News and Comment.
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This journal fosters, represents, and chronicles commercial motoring in all its branches: it is recognised and supported by Users, operating engineers, and the motor industry at large.
The Fifth International Exhibition of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which opens to-day, the 15th instant, at Olympia, will remain open until to p.m. on Saturday week, the 24th instant. A record attendance is anticipated, provided the weather conditions do not prove exceptionally unfavourable.
Our first report of the accessory, component, stores and tire exhibits will be found on pages 221 to 226. A further report will be published next week. The exhibition is under the patronage of His Majesty the King, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and of the A.C.G.B. and I. Though no commercial motors are on view, it possesses many points of interest for all who follow any branch of motoring, at home or abroad.
The prospectus of the Landaulette Motor Cab Company, Limited, is now in circulation, and an abridgment will be found in our advertisement pages. The authorised capital is 4.75,000, in 41 shares, and 7o,poo of these are offered for subscription. The preliminary expenses, which will be paid by the company, are estimated to amount to L:5,000, whilst .4:7,000 in cash is to be paid to the vendor syndicate, as well as a further .61,500 for the underwriting of 15,00n shares. This syndicate is also to have 5,000 fully-paid shares allotted to it, in consideration of various services which are enumerated, and there will, if the capital is fully subscribed, and to cabs are ordered at £300 each, be upwards of ..to,000 available for trading purposes. The estimates have been carefully prepared, and the receipts are placed at ss. less per day than has been the case in previous flotations of a similar character. Having regard to the personnel of fhe company and its intention to use the well-proved Aster engine, we think it should be able, hereafter, to secure its due share of support, both in respect of the general and private hire custom accorded to its vehicles, two-thirds of which will be equipped with taximeters. Two more 16h.p. Albion chassis have be.en ordered by the Sutherland Motor Traffic Company, Limited, of Lairg, Sutherlandshire, making, in all, 12 vehicles of this type. Both these machines will be used for mail-van purposes.
We are advised that Captain Bagnal Wild, R.E., has been appointed Secretary to the War Office Committee on Mechanical Transport, in succession to Major F. Lindsay Lloyd, R.E., who rerently resigned in order to accept the managing directorship of the "Elastes" Company. Numerous bookings, in connection with the Olympia Show, are being advertised by various great railway cornpales, and the programme of excur • :.ions issued by the Great Western Railway is probably the fullest of all.
The Automobile Club of America has abandoned the motor wagon 'contest that was announced to take place from the 7th to the loth instant. It is now intended to hold the trials next spring, and the reason assigned is the awkwardness of the date in relation to the show season. There seems to be a fatality about the promotion of commercial motor trials by automobile clubs, other than the A.C.F.
Messrs. E. Osmand and Sons, of Ely, near Cardiff, have recently written to the London representative of Mann's Patent Steam Cart and Wagon Coinpany, Limited, whose works are at Pepper Road, Hunslet, Leeds, as follows : " With regard to our stone traffic, we have no hesitation in saying that your wagons are in every respect all that could be reasonably desired. We have had one 5-ton wagon in use over two years, and it is running as smoothly as when it was turned out of the workshop. As you are aware, we have just bought Iwo more 5-ton wagons from your firm, and this fact renders further comment unnecessary. We may, however, add that the latter wagons have been running for four or five weeks, and our opinion is that they are generally an improvement on the old type, although the latter has fully justified its existence. With regard to cost of running, scwt. of coal and half a gallon of oil per diem is all that is required for motive power. One engine will take 15 tons front 30 to 39 miles in nine working hours, i.e., 15-19 miles each way. We allow 205. per diem for driver, assistant, coal and oil, and for one day per week in shed overhauling ; we consider that, on a liberal estimate, 255. should cover repairs and depreciation. The cost per ton-mile is 4d." .1:hrough a printer's error, the three I21 per cent. dividends of Dennis Brothers, Limited, were quoted by us, last week, as being at the rate of 2i per cent.
The r-ton van' in the service of the Barnard Castle Sanitary Laundry, to which we referred on page 198 of our last issue, is a " Royal Windsor," from the works of the Industrial Motor Company, 59, Thames Street, Windsor.
The new Australian tariff for motor vehicles,which is now waiting confirmation, will impose a duty of 20 per cent, ad valorem on vehicles of British manufacture, whilst that on vehicles from other countries will be half as much again. Gas, oil and other highspeed engines, including turbines, will pay 121 per cent. ad valorem, if from Great Britain, compared with 22,1 per
• cent, if from other countries.
The manager of the Roden branch of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, in a recent communication to " The Cooperative News," reports that his 5-ton Foden wagon has not broken down on a single occasion during its 14 months of service. He also expresses the Opinion that it is very useful to have the engine on the top, under the eye of the driver, and easy of access, because this open situation of the engine often saves a breakdown by enabling the driver to see a loose key or slack bearing, which would not be the case were it underneath the platform or enclosed.
• The Automobile Club has decided to organise a competition for devices calculated to prevent or diminish the sideslipping of motor omnibuses, and to hold the trials during the month of January. The Club has also adopted a " rating formula " to enable members of the public to compare the advertised DzxN horse-powers of petrol motors •
2.5 Vi or 2-5ths of D2N, has been decided upon., where D= bore of cylinders in inches, and N =number of cylinders, atid this formula has been accepted by the'. Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. It should be noted that the formula is not to be regarded as an accurate or scientific calculation of actual horse-power.
The new police ambulance, for the City of London, has now been completed by the Electromobile Company, Limited, of 7, Curzon Street, W. The weight is, approximately, equallv dis
tribute(' between the chassis, battery,, and body, each scaling about io cwt..7 The ambulance contains two stretchers and accommodation for two attendants; it will travel 35 miles on one charge, at a speed of tram 12 to 15 miles an hour. A large number of call posts are being erected in the City.
A serious tax has been imposed upon traction engines in Cape Town, amounting to no less than00 each per annum, and one firm of contractors has 2t, of these ponderous machines standing idle. The demand for lighter types of tractors and motor wagons should, as a result, increase materially, although much of the work previously done by these heavier engines may require other mechanical contrivances.
In response to a petition by the Association of German Automobile Industrials, the German Imperial Treasury officials have ag rued that the time during which a foreign car remains in a German repairing shop shall not be reckoned for purposes of taxation, provided that the car be under surveillance approved by the Revenue. This decision is being trumpeted forth as a concession to foreign motorists, whereas both Treasury and association have acted solely in the interests of German motor works and repairing shops.
Mr. C. If. Dodd, of Maidenhead, has been elected Chairman of the Motor Union Insurance Company. It is not yet known whether this company will proceed to allotment, and the Automobile Club has passed the following drastic resolution : " Thal in the opinion of this Committee, the undertaking of or participation in financial or other commercial business by this Club, or by any affiliated Union, Society, or Club, which is not essentially a trade organisation, is not in accord with the objects of this Club, and is therefore to be deprecated and discouraged."
Corning Legislation.
At the National Conference of Automobilists on Legislation and Organisation, held yesterday (Wednesday) at the lintel Great Central, various important resolutions bearing upon the future of motoring generally were moved and adopted. Those of interest to owners and manufacturers of commercial motors were as under : (a) Upon the proposal that any general motorcar act should deal with traction engines in addition.—" That this recommendation be adopted, provided that all classes of traffic on the highway be regulated by one Statute."
(b) In regard to the Commission's recommendation that the speed limit for heavy motorcars weighing from two to three tons unladen, and having non-resilient tires, should be reduced to five miles an hour.—" That the limits of speed for heavy motor vehicles as embodied in the existing orders should not be altered until further experience of the working of these regulations has been obtained."
(c) On the recommendation that the revenue derived from the taxation of motors should be devoted to the improvement of roads, and that a central department should direct the allocation of the monies raised.— " That this recommendation be strongly supported."
(d) As to suggestions for the amendment of the law upon extraordinary traffic damage.—" That the law as to extraordinary damage by traffic on highways should be consolidated and simplified, and that powers should be given to a central department to require that the responsible authorities shall maintain their roads and bridges in sufficient strength to carry the ordinary traffic in the district, and to see that they are not permitted to fall below the standard strength to which at any previous time they had attained."
(e) On the recommendation that the unladen weight of a motorcar should include any fuel, water or accumulators used for the purpose of propulsion.—" That the definition of weight proposed is not a practicable one, and would operate harshly against commercial vehicles."
(f) Upon the application of the provisions of the Locomotives Act, 1898, in regard to the closing of bridges to locomotives to heavy motorcars.— " That this recommendation is very inadequate, and that, having regard to the very unsatisfactory condition of many of the bridges in this country, the Government be invited to appoint a Special Committee to consider the question of the bridges of the United Kingdom, and what further legislation is necessary in regard to them."
(g) In regard to the recommendation that the emission of smoke or visible vapour on a public highway in such a quantity as to cause annoyance or danger, and the causing of excessive noise or vibration not of a momentary description should be an offence.-"That this recommendation be approved, with the substitution of ' a nuisance ' for' annoyance.' " (h) On the recommendation that trade motorcars should pay one-half the tax paid upon pleasure motorcars. —" That this recommendation be approved."
(i) Licenses for public service vehicles.—It was agreed, on the motion of Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw, F.R.S. : " That the refusal of a local authority to license motor vehicles for public services, or the imposition by such authority of impracticable conditions, shall be subject to an appeal to the Local Government Board."
Practically the whole of the foregoing resolutions are in accordance with the views of the committee of the M.V.W.O.U. Association.