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A Curious Competition.
Page 78
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JUST about two years ago the Prefecture of the Seine Department decided to hold a shock-absorber com
petition for industrial vehicles. This scheme was duly .reported in The Commercial Motor. The idea seemed a good ono and it met with an immediate and hearty response from manufacturers of vibration-damping devices of all kinds. Nearly 30 entries were received, and, in addition to French makers, British, Italian, Swiss and American shockabsorber firms decided to participate.
Considerable publicity was given to the scheme at the time of its inception. but since the early days of 1925 nothing further had been heard of it until a few days ago. Many people in Paris thought that the matter had been dropped. The Prefecture is far too thorough in its methods to allow an important affair like this to slide, however. The duty of an organizing committee is to organize, and this the committee has been doing for the last 25 months! The fair flower of officialdom is not peculiar to Whitehall and its immediate neighbourhood; it flourishes in all countries !
Unfortunately, during the long deliberations of this particular body, intending competitors have become discouraged, and out of 29 or 30 who entered their names with such alacrity in the early spring of 1925 four only put in an appearance at the start of the contest a few days ago.
Despite the initial publicity that was given to the affair, the actual start of the trials was madein silence. How long the trials are to continue is known only to the Officials of the Prefecture. When they are completed, an official report will be drawn up and published "in due course."
The four survivors amongst the competitors are Haudaille, Isos, Messier and Renault.
The HoudailIe shock absorber is too well known to need description.
D8 The Isos is a form of spring in which a triple curvature is given to the leaves in order to increase the braking effect obtained by the friction between them.
The Messier is a form of pneumatic suspension in which springs are entirely eliminated. Their place-is taken _by vertical air cylinders placed respectively over the extremities of each axle_ An engine-driven air pump delivers compressed air to a storage chamber through non-return valves. From the storage chamber the air is conveyed to the cylinders, which are rigidly attached to the frame of the car. The pistons which work in these cylinders are attached to the axles. Each end of the front axle is connected to the frame by an arrangement of two universally jointed rods forming a parallelogram.
The suspension of the rear axle is differently arranged. The piston rods from the air cylinders are attached to the ends of long steel levers. These levers are articulated to the bottom of the axle easing, and also to the frame of the car. Rolling movement is prevented by an Adex transverse stabilizer similar to the arrangement fitted on Excelsior cars and manufactured under. licence. The torque from the rear axle is taken up by very stiff spring radius rods • arranged externally to the chassis. The amount of air admitted to the cylinders of the suspension device is governed automatically by the load on the car ; the greater the load the more air is admitted.
When passing over uneven ground the air in the eYlinders is alternately compressed and released by the pistons, and the vehicle rides on a perfect air cushion. In the case of any exceptionally violent shock the piston, in rising beyond a certain point, opens a small valve in the cylinder head and admits a further supply of highly compressed air into the cylinder. This system was brought out in 1922 and has been since used with great success on touring cars in France.
The Renault entry consists simply of that firm's six-wheeled "typo OX." The special suspension of this chassis has already been described 'by us.