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Petrol in Bulk by Road.

12th October 1916
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Page 1, 12th October 1916 — Petrol in Bulk by Road.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The transportation of petrol in bulk by road is becoming of greater importance year by year. When

the Departmental Committee on Petroleum Spirit, which committee was appointed by Mr. Herbert Gladstone on the 11th February, 1909, during his HOMO

Secretaryship, issued its first report on the 13th May, 1910, it was recommended that conveyance in hulk, in motor tank-wagons, should not be allowed. This pro posed restriction thereafter gradually threatened to become more and more anachronistic if it were put into operation, and it was the writer's privilege to bring the contemporary facts before the Petrol Com

mittee of the Royal Automobile Club in the year 1912. He therefore gave evidence, as the nominee of that -committee' before the Departmental Committee of the Home Office, on the 13th November, 1912, urging

that the use of mechanically-propelled tank-wagons should be sanctioned, notwithstanding the earlier views of the Departmental Committee, and put in a drawing of a type of motor tank-wagon which he regarded as being particularly suitable. When the final report of the Departmental Committee was issued on the 11th of February, 1913—four years and two days after its appointment, it was seen that the Committee had reversed its original recommendation that such road tank-wagons for the conveyance of petrol spirit should be horse-drawn only, and had put forward the following recommendations: "The committee thinks that a free hand should be left to the Central Authority in deciding

whether or not to approve any particular type of tank-wagon, but attention should be paid to the following points :—

"The screening of the driver's seat and engine supply tank from the main tank. "The character and position of the exhaust. "The provision of lamps of proper construction.

"The method of ignition. "The protection of all manholes and valves in the main tank.

"The elimination of inflammable material in the construction of the wagon. "The sub-division of the main tank into compartments. "The method of filling and emptying the tank.

"As regards the speed, of motor tank-wagons, it has been pointed out that if the axle-weight of a tank-wagon filled exceeds six tons, the speed of such a tank-wagon would by the Heavy Motor Car Order of 1904 be limited to eight miles per hour, and for smaller tank-wagons coming within the provisions of the above Order the speed would be limited to 12 miles per hour, and the committee feel that these speeds should not be exceeded." We consider, having regard to the extensive developments which we know to be in hand for the better distribution of petrol supplies in the country, and most of all because of the intentions of certain of the companies to encourage the laying-down of considerable local storage; either themselves, or by arrangement with large garage proprietors and consumers of spirit, that it is eminently desirable thus briefly to remind our supporters of the above-mentioned facts.

Legislative effect has yet to be given to the recommendations of the Committee, but, on the other hand, there' is no effective legal provision under which the use of motor tank-wagons for the conveyance of petrol spirit can be stopped. Petroleum spirit "in transit" does not become petroleum spirit "in store," unless the vehicle which is conveying it comes to rest for some indefinite period of time, which period has never been settled in law, but after the expiry of which, whatever it may be, and after taking all other circumstances into account, the vehicle, under the construction of a " jumble " of legislation, does in fact become "an unlicensed storehouse." We have no record of a successful prosecution against the owner of a motor tank-wagon before us. Such prosecutions are not likely to be undertaken lightly, and are almost certainly fore-doomed to failure. The use of motor tankwagons is placidly extending.

No Compensation for the General Interruption of Char-a-Bancs Business.

The Defence of the Realm Losses Royal Commission has been considering, at the instance of the C.M.U.A., its attitude towards owners of motor charsh-bancs whose businesses have been impeded—and in many cases totally suspended—by reason of the Order in Council of the 16th Au4ust last concerning the cessation of use of motor spirit as and from*the 31st of that month. The attention of the Association has been officially directed in detail to the terms of reference to the Royal Commission on its appointment, and it is explained that "the Commission has been satisfied, upon the true intent of the language of those terms, it is not within the power entrusted to the Commission by the Crown to make a determination for payment, out of the public funds, in respect of loss arising from the enforcement of any Order or Regulation of general application, as distinct, from loss arising through direct and particular interference with the property or business of an applicant on the' part of the Crown or its agents." . The General Committee of the C.M.U.A. is not by any means allowing the matter to •drop. It has circulated forms of application for compensation to some of its aggrieved members, and these will, on their due completion, be sent in, with the backing of the Association behind them, and every effort made to press them as test cases. The difficulties which lie in the way of success are undoubtedly numerous. but nothing scan be done in such a matter without both the display and exercise of the utmost pertinacity, as to which facts not a few of our readers are probably convinced by their own protracted experiences in like cases when dealing with this Royal Commission.

Coal-gas for Traction Purposes.

Certain gas-works engineers and managers are exhibiting an astonishing degree of apathy towards proposals for the utilization of coal-gas in self-propelled vehicles ; others are looking into the data eon amore We make every allowance for exceptional circumstances, due to war demands and war shortages, but the dilatory ones must look to the future, and endeavour to visualize the financial results which offer. The equipment of the heavier types of commercial motors, by the instalment of batteries of gas-bottles, is but one branch of the developments which are sure to occur. We have pointed out, and we repeat with insistence, that such a battery of steel cylinders will not bring the relation of dead weight to useful load up to a higher ratio than is already found commercially practicable with both steam-driven and electricallydriven road vehicles.

The adoption of pressures going so high as 1800 lb. on the square inch is not a sine qua non. Very much can be done with pressures even so low as 150 lb. on the square inch, seeing that something has already been accomplished, as at Beeston and elsewhere, by the use on the vehicle merely of atmospheric pressure, the supply being direct from an ordinary gasmeter, and not even from a high-pressure lighting main such as is common in the streets of not a few cities.

We have ourselves been amazed to observe the readiness of a few managers to refer back to the disappearance of the gas-tramcars on the route between Lytham and Blackpool. The writer well remembers travelling in those vehicles, and he is therefore acquainted at first hand with the prime causes for their failure, and able to indicate the radical differences between their technical features and those which are found in modern internal-combustion-engine construction. We have not the exact dimensions by us, but we do recall that the engines of those ga.stramcars were of a heavy and slow-running type, with, cylinder dimensions nearly three times as great as those of any engine in a three-ton lorry of the present day. The gear ratio was too high, and the r.p.m. frequently fell so low as to cause the motion of the tramcar to lie somewhere intermediate between that of a caterpillar tractor on bad ground and a buckjumping pcmy. No difficulties arose in respect. of the compression stations, the cost of compression, or the successful and economical combustion of coal-gas as a fuel. The survival of the same system at Neath is a factor in the case into which we hope to be able to look at a very early date, after which we shall return to this aspect of the controversy. We shall do so with complete confidence in our ability to disprove attacks on the prospects of coal-gas as a fuel, in so far as it is sought to base them on anything which has happened in tramcar practice. Coal-gas can succeed as well on the road as it does on the testbench, so far as modern engines affect the issue : the gas-trams at Lytham largely failed because of their ponderous and uneconomical engines.

Petrol Allowances and Petrol Contracts.

There is no occasion for us to write at any length concerning the intentions of the Petrol Control Committee, now officially announced, concerning increased supplies at *the expiry of the existing licences. We have known of these intentions, and dealt with them in print, for many weeks past, and what we have written holds good. Our views have been decried by ill-informed critics, but we pass them over.

The Petrol Control Committee is at the moment engaged in dealing with the renewal of licences for private cars, in which class the present licences run only to the end of this month. Those for commercialmotor owners run to the end of November. Tf some of our readers, when the official papers for fresh supplies are put into circulation, feel that they are in any difficulties, we shall be happy to answer specific

018 inquiries. We shall, of course, deal with the essential points of the new regulations in ample time, but it is evident that no such applications from commercialmotor owners will be entertained for several weeks.

A point of equally-direct concern to owners is that of the new prices for purchases of petrol under contract. Nearly every contract in the country comes to an end at the 31st December, although one of the country's largest consumers is in the fortunate position of having a contract which runs for fully six months longer. The petrol companies—acting in that concerted fashion which commercial experience has shown to be productive of the fewest evils to themselves and to maintain the necessary stability of organization and stocks—are generally quoting on the basis of 2s. 5d.. per gallon, in steel barrels, with the full duty of 6d. per gallon paid. The cost to the commercial-motor owner, after obtaining the rebate of 3d. per gallon to which he is entitled, will therefore be 25. 2d. per gallon, delivered into his depot, in steel barrels. The price is high, but it is one of which we have given warning from time to time for many months past. It is one which must be temporary only, but nobody can do better than guess at the date on which a decline will take place. Our readers will no doubt wish to have our opinion on the matter of their entering into contracts, or refraining from doing so. We have already had a number of inquiries on that one point, and not a few of them over the telephone, from which latter class of inquiry we respectfully ask to be excused, as we prefer to deal with documents. The companies are offering to contract at to-day's prices, thus accepting for themselves the risk, whatever it may be, of advances; they are, alternatively, prepared to sell at to-day's prices, with a falling-clause in respect of forward deliveries, the nature of that falling-clause being in effect that the price ruling at the date of delivery shall apply to each consignment. We strongly recommend the making of contracts, and the completion of them in the second of these categories—the one with the fallingclause. The buyer will thereupon be safeguarded against any increase, and the term of his contract will not be sufficiently long to Prejudice him in any event, so far as we can judge. The advantage of a contract is obviously the virtual ensuring of delivery. We do not recommend contracting for more than one year. Prices should fall by then.

The Tramway's Decay : Rail-bound v. Free-running Vehicles.

The Right Hon. Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, G.C.B., concludes his interesting article on "The Tramway's Decay" in this issue. We have already mentioned, since the earlier instalments of this article appeared in our pages, that the author has made a close and dispassionate study of the relative claims of the two types of passenger conveyance for many • years, We may also recall, contemporaneously with. the completion of the article, that he has invariably been an enthusiastic champion of the commercialmotor vehicle generally, maintaining, back to the days when this type was the " ugly duckling " of the motor industry, that it was sure to prove its efficiency and economy. Furthermore, as the writer is able to testify from having himself been present, Sir John very strongly urged the use of motor omnibuses for the conveyance of troops, in the course of an address which he gave to members of the Royal United Service Institution in February, 1907. Whilst on that occasion Sir John was busy urging the use of the vehicles, we were ourselves busy urging their experimental trial, sanction for which trial, we may recall, took nearly two years to obtain. The actual test run was made from Warley Barracks to a point near Leigh-on-Sea in the month of December, 1908. Sir John is now enjoying the reward of seeing his prophetic utterances concerning motorbuses not only fulfilled, but more than fulfilled.


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