LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Olympia.—M.P.G. or GYM. ?
T.. ALLOTMENTS have now all been made for the two great Shows at Olympia, and the a,pplications have been very numerous. In a few weeks' time only we shall be in the middle of the first of the post-war Commercial Vehicle Shows of an international character.
The Olympia. of October 14th-23rd will certainly be a remarkable display. Most of the exhibitors have been concentrating their energies up_ models that have remained as standard, with a few detail exceptions, from pre-war days, but it is no secret that others have, in the interval, been perfecting designs that are intended to embody alterations of a more or less drastic nature.
There will be much to learn technically at Olympia. Then, again, the Exhibition will he timed, happily enough, at a. period when we are undoubtedly witnessing a complete change over in the matter of demand and supply for motor vehicles of all kinds. We should be enabled to test with a certain measure of accuracy how far, for instance, the increasingly onerous railway conditions • are going to boost the commercialvehicle trade, and how far, and, for how long, the flood of second-hand machines will prove to be detrimental to the booking of orders for brand-new machines.
An Olympia Show is alwayS a great clearing house for ideas, and for the discussion of trade matters, and it will be -Aell for II'S all to meet our colleagues from North, South, East, and West, and not a few from Overseas once again. The pleasure-car world, although, perhaps, not in the throes of an actual crisis, is already faced -with an -entirely new set of conditions so far as demand is concerned. Some of. the the sections of our own part of the induStry have aler begun to feel the draught from one cause 'or another— generally because they have not accurately succeeded in estiraating the demand for some particular model— but the heavy-v.ehicle industry as a: whole is not in for any bad time for some years, in the opinion of the writer. At Olympia in October we shall be able, with considerable accuracy, to crystallize our ideas on the whole prospects of our trade for the next year or two, ideas which have until nowbeen very hazy, it mast he admitted.
As to the Olympia Show of the following Month, this, in the -writer's opinion, will suffer undoubtedly because of the necessity of splitting it up loetwee,n the two buildings at Addison Road and Shepherd's Bush. This is unavoidable, it is true, but however careful the organization, we are reasonably certain that Olympia will undoubtedly be the premier locale, and the White City will only come in for the balance of the attention.
Neither of these displays will. he ofany specific interest to readers of The Commercial Motor as such although, of course, many of us have tonring car interests as well, either as a profession or as recreation. Indeed, the touring car has now developed its utility to such an extent, and will undoubtedly do P.0 more and more as railway difficulties increase, that it is difficult to. differentiate between what is purely a pleasure use of the motor vehicle and what is. a busi
ness use. Very few ears indeed are nowadays used exclusively for pleasure-taking purposes. The motor
vehicle, other than the motor-bicycle, perhaps, is a-utility vehicle, whether it be a 5 ton tip wagon -or a 12-16 h.n. limousine. The next two months will be very interesting to all. of us, and the Press will be kept very busy in translating the mass of interesting detail. that will be displayed into intelligible. English and attractive illustrations.
M.P.G. or G.P.M. ?
I wonder how many of these who spend a more than adequate portion of their spare time in "talking shop" have paused to query the accuracy or otherwise of the expression "miles per gallon" when con. sumption is the subject of conversat_ion. We all talk of '` miles per gallon," and it is a very convenient form of expression. What we actually mean is of course, that we are able to travel a certain number of miles over the road, with a given machine by the time we have exhausted one gallon of a certain class of fuel. But that is not what we say when we' talk of "miles per gallon" as a means of petrol consumption, if one comes to think of it. The expression as -used means that. we are consuming miles and not petrol, and obviously the correct, if not so familiar, way of putting it is to say "gallons per mile." That, of course, would land us with unfamiliar and ' relatively difficult decimals, and, on that, account, is very unlikely ever to be adopted as a colloquial alternative.,
I expect I shall: go on talking .and reading of " m.p.g." until the end of my motoring days, but I understand that there is a movement on foot amongst those who have leanings towards technical accuracy at all costs, to educate those' who read the motor Press, at-any rate, to talk in future of "g.p.m." I do not fancy their chances of success. I remember we used to spelrtyres with an