Looking Round the Corner
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THIS year's presidential address to the Institute of Public Cleansing will be forward-looking. When [talked the other day to Mr. H. M. Ellis, transport and cleansing officer of Bristol, he had.just completed it, and he gave me a quick sketch of his theme. It is, perhaps, appropriate that " transport " should precede " cleansing " in his title, for he finds transport a vast and stimulating subject, in which he has technical, as well as administrative, interest.
As he pointed out, the cleansing officer is a big user of transport, and must keep well abreast of developments in vehicle design. Mr. Ellis, however, believes in keeping ahead, and the result is that Bristol has been responsible for several important innovations in public-health vehicles. My lips are sealed, but look out at the Commercial Motor Show for an exhibit that will bring Bristol a good deal of publicity and credit.
Host to Russia
MR. Ellis had a hand, last week, in entertaining a party of five Russians, who showed a consuming interest in Bristol's civic administration, and not least in its cleansing department. Planned itineraries and timetables were disturbed by impromptu halts at building sites, where members of the delegation made quick sketches of methods that interested them. They were particularly impressed with the system of handling refuse at a big block of flats, and by a hydraulic truck used in transferring the contents of a bulk bin to the refuse vehicle.
B.R.S. Arab
DID Mr. Harold Elliott succeed in adding Arabic to his linguistic knowledge during his Cairo days? It would not surprise me, for he once passed as an Arab. That was when, clothed and bearded as a true desert descendant of the Prophet,
B28 he crossed the great Arabian Desert—only the hundredth European to have done so. I wonder whether, when he arrives, all neat and tidy and freshly shaven, at the Marylebone Road office of British Road Services, he sometimes recalls those desert journeys and whether he found Ibn Saud not unlike some of the tough bargainers of the great London Desert. Travel in London is certainly becoming as unpleasant as in the Middle East.
ALANCASHIRE haulier's articulated eight-wheeler, with Bowden semi-trailer and Hendrickson rubber suspension, was recently stolen, with its load of corned beef, from outside his London depot. Someone had noticed a car lurking in the vicinity and told the police. Within four hours the police had traced the vehicle and caught the thieves respraying its cab. Smart work all round.
Fireworks in Court
PA.A BATTLE is brewing before the Western Licensing Authority. Mr. K. G. Weaver, of Gorefield Farm, Ashcott, near Bridgwater, who, to his great surprise, caused a national furore when he was granted a B licence to do council work at what other hauliers claimed was an uneconomic rate, is now applying for an additional vehicle. He is to be represented by Mr. T. D. Corpe. The objectors have consequently engaged Mr. Norman Letts. Between them they should be able to let off more fireworks than the Licensing Authority has heard or seen for some time: •
If my information is correct, they are both looking forward to the contest.
Naval Adoption
I S anyone looking for a good home for a steam traction engine or wagon? If so, Mr. Basil Miller, of the Southern Gas Board, Hilsea Gas Works, Green Lane, Portsmouth, would like information, He has been asked to find such a relic for, of all things, a naval training establishment. Needless to say, the establishment has no money to pay for it, but it promises to be kind to the animal and to repair it if it is not in running order.
M1 Study
SOlvIE operators are studying with great thoroughness the problems involved in motorway operation. One of them, who intends to drive one of his tankers down MI to see for him;elf, asked The Commercial Motor how he could check tyre temperatures. Tests of this kind are already being made by the yre companies, who are, of course, the only people who are :quipped to undertake them. But it is stimulating to find such an enthusiastic operator.
Vlodern Approach
THERE was a welcome note of originality in last week's opening by Mr. John Hay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Vlinistry of Transport, of new premises for the Marston Motor 2o., Ltd. Instead of cutting the traditional silk tape with cissors, he used a Saffire blowpipe to cut a metal strip.