News and Comment.
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The shareholders of the Liverpool Cycle and Motor Show, Limited, have decided upon voluntary liquidation, end the confirmatory -special general meeting wilt be held on the 7th proximo.
AnR.A.C. Paper.
Last week's issue of the " Royal Automobile Club Journal " announced that Mr. E. Shrapnel] Smith, Editor of "Ti-is COMMERCIAL MOTOR," Will give the first of the papers to be read before members of the Club during the latter part of the present year, and that the paper is entitled " Twelve years' progress in the application of commercial motors." The date will probably be during the month of November.
The Winnipeg Trials.
Our report of the Winnipeg Trials, in last week's issue, has brought in several expressions of appreciation from farmers and growers. We hope it may induce further enterprise on the part of our home manufacturers, as there is unquestionably a world-wide trade ahead of the agricultural motor, and that after no great interval. Two additional illustrations which were unavoidably crowded out of our report will be found in this issue.
A Strong Programme.
The Incorporated Institution of Automobile Engineers announces a very attractive provisional programme for the t9o8-9 session. Mr. Dug-ald Clerk, F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E., will give his presidential address on ihe r4th October, .and he has chosen as his subject " Smite problems of the motorcar." Professor Bertram Hopkinson, M.A., M.Inst.C.E., on the 1 ith November, will read a paper on " A complete test of a modern petrol engine," and Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman, M.I.Mech, F., M.I.E.E., on the oth December, is to
deal with the subject of T low the weight of the motorcar is made up." Other important subjects, for which dates have not yet been definitely settled, together with the names of the authors and the titles of the papers upon them, are announced to include : "Causes of wear in motor machinery," by F. H.
Royce, MI. Mech.E. ; Carburetter experiments," by G. IL Baillie " The chemistry of petrol," by Horatio Ballantyne, F.I.C., F.C.S. ; " On specifying the quality of petrol," by Bertram Blount, F.1.C., F.C.S. ; " The use of small internal-combustion engines for marine work," by F. R. S. Bircham ; " Transmission," by L. A. Legros, M.I.Mech.E. ; " Motorcabs," by E. II. Cozens Hardy, M.I.Mech.E., M.I.E.E. ; and a discussion on " Valve setting," introduced by Max R. Lawrence, M.I.Mech.E.
Mann Carts.
The unique pattern of steam tipping cart, one of which is illustrated herewith, to the design of Mr. James H. Mann, has proved peculiarly successful in rough and heavy work such as is inseparable from the requirements of owners of brick works, stone quarries, lime kilns, and various classes of mines. The owner of the cart which is depicted alongside this paragraph, Mr. William Lewis-, builder and contractor, of 4,14, Llewellyn Street, Pentre, R.S.O., South Wales, finds that no other machine can tackle his particular class of heavy work to equal advantage.
Letchworth's Claims.
Letchworth, the first garden city, the present stage of development of winch is the subject of a short article in this issue (page 582), has already benefited by the establishment of at least one motor service to and from London; the town is at a convenient distance for the regular employment of heavy motor vehicles, being some 35 miles from London. We believe that, as soon as the present lack of attractions for male labour is tackled in an earnest and businesslike way, a large number of leases for new factory sites will be completed, and that a large number of orders for commercial motors will follow.
Paraffin or Petrol ?
A report having recently been put into circulation that a Broom and Wade lorry is working in London on motor spirit, and not on paraffin, as used during the R.A.C. Trials of SeptemberOctober last, Mr. T. C. Aveling, of Central House, New Street, Birmingham, who has the sale of Broom and Wade vehicles in his hands, asks us to point out that the machine in question, which belongs to Barclay and Perkins, Limited, is really working on ordinary paraffin : its consumption of motor spirit is only two gallons a week, that quantity being employed for starting
purposes. Mr. Aveling very rightly suggests that the impression which is abroad that the machine runs on petrol is the best possible testimony to the efficiency of the paraffin motor. We learn, too, that the lorry in question has only been in the shops on four days during the last six months, and has averaged 40 miles per day, in the delivery of bottled beer.
We are asked to announce that Mr. Louis W. Smith, lately works manager for Richard Garrett and Sons, Limited, of Leiston, will shortly join the board of directors of W. Sisson and Company, Limited, engineers, of Gloucester, and will take an active part in the works management of that company's high-speed engine factory. Mr. Smith, however, will continue to represent the Garrett interests, as regards threshing and road-haulage tackle, in the West.
Courtesy or Due?
We note that our contemporary " Progress " (New Zealand), in its issue of the 1st July, has reprinted, with due acknowledgment, our recent article on the use of screwing tackle. We are always pleased to see reproductions of this kind, and to know that the British and Colonial press generally indicates the origin of such appropriations. Not so, we regret to say, does the American and Continental press handle our own and other journals' contents : a case in point is named on page 585.
Messrs. Kendal, Milne and Company, of Manchester, have also ordered a Dennis van, after a successful trial of a van of that make.
The Imperial German Manoeuvres.
The self-propelled vehicles attached to the German Transport Section will advance to the seat of this year's Imperial manceuvres, in Lorraine, in three columns. Two columns are told off for the commissariat of two infantry divisions, while the third keeps in touch with a cavalry division. The German War Office does not purpose dividing the vehicles into a light and a heavy column, as on the occasion of the trial runs last fall. It appears that only two steam-driven machines—presumably of Fowler's make, which has given the army authorities great satisfaction— will take part in the manceuvres. The old Siemens-Schuckert train is to be fitted with a new " mixed " tractor. An Unfortunate Accident.
The Hammersmith Coroner, on the 2ist instant, held an enquiry into the death of Mr. Francis M. Fitt, a solicitor, of Limerick, who was killed on Wednesday morning of last week through his being struck by a tramcar while he was leaning out of the window of a taxicab, apparently to speak to the driver. The cab was proceeding at a speed of only about ro miles an hour, and the evidence showed that Mr. Fitt's head come into contact with an iron bracket on the side of the tramcar, which caused fracture of the skull and death to supervene. A verdict of "Accidental death " was returned, and no blame was attached to either driver.
Bakery Vans.
Several manufacturers of commercial motors have successfully appealed to the bakery, confectionery, and flour-dealing trades. One of these, Dennis Brothers, Limited, has recently supplied such a van to the Barnsley British Cooperative Society, and two views will be found at the foot of this page. The van has been specially built for the carrying and distribution of bread : it is fitted inside to hold no less than 70 trays, each 2 feet 9 inches by 2 feet by 3i inches and capable of carrying 25 two-lb. loaves, or a total of no less than 1,750 units. This number of loaves, including the trays, makes a total weight of something like two tons. The Cooperative Society in question also owns an ordinary goods van of the Dennis make, and a Dennis coal lorry.