News and Comment.
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This journal fosters, represents, and chronicles commercial motoring in all its branches; it has the largest and best circulation throughout the United Kingdom, the Colonies, India, and foreign countries generally. No part of our exclusive and valuable circulation is due to the forcing of sales in useless quarters.
One shilling for the first mile, and 6d. for each additional mile, is to be the scale for Glasgow's taximeter rnotoreabs.
The attitude of railway companies in regard to the far-reaching matter of cartage rebates is discussed on pages 445, 449 and 45o.
We bee-in (page 447) a series of articles dealing with the works and methods of the world's leading tire manufacturers.
Londonderry is the first Irish town to instal a motor lire engine, and the order has gone to Merryweather and Sons, Limited, of Greenwich, S.E. The. enginehas a pumping capacity of vo gallons per minute, and can average more tha•ri 2o miles an hour on fair roads.
Renard Trains in Antwerp.
Although the new regulations of the Antwerp authorities, as announced by us last week, allow a power unit to haul only two following vehicles, we understand that the intention is to extend facilities for haulage, according to experience, by allowing larger trains to be used hereafter.
A Novel Departure.
We observe that the Beckenham Urban District Council has resolved to purchase a motor tricycle for the use of its fire brigade, and to equip this machine to carry two firemen, hose, and hand extinguishers. This indiea Les that the tricycle will have a pretty heavy load to bear, and we think that a light motorcar would be more suitable for the purpose.
A Partnership Dissolved.
Messrs. W. C. Moss and W. C. Woodd, who were associated in partnership as Messrs. Moss and Woodd, and handled the " Orion " vehicles for some years, have dissolved partnership as from the 31st ultimo. We understand that Mr. Moss intends to maintain his connection with the motor trade, and that he is prepared to accept an engagement as manager, or in other capacity, with any company who wants an energetic and tenacious worker.
A British Motorcab.
We are interested to learn that Mr.
S. F. Edge has decided to embark upon the cab business, and that he has already arranged for the bringingthrough of a number of Napier cabs. The chassis will comply in all respects With the requirements of the Metropolitan police, and will be fitted with toh.p., two-cylinder engines, with magneto ignition. Every care has been taken to arrange that the parts shall be strictly interchangeable throughout the chassis, and it is hardly necessary to add that the material and workmanship will be of the highest possible grade in every respect. We hope to deal further with this important departure of a well-known British maker at an early date. London Repairs.
Repair work in the Metropolis is now undertaken by John 1. Thornycroft and Company, Limited, whose facilities at Chiswick have been lately freed by the transference of the company's torpedo work to Southampton. There 15 ample room for the reception and handling of a large number of vehicles and parts at the Chiswick yard, and anybody who requires to have repairs effected with the minimum of expenditure and the maximum of expedition, together with strict supervision of every job, should bear these facts in mind.
The Gillett-Lehmann Carburetter.
On the "Patents" page of our issue of the gth instant, we published a shod description of a carburetter which has begt designed by Ernst Lehmann, of Marchienne au Pont, Belgium. We are desired by Carburation, Limited, of Byron House, 85, Fleet Street, E.C., to point out that this carburetter has nothing to do with that company, which markets the Gillett-Lehmann controller, described, some time ago, in our columns. We are glad to do this, as the similarity in the names has resulted in some confusion.
Messrs. H. Simonis, of Norfolk House, Norfolk Street, Strand, W.C., are doing an increasing business in motor-propelled fire plant, and some of this firm's latest vehicles are illustrated on page 460.
Messrs. Norman and Heath, of Harris Street, Wellington, New Zealand, who have made a great success of their agency for Sidney Straker and -Squire, Limited, have favoured! us with some particulars of testimonials from users, and other extracts front local journals. A selection from these will be found on page 459.
According to advices received by the Australian mail on Monday, letter-boxes in Adelaide and suburbs will in future be cleared by motors instead of by horse carts. The tender of the Davis' Motor Works for the hire of the necessary cars has been accepted by the Postmaster-General. The contract is ,i28o per motor per annum, the Department to provide drivers.
A Taximeter Flotation.
Picard's Taximeter, Limited, is the title of a company which has been incorporated, with a capital of L70,000, divided into 67,000 ordinary shares of
x each, and 3,000 deferred shares of Is. each. The beard includes : Messrs. J. Edward Waller, M.Inst.C.E., of London; Walter B. Jessopp, of Bedford; Captain C. C. Longridge, M.I.
Mech.E. ; and the inventor, M. Rene Picard, of Paris. It is understood that the company's capital has been underwritten at a commission of 7; per cent.
in cash, together with per cent, in deferred shares, and, having regard to the boom in both horse-drawn and motor-driven taxicabs, a large and remunerative business should result.
Luggage-carrying Taxicabs.
The decision of the Home Office (see our issue of the 9th January, 1908) that no one shall he permitted to ride beside the driver of a matorcab has been responsible for the• steps taken by the General Motor Cab Company, Limited, to increase the luggage-carrying capacity of its cabs. This has been done by removing that half of the driver's seat which is not to be used, and the result is a certain amount of platform space in front of the cab, which may be occupied by a trunk, or other packages; the alteration should add considerably to the utility of these cabs, which were, previously, at a distinct disadvantage in the matter of carrying luggage. Over one hundried of the Renault cabs, with the altered body, are now running, and the whole fleet of the company is to be altered in this way, some five a day being put on the streets. This turning to good account what was feared by the matercab companies to he a difficulty, helps to prove the saying that "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good." The travelling public, in this Case, should reap the benefit.
Tyneside Motoreab Licenses.
The Watch Committee of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Corporation, at its meeting on the 17th instant, postponed the giving of any decision in regard to an application for motorcab licenses, pending the adoption of regulations to control this class of vehicle.
"Never Sick or Sorry."
Reynolds and Company, Ltd., of 55, Charterhouse Street, E.C.,. is a user of one of the vehicles turned out by COMmercial Cars, Limited, of Craven House, Kingsway, W.C., and the latter company has been the recipient of an excellent testimonial, from which we extract the following :—" We have pleasure in expressing our appreciation of the 4-ton commercial car we bought from you about twelve months ago. It has been in constant and daily use for the whole of this time, and has never been sick or sorry. If you could manage to reduce your price, we should, from the experience we have had . of your make, prefer to buy no other."
Dennis Vans.
Dennis agents are using the company's 30-cwt. van fcr demonstration purposes, in many parts of the country, and are making satisfactory sales as a result. The company expects that the time is not far distant when it will be represented in every important town by a demonstration van, and we quote, From a list which has been supplied to us, the following agents who are already at work in this matter for Dennis Brothers, Limited : Midland Counties Motor Garage Company, Leicester ; Birmingham Motor Car Company, Birmingham; Mann, Egerton and Company, Norwich; Stareys, Limited, Nottingham; Mr. I. P. White, Manchester ; Messrs. Dysons and Sons, Bradford; and the Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works Company, Limited, Bristol.
Military Trials.
At the end of the month, the Experimenting Section of the Prussian Transport Service will hold trials for fourteen days with freight and passenger motors in the neighbourhood of the Harz mountains; this means a stiffish ordeal. The nine Daimlers, with two and four-wheel drives respectively, which formed part of the automobile train in the summer manceuvres in Posen, will be again on the road. Bussing is to be represented by a lorry and an omnibus, and Messrs. Siemens and Schuckert by a train—presumably, with a "mixed " drive—of five vehicles. John Fowler will have a steam tractor and a couple of trailers, whilst a number of cars for the 'conveyance of the officers in charge will complete the list. Berlin will be the starting point, whence the automobiles will proceed, via Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Ouedlinburg, to the Harz, trial trips radiating from the last-named. This was the district which should have formed the crucial test for the vehicles in the German commercial trials, and had this part of the programme been upheld fewer gold medals would have been distributed. A Special Show of Light Commercial Vehicles in Berlin.
Evidently of the opinion that the commercial branch of the automobile industry did not get a fair show at Christmastide, the Verband Berliner Spezialgeschafte has decided to organise an exhibition for utility tri-cars and motorcycles, as well as other classes, from the 12th to the 24th February, in the halls adjoining the Zoological Garden, where the December show was held. All the big Berlin firms have promised support, and entries are expected from the provinces.
Chelsea's Steam Wagons.
The Works and General Purposes Committee of the Chelsea Borough -Council reports that it has considered letters from the Lancashire Steam Motor Company, Ltd., intimating that two of the council's motor vans which have been running for about 7i years, now require to he overhauled and fitted with new boilers, and offering to bring these motors thoroughly up-to-date, and to make them capable of running several years longer, for .200 per wagon. Subject to the two vans in question being thoroughly repaired the company is also prepared to enter into a contract to maintain for a period of Sour years the whole of the council's 15 motors for only .40 each per annum. The committee has had before it a report by the borough surveyor, as follows :—" The Lancashire Motor Company are pressing for a reply as to the maintenance of motors Nos. 2 and 3, the maintenance contract for which —at .4'6o per annum each—has run out some weeks. The machines want thoroughly overhauling, and the work should be done, if it is to be done, with as little delay as possible. The cost of the maintenance of the 15 vehicles by the company amounts to .L.630 per annum, and the company now offer, if the council will spend L200 on each of the two oldest motors, which were purchased in r000, to maintain all the 15 motors at £40 per annum for a further period of four years. This will be a
saving of per annum on the annual maintenance ; and the two oldest motors, which were purchased in the clays when motors could not be built so strongly as they are now, will be rebuilt, and made as strong as the new machines. I am anxious that if any work is to be done to them it should be done before .the watering season commences, as when watering begins we can ill spare one of the watering motors for any other purpose. One of the motors which requires repair is used almost exclusively for gulley clearing. It works night and day, and saved its own cost (which was '470), at this work„ in two years. The gulley clearing, when clone by contractors' horses and carts in the last six months -of 1904-5, cost -z;37o; for the year 1905-6
it cost whereas the work when done by the motor costs about ,360 for the whole year. Under these circumstances it does not seem good policy to discontinue the use of motors for this work. In . considering this matter it should he borne in mind that the two motors in question cost us only .475 each, whereas the price of the other
motors was from £535. If, therefore, the company will make them as strong as the others' at Which is a low price for such vehicles, and reduce their maintenance by per annum each for four years, these amounts might well be set off against the L'400, apart from the fact that one of the vehicles has saved its cost during the last two years." The committee has decided to accept the company's offers, subject to agreement to allow a pro zeta reduction in the event of any of the motors being, for any reason, taken out of use before the four years expire.
London's Over-flow.
Letchworth, the first Garden City, is not the only place which is appealing to manufacturers who are harassed by rates and overcrowding in London, and Wolverhampton. is amongst the latest of our provincial towns to make a bid for new factories in its midst. We learn that Messrs. Chubb, the wellknown builders of locks and safes, have recently purchased to acres of freehold land on the Fallings Park estate, Wolverhampton, and that other enquiries for land are coming forward in an encouraging manner. This Midland borough is certainly well placed as regards supplies of coal and materials generally, whilst there appears to be a free labour market as well. We learn, too, that the Fallings Park estate, which comprises 400 acres, and is within two miles of the centre of Wolverhampton, is being laid out by Sir Richard Paget on lines which will secure the most up-to-date conditions of living for the workpeople. Any enquiries in regard to sites may be addressed to the Town Clerk.
Motors for Estate Work.
The Albion Motor Car Company, Limited, of Scotstoun, Glasgow, has just issued an extremely well-got-up booklet giving particulars of motor vehicles for use in connection with country houses. The vehicles listed are all of the standard, 1611.p., Albion type, and include station buses, shooting brakes, and estate wagons. The varied uses of such vehicles, it will be remembered, were dealt with in the special issue of this journal dealing with utility motors for country estates and hotels, which was published on the r5th February, 1956, and, in the section devoted to this subject, several interesting testimenials appeared in relation to the Albion car. The station buses are arranged with both fixed and detachable tops, and carry from eight to nine persons, or from ten to eleven persons, accommodation being provided for six inside passengers in the first case, and eight inside in the second. The shooting brakes, which are fitted with a canopy and folding windscreen, have similar accommodation. The estate wagons are constructed in sizes to carry 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40 cwt., both the shooting brakes and wagons being run on solid tires. These vehicles arc so easily manipulated that any horse driver can undertake their control after a few days' tuition. Many of the largest commercial firms throughout the country are now employing them for the daily distribution of their goods.