Answers to Queries,
Page 19
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Steam Omnibuses: Walking Machines.
(3084] (Sapper).—The makers have been too busy and successful with steam lorries to do much with their steam omnibuses, apart from the fact that the experimental vehicles were on the heavy side ; the manufacture of the Darracq-SerpoIlet has ceased. Professor Hele-Shaw did not pursue his walking machine although it was mechanically successful, as he has been giving most of his time for some years past to hydraulic transmission and power, particularly in connection with Admiralty work.
Will We Help To Borrow Motor Lorries for Volunteer Training?
[3085] (Platoon Commander).—We are not prepared, under present conditions of stress about petrol and other matters, to call upon our readers in any way on the lines which you suggest. We regret that we cannot help you through this journal. The Editor has deliberately refrained from making any appeal through the columns of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR, in similar work, obtaining the support which he has sought on personal grounds in other ways—i.e., through the Commercial Motor Users Association.
Does "Motor Spirit" Mean Only Spirit which is Taxed?
[3086] (Ripon and others).—The Order clearly refers to " motor spirit" only. You are entitled to use any fuel which does not fall in that category, such as paraffin. Any "inflammable hydrocarbon" has not, so far at least, been held with sanctioned authority to include paraffin, although efforts are being made in that sense. The practiee of the Commissioners of Customs and Excise has been, and remains, not to tax paraffin. We fear that fuels below 0.800 sp. gr. are to be barred„ in that they are taxable if the powers under the Finance (1909-1910) Act, 1910, be exercised.
Control of Import Restrictions.
[3087] (Particular).—Sir Guy Granet is no longer Controller of the Department of Import Restrictions, the offices of which department are at 22, Carlisle Place, S.W.' within two minutes walk of Victoria Station. The services of Sir Guy Granet were only available for three months, and we understand that he -has again taken up the general management of the Midland Railway Co. He was succeeded by Mr. R. E. Enthoven, C.I.E., who was Deputy-Controller of the Department, and previously Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Commerce and Industry.
35. Per Gallon Rebate: Buying Petrol Under Licence When Drivers Are On Long Journeys.
[3088] (Contractor).—The amount of the Government duty on petrol for commercial motors is 6d. per gallon, and half of this is reclaimable on spirit which is used only for commercial purposes. You have evidently been supplied with a, form on which the wording has not been altered to suit the altered amount of the tax. If you will refer to our issue of the 17th February of this year, pages 488 and 493, you will find copies of the petrol-rebate form and the petrol-rebate claim-form respectively. On the latter, you will see that; the wording in the last column of the form is as follows: "Anioun,t of repayment claim at 2d. per gallon." If. you bring the error to the attention of the Excise officer, you should have no difficulty in getting it corrected. The difficulty of providing a driver with petrol on his journey is met, on application, by the issue Of divided licences by the Petrol Control Committee. We suggest that arrangements can generally be made for a driver to,carry an ample quantity in spare tins, so as to enable him to complete his journey. Possible Use of "Naphtha" as a Fuel in Place of Petrol.
[3089] (Surrey):—Naphtha is unsuitable in our experience; it leads to gumming-up of the valves, and to excessive carbonization inside the cylinders. We should certainly not use it. Of course, chemicallyrefined naphtha, might behave differently, but we are writing of the commercial article as one can usually buy it at reasonable prices. Again., the word " naphtha " is applied to a variety of divergent substances, so one would really need to have exact information concerning the spirit on offer to you.
"Caterpillar" and Other Chain-truck Tractors.
[3090] (Indeut).—The Holt Manufacturing Co., which company makes the " Caterpillar " tractor, has its London office at 60, Queen Victoria Street, E.C. Nobody else is allowed to call chain-track machines by the description "Caterpillar," but Messrs. Hornsby, of Grantham, at one time made.chain-tra,ck tractors. An agricultural tractor of the chaintrack type is made by Martin's Cultivator Co., Ltd., Lincolnshire Ironworks Stamford. • It is the firstnamed of the above makes which is being used so largely by the British War Office. We agree with you as to the scope for use of these types in the Colonies.
Men on Motor Lorry for Purposes of Delivery: Occasional "Lifts" to Friends.
[3091] (Blackburn):—You are entitled to take as many men as are necessary in the course of consiner-• eial work,. without in any way introducing a civil or other liability in respect of licences. The police, are under some misapprehensiml; there is no law allowing only two men on a motor wagon. They may be confusing the requirement of two on a locomotive, under the Act of 1898, which .does not apply to Heavy Motor Cars. As regards_ giving a person an occasional lift, provided this is not done habitually, there is little probability of your being summoned, or its being. in any way sought by the police to claim that you are not entitled so to act. The carrying of friends may he a breach of the letter of the law, but certainly it is no breach of the spirit of the law. Of course, if the friends who are carried pay anything for the convenience, that places the matter in a different category, and undoubtedly introduces an element of liability as a passenger-carrying vehicle.
The Future Annual Yield of Benzoic in the United Kingdom.
[3092] (Comparative.)—You probably have the report of the Petrol Committee of the R.A.C., dated January, 1913. If not the. Secretary can no doubt supply one — Mr J. W. Orde, Royal Automobile Club, 1'0 Mall, S.W. The best figures about benzole are those 'on page 32, from Mr. Norman Holden, of Manchester. He shows that if all the coke in this country were treated in recovery ovens, there would have been, prior to the outbreak of war,_ about 25,000,000 gallons a. year of full-strength pure benzoic:: yielded. the basis being 2i gallons per ton of coal retorted. There is still 2 000&000‘,gallons a year to be added from tar distilleries. Now that the gas companies are washing out the benzole from town gas, an additional yield, variously estimated at from 65,004000 to 70 000,.0Or gallons a year; has to be taken into account, so you may take it that something in the vicinity of 95000.000 gallons a year Of benzole should come on the market in this country when war is over, especially as Parliament has now substituted a calorific standard for• coal-gas in place of a candlepower standard. Statistics which mention 30,000,000 gallons a year as the maximum after the war clearly refer to coke-ovens only, and not to gas-works plants.