The I.A.E. Presidential Address.
Page 17
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Mr. T. B. Browne, M.I.Mech.E., Discourses on "The Progress of Automobilism."
After a preamble, in which he dealt with the activities of the Institute of Automobile Engineers, of which he is President for the coming year, Mr. T. B. Browne, on Wednesday of last week, read a paper which was designed to reflect the amount of progress which has been made in connection with the self-propelled road vehicle up to the present day. A considerable proportion of his address was devoted to commercial-vehicle interests, and he used to good advantage a number of illustrations with regard to the industrial side of the industry to emphasize much of what he had to say.
After recording the extraordinary suppression of the horse in regard to both motorcabs and motorbuses, he proceeds to speak of the motorvan as follows :
" The economy of motorvans over horse traction has been proved up to the hilt, and it is interesting to consider the reasons why these have, up to the present, not been produced in such comparatively large numbers as motor omnibuses and cabs.
" In the first place, there is the reason that not overmuch capital is as yet invested in the production of commercial motor vehicles, so that makers are not generally in a position to give credit. Added to this there is the proverbial reluctance of the business man in this country to make any radical change in his business organization until compelled to do so. Again we have to remember that there is an enormous amount of capital invested in horses and vans which would be necessarily thrown away if any sudden change were made, so that the large firms who have become convinced of the utility and economy of motor transport are compelled to make the change gradually, replacing horses and vans by motorvans as the former become superannuated. Then, again, we have the very difficult problem brought about by the fact that almost any automobile unit yet produced is capable of doing a much greater mileage than the single-horse van, so that it is impossible to use the automobile fully and economically where there is only work enough for is single horse. This is being got over to a large extent by using the new light cycle type of three-wheeled vehicle, carrying only a small load and making several return journeys during the day. . . It is a fact, too, that many tradesmen who have sufficient work for a single motorvan are not in a position to _put down the comparatively large sum of ready money required for its purchase. Here the remedy will certainly be in the hire oE the motorvan, just as in the case of the tradesman's shop, for which he almost invariably pays rent in lieu of purchasing the freehold. "A great field for motor transport is as yet, comparatively speaking, untouched. I allude to the use of motorvans for the conveyance by road of goods to and from factories. These vehicles will act for the longer journeys as feeders to the railways, and should be owned by the great carrier companies, or by the railways themselves, just as some of the latter now own large fleets of motor-omnibuses. When one considers tho enormous amount of sorting and transferring that is necessary under our present system of railway conveyance, it is easy to appreciate the great economy that will result when this system of motor haulage is introduced on a large scale."
Mr. Browne is of opinion that, as .a feeder to existing electric tramway systems, the trolleybus will " come into use to a considerable extent."
With regard to the fuel question, the author records the present unjustifiable price of petrol, and has something to say with regard to the heavier alternative fuels.
"The disadvantages of paraffin so far have been found to he the smell from the exhaust, its well-known tendency to ' creep ' and the carbon deposit left in the combustion head whenever the mixture is imperfect. Excellent results have so far been obtainable with paraffin with engines running on steady loads, but the extremely irregular load of an automobile engine has ao far proved a serious obstacle to the proper carburation of paraffin and the heavier oils. There is also the possibility that the price of any substitute will rise as soon as the demand for it becomes great, just. as has been the case
with the price of the heavy oil used in the Diesel engine, which was sold not so long ago at 38s. per ton, whereas it has now risen to over 80s, per ton. . . . The enormous increase in the number of commercial-motor vehicles that we are about to witness should not tend to raise the price of petrol for pleasure cars, if we arc able to use a heavier oil as fuel for the propulsion of the former."
The possibility of the suction-gas producer, concerning a most interesting example of which we have something to say elsewhere in this issue, is discussed by the author, as is also the successful running of the Stewart-Morris paraffin carburetter, which was first described in our issue of the 26th September last. With regard to engine starters, Mr. Browne continued:
"One hears a great deal just now about engine starters, and various types are in use or about to be tried. These include devices for utilizing acetylene, compressed air, electricity, and the energy of a spring.
" One cannot help thinking that in these days of easy starting, when a half-turn of the handle is usuelly all that is necessary, or not even that, when the engine will start on the switch, as is often the case, it is hardly worth while carrying about. a complicated and often very heavy piece of apparatus just to save such a small amount of trouble."
Mr. Browne had much to say with regard to the improvement of the modern automobile chassis, and we may, in conclusion, quote from that portion which dealt with the evolution of the latest type of splash lubrication.
"The difficulty with the splash lubrication was chiefly due to the fact that the connecting-rod big ends which dipped into the oil were of such comparatively large dimensions that a slight rise in the level of the oil by reason of the tilting of the car due to a gradient or the movement of oil due to its inertia, caused a very much larger amount to be thrown up than the normal.
"At. last a thoroughly efficient way out of the difficulty was found, and was first tried by one of the London omnibus companies.
" This consisted in fitting a small vertical pipe to the lowest point of each big end, the lower end of the pipe being arranged in the form of a small scoop. The level of the oil was reduced correspondingly, so that, the orifice of the scoop being quite small, a very little extra amount of oil was splashed up by the scoop on to the sides of the cylinders if the level were temporarily increased by tilting, etc.
"The oil into which the scoops dip is usually carried in small troughs situated under each scoop, so that the tilting of the engine dues not materially affect the level. " This method has been found moat efficient, and since its adoption the unpleasant smoke from the exhaust of automobiles has become a thing of the past."