The Small Man the Man of Progress.
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WE HAVE ALREADY, in these columns, dealt with the views of the departmental committee, appeinted by the Board of Trade to consider the position of the engineering trades after the War, on-the question of the position of the small manufacturer when the time comes to give effect to the various schemes for the reconstruction of in, d nary.
.The opinion is expressed in that report that., in order to improve production and eliminate waste, large working units must be aimed at, and that these are, therefore, somewhat incompatible with a continu..
apce of the small manufacturer. We have said that„ to our mind, the committee is not justified in assuming that the small marrafaetur,er and efficient production are incompatible, and we have shown that thee are many directions in which his energies and capabilities can be employed, so that he -may enjoy a paying and steady business and materially facilitate tire procluetiteness of the larger concerns.
In the broader aspect of the matter we regard the sniall manufacturer, as the man who, of sheer 110,00.-sity, is invariably in the forefront of progress. He is the one who must seek to gain a, repute and to build up his clientele by evidence of sheer merit and of unique outstanding design. His claim to consideration cannot, perhaps, be on the score of cheap I:nice or rapid delivery, so he must seek another, and that orte always is the better article, the more efficient production, the. more attractive design. In that way the small manufacturer becomes the pioneer of improvements,.
There is a great danger of our 'becoming obsessed with the need for multiple production. Because it .suits American' ideas and permits of the playing of the American games does not necessarily mean that it must irrefutably suit ours. One ean Tecall dozens ofinstances in the course of the history of the motor trade where the advanced idea has been introduced by the small manufacturer; who has held on against the competition of the makers with vast outputs of conventional models, public opinion sooner or later accepting the idea and demanding its adoption The maker of large outputs would rather not change: that is natural and, in the circumstances,' not unreasonable. But his point of view is not the one that shiauld prevail and, for this reason, we say it wOuld be a .serious thing if we were tO put ourselves in the hands of the laig,..ma4ers alone.. Carry such an idea be its logical conclusion and let us establish, recognize and deal with one ma,ker _only, and it would be admitted that stagnation of design Would be absolutely unavoidable.
Steam Wagon Boilers and Gas Firing.
IN °LIR -1).4.gE of this issue devoted to.: coal-gas progress, the suggestion is put forward that the boilers of .steam wagons may have to be fired with gas carried in cylinders under pressure. The prevailing methods of burning raw coal in open grates and furnaces, whereby valuable-gases and by-products are dissipated up the chimney, will not for much longer be tolerated, now that:the nation has been schooled to the imposition of effective means of controlling these Matters, aiad, so, there may be a iathialty on the domestic and industrial use of raw coal when other alternatives are available.
Coke and gas offer two useful alternatives and, dealing with gas, our contribution shows that a steain wagon could run for half a day on about 1250 eubie ft. of gas, carried in a receptacle that need not invelve a greater weight than'6 cwt., or about three times the weight of coal to do the same work. The use of gas would be economical in many ways, and steam wagon owners should be encouraged to consider it, not only because of the definite saving Of coal fuel but because the additional demand would encourage the erection of compressing plant and supply facilities, thus materially advancing the employment of gas for traction purposes generally.
A certaitt amount of expeiriMeuting would be necessary in order to ensure the obtaining of the best results, but thee experiments could well be carried out on stationary plants, and, from inquiries we have made, we are confident that the Gas Traction Committee would receive with sympathy any application for further facilities in the matter of equipping steam wagons" when it -has been demonstrated that.road eliperiments are desirable.
British-built Electric Vehicles.
THERE SEEM TO BE no reasonable grounds for combating .the view expressed by the Meetrical Vehicle Committee in its annual report to the, effect that electric commercial vehicles have proved eminently suitable in certain classes of service, and, eonsequently, that the demand for thorn is bound to increase materially. At present various restrictions and difficulties stand in the way of a development which would otherwise be proceeding far more rapidly than it is, but, when the war is over, it seems practically certain 'that the electric vehicle will come into general use in its proper sphere. Consequently, we wish to draw attention to the suggestion of the Committee that. it behoves British motor -manufacturers to consider the question of design and methods of manufacture of electrio-, vehiclespresurnably in conjunction with the electrical manufacturers who would be responsible for the elec tric machines and for the batteries. The electric vehicle, unless.-.taken up by some huge firm, the activities of which are peculiarly wide, must be, to some degree, an assembled product.
No one shop is likely to be equally well equipped to manufacture chassis, electric motors and secondary batteries. These represent at least three totally distinct lines., each requiring specialized treatment and specialized knowledge. Presumably, therefore, the motor manufacturer who might be prepared to consider the proposal of the Electric Vehicle Committee would confine himself purely to the manufacture of chassis, or of parts of Chassis. He -would-purchase his motors and his batteries in quantity and might apply the same principle to some other components. In fact,6if, for any reason, the balance of his, shops has been so upset as to make it convenient for him, after the war-, to manufacture certain components in proportionally larger numbers than other components, then he might utilize what might otherwise be surplus or unbalanced production as the basis of an electric vehicle, the remainder of which would be purchased in the farm of components.
We believe that there are. cases in which this would be thoroughly good business, inasmuch as the special characteristics of the electric vehicle are such as to commend it for certain classes of service for which the petrol vehicle does not usually appeal very strongly. Thus, it seems that the manufacturer might extend his ability to fill the needs of all clients without appreciably complicating his production or going contrary to the principle of applying himself to the smallest possible number of models produced upon the largest possible scale.
A certain number of commercial electric vehicles are already being produced in England. These-, the. Committee tell us, compare most favourably with the best imported vehicles in design, construction and performance. Our ability to tackle this branch of manufacture having thus been proved, it would be a pity if, when the demand develops, we were to allow the bulk of it to be filled by imported chassis which would probably bring with them a, corresponding import of electric motors and of accumulators.
Limitations of the Electric Vehicle.
THERE IS YET another point in the report of the Electric Vehicle Comnaittee to which we feel we ought to refer. This is the very candid and unbiassed statement. in which it is endeavoured to define the legitimate sphere a the electric vehicle. The biggest miStalte that mil be made by any champion of the system is to bring it forward as the one and 'only solution of the whole problem of road transport. Directly this is done and the electric vehicle is held up as the -superior competitor of the petrol vehicle in all classes of service, the bottom can be knocked out of the argument with the greatest ease. The result is that, claims having been made,whieh cannot be substantiated, the electric vehicle suffers frem the consequent. discredit; and the fact that it is found to be possessed of limitations is misconstrued into a proof of complete all-round failure.
For long-distance work, the electric cannot compete with the petrol vehicle, where, as the report admits, the attributes of high speed and unfettered radius of the latter can be fully utilized. The Committee tells us--" The electric is essentially a moderate speed ma a20 hine, with a definite limit to its eadius of action and a particular characteristic which makes good road urfaces desirable for its satisfactory operation. Hence, while its real competitor is the .horse and its phere is that of use in urban and suburban areas for what is generally termed short distances, frequent top, delivery and transport duty, it only enters into competition with the petrol vehicle when the latter is mployedin that spheree-a: class of work for which its advocates are generally ready to admit, it is not best uited."
This is all perfectly sound. The cause of the petrol. -chicle cannot be well served by pushing it into use under conditions winich make its economical or effeeive use impossible. The electric can be made the complement of the petrol vehicle. • Each can do what he other cannot do efficiently. The two, supplemented by the steam vehicle and tractor, are capable of filling all the needs of every class of town traffic and forming a combination that can eliminate animaldrawn vehicles from our town streets altogether and thus complete a very desirable revolution.
It is far better to set about this great work in. an amicable way than to spend our time in squabbling as o which of the two can do some particular job rather more economically than the other. Each has its iatural sphere, and between the two spheres is a border line where doubtful cases lie. These doubtful cases will be only a very small percentage, but there s.perhaps, a rather natural inclination to spend much too big a proportion of one's time in discussing them nstead of developing the far more accessible and extensive fields that are open to each type without competition of the other.
On Improvements of Plants and Building.
ONE OF THE CRITICISMS often levelled against British manufacturers, and one which we have heard speeifically applied to the notor industry on many occasions, imputes considerable reluctance to replace obsolete or worn maehinery by new, or to adopt a bold policy in the matter of the total reconstruction of buildings to meet modern requirements. Thil appears to be one of the instances in which the critic is apt to jump to conclusions as to ' where the blame should be laid, and is also apt to make a serious mistake in so doing: At first sight, it would appear obvious that the manufacturer must be in fault and that the blame must rest upon him alone. In point of fact, as is indicated by the Engineering Trades Committee in its report, the fault lies mainly with the Income Tax Commissioners.
These gentlemen are not concerned directly with the question of whether manufacturers continue to use old plant or introduce new. They are not expected to look further forward than the present. Their business is to get a good eontribution for the Treasury to meet the estimated expenditure of the current year. We can hardly expect them, except under pressure, to adopt along-sighted view and to reduce their demands on the ground that, if they do so, the tax payable in some future year will be greater. Neither are they particularly interested in the tendencies which their assessments may encourage or discourage. They probably neither know nor care that, when they refuse to allow more than 5 per ceht, for depreciation and wear and tear of machinery, they are exercising a very pernicious influence on the engineering industry and detrimentally affecting all users of engineering products.
It is clear enough, however, that, when the Income Tax Commissioners only allow a low rate of depreciation, the manufacturer is given a natural tendency to keep the old machinery in existence until the depreciation allowed has, in the aggregate, written off the whole cost.
In an industry like ours, in which the installation of improved machinery is frequently advisable, it is bad to give any artificial encouragement to the practice of sticking to the old machinery when, its use is no longer really justified. In Just the same way, the very low rate of depreciation allowed on buildings encourages manufaeturera to make shift with the old and to develop an organization far from ideal by making additions piecemeal instead of by pulling down and reconstructing wholesale. The attitude of the Income Tax Commissioners may not be a complete excuse for the failure of many manufacturers to adopt a bold course, but it is, at least, a very strong influence in view of which the blame, where it must be placed at all, must certainly be shared and not cast upon the manufacturer only.
Germany After Roumania's Oilfields.
THE ONE COMFORTING THING about the Petroleum Treaty between Germany and Roumania is that this, like many other German arrangements, must be entirely dependeri, upon the ultimate terms of a general peace. Were this not the case the agreement would ensure for Germany a
complete monopoly of a very valuable source of petroleum supplies for an almost indefinite period.. leor the purpose of the agreement two companies apparently have to be brought into existence. One is to be called the Oil-Lands Leasing Co., Ltd., which is to have the sole right of utilizing all Roumanian land for the purpose of obtaining oil and all kindred, materials, unless such land was the subject of concessions prior to August, 1914. In the latter case on the conclusion of the present concessions the 'Oil• Lands Leasing Co. may take over the rights. To make the arrangement effective, the company has adequate privileges as regards the use. of road& and railways and the right to take timber from the Roumanian forests. It may also import materials and machinery free of duty and must suffer no disability on account of the nationality of its employees, the majority of whom will evidently be German. To deal with the oil when it has been obtained, a second -company' is to be set up, to heknown as the Monopoly Trading . Co. This is to be formed by a financial group designated by Germany and Austria, and is to have the sole right of selling all crude oil and' oil obtained from mineral gas in Roumania. Further it is to have the sole right of exporting Roumanian oils.
Finally, at the conclusion of the agreement is a declaration binding the Roumanian Government to enter into negotiations at the earliest possible moment with a view to adopting those methods by which the surplus oils and the oil products of Roumania can best be made available to Germany and Austria.