OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
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The Editor invites correspondence on air subjects connected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should be on one side of the paper only and, preferably, typewritten. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility for views expressed is accepted.
The Mistaken Petrol-tax Suggestion.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[2665] Sir,—I wish to draw attention in . the columns of The Commercial Motor, as the representative journal of the heavy haulage industry, to the renewed proposal for a tax on petrol and the serious drawbacks thereof to heavy hauliers and bus proprietors. At first sight, it would appear to offer a decided advantage by reducing the lump-sum tax and spreading the payments gradually over, the year, but if we look into figures the case is altogether different.
The present yearly tax on a 'lorry of 4 tons u.w. is £48, and on a lorry of 5 tons u.w. £56. Now, take the petrol-tax argument as suggested by a certain M.P. in the House of CODDRODEI recently. Let us assume the average horse-power of a lorry to be 40. Then the suggested initial registration fee at 2s. 6d. per h.P. would give a flat-Ate tax of £5.
On a five years' average for one lorry engaged on long-distance transport, I find that the petrol consumption is 400 gallons per month, or 4,800 gallons per year. This at 6d. per gallon tax would work out at £120 per year. Adding the flat-rate tax of £5, we would get a total tax of £125, which compares badly with the average present tax of £50.
In present circumstances of road transport and considering the low freights we are offered, no haulier can afford to lose £75 per year on each vehicle or be justified in carrying on unless he wants to end up in the Bankruptcy Court. These facts should be closely studied and broadcast to all concerned for Immediate agitation, All this talk about the poor week-ender and the man who cannot afford to pay the tax for the luxury of a ear, who has to starve himself to buy petrol just to keep up appearances with his neighbour, does not cut any ice, but an industry which employs over 600,000 men and is still growing--which helped to break the general strike—should not be handicapped for the sake of a few. "Business before pleasure" should be the slogan of the country, and to show the courage of my convictions I sign myself, yours faithfully, Sheffield. H. C. FRANCE.
The Importance of Filtering the Air.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[2666] Sir,—A set of figures concerning vehicle breakdowns issued by the Royal Automobile Club can be used as the text for a comment on the need for filtering the air supply to the engines of commercial motors. In 1924 the percentage of the total of breakdowns under the heading "Cylinders and Pistons" was 5.8. By 3927 this figure had risen to 10.2.
It will here be seen that in three years the number of breakdowns from this cause has been practically doubled. We believe there is no shadow of doubt that the reason for this is the greatly extended use of aluminium-alloy pistons.
This enormous increase in trouble would seem to us to call for thorough investigation by all who are interested in maintaining our modern high efficiency. From our own personal experience we have found that aluminium pistons am certainly very valuable from almost every point of view, but to obtain complete satisfaction they must be run under ideal conditions, i.e., they must be carefully and accurately fitted in the first place, a good quality oil must be used, and, above all, they must be kept free from the abrasive action of dust, grit and dirt which is drawn into the carburetter. There is no doubt as to what happens in these cases. Anyone who has had experience of machining aluminium knows what an absorbent metal it is, and it is certain that
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small particles of dirt and sand become embedded in the piston while doing its work, thus setting up excessive wear and friction and probably thus causing the consequent breakdown's.
MIN'S-tate of affairs would seem to call most definitely for the fitment on the carburetters of engines using aluminium or other soft-alloy pistons of an efficient air "filter." We mean, of course, by an air " filter " something which definitely keeps out, to all practical purposes, the whole of the grit, dust and dirt which would otherwise reach the engine. In ourexperience, an air "cleaner," although very much better than nothing at all, does not by any means go far enough in doing the work that it should do with this typd of piston.
There is no doubt that cars fitted with an efficient air filter and using aluminium pistons operating at high speed can almost be certain of giving three to four times the length of life and service which they are at present doing, and we believe that in the year 1928, were the devices More extensively adopted, we should not see such an appalling figure as 10.2 per cent.—
Yours faithfully, C. G. VOKES AND Co. Putney, S.W.15.
Washing a Vehicle in l Minutes.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL Monet.
[2667] Sir,—We are pleased to note from Mr. Sidney C. Johnson's letter (The Commercial Motor issue of February 14th) that he was interested in the statement contained in our advertisement of the B.E,N.-Myers hydraulic high-pressure car washer in your previous issue, and that he challenges the statement that it is possible to wash a vehicle in 11 to 3, minutes—a more than accomplished fact, and an everyday occurrence in a large number of bus and tramway depots. Of course, it is understood that these vehicles are not washed single-handed.
To take one or two examples : in the Harborne depot of the Birmingham Corporation Tramways, which houses a fleet of double-decked, six-wheeled buses, four men are prepared with their B.E.N.-Myers high-pressure guns for the return of the fleet at night—two men on the floor and two men on the raised tower—to cope with the incoming buses, which are " clocked " and "whistled " on and off the wash, the time allowed on the washing during the rush period being 1 minute, extended to 2i minutes when the congestion of vehicles slackens off.
At the Wood Green depot we have seen the outsides (including windows) of double-decked tramcars being washed by means of the B.E.N.-Myers high-pressure system with two men at the rate of one tramcar in 2 minutes, and in Glasgow I have seen double-decked tramcars at the Dennistomi depot being washed by four men equipped with the B.E.N.-Myerrs power guns in less than 11 minutes per vehicle. •
In order to expedite the washing of this type of vehicle, we are now supplying a combined long-reach brush and hydraulic power gun, so that one gets combined hydraulic and manual washing, which greatly cuts down the time, and incidentallymakes a thorough job even more perfect.
If Mr. Johnson—or for that matter any of your readers—be sufficiently interested, we shall at any time he only too pleased to make arrangements to enable him to see this "seeming miracle" accomplished. Another very important point that may interest Mr. Johnson is the fact that the saving in water by the high-pressure system is equivalent to practically 80 per cent, against previous metheds.
Seeing is believing !—Yours faithfully, London, W.1. THE B.E,N. PATENTS: LTD,