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LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.

20th January 1920
Page 11
Page 11, 20th January 1920 — LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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About Twins. Taxi-mapping.

AWEEK OH TWO ago I ventured to suggest that I Would be glad to produce in printed form a few tips for tyre users if makers cared to send me something out of which to build them. Acting on this suggestion' several enterprising tyre makers have posted along all kinds of information on the subject, and I may be able to turn some at least of it to good account in the near future. For the moment, however, I feel like writing a few lines on another aspect of -tyre use to which some prominence is, I notice, being given in. the current Press. I refer to our conservatism in sticking to the solid twin tyre for driving wheels; at any rate in this country.

. * * * • One, writer has been urging the desirability of further experiment with large deep-section singles for the same purpose, and he claims that we only continue so unfailingly with the twin tyre because this is one of the instances in .which we constructors lack imagination and prefer to carry on in the old, sweet and well-tried way. Well, there may be something, indeed, a good deal, in what he says. Few of us, imagine, have, of late years, given any 'thought worth talking about to the possibility that the twin tyro may not be the last word in hind wheel tyring.

* * What a fortune would have been made by any man who could have successfully' maintained a claim to patent rights in the use af twin rubber tyres. And who was the originator of the idea? It .would be interesting to hear from claimants. I have an idea it was one of the De Nevers People, but I am by no meahs certain of my memory in this case. However, I recall quite distinctly that the principal reason for its very widespread adoption was that it was found to be at any rate a partial palliative to that still unsolved problem of •hind-wheel skidding. The twin tyre is not a non-skid, but it very certainly takes a better hold of almost any surface, excepting greasy asphalt, than any other device with which I am a-cquainted; excepting that queer tread, the K.P.

tyre, made by the Commercial Tyre "Co. .

The writer, who is makingluither trial of the big single in place.of the twin, -curiously enough, seems to miss this very important anti-skid property of the twin tyre. He dwells on its: disadvantages, and amongst these he names the Cost and trouble of diSmounting two tyres instead of one '.when replaceL. roents are needed, and the inability of the twin to adapt itself properly, to badly cambered reads. He misses the 'peint that, in the case of a single burst band or a disrupted lyre-a Very unusual occurrence nowadays—it, is gene rally possible to get home quite comfortably on the remaining tyre and :With little; if any, daniage. to it: He ,rightly draws Attention to the undesirable increase iri unsprung weight necessitated by the wider wheel to accost:mac:late the wider tyreba,se. "And, as to the greater depth Of robber permissible' in the big single, My own experi-, ence with such sectiens., admittedly hot .very extensive, and then .only with tyres. Well-known a number of years, age, called.the Collier, the Vehicle was very liable to sway and lurch badly as Compared with similar ma-chines fitted with twins.

And while on the subject of twins! What little progress has really been made commercially with pneumatics of that ilk. The French were always very keen on the experiment, a tendency considerably due no doubt to the excellent experimental work carried out by Michelin in that direction. The twin pneumatic was used very extensively on the heavier types of fast touring cars employed for war purposes, but that practice was due to the desire to halve the chances of punctures that would immobilize the ma-chine, and also to the fear of war-time excesses in overloading the normal tyring. For commercial purposes the twin pneumatic has not caught on, even for light vans, and this is accounted for by the difficulty of maintaining balanced air pressure between the two contiguous tubes.

Taxi-mapping.

Have you ever thought, as you have taxied through the streets of London, what an extremely interesting thing it would be if it were possible to keep a charted record of the wanderings of an ordinary taxicab during an average day's work in the Metropolis? Nowhere else in the world, I suppose, would the daily peregrinations prove to be so varying and so complicated. In these latest days of emancipation, when the driver, with remarkable immunity from official censure, picks and chooses his fare and his journey, his travelling's 'are not so likely to be productive of an interesting map. But, think for a moment of the great adventure of his day's work but a few years ago, when he, apParently, wanted work ,and had to abide by the terms of his licence to go where he was required. Then was not the day of only choosing to drive towards good hunting grounds.

His first trip out of Brixton in the morning might hardly have started when he would be off to Blackwall and, fro there, to Hampstead. Then, perhaps, a run into town to somewhere in Oxford Street, doubling back" in is flurry to catch a train at King's Cross. From. there: to Houndsditch and to Cheapside and, perhap,S, a lucky hiring after a pause on a rank to Swan and Edgar's: Anywhere and everywhere. Quickest way but, by itosmeaps, thp cheapest fare! No two days' work the same. His itinerary entirely a matter of chance or luck. If I had happened to light on taxi driving as my means to earn a living, would, for interest, have kept a daily map of my journeyings and would have enjoked many Alla hour, thereafter, recalling the chances of my hirings. But then I find map reading a-most fascinating hobby, and, perhaps, the average driver would not care to be bothered

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