike re that the paragraph referred_ED.
The Express Motor Cab Co., Ltd.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,437] Sir,—Referring to the recent explanation given to the shareholders as to the cause of the failure of the Express Motor Cab Co., Ltd., I notice that one of the reasons given is that drivers did not pay in their earnings. This rather implies that the drivers left owing the company money, or, to use an expression understood by all connected with the cab industry, they " slipped up for the last day." As a matter of fact about eighteen months ago a bonus system was introduced for the Express men, and by this every driver who iiaid in £6 a week received 3s. per week in addition to his commission. Two trustees were appointed, and so many shares were to be allotted to drivers for which they paid a nominal sum. It was understood that they were to participate in any profits. I was not connected with the company when it went into liquidation, but I know that the shares were never allotted and latterly that the drivers were never able to obtain this bonus. These circumstances naturally caused a great deal of friction between employs and the management.
The town driver has had so much to answer for since you have given so much advice to the proprietors and the public, as to taxi use and misuse, that I do feel that it is only fair to us (and the Express Cab Co. had some of the oldest and most efficient motoreab drivers that any company ever obtained) to give us an opportunity of pointing out that we were in no way responsible for the enormous outlay. the continued changes of management. heavy costs of renewals and maintenance, which led to the failure of a company, which we all anticipated would be, in the field as long as any similar enterprise.—Give a dog a bad name—but not always all the blame.—
Yours faithfully, "BALLOT."