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Correspondence

30th April 1908, Page 29
30th April 1908
Page 29
Page 29, 30th April 1908 — Correspondence
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Motor Lorry Drivers.

The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir :—I enclose a few thoughts of mine, after reading the article headed, " To Motor Lorry Drivers; a Straight Talk, by An Owner," in to-day's issue of your journal, and, knowing that you are always ready to hear both sides, I have taken the liberty to send them on to you, trusting you will be able to make used of them. —Yours obediently,

23rd April, igo8. " A DRIVER."

[The other communication is printed on page 249.—En.]

Road Wheel Construction.

The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir :—In Mr. Markham's interesting and instructive article on the construction of road wheels, he emphasises that the driving ring should he attached to the felloe or outer end of the spokes of the wheel.

Am I right in assuming that in the case of the tangent wheel the drive should be from the hub plates or by " live axle," as a drive from the rim in this case would have the same if nOL a greater tendency to draw or loosen the spokes than a backward drive from the hub.

ARTHUR F. LESLIE.

Clapton, N.E., 24th April, I g08. [The design of the " Tangent " wheel seeks to attain two main objects— increased resilience, or " give," in the wheel itself without detriment thereto, and increased strength for the transmission of power through the wheel. This wheel presents sonic interesting mechanical problems, hut there is not room for a consideration of its claims here ; the wheel, however, is intended to transmit power from the hub—whether from live axle or Irani chain ring attached to the hub -and the direction of drive should be clockwise when the spokes incline from the hub to, say, a two hour,' advance at the rim. If the drive he from chain ring attached at the rim, the direction should be reversed, The inechamical features of the wheel are very clearly explained with diagrams in a booklet issued by Tangent Wheels, Ltd., Grove Road, Balham, S.W., to whom we recommend our correspondent to apply for a

From a, Reader in Abyssinia.

The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir.:—Re paragraph in your issue of 26th September, 1907, with faked photograph, referring to a motorbus by Scheibler, of Aachen, which is supposed to be running in Abyssinia. Please allow me to correct this -report, as there is no such vehicle running here, and, moreover, it would be useless if it were. My t8h.p. Siddeley car was the first car to arrive in the country, on its way to Khartoum from the Somali coast.—Yours truly, Queen's Hotel, BEDE T. F. BENTLEY.

• Adis Ababa, Abyssinia.

• [We regret to think that Messrs. Scheibler have allowed such a report and photograph to be issued, and we thank our correspondent for sending facts from the spot.—ED.f

Provincial Cab Regulations.

The Editor, " Tim COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir :—In your remarks, in your issue of the 9th instant, on the above question, you say :—" We trust that there will not be a too servile adherence to the London Regulations, a few of which are wholly redundant, and unsuitable for application in the provinces." Permit us to echothese sentiments.

From what we have gathered in conversation, some manufacturers are inclined to urge a cast-iron set of universal regulations on the London model. Their object, of course, in doing this, is to have only one model to workto, hut we contend,_ with you, that the cab constructed to meet the London requirements will not necessarily be equally well-suited for work in provincial towns, where conditions are often totally different, and that a departure from the Scotland Yard regulations in several respects will result in a better and more satisfactory vehicle. Let Scotland Yard regulations he agreed to be the minimum in all directions, and some good will have been done, because, then, a cab complying with these requirements would come within any easier regulations imposed by provincial authorities.

Whatever is done, however, we hope will be final, and that the regulations will not be chopped and changed about as Scotland Yard has done, putting manufacturers-to heavy expense, and delaying them in their work, only entirely to alter the regulations to which those manufacturers have been working in such a way as to render all the speeial work done by them to bring their vehicles within those regulations useless and nugatory. Yours faithfully,

Coventry. STTJRMEY MOTORS, LTD.

Petrol-.Electric Transmissions.

The Editor, " THE. COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir :—It would be very interesting to know what speed the 7-ton vehicle would travel up a hilt of in 12, as mentioned in Mr. Frost-Smith's recent paper, and what would be the b.h.p. given off by the engine. With regard to " Auto Mick," seeing that he has a straight-through drive from the engine to the differential, he can only get the fullload torque of the engine, or the torque given by the dynamo when acting as a motor, for starting from rest. I therefore fail to see where a tremendous torque is obtained, unless the dynamo is of exceptional size. Also, in both these systems, comparisons could better be made if particulars of the speed of acceleration were given, as I believe this to b.c. a most important factor.—Yours faithfully," INTERESTED."

Forest Cate, E.

The current from the battery obviously helps the dynamo, which can easily stand the brief overload.—Flp.i The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir :-1 am deeply sorry that my Irish friend " Mick," whose, letter on petrol-electric transmission appeared ict. your issue of the Mth instant, took my remarks respecting drivers so deeply to himself. It cannot be my fault if, in this instance, the cap fits, by reason of his accepting unto himself imaginary abuse. I would not dare, for a moment, to suggest that his intelligence, whatever there is of it is not of the highest order. My remarks, with reference to omnibus drivers, were intended to convey that a bus driver is, after all, only a bus driver, and I am pleased that, in my experience, those I have are good; but, when I or they recognise_ that they are more than a bus driver, I either give them a better job, or they find one. I reiterate that, as a class, they will remain much as they are, and that the average scale of intelligence will not improve; neither, from a social standpoint, will they become better.

I make a rough guess that " Mick's " driving experience of the " Auto-mixte " vehicle, has been in and around Coventry, pottering about how and when desired. It still remains, however, to prove this vehicle in the hard and. wearing work of London -omnibus traffic. " Micky" glibly talks of having driven different types Of buses in London, and claims, in a definite sort of way, a knowledge of their comparative efficiencies, economies, etc. How?—1 should be pleased to sec his figures for the. working of any of these types over a given period.

Will " Micky " please give rine the normal rate of discharge and pressure of the " Auto-mixte " battery when used solely as a means of power supply to the dynamotor? Will he also give me the ampere-hour • capacity, and the weight of this battery? I have, for a long while, listened quite respectfully to my critics, when they told me of the shocking inefficiencies of a purely petrol-electric vehicle., or, to use " Micky's " description, the " roundabout " sort. It was only their opinion of course ; but, still, I respected it. They didn't know, neither did I ; but I do novv. I shall be delighted, at sr-irne future date, when those responsible for the develop-I-Rent of 11W," Auto-mixte " vehicle have had an opportunity of getting some reliable data, from actual work, of their undoubtedly clever vehicle, to compare figures all round : how much 'better for them than to have it merely talked about by " Micky "l The " Auto-rnixte " certainly does awav with outside motors—this I freely admit; hut it employs, instead, a secondary battery, differ2ntial gear and

countershafts, and double-reduction gears. Much better to have a two-speed gearbox, one gear directly driving into a live back axle of the Dennis type, and thus to do away with what is, in Chew case, such totally unnecessary weight and source of expense. One more point. Should I he right in assuming from

" Mick's " letter, that the „necessity of employing a secondary battery in the " Auto-mixte " is due to the proneness of the cylinder heads of their engine to blow off ? 1:do not wish to be irrelevant, but is it so-? I have always thught there must be something of this sort.—Yours faith faith fully, 24th April, 1908.'

P. FROST-SMITH.

Tags

Organisations: Scotland Yard
Locations: Coventry, Aachen, Khartoum, London

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