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News and Comment.

28th December 1905
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Page 4, 28th December 1905 — News and Comment.
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Our Circulation (Certified) is Double that of all Similar Journals Combined.

A bitter fight between the Birkenhead Corporation and the Mersey Railway Company appears imminent : this will be gathered from the particulars given on the preceding page. The St. Helens Cable Company, Limited, of Warrington, has transferred its Liverpool tyring depot to larger premises at Victoria Tyre Works, Julia Street, Manchester.

Membership of the Motor Van and Wagon Users' Association is now giving signs of satisfactory increase, and every owner of a self-propelled business vehicle should send his subscription of One Guinea to the secretary, Mr. W. Rees Jeffreys, 16, Down Street, London, W., without any further delay.

The County Councils' Association recently sent a deputation to the Home Office in support of the universal lighting of vehicles.

The Birmingham Motor Show is to be held at Bingley Hall from January 19th to 27111. We are informed by the secretary, Mr. Geo. W. Owen, of 57 and 58, New Street, Birmingham, that the bookings of space are satisfactory, and that the 1st Life Guards Band has been engaged.

Count Auersperg, the Austrian Minister of Commerce, is doing his utmost to assist the Postal Administration at Vienna in forwarding their plans to displant horses in favour of motors for postal work. Two wagons have been purchased, and are working so well that others will shortly follow for empioyment on fresh routes.

An interesting lecture on the subject of " Self-propelled Commercial Vehicles, Their History and Development " was deli‘ered before the Birmingham Municipal Technical School EngineeringSociety on Saturday last by Mr. Edward Reeve, Grad_ lnst.Mech.E., who is on the staff of the Wolseley Tool and Motorcar Company, Ltd.

A second Swiss National Motor Exhibition will be held at Geneva, from April 28th to May ist, and trials for vans and omnibuses are to take place, in connection with the Show, under the auspices of the Swiss Automobile Club. The Hungarian Club's International Exhibition will be held at Buda Pesth from April iith to 18th.

Readers who are interested, either directly or indirectly, in the building and contracting trades, or who have friends occupied in them, will find much to appeal to their business instincts in our first special issue for the New Year. This has been announced to appear on the 18th prox., and it will be freely illustrated both with statistics and from photographs. FIVE THOUSAND extra copies will be mailed to likely buyers throughout the United Kingdom. The Roads Improvement Association has appointed a special sub-committee, consisting of Colonel R. E. Crompton, C.B., Mr. H. Howard Humphreys, and Mr. J. H. de Mattos, to co-operate with the special sub-committee which was recently appointed by the Automobile Mutual Protection Association in conducting experiments with dustless paving in Kent. The County Council of Kent has placed a stretch of road near Maidstone at the disposal of the joint committee so constituted, and Mr_ Douglas Mackenzie, A.M.Instiklech.E., will act as secretary and take personal charge of the experiments in question. It is interesting to note that no material will be tried which is not capable of withstanding the heaviest motor, wagon and traction engine traffic, and this point has great practical significance, especially when so many other counties are paying heed to the dust question without considering whether the systems adopted are capable of resisting anything but the lightest traffic. Mr. James Pringle, of 124, Stanley Street, Kinning Park, Glasgow, has patented a tyre for use with heavy commercial motors. It consists essentially of an inner and outer rim, the latter being shod with a steel tyre. Interposed between the two rims is a row of inflated India-rubber balls, approximately ti inch in diameter. These cushions, or balls, rest in spherical depressions, and serve to keep the rims apart by about a inch. The whole tyre is shrouded in such a way that all dust and dirt are kept out of the interior portion. The inventor claims that the tyre can be used on heavy vehicles with a loaded back-axle weight of six tons, and that it will entirely absorb all shocks due to running over rough Austrian A.C. Show at Vienna. Cordingley's Tenth Annual Show: Agricultural Ball, N.

or uneven surfaces. The invention is ingeni ous and the specification is No. 3311, of 'goo. At Westminster City Council meeting on Thursday last, the highways committee reported having considered a letter from the Hartridge Tyre Syndicate, Ltd., offering to enter into a contract with the council for the supply of Hartridge rubber tyres for motor wagons at the rate of 2d. per mile run, and to put a set of the tyres on one of the council's steam motor wagons for one month free. The committee had accepted the offer of the syndicate to provide and fix a set of its wheels to one of the council's motors, and to allow the council to use the wheels for one month without cost, subject to an agreement to indemnify the council against all damages to persons or property arising in consequence of the use of the trial wheels and tyres. The council, at the same meeting, received a letter from Mr. G. A. Hall, surveyor to the Mutual Tontine Westminster Chambers Association, with reference to the alleged strain on buildings from vibration caused by traction engine traffic which passed along Victoria Street. He stated that in consequence thereof a ceiling fell at 1, Victoria Street, on the 25th November. Had the room been full of clerks at the time, they might have been seriously injured or even killed. It was resolved to forward a copy of the communication to the secretary of the Conference convened by the Paddington Borough Council.

The " New Era " petrol lire extinguishers are supplied by the Valor Company, Limited, of 9, Bush Lane, Cannon Street, London, EC., which company writes us as follows :—" We can trace from our quarter-page insertion with you on the 7th instant enquiries from the Bristol Tramways Company, who are ordering 12 x 02 and 12 X 03, and the Gloucester Carriage and Wheel Works for their buses and sheds; also Messrs. Hunter's motors, Eastdown, Lewisham, who are manufacturers of motor road vehicles. We feel confident now, from our trial order with you, that these 13 insertions which we are pleased to give you will prove of great advantage to us in selling our No. 02 new bus type extinguisher to the bus and railway companies for the equipment of their vehicles, and our No. 03, new and improved type garage size, for the equipment of their sheds." At the ordinary meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, held on Tuesday of last week, Sir Alexander Binme, president, in the chair, the paper read was " Heat Economy in Factories," by H. A. Mayor, M.Inst.C.E. The following is an abstract of the paper :—In an investigation undertaken in 1898 on the comparative costs of power in factories in the United Kingdom, the author found great difficulty in obtaining accurate data, owing in many cases to the fact that the fuel consumed was applied for heating as well as for power. This circumstance appeared to oiler inducements for further examination of the question, and the paper is an account of a method of inquiry which has resulted in a simplification of the problem and in the acquisition of useful results. The method consists in dealing with the heat production and distribution by a system of double-entry accounts, in which the boilers are debited with the heat represented by the coal and credited with the heat represented by the steam. These credits are carried to the debit of accounts dealing with the various uses to which the steam is put in the factories. These accounts, again, are credited with the work performed, the balances being carried to a balancing account, which brings out the efficiency of the prime movers and separates out the useful work and the losses in such form that the losses can be divided into necessary and avoidable losses, the whole giving a comprehensive view of the conditions of efficiency in terms of British thermal units.

Six specimen balance sheets are given in the paper, and the accounts are shown in detail, the cases chosen being :— (a) Factory in which there is a small amount of heating and a number of steam engines. (b) Factory where the power is obtained from one large engine and the heating occupies a prominent place.

(r) Similar factory where there are many engines and a scattered and complicated beating system.

(d) Factory where there are a number of engines of various sizes and a considerable amount of heating and boiling. (e) Factory similar to (d). (f) Blast-furnace plant. The balancing accounts in each case are discussed in detail, and indications are given of the methods of arriving at the results, showing the bearing which the ascertained efficiencies have upon existing methods of working. The following is an extract from a letter which has been received by the British Empire Motor Trades Alliance from a correspondent in Salisbury, Rhodesia :— "Early in February I gave a lecture here on The Possi

bilities of Modern Mechanical Transport in the Future Development of Rhodesia.' Briefly, my argument was this: Delashorialand, and to a lesser extent Matabeleland, the other half of Southern Rhodesia, is a veritable Garden. of Eden; climate perfect, well watered, and a perfect agricultural country, and the mineral wealth is marvellous if it could only be exploited. At present there is one railway running through the middle of the country, and the population. is so small that 'feeder lines' could not possibly pay without being an. incubus on the settlers (owing to heavy freights and fares) until the country has developed enormously. Hence, knowing the possibilities of road transport, I want to advance the proposition that roads should be made here, so that this method of transport might be available. I should be glad of your assistance in materials, such as a few lantern slides, diagrams, if you have any available, and any literature. I am pretty well up in cars and motorcycles, but want details about steam lorries, agricultural motors, and motor carriages for railways; also heavy motorcars for passenger transport in a commercial sense; prices, working expenses, and so on, and, if possible, rough details as to mechanisms. "In my opinion, in the years to come, there will be an enormous demand for road vehicles once the Colonials grasp the economic potentialities of road transport. You would hardly believe it, but I don't think there is a single road fit to run a steam lorry over in South Africa; the Colonials seem to have no ideas beyond a wagon track across the veldt, and ox transport at the rate of 16 miles a day."

The Wolseley Tool and Motorcar Company, Limited, has recently completed, at its Birmingham works, a self-propelled hose car for the Glasgow Corporation Fire Brigade. By the courtesy of the chairman of the Birmingham Fire Brigade (Councillor Brooks) and of Superintendent Tozer, chief of the brigade, who were greatly interested, some informing tests were made

at Birmingham before the vehicle was despatched to Glasgow : our illustration was taken during these trials, with members of the Birmingham brigade on the vehicle. The following are the tests that were carried out in a most satisfactory manner :— Test 1.—A crew of ten men and the driver : car standing in the usual position in engine room with doors closed. GI-an alarm being given, the crew had manned the machine, the driver had started motor, and all were outside the station gates and through the yard in five seconds.

Test 2.—A severe trial was made of the car's capabilities through traffic, and in this respect it behaved wonderfully well, the ease of control and efficiency of the brakes being especially noted by the Fire Brigade representatives. When the road was reasonably clear, a speed of over 30 miles an hour was easily attained.

Test 3.—In a hill-climbing test a load consisting of the full Fire Brigade equipment, together with ten men and their accoutrements, was carried up a gradient of i in 8 at a speed of so miles an hour.


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