The Archaic Cab with its Unsheltered Driver.
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THE general impression is that, whilst an official department must necessarily wait upon public opinion, Scotland Yard is inclined to wait too long and to require it hand to be forced, Only giving way grudgingly. For years the Commissioner clung to the idea that 34 passengers was the maximum that could safely be allowed in a bus plying for hire in the Metropolis, and it needed a strike among the passenger-transport employees, an increase in wages and bold action on the part of . the engineers' department of the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., in order to secure a breakaway. What do we see now? Buses carrying 72 people ! So With the covering-in of the upper deck. The exposure of passengers to the inclemency of the weather must have resulted, particularly in the course of the past eight or nine years, when passenger traffic has grown unprecedentedly in volume, in more deaths and illness than all the mishaps in traffic. It was only the increasing demand (in which The Commercial Motor played a powerful part) in the Press and by the public that secured approval for the construction and use of -four covered top-deck buses. To-day there are about 2,000 running, without a single mishap to record as being due to the use of the top cover As with buses, so with cabs. The regulations laid down by Scotland Yard are a relic of the very earliest days of the motor movement. The restrictions on wheelbase, turning circle, overall length and the requirements as to the body and other details have held up progress, and have produced for London cabs which compare unfavourably with those of Continental cities and of our own provincial towns.
The public suffer and the drivers suffer, for the first cost of the vehicles is very much too high for economic working, and the prospect of a low revenue return discourages the drivers from turning out when weather conditions are bad, for there is a lamentable lack of protection for the drivers. Scotland Yard is afraid of the upper windscreen, considering that it is liable to become obscured. Yet three-quarters of the vehicles on the streets are equipped with windscreens, and the old difficulty of obstruction has completely vanished with the introduction of the windscreen wiper. There is no reason whatever for depriving the driver of a cab of the fullest protection that is given by a private car, and, when this has been done and the Public Carriage Department has become reconciled to the change, perhaps something will be done for the better protection of that other servant of the public—the bus driver !
A New Fuel which Should Help to Stabilize the Market.
THIS day (Tuesday, January 10th) sees the release of the information concerning a new (in a sense) motor fuel, in the compounding of which tetraethyl-lead solution is employed in order to eliminate from the petrol any tendency which it might have to " pinking " or knocking. This attribute is familiar to us all; the noise is to be heard every hour of the day as a vehicle passes or moves off under a heavy load or with the ignition too far advanced. It arises apparently (for the phenomenon has never been satisfactorily explained) from too early and too rapid flame propagation throughout the charge, and it is generally an indication, in the case of an engine which normally is not prone to pinking, of the peed for decarbonization, the presence of carbon in excess having temporarily increased the compression ratio.
The addition of tetraethyl to petrol seems to slow down the rate of combustion, and thus to 'reduce the tendency of the fuel to cause knocking. Conversely, it enables the compression to be increased, which must give greater efficiency. The • Schneider Cup was won by an engine with a compression that was double that of the normal engine.. Only a few years ago such a high compression would have been considered unattainable.
An enormous amount of research work has been undertaken in arriving at the compound which is known as ethyl fluid, and which is added to the petrol in the proportion of about a teaspoonful to the gallon, and we believe that its introduction marks a new era in fuel supplies, because by its use lower grades of fuel than those now marketable will be capable of being brought into use. Certain grades of fuel and the products of certain oilfields at present of no value to the motor world will be rendered usable when suitably treated with _ethyl fluid, so that we here have a factor making for the stabilization of prices. We shall not be surprised to find that many of the petrol distributors will each be marketing .a treated fuel before a couple of years have passed.
One feature of the propaganda efforts on behalf of the new fuel is commendable. The composition of the fluid is freely disclosed, and the user is told that it consists of (I) a knock eliminator (tetraethyl of lead) ; (2) an element (ethylene ilibromide) to counteract the effect of the tempera
ture of working upon the tetraethyl of lead, which would cause the latter to form lead oxide, to be deposited on sparking-plug points, valve seats and valve sterns; (3) a lubricant for the upper part of the cylinder and the valve stems (halowax oil) ; and (4) a dye to identify the fuel. The behaviour of the new fuel will be very carefully watched and its effect upon the fuel market observed in the course of the next few months.
Lower Taxation for Vehicles on Pneumatic Tyres.
TJAST week we put up a strong plea for the 1 preferential taxation of the heavier classes of commercial vehicle equipped with pneumatic tyres, and in the concluding portion of our article on this subject, which we publish in this issue, further figures and facts are given concerning tests made in America to ascertain the comparative merits of solid, and pneumatic-tyre equipment.
The results obtained both in France and America are most striking and illuminating ; so much so, in fact, that it is difficult to understand how our roads have stood up at all to the pounding which they have received from the many thousands of solid-tyred vehicles in use, and every credit for their comparatively excellent condition should be given to the engineers responsible.
Reverting to the tests carried out by the French engineers, they devised what they termed "a factor of nuisance," which really represented the shock experienced by the road. This factor remained below unity whatever the speed of a vehicle equipped with pneumatic tyres, whereas it rose to over 80 in the case of a solidtyred vehicle running at 35 kiloms. per hour.
So far as the American tests are concerned, in certain pneumatic-tyred vehicles running at 20 m.p.h. the impact reactions did not reach 4 tons when the vehicles were driven over obstructions 2 ins, high, whereas, with worn solid tyres carrying less load the corresponding figure reached nearly 20 tons.
In tests carried out over a stone-block road a 2-ton vehicle with pneumatic tyres caused .50 impacts over a distance of 500 ft. of a magnitude 45 per cent. in excess of the static load, whereas for badly worn solid tyres the excess over the static load was 270 per cent. With pneumatic tyres it is extremely difficult to cause road reactions of double the static load, whilst with worn solid tyres it is easy to obtain reactions of ten times the static load, and even this figure is often exceeded. This is equivalent to suspending a 3-ton lorry in the air and striking blows of 30 tons to 50 tons against the tyres, and it must be remembered that when running the road constitutes the hammer, and neither road nor vehicle can be improved by shocks of such a formidable character.