Opinions from Others.
Page 17
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Development of the Steam Wagon.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,402j Sir,—I have read with interest Mr. Page's letter in your issue of the 13th July. He states that Garrett's in 1865 had in their catalogue an illustration and specification of a traction engine. This was at least five to eight years after Aveling had produced and shown his road engine, and this engine he shows in Fig. 1 of the nine interesting figures illust rated with his letter. All students of heavy road locomotion can trace these various efforts, but the peculiar point in the development, of the steam wagon is that, out of all the nine examples quoted by Mr. Page, not one has survived in a way similar to Aveling's system of 1860.
For the life of me, I cannot see how any of Mr. Page's sketches have led up to or could in any way have helped to develop the present form of steam
wagon.Yours faithfully, " RESEARCH."
The Influence of Speed on Design.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,403] Sir,--In answer to " Casual Observer's " ,queries in his letter No. 1,391 of your issue of the 20th July, 1911, my assumption was on the basis that. the containers of load carried were valuable. As an extreme instance, hydrogen is delivered in valuable containers, and in some cases is consumed on delivery, the empty containers being returned immediately, the return load only being 1 cwt.. lighter in a four-ton consignment. " Casual Observer " will see here the necessity of speed. The universal adoption of rubber tires supports my contention that speed to the users is of more importance than lowness of running costs. in reference to speed of loading and unloading, I meant. to imply that a two-ton vehicle will be loaded and away in less than half the time a five-ton vehicle can be loaded and unloaded, in that three two-ton vehicles can be loaded in the same time as one two-ton vehicle, so that, with sufficient labour, three two-ton vehicles, i.e., a net load of six tons, could be loaded in less than half the time required to load one five-ton vehicle, and the same with the unloading. Moreover, when you have delivered say 21 tons off the five-ton vehicle, your five-ton vehicle is only carrying 50 per cent. of its load. If " Casual Observer " will re-read (not quite so casually) my statement as to comparative output, he will see that the sentence " Under the first condition " refers not to the output., but to the type of vehicle. Of course, ten tons a day carried 20 miles gives us 200-ton miles, but, in comparing the two types of vehicles, T have taken the maximum output of each, i.e., mileage with full load.
I trust I have made myself clear to " Casual Observer," and would like to express my appreciation to him for this opportunity.—Yours faithfully,
Birmingham. T. C. AVELINO.
Motors for Milk Traffic.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,404] Sir,--My attention has been twice directed to the communications which have appeared in your issues of June 29th and August 10th dealing with the above matter. Unfortunately, I have mislaid my cony of the 29th, so that I am not in a position to write with full knowledge of the subject. In the very early days of the movement, before the first motorcarrying concern in this country was started, I went very fulls, into this subject, especially with regard to The carriage of milk from the Cheshire dairy farms into Manchester. I have not the figures by me now, but I remember at. the time I was satisfied that the traffic could be made to pay with reliable motors. In view of the subsequent troubles which ensued uith the early motors built to the light tare, I have often felt very thankful that we did not attempt to carry perishable goods, but confined ourselves to cotton and cloth. At the present time, I am convinced that in many localities milk can be carried very satisfactorily by road motor. Indeed, numbers of milk suppliers are already doing so privately for their own purposes. . By a suitable arrangement, nearly four tons of milk can be carried on a modern petrol lorry at a speed of 12 miles an hour.
Dealing with the Manchester milk supply, with which I am most famiiar, my idea was to begin with two services, one on the Northwich road through Altrincham, crossing the Warrington-Macclesfield road at Mere Corner, the other on the Manehester-Congleton road,. through Cheadle or Stockport, crossing the same main road at Monk's Heath. Between and on each side of these two main roads, there is a very large area of country entirely devoted to dairy farming. By having the principal receiving stations for milk at Mere Corner and Monk's Heath, with subsidiary stations at other points on the roads, a great deal of milk could be collected—perhaps not actually from the farms, but at any rate from points which would save the farmers a very considerable cartage to their present nearest stations.
AI, the time I went into this matter, the facilities given by the railway companies at London Road Station and at the Central Station were not nearly as complete as they are to-day, so that. a company starting to-day to carry milk by road would have more competition than we should have had to face some ,years ago. I do not think that it would be practicable to collect milk from farm to farm, or to deliver it about Manchester in small consignments. My idea was that a company should have been formed, in which farmers and landowners should take a principal interest; in short., that it should have been a co-operative concern for the distribution of milk. It was intended that there should have been a central depot with a refrigerating plant and cold storage rooms for keeping the milk in town, and small 30-cwt. lorries for distributing it to the shops in the suburbs.
I am still of opinion that a properly-engineered scheme on these lines could be made a success around Manchester, and probably also in the neighbourhood of other large cities— e.g., around Liverpool a scheme could certainly be worked collecting in the area between Frodsham, Cuddington, Tarporley, Broxton, and Holt.
As regards cost of working, your correspondent's figure (as you remark in your footnote) of 3;c1. per mile for rubber tires is of course much too high. lkly firm have worked out a very complete table of working costs for petrol lorries, and will be very pleased to send a copy of our new catalogue containing. same to any of your readers who are interested in this subject. The total cost of running a. lorry carrying 3 tons 10 cwt. of milk, fully loaded in one direction and partly loaded in the other, should not exceed tkl. per mile, everything included. With good ma rnigernent and a fairly-large organization, and, on the Cheshire road, this could be improved upon. A s I have mentioned above, one of the principal milk contractorsin Manchester, who has a large rpeeiving depot in the city and a creamery out near Northwich. is already working with motors. If any of your readers will write direct to me, T shall be pleased to nut at their disposal any of fhe information I collected some years ago.—Yours faith
fully, C. B. NTNON, SECRETARY, LEYLAND MOTORS, LTD. Leyland, Lancs.