FRENCH ARMY TRIALS OF GAS-PRODUCERS.
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A General Improvement in Performance.
TEE full report of the French Army gas-producer trials, which ended last month, is not yet available; but the War Ministry has just made a preliminary announcement with regard to awards. Seven different makes of lorry,' using gas, have been definitely accepted as suitable for the War Department subsidy. The acceptance of these vehicles carries with it the official blessing upon five different types of gas plant.
It is a striking commentary on the progress made with gas-producers in France that so many machines should prove successful in a test of this nature. The trials., which lasted from March until July, were of a most exhaustive character and 17 lorries took part in them.
Trials of a Severe Nature.
At the outset opinion was somewhat divided amongst the organizing officials as to what should constitute qualification. Some members of the sub-cornmitteo which was dealiug with the matter were in favour of treating all competitors very mildly in order to encourage a new and struggling industry, which, in course of time, should render consideretble service to the War Department. This would have meant that all but one or two really poor machines would have proved successful and that, thereafter, makers could hare gold the vehicles to the public as modeles ,primgs (subsidy types), thus conveying a kind of implied Government guarantee.
It is quite possible that a mild interpretation of the rules which were drawn up for the trials might have done harm rather than good to the gas-producer business, dwing to insufficiently • developed appliances getting on the
market as modeles primis. The majority of the officials were, however, in favour of carrying out an the regulations to the letter and of making the affair a veritable trial 4 l'autrance. This view prevailed, and, as a result, the trials were of an exceptionally severe nature.
The makers of the five gas machines and of the lorries which emerged successfully, from the four months' ordeal may be justly proud of their products, and a modele prime may be purchased with every assurance that it will stand up to aby possible condition imposed by commercial work.
Seven Competitors Succeed.
The seven vehicles which were accepted by the War Department were a Bernet fitted with the Bernet woodfuel gas-producer; a Delahaye with the Rex gas machine, using the highly compressed charcoal fuel known as Carbonite ;.a Dewed lorry using the Autogaz charcoal-fuel apparatus, which was one of the pioneers amongst gas-pro It is particularly worth noting that, out of the 17 competitors in the trials, six had engines especially constructed for running on this kind of gas. All these six were successful, although only seven competitors passed through the trials. The six makes of gas-driven lorry which were designed for this purpose and which were successful in the trials were the Berliet, Panhard, Delahaye, Saurer and Dewald. The S.O.M.IT.A was one of the revelations of the trials. Making its debut as a gas-driven vehicle, it went through the whole arduous affair without any apparent effort. The vehicles, during the road trial period, were placed each night under military guard in a pare fee-me. Every morning a very short time limit was given for starting away from cold. Only a few years ago gas-driven vehicles would often take an hour or two to start up under similar conditions, thereby nullifying the advantages of using this cheap class of fuel. In the military trials all lorries had to be away within 15 minutes of the word being given to build and light the fires. The actual time which was taken by the competitors between lighting up and starting on gas ranged from three to 10 minutes. Improved Fuel Consumption. Fuel consumption appears to have been greatly reduced as compared with that of the generators of twa or three years ago. For instance, the 81-ton Berliet burnt, on an average, about 60 kilogs. of fuel per 100 Mims. The ;11-ton Panhard and Levassor only used about 50 kilogs. of charcoal per 100 kiloms. The -ton appeared to be about the most economical vehicle from the fuel point of view, as it used not much more than 40 kilogs. to the 100 kilorns. It should be remembered, however, that this vehicle was running on compressed charcoal pellets. The 5-ton Saurer and Dewald lorries consumed approximately 50 kilogs. to 60 kilogs. per 100 kiloms. Fuel consumption, generally speaking,, was lorwer than had been anticipated. Another feature of the tests was the excellent hill-climbing powers which were demonstrated by many of the lorries. The detailed report of these trials Should prove very useful and instructive when it appears. •Tags