AFTER THE GLASGOW SHOW.
Page 14
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By The Inspector.
AT the close of my visit to the Glasgow Show, I could not help thinking that, for those who have been to countless motor shows, it has become a little difficult to arouse any considerable degree of enthusiasm for modern displays of this kind as a whole, unless perchance the 'show impresses them as a spectacle. At Olympia in the oklen days the mere ornate display, as a rule, achieved a very striking result. Certainly, it did not vie with the Paris Salon when it came to a question of illuminative display, but the joint effect of individual decorative achievements invariably avoided an impression of boredom on the part of the visitor, and usually gladdened his eye from., the spectacular point of view.
I have written before of my disappointment with the decision of some of the committees at recent exhibitions to standardize the signs and fittings, and I ventured to prophesy that the result would be to produce a display that -would be on the level of elaborate shopkeeping only. Boredom would overcome the ordinary visitor, and the monotony of decorative effect would achieve no advantage, except the doubtful one of putting a strict limit to the amount of individual publicity that could be secured by any one firm by virtue of the way in which it set out its exhibits. I went to Glasgow because I concluded it would be a show -worth visiting from the technical point of view—but as a display, it turned out to be a very poor one intleed. Added to the-unimpressive proportions of the building—a war-time structure, erected primarily for certain bomb-making processes —was the executive rule that individual signs were to be substituted by huge white boards hung from the low-pitched rafters and emblazoned in sprightly black With the exhibitor's name and address. -F-There -was nothing pleasing whatever about the display as a whole, particularly the variety stage effect produced by the band performance.
A _standardized sign cheapens the cost to the exhibitor, 'or; atJeast, itshould do so, but it induces poor showmanship and reduces a motor exhibition to a very ordinary, level as a trade.display,, whereas, at one time,_ such shows had an altogether unequalled position in the favour of the public as spectacles that must not be missed: " Committees may argue that they do not want the ordinary public, or at any rate, that they do not wantthe 'idle sightseer, but they cannot afford to pursue this policy too far. I have not yet heard that all the agentswho comprised the management authorities,for this last Glasgow Show have agreed amongst themselves that their shop-. fronts and showrooms shall, in future; be modelled on standardized lines indistinguishable one from the other except as to name.
As to the exhibits at Glasgow, there was to be seen the usual difference between the visitors to the pleasure ear portion and those who fouhd attraction in c26 the commercial vehicle section. The latter had no real cause for complaint, although it was obvious that the managers were a great deal more concerned with the success of the pleasure-car side of the Show than with that devoted to industrial vehicles. The commercial vehicle section was well North a visit, but the building did nothing to emphasize the pro portions of these bigger machines.
There were some fine examples of design, and in addition, some poor ones. I, personally, am not in agreement with the perpetuation, for commercial vehicle purposes, of the policy which insists on special show finish for show chassis. ,,I hold that utility vehicles should be staged as they are intended to be sold. Orders are very seldom booked because of silver-plated and highly-polished parts. Price, and mechanical reputation are the things that fill the order books. The-Halley Co. showed its six-tonner with a six-cylinder engine, and another machine on the same stand—the four-tonner, I think, it was—had the Argyll sleeve-valve engine. There were several newcomers in the middle-weight class, but none that struck me as offering anything remarkable in design, or novel in price.
My choice in the matter of new design fell on the new Beardmore chassis. The taxicab model is a very neat little job, but I like the 10 h.p. touring ear chassis from the same new source, even better. The new Austin presents no very remarkable features to anyone familiar with this company's line of thought.
The outside steering column is a characteristic for which one looks on commercial models from Northfield.. Strictly, I do not admire the new hunched-up appearance of the Straker side-of-the-bonnet chassis. I euppose the K type chassis of the L.G.O.C. will set designers' thinking on. these lines (although let me be clearly understood when I say that I am under the impression that the Straker arrangement had b.cen hit out before the K-type design was disclosed), but I very much doubt the wisdom of trying to tempt the user away from the now universal practice of a bonnet with a driver seated in a comfortable and open position behind a normal dash. One may save a few inches in overall length and in wheelbase, but certainly in the former respect the Straker shown at Glasgow had achieved very little. The machine had very considerable overhang. I understand that other manufacturers favour similar crowding up of the design, and they will, no doubt, watch with keen interest the 'arnouiit of succes,, that attends Straker's break-aay from convention.
I do not know whether 'the Scottish Show conditions provided encouragement for the display of Agricultural tractors or similar machines, but there were only one or two there and, in view of the boom which has been put, into this branch Iof commercial motor development repently, this must certainly be regarded as disappointing. I think we should all be better for knowing just how far enthusiasm on the part of the user has been aroused to date as regards the mechanical cultivation of the land, on account of the recent well-organized trials and propaganda in this direction.