COMMERCIAL 'MOTOR EXHIBITS AT BRUSSELS.
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Interesting New Chassis at the Belgian Show. Six-cylindered Engines, Robust Chassis and Well-thought-out Details are Features of the Exhibit.
TEM industrial vehicle section of the Brussels Salon, which opened on Sunday of last week and closes to-morrow (Wednesday), is considerably larger this year, although the actual number of exhibitors remains the same. The whole of the big annexe to the Paleis du Cinquantenaire is devoted to the industrial section, accommodation for motorcycles and other exhibits, which usually share the annexe, having been found in another hall. The Belgian industry shows a steady development and home products are worthily represented by Auto-Traction (Minerva), Miesse, Brossel, Dasse, of Verviers, Bovy, Leytens and Pipe, the last-mentioned firm having one of the most interesting exhibits in the Show.
A reduction is noticeable in the American contingent this year and this, incidentally, applies in an even greater degree to the main car section of the Brussels Show.
French firms ere in the majority, France being represented by Panhard-Levassor, Renault, Latil, Berliet, Unic, Delahaye, Rochet-Schneider, Corre La Licorne, Citroen, Chenard-Walcker and Bernard. Italian exhibits include
those of Itsla, Fiat and S.P.A., whilst those of America embrace Ford, Fordson tractors. Liberty and five International Harvester Co. tractors.
British exhibits are missing. It always seems rather a pity that no British vehicles are exhibited at Brussels in these days, for the commercial influence of the Show extends far beyond the frontiers of Belgium.
Some fine examples of Belgian industrial coachwork are to be seen, notably a 40-passenger single-deck bus on a Miesse six-wheeled chassis for the Antwerp service; another very beautifully finished passenger body is the Bevy coach. The dual-purpose camionette itody is becoming as popular in Belgium as it already is in Prance, and particularly good examples may be seen on the Tithe and Fiat stands; when in passenger-carrying form they are indistinguishable from the smartest touring cars. On the whole, though, the coachbuilding is of less interest than at last year's Skow, as stripped chassis make up the bulk of the exhibits.
The Miesse overtype six-wheeler for omnibus work remains practically unchanged, apart from the frame, in which the X-form cross-member in the centre has now been replaced by two straight ones. This six-wheeler is said to be giving very good service. (Miesse state that they have just received a London order for 50 buses.) One of the most interesting exhibits in the Show is the new low-level six-cylindered Lancia Omicrom chassis for passenger work. [It was shown at Olympia.—En., 0.M.1 in this design great efforts have been made to bring the floor level as low as possible. The propeller shaft is carried diagonally across the chassis from the rear end nuf the four-speed gearbox, which is built in one with the engine, to the extreme near side of the rear axle. By this arrangement the top of the differential casing may be housed beneath a seat in the body.
The rear axle casing is a steel casting of great strength having an inverted U section. Suspension arrangements have received very careful attention, for Italian roads are abominable at the present time and the chassis has been designed to cope with them. Flat springs of wide section are used 'both front and rear, the rear springs being of exceptional length (dearly 5 ft. 7 ins.), A. very unusual feature of the springing is the fact that roller bearings are fitted to all the shackle pins. The rear axle is underslung.
The engine is a six-eylindered o.h.v, monobloc of typically Italian design, with twin overhead camshafts driven from the forward cud; it has a very substantial seven-hearing balanced crankshaft, and turns at the moderate normal speed of 1,600 r.p.m.
Another important exhibit is the big gas-driven Pipe tractor for use in the African Colonies. This machine is a fine example of a tractor studied throughout for special conditions ; it is intended for pulling 20-ton loads in 'partially developed tropical districts where the going, although not so bad as to necessitate the use of flexible-track :machines, is none too good. The power unit is a big sixeylinderecl engine developing from SO h.p. to 100 h.p.
As the tractor is intended for use in tropical climates a radiator of very large capacity is fitted and water circulation on a generous scale is provided by a big centrifugal pump, whilst duplicate leads carry the water away from each side of the cylinder heads. The frame is narrow and perfectly straight and the chassis has a fairly high road clearance, as befits a Colonial model. A dry-plate clutch is housed in an extension of the crankcase and an enormous five-speed-and-reverse gearbox occupies all the central portion of the chassis. Large Hardy joints are used for the short shaft between clutch and gearbox, whilst balltype universals are fitted to the rear propeller shaft.
The double-reduction gearing and bevel-driven rear axle are constructed upon the same massive lines as the rest of the transmission. Reaction from the drive is taken up by two almost vertical radius rods which extend upwards from the base of the reduction-gear casing; the rods are universally jointed and at the top they are attached to the ends of a heavy steel yoke. This yoke is mounted centrally in bearings between twin arched cross-members.
A Pipe charcoal-gas generator, of the type already described in this journal, is mounted on the tail of the frame. Special features of the Pipe gas-producer are the cooling-water circulation by pump and the provision of water vapour to mingle with the gas through the medium of an appliance resembling, almost exactly, a float-feed B2S carburetter. An extremely flue jet is directed into the hottest part of the furnace.
The engine has a bore of 120 mm. and a stroke of 160 mm., and the tractor is said to be capable of hauling a full 20 tans up 12 per cent, gradients with ease. Dory show a range of vehicles, including a 3i-ton sixcylinder chassis with a 92 mm. by 120 min. engine. The cylinders are east in two groups of three and have rockeroperated overhead valves. A multiple-disc clutch is built in unit form with the engine, but the four-speed gearbox is placed centrally in the chassis, selector rods being carried back from the ball-type gate change. Four-wheel brakes and a transmission brake are fitted. A new type of slide-valve heavy-vehicle engine was to have been exhibited on the Bovy stand, but up to the third day of the Show it had not arrived.
Bernard, of Paris, exhibit a good type of low-level bus or coach chassis with a six-cylindered engine. This vehicle is of clean, businesslike and _thoroughly normal design. Small details noticed were dust-proof sheet-metal casings over all flexible joints and Stabyl "roll-up" type shock absorbers, both on front and rear axles. In addition to the chassis, a well-finished 16-seater closed coach is shown.
The International Harvester Co. show three of their tractors, one being fitted up as a travelling crane. Dasse, of Verviers, show a fine range of industrial vehicles. This firm has now abandoned the manufacture of touring cars and concentrated upon commercial chassis. A special low-level six-cylinder bus chassis is shown and a complete 25-seater omnibus, the latter being most luxuriously fitted internally. The Dasse six-cylindered engine has a bore of 85 mm. and stroke of 110 tom. Brossel show four different types of body on their standard four-cylinder chassis, the latter also being exhibited stripped. This firm has concentrated upon one model only, with an engine capacity of 31 litres. It is a chassis thoroughly representative of the solid progress being made with industrial vehicles in Belgium.
Minerva, as usual, show a very fine range of vehicles; all, however, are on standard types of chassis too well known to need description. The new Ford 20-cwt. chassis is, very naturally, the sensation of the Show, as is the new Ford car in the touring section. The exhibition of these long-delayed vehicles has created intense interest in Belgium, where Fords have always been popular. On the Pipe stand, in addition to the interesting big tractor mentioned above, a complete range of standard Pipe models, both petrol and gas-driven, is shown. The standard Pipe lorry chassis is a robust affair, With a sidevalve monobloc four-cylindered engine, separate four-speed gearbox, multiple-disc clutch and pot-type axle. There are many Points about the chassis worthy of notice. The axis upon which the brake pedal lever is mounted is lower than that for the clutch pedal. It follows that a longer lever is fitted to the brake pedal, giving greater driving comfort.
Gas-producers, in addition to those on the Pipe vehicles, are to be found on the 'li-tott Panhard-Levassor lorry and on the Mateco stand. Mateco are sales coneessionnaires for the Belgian E.T.I.A. generator, one of the pioneer gas. producers. This machine is shown on a tractor and on a lorry; both vehicles have similar engines (110 min. by 150 mm., four cylinders), developing 50 h.p. on gas.