" Electrics" for Municipalities.
Page 6
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• The Borough Engineer of Southwark, Mr. Arthur Harrison, M.Inst.C.E., has reported upon a motion Which was put forward at the June meeting of the Borough Council that the Works Corrimittee should advise on the use of electricity for traction purposes in the Place of horse or "other Means. The report is as follows :—
"This question is one that I have carefully followed for the laSti 18 years, anti:have kept in touch with all kinds of power for traction purposes. That of electricity has appealed to me as likely to be most useful for municipal purposes, but, upon investigation, up to the present it has alWa.ya appeared to be unripe 'for its adoption. There is no doubt that eventually the difficulties, standing in the way will be overcome, but there is still some distance to go.
• "At present, most of the electrical vehicles are of American origin, where electric power is more in general use than in any other country, and even there the 'question is very much debated, and trials are being made to get over some of the difficulties by the combination of petrol and electricity. No doubt electricity will become adaptable for our general use, probably in some five or ten years, but the charges of aane or two vehicles would he of nwassistance to the Council's electricity works, and working them would be more expensive to the ratepayers than petrol plant.
"At the beginning of this year, the municipalities
had in use 1539 motor vehicles, made up as follow :
petrol, 1201 ; steam, 253; 'electric, 85. Out of this number, tramways having electric-generating plant. had in use 228 (consisting of : petrol, 194; steam, 2 ' electric, 32, including short-distance pleasure ears),, and electricity depots had .83 (consisting of : petrol, 57; steam, 4; and _electric 22), and some of these electrical vehicles have been adopted -with the object of advertising the station and trying to advance the design of electric vehicles.
"One of the difficulties in connection with vehicles for municipal purposes is that manufaeturers do not realize the great difference between municipal and commercial purposes, which may be put as follows "A commercial vehicle is generally loaded at one place from a platform, and may be unloaded at several places, the level of the vehicle being at a suitable height, whereas a municipal vehicle is loaded at many places, and not from a platform, and is unloaded almost always. at the same place. Another queStion to which I should like to draw attention is the difficulty of getting advice from outside authorities on electricity, who are not fully acquainted with the details of the work to be carried out, which cannot in any way be considered parallel with ordinary traction purposes." The Committee has endorsed the views of the Engineer, as outlined aboVe. No purchase of an electric vehicle will be made at present.