The Longer the Fresher
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e By The Hawk
ERGONOMICS have been put to practical use in the design of the cab for the latest Morris and Austin 2-4-ton trucks. The British Motor Corporation are to be congratulated on commissioning Prof. G. C. Drew, of 'London University,, to conduct scientific tests and prepare a report on the advantages to the driver of the new cab, compared with the conventional forward-control design. But, like the best-laid plans of mice and men, a test intended to show differences in fatigue, expressed by grip on the steering-wheel rim, was partly frustrated by one of the five guinea-pig drivers. He apparently held the wheel normally by the spokes and the test apparatus did not register.
The other four drivers, however, provided significant results. The theory is that as a man becomes more tired his grip on the wheel increases, but the new cab had the opposite effect, and drivers relaxed as the day wore on, instead of growing fatigued. They ought to pay to work.
Model T Register
ALTING on a suggestion of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Mr. Charles T. Pearce, 16 Townsend Drive, St. Albans, is taking the first steps in starting a register of Model T Fords. He invites owners of this historic marque in the United Kingdom to write to him. A stamped addressed envelope will ensure an answer.
Sea Breezes
APPARENTLY, Lieut-Cdr. J. W. Thornycroft has felt the call of the sea again, because he was telling me at the Scottish Show that he was now devoting more time to Thornycrofts' great marine interests—and who hotter qualified to do so?
s30 But he still keeps in close touch with commercial-vehicle development, and as we walked around Kelvin Hall together he gave me a lively commentary on detail design that showed not only knowledge of his subject, but affection for it.
Total Abstainer
rAA MANUFACTURER who usually runs a cosy bar in a van at commercial motor shows is dispensing welcome cups of tea at Kelvin Hall. The reason, I am told, is that the only vehicle on his stand suitable for the purpose has been sold to a dedicated abstainer.
Honest Subsidy
A PUBLIC referendum has rejected a proposal that the 1-1 accumulated profits from the New Jersey turnpike road from New York City to Philadelphia should be used to subsidize the suburban railways, which are said to be losing about £10m. a year. The plan at least had the merit of honesty. British road users help to subsidize the railway, but most of them do not realize they are doing so.
Petrol and Beef Extract
" pETROL—what it is, where it may be obtained, and other information useful to 'autocarists " was the title of a booklet issued by Carless, Capel and Leonard, Ltd., in 1899. The history of the company, whose centenary falls this year. is given in " Pioneers of Petrol," by Edward Liveing (H. F. and G. Witherby, Ltd., £2 2s.). In style—although somewhat "literary "—it is refreshingly different from the majority of sponsored works of this kind, which too often seem to be the efforts of obsequious, second-rate advertising copy-writers.
"Petrol" was a word coined in 1893 by Frederick Simms to be the fuel the company supplied for his motor launches. Petrol was told to "autocarists," but the term could not rotected. Hence its general use today with a small p, at rarefied levels in the rest of the oil .industry (though t points of sale, one notices), where it is studiedly avoided your" of the archaic "motor spirit" or the' American )1ine."
1906 the company coined the term " Movril" for another of fuel, but ran into difficulties with the makers of a n brand of beef extract.