From Our U.S.A. Correspondent.
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The commercial-motor movement grows apase; each week continues to add to the number of concerns embarking in tho construction of heavy vehicles; in three years time, the output will have reached enormous proportions. This week, a very-large company has been organized, out of the Alden-Sampson business, for the manufacture of light commercial trucks; that company, it may be remembered, has hitherto confined its attention to five-ton cars, and the it will continue to turn out from the original factory. The new concern is to be known as The United States `Motor Co. it is erecting a huge factory, the main building being 130 it. by 1,000 ft., two stories high, with smaller blocks adjoining. Preparations are being made for the building of 4,000 chassis in 1911, and the capital of the old company has been increased from $300,000 to $2,000,000.
Detroit has purchased a motor fireengine from the Webb Co., of St. Loilis. It will carry 1,000 ft. of hose and eight men, at a speed of 60 m.p.h. The engine is of 90 h.p., and the piunping capacity 700 gallons per minute to a height of 140 ft.—an average ten-storey building. It is usual for the Chief of the Fire Department in all the large cities to be furnished with a fast. automobile in which he can proceed to the scene of action; in Buffalo, of course, that functionary rides in a Pierce-Arrow, which is paid for GO m.p.h. On the broad asphalt roads of that city, where there is not a great deal of traffic, this speed is easily attained, but I have seen the Fire Chief in New York City drive at that speed through dense traffic, under circumstances that were calculated to make one's hair stand on end. Strange to say there do not seem to be many accidents arising
from this practice: there are a few, but they are considered to be in a good cause, and no one minds an occasional broken leg, a lamp-post. carried away, or an overturned cab when the Chief is out for business. By the way, an American extension ladder is carried in a 40 ft. length, on two
bogie trucks of which the rearmost is steered from the back, by a fireman who is that distance away from the driver at the front end. It strikes an amateur as a risky arrangement.
This week, the Grabowski Truck Co. received an order for no fewer than eleven lorries from the Whitman Agricultural Co. of St. Louis. This buyer was in such a hurry for its motor equipment that the order was sent by telegram. As a contrast to the United States Motor Co. mentioned above, the Tusla Automobile and Manufacturing Co., of Tusla. Okla
homa, formerly the Dowagiac Motor Co., has started with a capital of only $75,000 to make what is to be known as the " Doe-wah-Jack " commercial ear. The capital hardly seems commensurate with the name by which the unfortunate vehicle will be known. The Clark Power Wagon Co. has in creased its capital from $30,000 to $500,000, and is working at Lansing, Michigan; in the State of Illinois, the Chicago Automobile Club advertises a commercial-car widest for this fall.
I recently chronicled the absence of any law on the Statute Book of Massachusetts compelling the hirer of a taxicab to pay the fare. Last week, a person hired a taxi at 79th Street, in New York City, for a drive to Bridgeport, Connecticut, some 70 miles away. He spent money freely by the way, and at Bridgeport asked the driver to go on to Boston, to which the simple driver agreed; now, Baz3ton is about ISO miles from the Metropolis, and it was only natural that ice-water or some other refreshment should be required en route. A final stay was made at an hotel in Waltham, about seven miles out of Boston, where, after standing a last drink to the chauffeur, the " fare " departed via the back door of the hotel, and completed his journey by tramcar, leaving $171 registered! The Ryknield Motor Co., Ltd., of Burton-on-Trent, since the end of the year 1905, has devoted its energies entirely to the design and production of commercial vehicles. Before that time, this maker had also built a 1111111her of pleasure cars, but, during the year named, the management became convinced that ft was on the industrial side of the motor business that future progress was most assured, and it decided, therefore, to throw over the light-car side. Mr. W. 11. Clay, the managing director of the company, assures us that, although the business development may have been slow in comparison with that of several other concerns, the policy laid down in 1905 has been fully justified, and that, during the past year or more, there has been a most-gratifying briskness in the company's trade. A steady market is being found for the output of the shops, in which work is now continuous. both day and night, from early in the morning of each Monday, until noon on the Saturday following.
This maker has recently reaped the reward of two years' demonstration work on the Continent, in the securing of an order from Brussels for 40 bus chassis, and arrangements have now
keen made for pushing. business, nnt only in Belgium. but in other parts of the Continent. It is hoped that these arrangements will result in the placing of further orders in the near future. As regards this country, during the past four years the company's energies have been devoted mainly to the development of its business connections in London and in the Lancashire district, but we hope very shortly to be able to announce the completion of arrangements for extensions of the company's trade in other di rections.
In the latest Ryknield designs, careful attention has been paid to the following points : (1) the standardization and interchangeability of the component parts ; (2) the reduction, to a minimum, of the number of working parts ; (3) the abolition of complicated refinements, which, whilst very nice on a pleasure car, are entirely out of place on a commercial vehicle; and (4) the securing of simplicity, both from the points of view of construction and subsequent maintenance.
One of our Editorial representatives recently revisited the Ryknield factory, The works consist of a main building with a saw-tooth form of roof having seven spans. and there are also a number of isolated buildings, such as the general office, drawing office. pattern stores, test house, power house, and gas-producer shed, etc. These buildings cover a considerable area of the W, acres of land owned by the company. The machinery is driven by means of a 50 h.p. Tangye gas engine and producer, and the engine is laid down so that its crankshaft is in alignment with, and is directcoupled to, a main shaft, which shaft is housed in a trough that extends along one wall of the main factory building, and is distant therefrom a little over 2 ft. From this underground shaft, the main shaft in each hay of the machine shop is driven, and, as all the shafts are mounted on roller bearings, the efficiency of transmission is very high. Electrical power transmission, with a separate motor for each group of machines, has been tried by this company, and discarded because, in point of cost per horsepower transmitted, it could not compare favourably with the very-direct method of power transmission which is now employed. The arrangement of the main shop and the position of the engine-house relative to that building are, of course, important factors in any power-transmission scheme, and, in this respect, the prevailing conditions at the Ryknield works particularly favour direct-driving.
In the machine shop, a number of good high-speed tools is installed, and among them our representative noted that one of Webster and Bennett's double-headed vertical turning and boring mills was doing excellent work, at a high rate of speed. Jigs and special machining fixtures are freely used, and many hundreds of pounds must have been spent by the company on its equipment of these labour-saving devices, and on special and standard gauges. Two of the views
which we reproduce show expensive crankcase jigs in use; one of these—
for the top half of the crankcase—is shown secured to the table of a handy radial drilling machine, whilst the jig for the lower half of the case may be seen, in another illustration mounted on the bed of a, horizontal boring machine. The jointing flange of the lower half of the crankcase, by the way, is much wider than the facing flange on the upper half, and it is provided with a deep groove; this groove collects any oil that may have leaked from the crankcase, through the valve-tappet guides, and, instead of allowing it to fall into a tray, passes it to a saddle tank that is cast on the outside of the lower half of the case,
Our representative noted that the cylinders of this company's engines are bored by the means of milling cutters, the initial cut being taken by a tool which is slightly less in diameter than the finished bore of the cylinder, whilst the final cut, to standard size, is taken by a tool that imparts an excellent surface to the bore. As soon as a " finishing" cutter requires regrinding, it is no longer retained for cylinder boring, but is replaced by a new one; the old cutter is then pressed into service for general use on one of the sturdy milling machines with which the department is provided. Amongst the latter class of machines are some well-built tools by Muir, and by Cunliffe and Croom, of Manchester, Alfred Herbert's o f
Coventry, too is well represented in the machine shop, and, at the time of the visit, a broad forming tool was rapidly turning out bevel-wheel 'blanks, on one of the lastnamed maker's hexagon-turret lathes, from a tough grade of oil-hardening gear-wheel steel.
In all departments of the factory, work was being put through in appreciable quantities, but, so far as the total output of the works is concerned, there can be no doubt that much time is lost as a result, of the necessity to change over a machine from one job to another. in order to speed up the building of a particular batch of chassis. The healthy and growing market for Ryknield machines will demand the installation of more plant at an early date. The drawing office and the works organization are prepared for such contingencies as may arise.
In the erecting bay, a number of machines was in various stages of completion, and, amongst them, were several of the " Type-R " chassis for Brussels. All the chassis of this type are fitted with four-cylinder engines capable of developing 35 h.p., anti two views (figures 8 and 9) of this engine are reproduced herewith. The cylinders are cast in pairs, and all the component parts of the engine are easily accessible, and of simple construction. As a unit, the engine is not supported in the frame by cast aluminium arms extending from the crankcase, and which arms are particularly liable to fracture due to the whipping of the frame, but by stout steel tubes which pass through tunnels in the upper part of the crankcase. These tubes are expanded into brackets which are securely bolted to the side members of the frame. Nothing appears to have been left for the erector or tester to make for himself ; there are no roughand-ready cable supports for the high tension magneto leads, nor is there a slip-shod system of control-lever Connections made according to the whim of the erector. Among the ingenious devices on this engine, the adjustable couplings for the shaft that connects the magneto to the pump spindle are particularly interesting. One such coupling is shown in figure 5. One part of the coupling is keyed and pinned on to the magneto spindle, and the screwed portion of the coupling, which is tubular and split in four places, extends beyond the end of the spindle and embraces one end of the connecting shaft. The ends of this shaft (there is a coupling at each end) are slightly tapered, and are roughened. When one end of the shaft is forced into a split socket, that end may be securely gripped by means of the back nut, which is shown in the illustration. A universal joint is also provided at one end of the shaft.
There are many sound features about this chassis. which represents the latest Ryknield practice. An old trouble, due to the perch frame's tendencv to twist the middle transverse member of the frame, has been entirely eliminated ; two transverse members are now fitted, and, between them, working in suitable guides, is a stout cross-head, to which the perch frame is pivoted. Consequently, the tractive push or pull is, now, under all conditions of loading, transmitted to the frame in a horizontal direction. Plain externally-toothed spur gearing is used for the final drive, instead of the internally-toothed final-drive gears that were fitted on the older Ryknield models; figure 4 shows how neatly the new gearing is now encased. Each spur wheel is securely bolted to a caststeel road wheel (made by Atlas Resilient Road Wheels, Ltd.), whilst the spur pinions are secured to the outer ends of the differential shaft, the latter shaft and its casing being carried by the perch frame. Another practical detail on this type of chassis, which, although a small detail is none the less important on that account, is the spring-shackle grease caps. These are made like the cup of an ordinary Stauffer lubricator, but they are weighted at one point by means of a short lever, which lever affords a good grip on the cup for the forcing of the grease into the channels, through drilled holes in the pins; as a result of this ballasting of the cap, it is leas likely to become unscrewed, through the vibration of the vehicle when running, and to be lost on the road.