A Horseless Caravan for the R.S.P.C.A.
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As an object-lesson to the supporters of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, it would be difficult to find anything more . efficient than the handsome new motor caravan which has just been delivered by Sidney Straker and Squire, Ltd., to the order of the Society. Prior to its dispatch from the head offices of the manufacturers in Nelson Square, Blackfriars, SE., Mr. L. It. L. Squire asked a member of the staff of this journal to inspect the completed vehicle, as he rightly considered it of sufficient interest to warrant the insertion of a short illustrated description in our columns.
The series of photographs, which we are, by the courtesy of the makers, enabled to reproduce, will readily convey to our readers the type of construction that has been embodied. One of the new Straker-Squire 1911, silent, omnibus type of chassis, similar in fact to those which are now being delivered in considerable numbers to the Great Eastern fleet of the L.G.O.C., Ltd., has been employed to carry a very fine example of body that has been designed and constructed throughout by Messrs. Cleverdon, of Bristol, who are specialists in the matter of caravans.
We shall not, at the moment, refer to the many interesting mechanical features of this latest three-ton Straker chassis, and we content ourselves with recording that the example which has been delivered to the R.S.P.C.A appears to be one of the most silent. of a type which is earning an excellent name For itself in this respect already on the London streets. The engine is of the 35-h.p. type and drives through a very-large leather-lined pressedsteel cone clutch to a chain-driven gearbox in which a worm-gear reduction is also embodied. The final drive to the road wheels is by silent chains with large-sized sprockets. All the road-wheels are of the cast-steel type which are becoming so Popular; the tires throughout are Polacks. The body-work calls for special mention, as it is an excellent object-lesson in the amount of accommodation which can compactly
be embc,died on a chassis of the type in question The front portion of the caravan may be described as the living and sleeping room, and it is provided with two ample-sized windows which may be at will shielded with louvred shutters. A folding-bed and a hammock Form the principal nighttime furniture of this cabin ; the
former is capable of being turned into a table for use during the day time.
Numbers of most-cunningly-contrived cupboards and lockers are stowed away in all the corners of this and other parts of the body, and accommodation is to be found for a great deal of the Society's propagandist literature and for a camera, tent and much other impedimenta. The front part of the body contains all the domestic offices and includes a coke-fired kitchen-stove and ample pantries and storage for kitchen utensils. A lavatory fitted with the most modern appliances occupies the space in the offside rear portion of the body.
The secretary of the R.S.P.C.A., Mr. E. Fairholme, who is very keen on the part which motor vehicles are destined to play in the alleviation of the sufferings of animals, willingly gave us further information as to the work which this excellently-equipped van is intended to accomplish. A lady organizer will, at any rate at first, have the control of the trip. The only other member of the crew will be the driver, who presumably, will also act as 'maitre d'hotel. The Society has found that much of its missionary work cannot conveniently be conduct:A in the country districts, owing to the difficulty of compact and ready transport, and StrakerSquire's handsome new vehicle is the outcome of a realization of these shortcomings. The machine will be exhibited at the Norwich Royal Show and will then probably start away on an extended tour, first of all into Wales ; thence into the North of England. The Society has no jurisdiction in Scotland or Ireland.