Answers to Queries.
Page 20
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Coal-gas Experiments.
[4108] (Covent Garden).—If you want any gas supplies in the area of the Edmonton and Tottenham Co. for your motors, in due course, as we hope you will we are sure you will get every help from the local company.
Buyers of a Six.ton Steamer with Rubber Tires.
[4109] (Works).—Yes ; you will be well served by buying either a Leyland or a Sentinel, and perhaps in those circumstances you will decide to let your decision rest upon the matter of delivery date. The fact that the Leyland Co. has a depot in Liverpool is possibly the only factor which should additionally weigh with you.
Ferrules for Their Smoke-tube Boiler.
[MO] (Millers).—It is usual to buy ferrules for smoke-tube boilers from the makers of the lqmlers, or at least from the sellers of the vehicles. Practically all the British steam-wagon makers make their own boilers. If you wish to buy from an engineering supplier, we suggest your communicating with W. H. Wilcox and Co., Ltd., • 38, Southwark Street, S.E. '
Bus Profits Disappearing.
14111] (Manager).—The 2d. per motorbus-mile prospective loss, to which you refer, is approximately the same as the amount per motorbus-mile which you can save by using coal-gas. We hope that you will not put up the fares without considering the question of resorting to that alternative method of working, as to the undoubted success of which we can give the most-definite assurances.
Car Used for Both Pleasure and Hire: What About Petrol Rebate?
[4112] (Somerset).—You will, on paying the sixguinea licence, be entitled to carry passengers on recreation trips, thus using the car as a private one, and also free to use the car for hiring purposes. The latter course involves the additional licensing of the car as a hackney carriage (15s. per annum). You should be able to obtain the petrol rebate of 3d, per gallon in respect of use of the car for hiring work up to 48 hours per hire, that being the practice which is followed by Excise Officers in various parts of the country. If the hiring is of a longer period, it does not approximate to taxicab hiring ; the petrol then used will have to bear full duty without rebate.
Doubling the Revolutions of One Driving Wheel I! the Other Is Held.
[4113] (Disputant).—The test which you adopted is conclusive—jacking tip both wheels, giving one turn to starting-handle with low gear in mesh, then jacking up only one wheel, repeating turn of starting. handle, and comparing angular movements of wheel. You are correct in the inference that, on holding one of the driving wheels so that it cannot revolve, the free driving wheel will make double the number of revolutions that it formerly made, when both driving wheels were free, in respect of any fixed number of revolutions of the engine, in the same train of gear. This apparent anomaly may suitably be explained in. the following terms : when bath wheels are free, the small (crown) pinions of the differential gear'' through which the drive is equally distributed to both road wheels, do not revolve on their own spindles ; on holding one of the driving wheels firm, the crown wheels are .revolved on their own spindles, by the rack action of the teeth on the fixed side of the axle, thus adding their own rotational velocity, tooth by tooth, to the free side of the axle. The added velocity is equal to the normal drive from the engine, thus producing a.double result on the one road wheel which is free to rotate.
058 In the Army Post Office, B.E.F.
[4114] (Once a Driver).—The Campaign Comforts Fund for which we are responsible cannot deal with any portion of H.M. Forces other than M.T., A.S.C. columns, units and detached parties. We much regret this in view of the circumstances of which we are reminded. If there are any MT., A.S.C. men at your depot, an application from them will be within the rules of the Fund.
Safety Devices for Starting Handles.
[4115] (Wilton).—The sketches, as sent, are not sufficient for us to pass an opinion as to the mechanical merits of the safety device for starting handles to prevent backfire. As regards the idea, it is anything but new. There are several safety devices for starting-nhandles on the market, and they generally operate on something like the lines you suggest, that ' %is to,say,, free.-wheel -pawls. The designing and fitting of some safety deyice toAprevent injury from back-fire is not a difficult matter', and we take it that the fact that it is net generally adopted is a sufficient indication that the danger is not a pressing one. The proportion of drivers who suffer is very low.
Horse or Motor?
[4116] (Coal and Lime).—A motor lorry may not be more economical for you than two horses on work which falls appreciably lower than 100 miles of running weekly. The existence of a hill of 1 in 16 will of course help to make the superiority of the motor noteworthy above that mileage. It is more economical, per net ton-mile, to take one load of 50 cwt., in preference to two loads of 25 cwt. each over the same ground. The make of lorry a-bout which you inquire is not in the highest class of British manufacture. You can generally buy on the hire-purchase system by putting down one-third of the money, almost with any of the leading manufacturers, by arrangement. Some of the makers cover the finance themselves, whilst others do it through suitable financial organizations with which they are in touch. We recommend you to buy a standard three-ton chassis, as you will probably find in practice that you will want to carry more than 50 cwt.
The Under-declaring and Over-loading Evil.
[4117] (Woollens and Waste).—Further to cur answer No. 4107, you must get away from the idea of buying a vehicle which is designed to carry a ton, and thinking that you can load it safely with 30 cwt. or 35 cwt. We must again impress upon you that mechanical structures will not bear such treatment. You will merely be throwing money away if you do this kind of thing. If you wish to use a net load of 35 cwt., you certainly must buy a vehicle which is capable of carrying that weight without suffering damage. In the circumstances which you explain, we should certainly say that you ought to favour a British-made van, and not any converted Ford. The life of any van depends upon its being carefully handled and not overloaded. A van which is overloaded may cost four or five times as much per mile run as it would if it were loaded normally to its rated load. There is no time at which it has been so undesirable as at the present time to overload, in view of the difficulty of getting repairs done. You cannot expect to vet more than 14 miles to the gallon with a converted Ford, loaded with one ton. We see that in your postscript you write about carrying 2 tons or even 2-i tons. It will certainly pay you to buy a vehicle which is designed for such loads. Instead of damaging a lighter one by overloading.. You appear to .us still to have fixed in your mind a conception of actual to declared load, which is both dangerous and quite inadmissible.