News and Comment.
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This
journal fosters, represents, and chronicles commercial motoring in all its branches; our regular weekly circulation exceeds 8,000 copies, exclusive of any extra mailings of special issues.
Attention is directed to our arrangements for the making of water analyses (see pages Si5 and 592).
The new Straker-Squire, t-ton van is described and illustrated, for the first time in any journal, on pages 584 and 585.
R.A.C. Trials.
Some important considerations in connection with the forthcoming trials are dealt with on the second page of this issue.
The entry of Savage Bros., Ltd., has, as was forecasted in our issue of the rith July, been transferred from class G to class F.
We intend, apart from any later arrangements in connection with our report of the competition proper, to deal adequately with a number of new models which will appear in the forthcoming R.A.C. tests.
No Variable Loads.
With regard to the carrying of variable loads, instead of the prescribed weights set forth in the conditions as issued at the end of April last, upon which proposal we commented very strongly in our last issue (page 569), we are extremely gratified to learn that it has been decided to revert to the original intention of the rules.
The Aveling Lorry.
The Aveling paraffin-driven lorry, which is entered in class E, has been built by Broome and Wade, Limited, of Desboro' Iron Works, High Wycombe, and is, to all intents and purposes, the same model as was fully described and illustrated in our issue of the iith of October, 1906. Mr. T. C. Aveling, who contemplates the 'introduction of certain small modifications, has the highest opinion of this machine, both as regards its capacity for performance and its low working cost, and he has bought the whole output for a long term of years.
No Passenger Vehicles.
Tabulated particulars of the competing vehicles will be found on pages 59.4 and 595 of this issue, but our readers should note that no passenger-carrying vehicle will be allowed to take part in the trials. Whilst regretting any inconvenience that may have been caused to manufacturers, the Club has decided upon this course in order to preserve the special character of the trials. It is obvious that the drafting of the rules did not make specific provision for either motorbuses or chars-a-banes, and, although no particular rule directly negatives the matter of possible entries from manufacturers of passenger-carrying vehicles, some of the bases set forth in connection with the awards (e.g., supplementary reg,ulation 23) make this point sufficiently clear. Motorbuses, may be, are reckoned to have had enough trials?
We understand that a banquet will be held in London on Friday or Satur day, the 6th or 7th proximo, in order to enable all who are interested in the Trials to have a send-off re-union, and with a view to the waking-up of the country to the fact that the start is imminent.
There is stal a considerable amount of uncertainty about the final composition of the Judges Committee, Mr. Worby Beaumont having intimated his inability to act, and a similar notification having been received from Mr. A. G. New. We should prefer to see all the Judges paid reasonable fees for their services, as the day is past when voluntary workers possessing the necessary qualifications can be expected to give their time.
A Transfer.
The t6h.p., Albion, r-ton van, in class B, has been transferred, most appropriately, to the name of the Lacre Motor Car Company, Limited. As our readers are well aware, the Lacre Company is the sole concessionnaire in England and Wales for the Albion Company, and Lacre vehicles are manufactured at the Albion Works, Sootstoun, Glasgow, to the special order of this London company, which has made so great a name for itself in the commercial motor world. It would certainly have been anomalous had two chassis of Albion manufacture been
entered in the same class, apparently, as competitors, and the decision that both vehicles shall run under the narnE of " Lacre " is a most happy one.
Internal Combustion.
The present position of gas anC petrol engines was fully consider& and discussed at the recent meeting ol the British Association at Leicestet (pages 599-601).
Motor Ambulances.
The City of London Corporation is delighted with the success of its motot ambulance service, and a second vehicle, from the works of the Electro. mobile Company, Limited, of Curzor Street, W., will soon be installed al New Street, Bishopsgate, An Award.
Sidney Straker and Squire, Limited, has received word from its local agent' that a special award and gold meda: has been awarded, by the judges' corn• mittee of the New Zealand International Exhibition, to the company" loco.-type steam-wagon.
Official Encouragement.
Four Austrian firms have received orders for light freight automobiles froir the Austrian Technical Committee whose members watch this branch a industry very closely and display con. siderable enterprise in turning improve. ments to account for military purposes The vans ordered are to be fitted witt two-cylinder engines of 2oh.p.
MacNamara 's Report. • Following our brief references ol last week, we are pleased to note thal Sir John Pound, Bart., in the course of his speech from the chair on tit( i3th instant, informed the shareholders that the txmipany's motors ha(: worked more satisfactorily, both as to the work done and the maintenance charges, during the year. He expressed the view that commercial motors, with their facilities for quic14 transit, were likely to be further used, and, most significant of all, that " We must have at our command a sub. stantial sum, so that we may he ready at any time to provide for the changing requirements of our customers."
Progressive Bakers.
Halley's Industrial Motors, Ltd., Di Yoker, Glasgow, is making an impression upon the bakery trade. We illustrated, at the time of the Commercial Vehicle Show at Olympia, in March last (Vol. V., No. tos, page 22), a special Halley van to the order of Messrs. John Angus and Son, bakers and flour dealers, of Alexandria, N.B., and we give another view of that var (page 592). These vans have two-cylinder, 2oh.p, engines, and the latest order is from Messrs. J. and B. Stevenson, Plantation Bakeries, Glasgow, whose choice was made after very severe tests. The new acquisition wil have a specially-roomy body, and it will work within a 20-mile radius. Mere6des-Mixte, Limited, has be:.1 registered, by Messrs. Paines, Blyth and Huxtable, of 14, St. Helen's Place, E.C., with an authorised capital of in 4.1 shares. The objec:s include the entering into agreement.; with Mr. R. G. E. Wemyss and Mr. Stephen Sellon, and the dealing in, but not the manufacturing of, motorvam, motorcabs, motorbuses, etc. There is no initial public issue.
Tarred Roads.
The Roads Improvement Association notifies the following awards by its Judges' Committee, in connection with the tar-spreading competition that was held in May last : 1st prize of too guineas, and the Association's gold medal, to Mr. Thomas Aitken, County Buildings, Cupar, Fife, N.B., for his " patent pneumatic tar-sprayer."
2nd prize of 50 guineas, and the Association's silver medal, to Tarspra, Limited, 20, Victoria Street, S.W., for its " 700-gallon patent Tarspra ' wagon (Thornycroft chassis)," The 1st prize, being a too-guinea trophy offered • by the Ballymenagh Woollen Factory Company, and the association's gold medal, f-or the best preparation of tar for road purposes, has been awarded to R. S. Clare and Company, Limited, Stanhope Street, Liverpool, for its patent " Tar Corn po."
There is no question that the advent of the motorists'. millennium can be brought about by the general use of tar in road construction, rather than in temporary surface treatment. Dust and mud arc the consequences of faulty road construction, where rapid steamrolling, with aril excess of water and " blinding," is allowed to take the place of frequent dry-rolling, with intermediate disturbance of the broken metal by brooms, which latter process alone secures proper consolidation.
A Big Driving Wheel.
Oberleutenant Trocst, a German officer who has made a practical study oft Colonial traffic, purposes exhibiting at the Army, Navy and Colonial Exhibition, in Berlin, a new type of tractor which, in his opinion, is better suited than former types to the conditions prevailingin Germany's South-West Afri. can protectorate. This tractor is said 0) possess a driving, wheel of 8 feet 2 ioc.hes in diameter.
Free Washers.
Fastnut, Limited, of 6o, Aldermanbury, E.C., offers to fit all the nuts on vehicles in the R.A.C. Trials with its washers, and to do so free of charge_ This company, in addition to its business with motor builders, is doing a large trade with important railway Companies, including the G.N.R., G. E.R., G.W.R. S.W.R. , G . C . R. , Caledonian R., District R., and the Bakerloo Tube.