Is it "Share Rigging " ?
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The gullible British Public has received its first intimation, through the columns of the daily Press, during the last few days, that a "great amalgamation scheme" is under consideration by certain of London's motor omnibus companies. It is interesting to note that the four undertakings concerned are already controlled and directed by the same group of financiers ; hence, the benefit that may be expected to accrue will depend entirely upon the nature of the proposed fresh internal contracts. As the arrangements are only under discussion, and may be greatly modified before the intended formal combination is carried through, it is only possible for us to express the opinion that any intention, presuming, as we have reason to fear, that such a programme exists, to "rig the market," or to seek for plunder in the course of the contemplated exploitation, will meet with a cold reception at the hands of the Press and the public alike. We can quite understand that, with the first annual general meeting of the " Vanguard " company at hand, the interests concerned are eager to have some scheme of amalgamation to dangle before the eyes of their shareholders, and it is an open secret, in well-informed City circles, that negotiations for a combination with the oldest and largest of London's great omnibus companies only fell to the ground, not many weeks ago, because the newer interests desired unduly to load the proposition with capital that would have been unrepresented by any substantial assets. In these circumstances, we regret our inability, at present, to regard the alleged great scheme as having any foundation other than the narrow one of adventitious benefit to a small group of financiers. Unless, when the scheme is ripe, we are able to discern clearly the sound business merits for which one looks where combination is to be of lasting service and advantage to those who are asked to put up the money, it must stand condemned. There is no more room for manipulation qua promotion profits than there is justification, to-day, for the reckoning of a goodwill value in any of the Metropolitan omnibus companies' balance sheets.
Motor Omnibus Races.
We are sorry to observe that the sensational has been allowed to creep into the usually staid atmosphere of commercial motoring. It is, surely, apeing our American cousins to organise a race between heavy vehicles, and it will not be a large additional step in that direction if we shortly have demonstration smashes for the delectation of seaside crowds. No useful purpose can be served by such contests as those which: have been announced to take place at Blackpool, whilst there is grave risk that, as we pointed out in our "News and Comment" of last week, an entirely erroneous impression will result. We shall witness, accidents excepted, a bad defeat of the omnibuses fitted with internal-combustion engines, and it will be proclaimed from the housetops that steam is all-conquering. It is, no doubt, very sporting of certain builders of explosion motors to make a race, but is it expedient? Again, evidence of high speed on a perfect tract furnishes no proof of the qualities that one seeks in a motorbus chassis. We most strongly deprecate this innovation, for it is calculated to bring undeserved ridicule upon an important branch of the motor industry if repeated. Freak vehicles, and abnormal gears can, alone, enable a petrol vehicle to compete with any chance of success, and, no matter who is declared the winner, the practical gain will be strictly nil so far as constructional features are concerned.
The Van Trials Deadlock.
Wiser counsels appear to have prevailed at the Automobile Club, and there is every reason to believe that our forecast of the 4th instant (page 84 ante) will be correct. Where misunderstandings have been allowed to grow up between two determined and resourceful organisations, the merest chance incident may render a raPprochentent unattainable, whilst nothing less than the hand of diplomacy can rekindle the spirit of unity. We explained, two weeks ago, how the Chairman of the A.C.G.B.I. had declared to the writer, at Scarborough, that he, at no time, had intended to convey to the M.V.W.O.U.A. Committee the impression that the Club had decided to refuse representation on any Trials Committee to the Association, and, whilst not omitting then to point out that no single member of the Users' Committee was able to appreciate this intended attitude, we expressed the belief that a solution of the deadlock was in sight. Another extraordinary feature has, within the last few days, been disclosed, and one to which a reference on this page is certainly not out of place. It seems that the Club Committee has, during the whole negotiations, been led to believe that this journal's caustic and vehement denunciations of its dilatory and unbusinesslike methods (vide diary of proceedings on pages 87 and 88 of our last issue) have been prompted by personal ambitions. The allegations, in fact, that the writer intended to be a dictator, or to oppose the trials at all costs, both in season and out of season, were sedulously circulated by a few self-seeking amateurs, and, we regret to say, were not silenced by those who knew them to be entirely without foundation. The charges must, however, be given the public denial for which they now call.
A personal explanation should not run to great length. The writer, although undesirous to shirk his share of work in contributing to the success of any trials for commercial motors, has nothing to gain from any official position. A journalist is handicapped by sitting at the same table as men whom it may become his duty to criticise, and, had toe interests of self, or this journal, been the only considerations in mind, there would have been no objections, to the Automobile Club's imperious claims, in our columns : " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR " would have supported the proposed trials in the certain knowledge that any postponement meant a direct loss of many hundreds of pounds to its exchequer! The writer elected to put right before mere business, for the Club's demands, as set out by its Chairman, were preposterous, and, notwithstanding the imminent risk of disfavour
" high quarters," that view was freely stated. More than a year ago, although nominated by the Users' Association as one of the judges for the trials which should have been carried out in September and October of 1905, the Editor of this journal preferred to decline that office, and the same intimation, in writing, was put before the Chairman of the A.C.G.B.I., in relation to the series of trials now under discussion, four months ago.
The suggestion that there was a " hankering " after the position of trials secretary is a case of mischievous and deliberate misrepresentation by interested and aspiring individuals. If any critics believe the accusation, let them recollect that there is enough work in connection with a weekly journal, and of one which does not go beyond its declared and legitimate spheres to " pad out" its pages, to keep the " man at the wheel " busy. Further, the amount of labour involved, in the proper and adequate organisation of such a trial, is of a sufficiently exacting nature to repel, instead of to attract. The credit and experience attached to the carrying out of the classic trials in Lancashire, as secretary of the Liverpool Self-Propelled Traffic Association, in the years 1898, 1899, and row, enable the writer indignantly to repudiate the interested assertions of recent arrivals in a field with which he has been exclusively associated, and actively identified, for more than ten years.
Overtaking on the Near Side.
A driver of a London omnibus was lined twenty shillings and costs, before Mr. Plowden, at the West London Police Court, on the 4th instant, and this magistrate delivered himself of some very strong observations on the subject of the offence that had been committed. The transgression consisted of the defendant's passing to the left or near side of a coal cart, instead of his overtaking it on the off side, in Fulham High Street ; as a consequence, the traffic happened to become temporarily disorganised, and a summons was issued. We are not without sympathy for the driver, who, pressed into a corner by the learned magistrate, admitted that he " Did not know he was doing wrong." This reply, which was characterised by Mr. Plowden as" an :imazing confession of incapacity," by no means infers the state of ignorance or gross neglect on the part of the driver that might be gathered from the further comment from the Bench " You don't know the A 13 C of your calling.. . Just think of the terrible risks the public incur through incompetence like yours." The man probably would, had he been a lawyer, have stated his meaning more explicitly. When the great controversy, as to who is to control the traffic of Greater London, is settled, authorisation to require coal carts and other slow-moving vehicles to keep strictly to the near side of the road, will, we hope, be granted to the Metropolitan and City Police. It is very hard, as the law now stands, to establish a charge of obstruction under be Highways Act of 1835, and that automatic alignment, close to the kerb, of horse-drawn omnibuses, which is being gradually brought about owing to the community of interest between proprietors of the different types of vehicles as much as to the comradeship between the men, has not, at least so far, been tacitly adopted by drivers of goods vehicles. We should like to point out to Mr. Plowden that this overtaking on the near side is, in nine cases out of ten when it occurs, a positive boon to the public at large, and that the fault really lies with the much-discussed, lumbering van; the drivers of these vehicles resolutely stick to the crown of the road, and ignore the convenience of the passengers who are delayed for an unconscionable period if the driver of the omnibus does not pass on the near side. Seeing that it is legal to pass a tramcar on its near side, and this course is universally acknowledged to be necessary if confusion and collision are to be avoided as regards the oncoming stream of trattic, why should the driver of an omnibus suffer, unless for gross negligence, if he, too, overtakes a cart, which though facultative as regards its course, is obstinately kept where it should not be? Might not thesource of danger be tackled, to advantage, by the police?
The Interest of Motor Drivers.
Various matters of joint interest to owners of motor vehicles and their drivers have appeared, regularly, under the distinctive title of" The Motor Drivers News," since our earliest issues. This feature of our journal has appealed to a large number of our readers who are practically acquainted with road conditions, whilst not a few helpful suggestions have been circulated by means of -these instructive communications from a section of daily " users." Although the sale of " THE COMMERCIAL :MOTOR " is not forced amongst drivers and mechanics, we are pleased to know that some hundreds of copies are purchased each week by these men, and we did not fail to appreciate their claims eighteen months ago. At the same time, we are not inclined to give undue prominence to any of our original features, except where proportionate gain may result for our supporters. We propose to leave the cultivation, amongst drivers and mechanics, of a comparatively large proportion of the total circulation, to other journals, whilst in no way varying our fortnightly publication of hints, suggestions, opinions, incidents and experiences, for which we have offered suitable pries and payments oh initio.
Oscillating Front Axles.
The correspondence which has arisen in our pages anent front-axle design, as a result of the short article that appeared in this journal on the 13th ultimo, has disclosed equally positive views both in favour of, and against, the oscillating, or centre-pivoted, front axle for motor wagons. We see no occasion to conclude that either type is universally superior to the other, and those who have had experience on the road with various patterns will agree with us that neither system deserves to be condemned ad hoc. It is a strong argument against any universal merit in the oscillating axle that one knows of its trial and rejection by several of the older and more experienced manufacturers, who, in retaining a strict wagon design, returned to the four-point support years ago; neither can anybody overlook the marked downward " set" that may not infrequently be seen to exist, towards the front of one or both frame members, where there is much weight on that end of the platform. We have observed the sagging of the frame, in such cases, where the "channels" were rather light, to reach a degree sufficient to send the wagon home with its funnel badly Out of the vertical ! The cause is readily aseertair.ed. When, under load, one back wheel of a three-point supported lorty strikes an obstacle, the whole " sprung " mass, say, to toils, is tilted bodily through the angle corresponding to the lift of the axle, less the proportion absorbed by the springs, in the direction of a diagonal line projected towards the centre of the front axle. Immediately the obstruction is surmounted, and the axle has dropped back with the wheel, the mass above the springs follows, if the frame is strong enough to preserve absolute rigidity under the bending stresses. If it is not strong enough, a permanent droop is gradually imparted to the front end of the frame, and this can only be accentuated where a heavy or high boiler is employed, or a high load of goods or merchandise is carried..
The oscillating front axle is taken from approved tractionengine practice, but it must not be forgotten that in these road locomotives, which were originally unsprung, there were : (a) an enormously strong frame; (b) a long base to the triangle of support ; (c) relatively little weight on the pivoted axle ; and (d) a low and fairly constant centre of gravity, and this kept well back. Where these features are maintained in motor-wagon practice, and where the platform loads are also kept well back so as to come almost entirely on the driving wheels alone, all the advantages discovered by the older school of road-engine Constructors are turned to account. Any material departures, in a three-point support design, from these accepted and proved conditions which have been embodied by some motor-wagon makers, will lead to troubles of a more or less serious nature.
We have, thus briefly, alluded to the faults of wagons with oscillating front axles, and, were there no 5-ton lirpit.upon the unladen weight of a heavy motorcar, frames might be made so heavy that twisting strains mattered not. We cannot agree that the advocates of three-point support have succeeded, keeping before us the reStrictions of this tare weight, in establishing the freedom of their systems from frame (roubles: there are, in fact, conditions of loading and service where their design, notwithstanding the reduction in lift as regards the front axle, might be worse than that of the four
point type. The checking action of the other three springs, where any one wheel of the latter system rises, is, admittedly, a frame-twisting element, but this fault has to be set against the virtue of its contemporary ability to diminish the other adverse factors, which are due to the inertia, or the momentum, of the unsprung load. It is a choice between the results of more frequent yet moderate stresses, and of others which may be termed "induced," larger stresses. Neither system is ideal, but motor traffic on common roads is the surest teacher of compromise.