OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
Page 19
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Over or Undertype Steamers:
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1541] Sir,—Our attention has been called to an article with above title by "The Inspector" in your issue for the 27th ult.
Do you not think it would have been courteous, not to say more fair, had "The Inspector " written us for information on certain points before writing an article claimed to be unbiassed but apparently based upon the ineorrect statements of others or his own past knowledge which is now out of date?
One does not like to conclude that his article wee entirely inspired by Overtype friends and written at their request, but " The Inspector" has certainly' quite failed to command that "unbiassed pen which he claims to use.
If "The Inspector" will write to us under his own name we shall be delighted to tell him all about the Sentinel overtype, as well as give him the new. delight of driving a modern Sentinel. He can then publish the facts he will thus learn should he wish to do so, but most readers interested already know them. Meantime, as some of your readers may be interested in the statement of facts which evidently caused "The Inspector's" article to be printed; we reproduced as much of the " Sentinel News" article as space would• allow in our advertisement page in your last issue.—Yours faithfully, • •
Shrewsbury. ALLEY AND MACLELLAN, LTD.
The Electric Vehicle.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
115=t2] Sir,— I desire particularly to compliment you on the article by "Short Circuit" appearing on page 106 of your 27th September issue entitled " The Electric Vehicle."
I sincerely trust that this article will be intelligently read by your subsCribers, as I believe this is the first time that 'the electric vehicle has been presented to the public through such a medium at its own worth, and with the groove that it fits into clearly defined.
Most of the newspaper articles, including those in trade papers, content themselves with heralding the electric as the antidote for the high cost of other fuels, overlooking entirely the economic value of the electric as a mechanical substitute for the horse in city and suburban transport. I am satisfied if we can only persuade the public to see the correct application of the electric and its value as compared with the horse or even the petrol .car for city transport, much of the unrnotorized equipment now retarding and blocking traffic in "London (87i per cent) and all of the large cities will disappear.—Yours faithfully, GENERAL VEHICLE CO., LTD.,
London. E. CURTIS, JNR., Managing Director.
A One-man Steamer.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MoToa.
[1543] Sir,—We thank you for your very fair statement of the advantages of the modern rubber-tyred steam motor wagon in your reply to a Derby miller in your issue of 20th September. May we beg space to remind your correspondent that he need not employ two men on g. Sentinel steam wagon? . Apart from considerations of loading, or help in case of an accident on long cross-country journeys—considerations which apply equally to all vehicles, whether steam or petrol—the Sentinel wagon:is easily handled by one man, who has all steering and engine controls. conveniently in his own hands, and the other work of putting a shovelful of fuel down the central firing shuts now and then is usually done by the merest lad well under military age.
In cases where the rung are short, . such as three • miles between works and station constantly to and fro, it is possible for one man to WI:irk a Sentinel absolutely alone, firing being done when standing at either end. ." .
In our opinion, your figures under-estimate rather than over-state the financial Saving of the steamer compared with the petrol machine.—Yours faithfully,
Shrewsbury. • .ALLav AND MA.CLELLAN, LTD.