Opinions from Others.
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The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects connected with the use of commercia! motors. Letters should be on
one sae of the Paper only, and lye-written by Preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility fur the views expressed is accepted. In the case of experiences, names of towns or localities may be withheia.
The Chain-drive Gearbox.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,154] Sir,—I should imagine that your recent references to, and short description of, the new chain-drive change-speed gearbox, which the L.G.O. Co. has adopted on its own design of omnibus chassis, must have been of much interest to all those of your readers who have been troubled with the more-ordinary types of box. 1 am given to understand that this is practically the only arrangement which will satisfy the requirements, so far as noise is concerned, of the Public Carriage. Office at Scotland Yard. I also hear that an application for a patent has been lodged for a chain-drive change-speed gear in combination with a direct drive. Now, if this be granted, surely the L.G.O. Co. looks like obtaining a virtual monopoly of all further new motorbuses for London service! Of course, it is this combination with the direct drive that is the valuable characteristic of the whole device. I would like to point out that, to the best of my recollection, the chaindrive gearbox per se is no novelty. Brooke's, of Lowestoft, certainly used it on some early cars, and, I believe, Parsons, of Southampton, adopts it for marine reversing gear. I have also heard of it as having been employed on a French model, hut the name of this machine *has slipped my memory. The chief point is, however, that it will be a serious thing for motorbus development in London, if a monopoly of the only device which will satisfy Scotland Yard is allowed to pass into the hands of any one company. In my opinion, motorbus transport is to undergo further great extensions before long—provided no monopoly is allowed to kill legitimate competitive enterprise in the meantime.--Yours faithfully,
Harrow-on-the-Hill. A.M,I, M ECH . E.
We shell he pleased to publish details of any anticipations. As regards monopoly, this correspondent's fears are alarmist-En.] Commercial-vehicle Design.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,155] Sir,Mr. Arthur E. A. M. Turner dismisses the subject of placing the driver over the engine in rather too curt a way for his opinion to be regarded as final. The facts he. quotes as evidence also are capable of other explanation, and I am pleased to see that Mr. R. F. Clayton has dealt with the opposite view in an absolutely-practical manner. The great objection seems to be the inaccessibility of the engine, hut this is somewhat overdone, for, with a little ingenuity on the part of the designer, the whole of the power plant can he arranged so as to be completely exposed when necessary. True, it may take longer to expose the engine than it it were only a matter of raising a bonnet, but, as lone as valves and ignition details can he got at from the side, it will not be often
that the whole engine will require laying bare: when it does, five or ten minutes extra will not make much difference. Besides, we are getting—or should be getting—. beyond the point where the engine demands frequent inspection, and, whilst the pleasure-ear owner may be content to give up a third of his vehicle to the power plant, many commercial users cannot afford to do that, particularly if the material they handle is at all bulky.
At present, the maximum platform area for a given wheelbase is obtained by placing the engine in front of the forward axle; not only does this give a very-objectionable appearance to the vehicle, but it renders the engine, more liable to the effects of vibration, and actually diminishes the weight on the rear wheels—and, consequently, their adhesion. The possible shortening of the wheelbase by this method is also limited, whilst further disadvantages are that it increases total vibration and, on account of the increased moments produced by a weight so far from the centre of the vehicle, directly encourages skidding. For country work, a short wheelbase is net of so much importance, other things being equal, but, for vehicles which have to do much manoeuvring amid town traffic, it certainly is a real convenience, and is an evengreater convenience if the short wheelbase is accompanied by a correspondingly-reduced overall length, which is now only possible by placing the engine behind the front axle, with the driver's seat above it. 'Whether this be advisable or not, is surely a matter of individual requirements. If a moderate platform area suffice, there is no reason why the convenient bonnet should not be used ; but, if bulky goods have to he carried, there surely cannot be such serious disadvantages in placing the driving-seat over the bonnet, or at the side of it is la Arrolslohnston and Lancheater! Even if the seat be placed over the bonnet, we need not despair of an accessible engine, and, as an example, the New Engine pleasure car can be quoted. " But the N.E.C. engine is horizontal," someone will say : answer, " What of that 9" if a horizontal engine serve the purpose, why let the dictates of fashion prevent its use ? If the whole question be regarded with an open mind, it would seem as if, for moderate-powered vehicles, there could be no engine more suitable. For vehicles up to two tons, a horizontal opposed four-cylinder engine with epicyclie gear and central or side-chain drive would be ideal. A short wheelbase and short overall dimensions would be possible, whilst the effect of keeping the weight about the centre would be to give a stable chassis, and one free from vibration. For heavier vehicles the N.E.C. type of engine, set athwart the frame, with conventional gearbox and live axle, would perhaps be most suitable for the present.
In the writer's opinion. the last has not yet been heard of the epicyclic gear. and, with the advances—slow but sure.—being made in two-stroke practice, there is a prospect that in the future we shall have a very-much-simpler vehicle, cheaper in first cost and maintenance also. In the pleasure car, the stage has now been reached ‘vhen the body is regarded as of at-least-equal importance to the chassis, it being realized that the car is a carriage first and last. In the same way, the commercial vehicle is to carry goods in the cheapest-possible manner: it is for the engineer to put his mechanism round the body, and not rice 'versa. A few years ago, the internal-combustion motor was insufficiently advanced for this, but to-day matters are very different, and that this discussion has arisen at all is proof that requirements are changing.— Yours faithfully, Gso. H. Cur BUSH, .I.E.S., A.:11 .I. A .E. Broomhill, Glasgow.
Vehicles in Turkish Trials.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
L1,1561 Sir,-1 am pleased to be in a position to contradict the statement " That the automobiles on trial by the Turkish Government are exclusively Austrian and German." As a matter of fart, Air. Moise Mazza, of 66, Aldermanbury, London, E.C., has a " Commer Car" here, and it will compete effectively. Six cars are being tried : three Austrian, two German, and one British. I am afraid, however, that the British car is considerably behind in regard to equipment, although I have no doubt in mechanicll proficiency it stands a good chance on its constructional merits. One Austrian car has been disqualified, so, now, there are only five competitors.—Yours
faithfully, J. G. Plums. Pera.
Police Control of Heavy Motors in Lancashire.
The Editor, 1' F. COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,-157] Sir,—There is a very-strong feeling, amongst all owners of heavy motors in Lancashire, that the attitude which the police adopt towards these machines is produeing serious injury to the industry it. is felt that, nut only is a serious handicap being placed upon the owners, in utilizing the machines for business purposes, but that the drivers of the machines (whose duties are in any case onerous and responsible) are being placed in an untenable position. The facts are, briefly, that at the present moment, in certain districts, which embrace. the greater part of Lancashire, special police are detailed off to trap the drivers of these machines for any technical infringement of the speed limit or overweight. The utmost care is taken, in arranging these traps, so as to catch the driver at a disadvantage, and without any regard to the general fitness of things. Thus, a. distance of a quarter of a mile, or even so short a distance as 220 yds., down a gentle slope is a favourite choice for the .police, who will even follow a motor for miles on cycles in the hopes of catching the driver. Police on point duty evidently have instructions to watch every vehicle closely, for some nominal breach of the law, as the following typical incidents will disclose: a driver was summoned for backing his vehicle 100 yds. down a road, instead of turning round, although the road was sett paved and in a slippery condition, and there was no traffic in sight; another case was due to a trailerchain's having become uncoupled ; in another, a driver was heavily fined because in towing home a trailer for a broken-down wagon he had forgotten to change the number plate on the trailer to coincide with that on his wagon! Is this the spirit in which the law is intended to be administered ? 1 think the answer is clearly in the negative, at any rate in a country such as ours.
Why, then, is it that this state of affairs continues without reproof from the magistrates? The reason is very clear, to those who read the reports of the borough and county surveyors. Since the advent of motor haulage. the cost of the upkeep of the roads has considerably increased, and, in the majority of cases, it is attributed to the excessive speed and weight of motor vehicles, no mention being made of the extra wear and tear which would in any ease be involved by the increased proportion of goods conveyed by road since the advent of motors. There can be little doubt that heavy motors have had a. most-serious effect upon the cost of upkeep of the previously-neglected roads, but it is hardly fair to lay the bill at their door. The fact is that road surveyors have never built their roads to stand greater weights than can be drawn by two horses at, say, three miles an hour, and I have heard it confessed that one main road, which has to bear an enormous amount of motor traffic, is not fit to carry more than a farmer's cart. Is it fair and equitable, then, that the police should be instructed to insist upon heavy motors' complying with the minutest letter of the law, while it is known that. the local authorities cannot provide roads which come within even measurable distance of their theoretical requirements? It is bad enough for heavy motors to have to run over roads which pull them to pieces, but when the drivers and owners are practically persecuted for doing so the case becomes monstrous. If heavy motors are to be free to develop, and become as they promise important factors in the commercial life of the nation, there will have to be some reasonable latitude allowed to them in their movements, as the present risk of an owner's being heavily fined for a slight error of judgment on the part of a driver gives cause for annoyance and loss which no business man can afford to suffer. Moreover, it will eventually make the calling of the drivers so unattractive that it will become impossible to obtain the right class of men, and it is also going to have a verybad effect upon the police, who are being called upon to treat a. certain class of employment with exceptional severity, and to enforce the law without any regard to circumstance. It is very pleasant to reflect that a hundred years hence the subject of this article will have passed into oblivion, but the Automobile Association has more than once shown clearly that it considers the day has COMB for the commercial section of road motorists to have insidious prosecutions for overspeed. Has not the time come for the commercial section of road motorists to have their cause championed by a similar body? We are, after all, doing a greater service to the nation than the pleasure car, and it is ridiculous to treat us as if we were " pirates of the road."—Yours faithfully, "A LANCASHIRE CARRI ER .
helotorcab Depot Decentralization.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
1,158] Sir.—Your allusion to the Wimbledon motorcabs in to-day's Editorial has naturally interested me as a resident of the suburb in question, particularly as it is much neglected by proprietors of self-propelled publicservice vehicles. We have at present one local garagekeeper who runs six cabs, but these are always either out or engaged, and so are impossible to get hold of unless you book them the previous day. Even then, as the demand is in excess of the number of vehicles, the would-be hirer has either to ring up the G.M.C.C., at Brixton, or the more-recently-instituted rank at Putney. In this ease, the problem touches on the question raised by " W.F." in your issue of the 12th inst., as to whether the hire starts when a cab leaves a garage or rank to call at a house or rendezvous. In my case, the G.M.C.C. assured me that the flag would be lowered immediately the cab left its garage, and that I would be responsible for the amount registered, which would include about 5s. recorded while the cab was travelling from Brixton to Wimbledon station. On the other hand, it costs about 3s. in taxi-hire to get a cab from Putney.
There is work for more taxis in this suburb, as there are a good many people who would spend from 20s. to 25s. fairly frequently in trips, but who are averse to paying 5s. or 6s. for fetching an empty cab from Brixton, or to " fagging" over to Putney. The humbler inhabitants here are neglected in a similar way. No motorbus service comes nearer than Putney. The L.G.O.C. has carefully avoided this suburb. with its Sunday and Bank-holiday services. What we want is a motorbus service regularly to London, and one from here to Sutton.—Yours faithfully,ARTHUR E. A. M. TraNut. fuUll*Ti'mbledon, 19th May, 1910.