AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

UT& MOM E

9th May 1912, Page 14
9th May 1912
Page 14
Page 14, 9th May 1912 — UT& MOM E
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords :

By "The 5x-tractor" A Commercial Police Trap.—Vacuum and Polyrhoe Staff Losses—The Naming of the Three-whet ler.

"llo you want to know where there is a. motorbus police trap ?" said a. friend to me. I expressed my eagerness, as this promised to be interesting. I then learnt that, between Hyde Park Corner and Victoria Station, in Grosvenor Place, a trap is worked on Sunday afternoons and evenings by flashlight. Many buses are caught there and incidentally some pleasure cars. My informant. had to furnish his name and address in this Grosvenor Place trap and that was the third time on a too-eventful Sunday The gaps caused in our side of the business by the calamitous disaster to the " Titanic " are only disclosing themselves slowly. Last week we heard that the ship's company included Mr. Case, the principal director in England of the Vacuum Oil Co., Ltd., and his loss

is very keenly felt. Now I hear that Mr. D. C. Jarvis, known everywhere in connection with the Polyrhiie carburetter, was one of the ill-fated passengers. I have not met many men more in earnest than Jarvis. He must have done much yeoman service for that concern in

its early days. I think the last time I met him was during a show in Manchester. and after long arduous days there be was travelling to his Leicester headquarters and back, day by day. An enthusiast such as he will be sadly m issed.

Talking of enthusiasm, in my view it is a. quality that counts for a great deal in connection with motoring, and I never cease to take pleasure and interest in the enthu

siast. If he be also an inventor then he is somewhat trying. I have spent some wearisome times with the puncture-proof-tire fiend, who has stepped in to revolutionize the motor trade, and the spring-wheel enthusiast-inventor ru ns him pretty "lose. The one I have in mind now, is not, so far as I know, an inventor : he is a salesman, and such a salesman. Re sticks to the same sneriality, but he seems to change los firm with the seasons. " In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove." And as the changer and the years go on, he waxes more ardent, his exaltation becomes, if anything, more acute. He reminds me of the editor of a

political journal who was offered the charge of the sheet belonging to the opposite camp, with probably some material advantage. " It's a sharp curve," he ejaculated, " but I'll take it." He reminds me of this, I say, but I may be doing him an injustice. Anyhow, I have again come under his spell. Whilst with him I am confident that his latest venture is leagues ahead of any previous one, and I am impelled to transmit to paper the vivifying last impressions of this convert ; but once out of the range of his magic voice, recollection comes along a very good friend, and his speciality must wait, at any rate, until the summer.

The subjoined caricature reveals two striking personalities in the commercial-vehicle world. Both Mr. Sidney Straker and Mr. L. R.. L. Squire have been in the forefront of commercial motoring since its introduction, Mr. Straker being quite early associated with the movement, being the founder of the Straker Steam Vehicle Co. In this slight sketch it is impossible to do justice to these two important personages, but my readers may be reminded that Mr. Straker was, in 1906, in the honoured position of President of the s.m.m.r. Both of these gentlemen are founders of the R.A.C., and are pioneers of the motorbus movement. At the present time they are turning out a large number of buses, amongst other types of vehicles, and these are occupying a leading position in the trade. Mr. Straker's hobbies

are motoring and hunting. Mr. Squire is interested in motor-racing, and owns a fast racing car, but his chief hobby would appear to be motor-boating, and he spends his leisure mostly on Southampton Water.

The interest in the naming of the three-wheeler type, and the competition I have instituted, grows apace. I intimated last week that the time is extended. I have another letter from Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, in which he disclaims any idea of competing for the prize, an states that his only desire is to help, as much mischief and absurdity are being committed by ill-considered names in connection with motoring—witness automobile, garage and chauffeur, all of which are abominations —and so say all of us. Meanwhile, the proposition is that, to stimulate ideas in this matter, this journal offers a prize of two guineas for the name which most aptly describes the three-wheel business motor vehicle, the lists being kept open until the end of May.


comments powered by Disqus