News and Comment.
Page 13
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The !acts about this issue: Newsagents and subscribers' orders, 6,500 copies; voucher, library, hotel, and other regular mailings, 400 copies; special "missionary" mailings (to induce visits to Olympia), 2,750 copies; reserve, 350 copies.
The second portion of our Olympia forecast is begun on page 579.
The latest Hans Renold chain, of the silent type, will be described and illustrated in our next issue.
The Belfast Town Council is about to purchase a motor watercart at an estimated cost of ,*600.
The first of a series of articles on the subject of special steels for motor vehicles will be found on page 572.
Mr. Douglas Mackenzie raises son. interesting points on the vexed que,tion of depreciation (pages 587-9).
The Manchester Corporation has decided to purchase a motor lire-engine for the Withing-ton and Didsbury district.
The Fire Brigade Committee of the London County Council is to invite tenders for the supply of another motor, steam fire-engine, with the option of obtaining a further number not exceeding two.
The Highways Committee of the London. County Council reported, on Monday'. last, having accepted the tender of Foclens, Limited, to supply, for the use of the tramways department, at 4470 each, five steam lorries, fitted with steel wheels, and which vehicles can, also, be used as tractors.
Improved carburation, to which we referred in our Editorial pages three weeks ago, has been brought in esse by Carburation, Limited (GiIlett-Leltmann system), of Byron House, 85, Fleet Street, E.C. A few particulars are given on page 585 of this issue, and we hope to publish details in the course of a week or two.
We know a gentleman who is looking for an opening as Press representative and advertising manager for a large motoring firm. He is under 30 years of age, a member of the London Press Club, well-connected in all newspaper circles, and accustomed to secretarial work. If this paragraph happ..n to come under the notice of anybody who requires a first-class man, we shall be happy to put the parties in communication.
The Fuels Committee of the Motor Union, of which Dr. Hele-Shaw, F. R.S., is Chairman, is doing most useful work in the interests of owners of vehicles fitted with internal-combustion engines. The 'latest witnesses before this committee have been : Mr. Philip Tennant, Managing Director of the Gas Lighting Improvement Co., Ltd.; Mr. F. P. S. I Earns, of the Asiatic Petroleum Co., Ltd.; and Mr. R. Bell, Engineer of the London Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd. Any additional information bearing upon the fuel question, which may be in the possession of any of our readers, should be addressed to the Secretary of the Motor Union, 1, Albemarle Street, W. Saturday next, the znd proximo, is the last day of entry for the Automobik Club's Vapour Emission Competition. The object of this competition is the encouragement of designers to bring out devices for the diminution of foulness in the exhaust gases from internalcombustion engines.
The first important development, under the new articles of association of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, is a resolution to establish a section of members who are manufac• turers of motor vehicles in the United Kingdom. We should like to know how this decision will affect the British Empire Motor Trades Alliance? Mr. Alfred Burgess, a director of the Motor Manufacturing Company (1907), Limited, advises us that the company has removed to new works at Manor Street, Clapham, S.W.
Friswell (1906), Limited, of Albany Street, London, NW,, announces that it has decided to reduce its commission terms for the sale of motor vehicles to 5 per cent., inclusive of free fire insurance.
The Shrewsbury and Challiner Tyre Company, Limited, of Kay Street, Ardwick Green, Manchester, is prepared to send one of its folding blotters and writing cases to any motorist who cares to apply for one.
It is proposed to hold a competition for commercial automobiles in connection with the third Swiss Automobile, Cycle and Motor Boat Exhibition next May, and, in view of the ever-increasing importance of self-propelled vehicles for military purposes, the Executive Committee invited the War Department to support the competition, with the result that the Federal Council has empowered the Department to take over the protectorate. Herr Major A. von Bonstetten, a well-known member of the Swiss Motor Club, will represent the Federal Council at the competition when it takes place.
The accompanying illustration of a Mann, 2-ton, steam wagon, which has been constructed at the Pepper Road Works (Leeds), of Mann's Patent Steam Cart and Wagon Company, Limited, shows the lines of a machine that was delivered to Lord Joicey, for use upon his estate at Gregynog, Newtown, Montgomervshire, some four weeks ago. Lord •Joicey has, already, had six years' experience of the Mann wagons, and it cannot be other than a matter for gratification to the makers to receive a repeat order after that loneperiod of service from an early type.
The use of seven Argyll delivery vans, fitted with the well-known to-121Lp. Aster engine, by the " Glasgow Evening News," has proved to increase the circulation of that journal in a most pleasing manner. The full organisation of the motor delivery is now in force, and the resulting acceleration has been of great benefit to the proprietors, both in the suburbs of Glasgow, and for the conveyance of country newsagents' parcels. These cars are fitted with the Govan, patent, gear-box, whilst the back axle has been made of exceptional strength all four road wheels are mounted on ball bearings.
The Manchester Show.
The second motor show at Manchester does not possess as much interest. for those who follow the heavyvehicle side as did that at Belle Vat:. The present exhibition, at St. James's Hall, which was opened by the RighL Hon. the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, on Friday last, does, none the less, merit a visit. Visitors will find an interesting light van, with a 12-16h.p, four-cylinder engine, on tie stand of Messrs. Horsfall and Bickham, of Bridgwater Works, Pendleton : this is priced at £350. The British United Engineering Company, of 75, Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C. and Thames Ditton, which company exhibits jointly with Messrs. Andrew Allen and Company, of Old Millgate, Manchester, shows a 20 cwt. van chassis, fitted with a 14-16h.p. fourcylinder engine, and dual ignition. The chassis follows standard lines, including the provision of four speed ratios, the fitting of the gate type of change-speed control, and side-chain drive, whilst it has a pressed steel frame. Argylls Manchester, Limited, of 188, Deansgate, shows, amongst a line collection of touring cars, a chassis fitted with a van body which attracts much attention.
The tire section includes such wellknown makes as Gaulois, Moseley, Dunlop, Shrewsbury and Challiner, and " Elastes," whilst a very large number of the vehicles on view appear
to be fitted with Continentals. S. Smith and Son, Limited, of 9, Strand, W.C., shows a selection of speed incFcators, motor watches, electric horns, and general accessories, whilst the lamp section is well represented bv Worsnop and Company, Limited, of Halifax; Joseph Lucas, Limited, of Birmingham, and Brown, Brothers, Limited, of London. The last named company's exhibit is most comprehensive, and any reader of this journal in the Manchester district, who is on the look-out for motor accessories, should not fail to spend sonic time at stands No. 3, 4, 5, and 6. Price's Patent Candle Company, Limited, and Messrs. MeadeKing, Robinson and Company make good displays. " Giant " motor spirit is supplied in green cans, with red labels, or in larger packages, ranging from steel barrels to railway rank-cars, and the company has excellent arrangements for bulk storage at London, Manchester, Birkenhead, Glasgow, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Sheffield and Cardiff: Another grade of spirit, for commertial vehicles, is known as "
Arid l " motor spirit, in which a suitable range of boiling points has been specially studied in conjunction with the lower price.
The adjoining. illustration depicts a useful application of the internal-combustion engine. IL shows a Daimler motor, at work in the extensions of the Daimler Motor Company's works, at Coventry,for the purpose of rotating one of a series of large fans in connection with the heating apparatus. The cement foundation of the floor of the new buildings was not setting to the satisfaction of the Managing Director, Mr, Percy Martin, and, owing to the fact that the electric power was not installed, he had to adopt an alternative method of forcing air over the steam radiators, which are employed in the heating system to warm the incoming air before it is delivered to the shop-floor through sheetiron pipes. Some old motors, of an early Daimler type, were fitted up on test stands, as shown in the illustration, with the result that the cement set in time to enable the equipment of the shop to proceed in accordance with the company's programme.
The third part of the Automobile Club's Side-Slip and Skid Prevention trials commenced last Monday, as announced. The five devices which remain in the competition have all been fitted to double-deck buses which have been put to work on the usual omnibus route from Putney Station to Shoreditch. The Winter metal ring device has been attached to the wheels of a " Vanguard " Milnes-Daimler, and the Tiartridge tire has been fitted to those of a " Pioneer " De Dion. Both of these buses, by the courtesy of Mr. Clarence Freeland, have been specially put on this route in order that all the devices may run over the same stretches of ground. The Westminster 'Industrial, and Finance Developments, Limited, tire, of rubber and leather rings, is used on an Arnol-Johnston vehicles, which has been licensed by the police to run thnaug-h the ono° miles trial. The Parson's floating ring, with wood lining, has found a place on an " Arrow" Arrol-Johnston, and Molesworth's sixwheels run under a private, StrakerSquire double-decker. The last named is loaded with 25 sacks weighing each ololb., and private passengers, we understand, make the trip through the city by invitation, thus varying the load carried by the bus from time to time. The police have offered every facility for the carrying out of the trials, which are, naturally, of much interest to them as to the public at large.
Doubts have been expressed in our columns, on several occasions, as to whether the non-slipping effect of some of the rubber devices on the market would remain when the tire had become worn. From an examination we have made of a block of rubber taken from a Hartridge tire, which, it was stated, had run over 3,000 miles, our fears, as regards the effect of wear on this tire., appear to be ill-founded; the wear has taken place quite squarely on the face, leaving a perfectly sharp edge.