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LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.

14th December 1920
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Page 8, 14th December 1920 — LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Commercial Pneumatics Fifteen Years Ago. The Technics of Springing. Overseas Exhibitions.

WHILE, UNTIL RECENTLY, we were all very busy discovering the heavy-duty pneumatic tyre for use on commercial motor vehicles, most of us forgot—if indeed we ever knew—that experiments in this direction were carried out on. a considerable scale, it must be, over 15 years ago. The particular make of tyro which the writer has in mind. a.s having been tested in this way was that known as • the Collier.--a very .deep-section, egg-shaped pneumatic with a thick rubber tread. If I am not mistaken, this proprietary tyre was manufactured by the Leyland and Birmingham Rubber Co. And 1 think it will be found that, amongst other experiments, these tyres were tested on an early Coulthard steam wagon. It -Would be extremely interesting if the tyre company in question, or-others who were concerned, would trouble themselves to polish, up our memories on this point. Colliers were used. tolerably freely in those days, and amongst other machines on which a number of them were fitted were the British-built Serpollets—flash-boiler steamers of considerable weight, that. were manufactured for a feW.years in York by the British POwer, Traction and Lighting Co.

Another, but later, prieurnatie.tYre experiment was the running of Charron single-deck saloon buses by the General Motor Cab CO., of Brixton, in their early days. These ran on either pneumatics .or on 'cushion 'tyres—I think both were tried. The pneumatic for commercial models is not a novelty. Of course, it has been employed on fairly heavy converted touring cars for years past with considerable success. It in no exaggeration to say that this class of tyre alone rendered it possible to employ many of the highpowered. and relatively lightweight chassis that were impressed into commercial service. Shod with solids they would have gone -to bits in no time.

It is to be hoped that, before the next commercial vehicle show we shall have more facts and fewer guesses to talk about on this subject. Most of us think that there ought to be a way of turning the large pneumatic to economical and profitable use, but few of us are as yet convinced-as to whether this should be by using huge tyres an heavy machines, or whether the likely results justify the experiment of building special light chassis to run on air-friled tyres. Certain it is that some one or more factors are proving ha,rder in these post-war days on .(.inr springs, steering gear, wheels, frames, and so. on. It may be

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that it s the pot-holed roads, or it may he the average tendency to drive faster. But, -there is no question that tbe need to investigate the rather (iptimistic

• claims of the pneumatic tyre protagonist is far more insistent than it was before the war. Somebody ought to get busy on some long-distance tests.

The Technics of Springing.

We have all been interested to read the correspondence whieh has been going on in the columns of The Commercial Motor with regard to the need for improved springing and die contributing thereto of those whea,re particularly concerned with the exploitation-of the Palladium double-cantilever method as used on the four-ton vehicle of that make.

Periodically this is a subject which comes up for discussion, and as regularly the interest" in it dies down. And the amount we actually achieve to secure better suspension, so far as the industrial models are concerned, is very nearly negligible. I often wonder

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if those who talk and write so glibly. of new types of suspension know much of the technics of the subject. At any rate, I am quite certain that few of us very thoroughly understand what is needed to give us the best cushioning effect so far as it can be achieved by a combination of springs. To this day the locomotive, subjected to colossal jerks and vibrations, is mounted on what is to all intents and, purposes a system of plain half-elliptic springs, and we have got very little further with motor vehicles. What is probably the most sensational development of chassis suspension that has been evolved for some years pant., that on the remarkable Leyland eight-cyhnder car exhibited at the recent Olympia Show, employed half-ellipties on the front and quarter-ellipties on the back, this simple system being amplified by the simplest possible provision for interrupting the vibrating of the individual springs from aide to side and from end to end. .

Endless experiments have been tried with auxiliary springs, transverse springs, and so on, but many designers have wrongly imagined that the mere multiplication of individual springs brings with it more satisfactory suspension. How often one sees combinations of springs and-shock absorbers, In which the combined effect achieved could have been far better secured by one properly designed spring How often have we seen. orders sent to spring makers in which the dimensions, plate thicknesses, numb-era of plats, deflecting, etc., have been left to the spring makers!

There is undoubtedly, ample room for more scientifie investigations of the problems of suspension. Now that tyre performance is being so much more thoroughly considered, this seems an apPropriate time to attempt to arrive at something much in advance of existing practice. The use of the torsional resistance of tubes or rods is a held that should be very thoroughly explored, • Will the Palladium people tell us what is the characteristic of their new, system that gives them the results they quite properly claim, and

explain why the same resulthave been achieved by one properly-proporioned spring instead of the two they use?

Overseas Exhibitions.'

Can anyone tell me whether the recent Hague Exhibition was of any use—any tangible use, immediate or prospective—to those. British firms which had the courage to exhibit? I ask this question because the display in question was in many ways typical of others tha-b have already been and will be organized, and in which manufacturers will be invited to participate. My oWn view, for what it is worth, is that, unless a .firm of manufacturers is already represented, and well represented, in the country in which the exhibition is to be held, participation, as a rule, is, not justifiable on the score of expense and time. There may be exceptions when the .interest attracted is of an international character, and the display may thereby be the means of inaugurating new business connections. But, so far as attracting the ultimate buyer goes, I think it very Unlikely that an exhibition in a foreign country, unsupported by strong local business organization, will induce a solitary sale in nine cases out of ten. Participation in international trials I regard as a mu& more promising branch of propaganda. In any case, it would be interesting and helpful to many of the readers of The Commercial Motor to have other expressions of opinion on this Subject.

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Locations: York

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