WHEELS OF INDUSTRY.
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The wheels of wealth will be slowed by all difficulties of transport at whatever points arising, as a carriage s by
the roughness of the roads over which it runs."—John. Beattie Crozier.
Shock-absorber Trials in Paris.
The Paris Conseil Municipal has decided to hold its shock-absorber trials in October next. A sum of 250,000 francs is being voted towards the expenses of the trials, and a further sum of 50,000 francs is to be distributed in prizes. The trials are to commence on October 1st, and will therefore be in progress during the period of the Paris Automobile Salon. , One of the objects which M. Jousselin, the councillor who originated the idea, has in mind is to determine to what extent shock absorbers may be usefully employed upon industrial and heavy vehicles. Particulars of the trials may be obtained from the Hotel de Ville, Paris.
The War Department Subsidy.
In connection with the 240 per annum subsidy granted to purchasers of subsidy-type motor vehicles, the Department has just intimated that, with a view still further to interest commercial and industrial firms in the subsidy scheme, it is now agreeable, where desired by potential buyers, to extend the period of enrolment to three years.
This means that owners can expect to recover a total allowance of £120 in normal circumstances.
Severe Penalties on Motor Coach Drivers.
Drivers of motor coaches should pay particular attention to driving at a safe speed, for the police are showing increasing signs of activity in the trapping of offenders. For instance, quite recently at Lancaster six drivers were summoned for driving to the public danger, and were penalized in sums varying from £5 to £15, the total amounting to £70.
In each instance the defendants were timed by police riding in a motorcycle and sidecar combination. The speeds recorded reached 30 m.p.h.
An Appeal to the Ministry.
Messrs. W. T. Underwood, Ltd., have notified the Chesterfield Watch Committee that they are appealing to the Ministry of Transport against the decision of the Watch Committee refusing their application to commence a bus service from the Tibsbelf, Morton and Stretton area to Chesterfield.
Fixed Bus Stop • Rejected.
The experiment of fixed point stops, carried out by the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., on, several of their routes has not proved entirely satisfactory, and has therefore been abandoned. Consequently, buses working on these routes will stop when hailed, compulsory stops being made only at points mentioned on the fare-boards.
Over 300,000 Commercial Motors.
The motor taxation statistics for the six months ending May 31st have just been published, and they show an increase of 20 per cent in the number of licences as compared with the figure for a year previously.
E22 The total number of motor vehicles licensed to May 31st, 1923, was 1,021,721; the figure at the end of last May was 1,203,348.
Detailed comparative figures are Cars taxed on h.p. at May, 1923, 364,423; May, 1924, 433,212. Commercial goods vehicles have increased in the same period from 166,351 to 194,179; road locomotives now numbering 2,302 are 26 fewer than a year earlier; motor tractors now numbering 1,339 are 74 fewer than in the previous year. Hackney motor
carriages have risen in number from 79,267 to 85,476, whilst exempted vehicles {that is to say, fire-engines, ambulances, etc.) have increased from 11,927 to 13,366. The total number of commercial motor vehicles licensed at the end of May was, therefore, 295,323, plus a certain number of vehicles which are engaged in trading but which are taxed on h.p., such as private hire cars, commercial travellers' broughams, etc., and, again, a certain number of vehicles registered as motorcycles should be included under the same category, so-that the number of commercial vehicles in use in the country at the end of May last well exceeds 300,000.
Danzig Show Date Changed.
The date of the 11th Danzig Fair has been altered from August 3rd-6th to October 2nd-5th. British lorry manufacturers are invited to write for particulars as to representation to the Danziger Internationale Messe, Messegelande Hau Ostende, Fernsprecher 5287, 5291, Danzig.
Smaller Buses.
Gosport Watch Committee has considered a letter from the managing director of the Gosport and Fareham Tramways Co., Ltd., to the effect that he is considering the substitution of 2-ton motorbuses, fitted with pneumatic tyres, for the present 5-ton vehicles, and inquiring if the council would be prepared to grant him two licences for these smaller vehicles as against one licence now held for the large one. The committee agreed to do so.
A well-arranged catalogue of S.R.O. ball bearings has recently been issued by the S.R.O. Ball Bearing Co., of 115, Southwark Street, London, S.E. The catalogue is well printed, the various sizes and types being clearly shown, both as regards print and illustrations. A copy will be sent free of charge to any reader who cares to apply to the company.
A New Trans-Continental Road.
News has been received that the new Belgian Trans-Continental road linking up Beta and Rejaf and Mongala is now ready for public motor traffic. This road is 581 miles in length, and there are petrol depots at Buta, Bambili, Niangaro, Faradje, Abs and Rejaf, and the surface is so good that the motorlorry service averages 18 m.p.h.
If this road be actually opened to the public, it will be possible, according to the secretary of the Royal East African Automobile Association, to cross Central Equatorial Africa, from Mombasa on the East Coast to Bombs on the West Coast, in something like 22 days.
Motor Coach Excursions into France.
By an order of the French DirectorGeneral of Customs, motor coaches with tourists coming from England. are admitted into France on the ordinary triptyque which is used for touring cars.
A reservation is made, however, in the case of the coaches that they must return to England with their passengers at the end of the trip. They will not, under any circumstances, be allowed to remain in France and to pick up further loads of excursionists at the ports.
Dunlop's New Store.
One of the largest stores buildings in this country is now nearing completion at Fort Dunlop. It contains 36 tons of lead, 4,200 tons of steel, 4,800 tons of cement, 5,700 tons of sand and 20,000 tons of gravel for concrete.
On each of the floors there are metal racks on which to stack the tyres for which the building is intended. Two 5-ton lifts are provided, these being equal in power and capacity to the passenger lifts on the London Under ground. The total floor area of the complete building runs to nearly 14 acres.
A New Midland Service.
A new Midland Red service was started recently between Worcester and Tewkesbury, Glos., via Kempsey and Brockeridee Common. There are two buses each way each day, except Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first leaves Worcester at 9.30 a.m. and Tewkesbury at 11 a.m., and the last 3.30 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively. Sunday times are different.
Safety Catches for Bus Doors.
Gosport Watch Committee has decided to notify bus proprietors that the present sliding catches on bus doors will not be sanctioned after this year, and that the council will insist in future on the provision of a safety catch or handle to each door.
F. H. Haywood and Co., Ltd., sole concessionnaires for Delahaye vehicles and Baehr, of Paris, patent all-weather bodies, are starting business at 40, Pall Mall, London, S.W.1, where showrooms will be opened on August 18th.
Emerging from Side Roads.
His Honour Judge Ruegg, K.C., recently gave interesting sidelights on the rules regarding the respective rights of main-road and side-road traffic.
A person emerging from a side road, he said, was hound to wait until he could do so safely. He had no right to assume that, merely because he had given warning of his approach, he could enter the main road. He would go so far as to say that not only must the main-road traffic not be endangered by emerging aide-road traffic, but that it must not even be inconvenienced. The side-road traffic had no right to cause the mainroad traffic either to divert its course or to stop. Only by the observance of these rules could motor traffic be catered for, especially in view of the large number of vehicles on the road to-day.
Import Duties on Chassis Details.
It has been assumed in certain directions that the withdrawal of the 34 per cent, ad valorem duty on private cars will enable these to come into Great Britain and North Ireland absolutely duty free, but this is not quite the case, because foreign magnetos, lamps with bulbs of lamp-blown glass or containing tungsten filament, foreign ammeters and voltmeters are still dutiable on the same basis under Part r of the Safeguarding of Industries Act of 1921.
We point this out because these arti. des are also employed on commercial vehicles, and, so far as these vehicles are concerned, there will be no difference at all in the tax which has to be paid on such parts.
Arrangements have been made for the provision of triptyques for the temporary importation oi these accessories in the ease of visiting vehicles.
The Use of a Traffic Beacon.
An interesting form of flashing traffic beacon has been erected on the Great West Road. It is situated in the centre of a dangerous cross-road, at the point where the Great West Road is crossed by the Thornbury Road, and is so placed that its signal is visible from all directions. In addition, it forms the pivoting point about which traffic entering or leaving the Great West Road must turn.
The beacon is constructed by the Gas Accumulator Co. (United Kingdom), Ltd., Beacon Works, 13rentford, and it was installed under the direction of the Middlesex County Council engineer. The company have been giving their attention to the possibilities of developing some scheme by which road users could be warned of permanent road dangers since 1913, when they first
placed a flashing beacon at Huxley ,Corner, in Kent.
The new beacon resembles those installed in the Mall and Constitution Hill, except that round each of the lens is fitted a day signal, taking the form of a coloured disc. The night signal is very conspicuous. It gives 200 flashes per minute, and the concrete base permits the whole unit to be put in place or removed with ease and without damaging the road.
The beacon is self-contained, and may be left unattended for long periods, beacons of this type being arranged to work automatically for periods of six months or 12 months, as desired.
The works and offices of Dennis Bros., Ltd., of Gnildford, will be closed for the summer holidays from Friday, August let, at 6 p.m., until Monday, August 11th, at 9 am.
Personal Pars.
Dr. F. J. Waldo, the City Coroner, whose portrait we give in an adjoining column, has filled that honourable position for a period of 23 years and is now senior among the nine London coronars. With a vast experience of traffic in London he has never shown prejudice against any one form of locomotion, and his decisions and recommendations have always displayed that great common sense that one would expect from the experienced practitioner. Amongst his recommendations was the prevision of jacks for raising buses in the event of persons getting trapped beneath them, a recommendation which has been supported by the police and has been adopted through the generosity of the London General Omnibus Co.
There are still many questions regarding traffic which are exercising his mind, and he is constantly urging the provision of more ambulance stations and more ambulances. He is a powerful 'advocate of the instruction of all new constables in first-aid and ambulance work.
Mr. Frank W. Shorland, formerly commercial and general sales manager of Clement-Talbot, Ltd., has now returned to his old position at the invitation of the directors of that company. He made a great success of that position, his personality and his individual charm having won for him throughout his business career a very large number of friends.
This appointment has enabled certain. new arrangements in the personnel of the Sunbeam, Talbot and Darracq companies to be made. Mr. 00ZellS, for many years sales manager to the Sunbeam Co., as well as, latterly, joint sales manager with Mr. Makins, of the Talbot Co., will now concentrate his activities entirely on behalf of the Sunbeam Co. Mr. Makins, who, besides the appointment already mentioned, has been sales manager of the Darracq Co., now devotes himself solely to the Darracq Co.
Mr, Shorland originally joined the Clement-Talbot Co. in 1908, •being appointed managing director thereof in 1915, this position having been held by him until he sold his interests with his two fellow-directors when Messrs. Darracq purchased the business in 1919.
We understand that Mr. A. Escott has been elected a councillor for the Borough of Lambeth, and we feel sure that his shrewdness and business acumen will prove of considerable benefit to local ratepayers.
A Highland Road Scheme.
Great satisfaction is expressed in the Highlands at the . announcement that the Ministry of Transport has decided to proceed with the great road reconstructiou scheme suggested by the Member of Parliament for Inverness, and applying to the road from Blair Atholl to Inverness by way of Kingussie, Aviemore and Carrbridge. The work will cost 2600,000, and the ex• pense is to be borne entirely by the Government, although, when the road is reconstructed, it Isla be handed over to local authorities for maintenance.
It passes for the most part through sparsely populated districts, the. highest part being 1,400 ft. above sea-level. It is understood that the work will be given out in sections, and tenders will be invited immediately.
Buses on Bradford Tram Routes.
At Bradford Watch Committee meeting a report was submitted with respect to the advisability or otherwise of licensing motor omnibuses for service along existing tramway routes within the city, and on the question of imposing conditions on the grant of licences in such cases.
The committee adopted the report and proceeded to consider applications, the consideration of which had stood adjourned pending the presentation of the report above-mentioned.
It was decided to grant the applications of certain companies for licence to ply for hire with motor omnibuses along these routes, subject to inspection and approval of the vehicles concerned, approval of the time-tables and rates of fares, and the execution by the companies of undertaking to observe conditions to be determined by the chairman, deputy chairman and chief constable with respect to routes, stopping-places and the like.
A Railway's.Road Transport System. One of the most comprehensive systems of passenger road transport is that organized by the Great Western Railway, and they have recently issued a new road-motor section of their general time-table, which shows ordinary omnibus services and special tours which are of great interest to holidaymakers and others. Included in the system is a scheme for the carrying of parcels and goods to and from places on the direct route of the vehicles.
As an example of the comprehensive nature of the time-table, we may give
some of the main services. The first is Slough, Stoke Poges and Farnham Common; then comes a South Bucks circular tour ; farther on there is a tour between Oxford and Sulgrave Manor at this point it must be mentioned that certain of the tour and omnibus routes are worked in conjunction with local concerns). Going west, we find a service between Paignton and Totnes and a circular tour from Bovey, which includes Grimspound and the Becky Falls, Frequent .services are run between Dartmouth;". Kingsbridge, PlyMouth, etc. There are also many services in Wales, all of which are carefully detailed.
Reducing Accident Risks.
Selby Urban District Council is asking the education committee to arrange for the schools to close a few minutes earlier at the dinner hour so that the children can avoid the busy midday traffic.
Canada's Lorry Output in 1923.
Commercial vehicles, totalling 19,226, and having a total value. --of 8;041,011 dollars, were produced in Canada in 1923, according to a report just issued
by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. This output indicates that Canadian motor lorries are in considerable de-. mand, for the estimated yearly capacity of the local plants is put down as being only 10,100 lorries.
The output last year of the plants manufacturing both private cars and commercial vehicles was only 75 per cent, of capacity, indicating that plant designed to turn out private vehicles was adapted to the manufacture of lorries.
Privileges or Blind Bus Passengers.
Asked to allow blind persons to travel without attendants on motorbuses, the Easthounie motorbus committee has agreed to do so, but only on condition that the passes are issued by the medical officer of health, and to ms.essitous persons only, who must sign an undertaking to travel at their own risk.
A Bus Route Across America.
America is considered a country of big ideas, and if the latest one of organizing a cross-continent bus service from New York to Los Angeles is developed to a practicable stage, it will be one of the transport wonders of the world.
It is stated that the idea is being developed by a syndicate. The buses will carry eight passengers, and will make the trip in 26 days, the fare being about £30. Each car will have sleeping quarters, and will afford comfortable, if not luxurious, travel.
The Commercial Motor Users Association (Incorporated), which holds the head lease for the whole of the third floor at 50, Pall Mall, S.W.1—the headquarters of the Eastern Command during the war—desire to sublet about half its space, following the vacation of the premises by the liquidator of the British Motor Trading Corporation. Inquiries should he addressed to Capt. F. G. Bristow, general secretary of the Association.
Standard Dimensions for Magnetos.
A useful publication on the British Engineering Standards Association's dimensions for magnetos, excluding those used for aircraft purposes, has re
cently been issued. The new specification, which supersedes No. 80 of 1917, covers four types of magneto, and the dimensions standardized are those which affect the interchangeability of magnetos as a whole.
Recommendations are also made in regard to the width of the engine coupling, flange mounting and the sparking position in relation to the keyway in the tapered end of the armature spindle. Full particulars are given for the plug and ring gauges for checking the taper in the magneto coupling and on the armature spindle. Copies are obtainable from the RE.S.A. Publications Department, 28, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1, price is. 2d. post free.
Stogested Municipal Garage for Derby.
The great growth in the use of motor conveyances for services of public utility led to a suggestion at the last meeting of the Derby Corporation for the provision of a new central garage for the housing of vehicles, and the idea was favourably received, although no cleflnite action was taken in regard to it.
It has been urged, upon the score of efficientand economical arrangements, that the plan has much to commend it, and its ultimate adoption is likely to be hastened by a consideration of the manifest advantages which such a centralized system is calculated to ensure.
Agriculturists and Road Transport.
Indicating a desire, upon -the part of the responsible Government Department, to foster many new developments of work in which road transport arrangements must necessarily occupy a prominent place, a communication of considerable importance from the Ministry of Agriculture was read at the last meeting of the Nottinghamshire Agricultural Committee.
Suggestions have been forthcoming from several counties that such committees, the utility of whose operations has been called into question in many quarters, should be abolished, but the
Ministry has now expressed its emphatic condemnation of the retrograde step which would be thereby involved, at the same time emphasizing the consideration that, by an extended field of enterprise, the committees may be made much more valuable.
To this end it is suggested that attention may be advantageously directed to the promotion and encouragement of sound schemes for the improvement of facilities for marketing agricultural produce, whether by co-operative organization, by transport developments or by other means: The idea has met with favour from the Notts. authorities, the county in relation to many of its isolated districts, remote from main lines of railways, presenting exceptional opportunities for the successful working of well-devised alans of road transport, which would be Ilenefi6a1 alike to farmers and purchasers of marketable goods.
An interesting booklet, entitled " Heavy Haulage by Mechanical Means," has reached us from Pick-fords, Ltd., the well-known transport contractors and.engineers of London. It contains a review of some of the difficult transport tasks undertaken by the company, and shows that their equipment and methods of handling heavy loads are second to none.
Closure of Bannisdale Low Bridge.
The county surveyor of Westmorland has requested us to point out to readers that the Bannisdaie Low Bridge, 61 miles north of Kendal, on the KendalShap section of the A6 main road (London-Lancaster-Carlisle), was closed to traffic on July 21st and until further notice, in order that repairs may be executed.
There is a section of the old dismained road looping this bridge, and the bridge on this loop road is safe for light vehicles. Caution, however, is necessary, especially at night-time. All traffic, so far as possible, is being diverted as follows :— At Kendal :—To Shap via Tebay, Orton and Shap Gate, To Penrith via Windermere and Kirkstone Pass or via Tebay and Appleby. To Carlisle via Windermere and Doornail Raise.
At Penrith :—To Kendal via Appleby, Orton Scar and Tebay, or via Patterdale and Kirkstone Pass.
At, Shan :—To Kendal via Shap Gate, Orton and Tebay, At Carlisle :—To Kendal via Danmail Raise and Windermere.
Traffic at Tram Stops.
A joint committee of the waich and tramways committee of the Sheffield. Corporation has gone into the questions of traffic regulation at tramway stops, but can recommend no action, inasmuch as there is no hope of successful legislation to force traffic to halt at tram stops.
Efforts in this direction by the Corporations of Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Preston, etc., have failed, and the Minister of Transport has declared that he is not convinced that legislation is desirable. In these circumstances all the Government Committee can do is to see that full use is made of powers which enable the police to deal with persons who drive to the danger of the public.
Wembley's Extraordinary Traffic.
The Ministry of Transport has decided to make the Willesden Council a contribution towards the extra cost of road repairs due to the increased volume of traffic in connection with the British Empire Exhibition.
Local Proceedings.
West Bridgford Urban District Council has decided to purchase a motor mower and roller at a cost of £3.
Bournemouth Corporation has authorized the purchase of a motor lorry for the tramways committee at an estimated cost of B45-5.
Blyth Corporation are warning bus proprietors not to repeat the offence of taking up passengers at . unauthorized stopping-places.
The yearly accounts of the West Bridgford municipal bus service show total running expenses of £7,421 and receipts of £9,720.
Bournemouth Corporation has refused to grant further licences for motor coaches, because there are already sufficient of such vehicles to meet the public requirements.
West Bridgford Council's Bus Committee has authorized the manager to visit London to inspect the new bus which is being purchased. The council already has six Straker-Squire vehicles.
The Bedwellty Urban District Council is to coneider the question of the fulltime appointment of a fire-brigade chief, whose qualifications will embrace a. thorough knowledge of motor engines.
Northampton Watch Committee has granted permission to the Birmingham Red Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd., to run their buses into Northampton from Haddon, Daventry, Towcesler and Stony Stratford.
A. committee of the West Bridgford Urban District Council has inspected a mechanical dust coilectrir placed at the disposal of the council for experimental purposes, and which the surveyor says is described as the-" last word in houserefuse scavenging." Blyth Corporation has asked a committee to consider the question of stands for motorbuses and' the alleged congestion thereat.
Devon chief constable is seeking the co-operation of local authorities in limiting the number of passengers to be carried by public motor vehicles.
Swansea Watch Committee has refused the application of Mr. Tom Ellis Griffiths for permission to run a motorbus service between Craigcefupare. and Swansea.
Portsmouth Corporation is applying for an order prohibiting the driving of motorbuses and chars4-bancs over certain dangerous roads in the rural area of Fareham.
Brentford Urban District Council has decided that the motor ambulance it is sroposed to purchase shall be designed for one stretcher and seating accommodation for two.
Portsmouth Watch Committee has inspected the five runabout cars purchased by the tramways committee for service along the Esplanade and granted the requisite licences.
By four votes to three, Prestwich Council Health Committee has decided to order the removal of petrol pumps from footpaths, " as they are a danger to the public health."
Blyth Town Council has authorized the sanitary inspector to give a longer, trial to the motor used for scavenging purposes, and to report thereon as to the cost ip comparison with team hire.
As applications are continually being received from local authorities for orders prohibiting the use of narrow highways by heavy motor vehicles, the igest Riding County Council has tippointed a special sub-committee to deal with this subject. Northampton Corporation Parks Committee suggests the purchase of two motor mowing machines at a cost of £180.
Gosport Corporation has asked a subcommittee to report as to the cost .of providing and maintaining a motor ambulance.
Wakefield Corporation has accepted the tender of Mr. A. Cooper for the supply of motor vehicles to the various departments of the corporation for a period of, 12 months.
• A New Underground Map.
The little folder map of the Underground system with which Londoners have become familiar has undergone a complete transformation. As now issued it is a great improvement, for not only is it to scale, but the principal thoroughfares are shown in relation to the stations, thus supplying a long-felt want. Naturally, all the stations for the Exhibition are given prominence, but the positions of important public and other buildings are clearly indicated. A positive mine of information is provided by the reverse side of the snap.. There are the usual refereneee to hotels and restaurants, sports grounds; shipping offices, etc., and to the way in which these can be reached. There are also particulars of country resorts which can be reached by bus and train where these routes connect
with the Underground stations. As usual, the guide is free.
Keighley's Trolley Scheme.
West Riding County Council has now concluded clauses for protection of the county council with regard to the proposal of the Keighley Corporation to take up tram rails in certain main roads in the borough, and to make use of a service of trolley vehicles.