Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
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Ten Shillings Weekly for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words for anything else published.
Drivers of commercial motor vehicles and tractors, and mechanics and foremen of garaces or shops, are invited to send short contributions on any subject wh cl: is likely to prove ol interest to our readers. Long and successful runs ; services with no " lost journeys" ; workshop tips and smart -repairs: all are -suitable subjects. Send a post card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—no matter how short, or how written, or law worded.
I.Ve will "knock it into shape" before publication. ll'hen writing you must men/um your employer's name as a guarantee of bona fides (not for pub! cation), and you should state whether you wish your own name, or initials only, to be published. Payment will be made immediately after publ.cation. Address your litters to l lie Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL Ai °roil," 15, Rosthery A venue, London,
Postal Communications. ,ca8.8
Selected from a number of communications which are intended for these columns, and which we are unable to acknowledge individually, we have letters from the following correspondents under consideration with a view to publication :—" CALE." (Sundridge Park), " R.J." (Westbury), " W.B." (Belbroug-liton), " J.P." (Bath), " 11.13." (Fishponds, Bristol), " F.1.. FitzG." (Teddington), " (Neath), "E.G." (Paddington) and" Mac T." (Wolverton).
To Use up Old Tires.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the zos. prize this week.
[478] We publish below a description which has been sent to us by " L.C." (Whitworth, near Rochdale), in which the writer describes a method he has adopted in order to use up half-worn tires which have become too big for the rims or have split :—" I trust you will consider the drawing I am sending you to be of sufficient interest to warrant publication in your journal; it is intended to illustrate a method I have adopted for the using up of old tires when they are only half worn out or when something has happened to them which renders it impossible again to use the whole tire_ 1 am not much of a draughtsman, but I hope you will be able to understand my sketch sufficiently to enable you to' knock it into shape.' [We have redrawn our correspondent's sketch, which, we must admit, certainly did require some understanding. As we mention in the heading to these columns, however, poor writing or clumsy sketching is no drawback, and we are always pleased to examine and, if advisable, subsequently to " knock into shape," all contributions that are submitted to us.—Eol
" My plan has been first of all to cut the old tire into four nearly equal pieces. Each section, as a next operation, has to have two or three slots made crossways through the rubber in order that small plates, which should be of 1-inch stuff and about a-inch wide, may be pushed through the body of the tire. It perhaps is not generally known that the only way satisfactorily to bore a hole through indiarubber is to use a twist drill, and, while the drilling is proceeding to lubricate freely the cutting edges with water.
To make the slots I have mentioned, it is, therefore, wi to drill a small hole first and, subsequently, to enlarge ti slot with a red-hot piece of 1-inch round iron; the plate: already prepared, should be forced through the slots %yid] the rubber is still hot ; it is easier to insert the plate whi: the rubber is soft and plastic, moreover, when the latter hs cooled down, the plates will be gripped tight. These plate: when they are in position, should have the two a-inch hole: one of which has previously been drilled at each end, locate over the metal rim and the feline. After these plates haN been carefully trued up, holes must be bored through ti metal rim and the wooden felloe so that bolts may be &Lc in the manner shown in the sketch. The rubber should I cut away sufficiently at the sides of the tires to enable ti nuts or bolt heads of the holding-down bolts to be handle easily. "Considerable space should be left between the sectiot to allow for the possibility of creeping, and it will, in ino: cases, be found to be advantageous to fit short metal di lance pieces inside the metal rim in order to locate ti sections of the tires properly.
"I have fitted wheels up in this way, and they ha, subsequently run in public-service motorbus work for Ion periods. Tires fitted like this are not so satisfactory, course, as are new ones, but the method I have endeavour( to explain has, in cases that are known to me, effected co siderable savings by the using up of tires which wou otherwise have been quite discarded."
The Behaviour of Tramcar Drivers.
[4791 G.A.P. enquires :—" Being a regular reader of Ti COMMERCIAL MOTOR,' I write on behalf of motorbus drive: who have to travel on roads almost owned by our rate-aide friends the Council's trams, namely, Commercial Road, E and Barking Road, E. We, of course, pick the best part the road with a goad surface, to study the passengers ar our own machines, and very often, as we pull into the nea side to take up or set down passengers, a tram comes t alongside and its driver begins complaining about our beir on the tram lines.
" Now, what we want to know is, have we got to ke( looking behind to see if a tram is following, so that we rru at once get near the kerb to save the tram from easing tit Very often we cannot hear the gong going. Could ti L.C.C. procure a conviction against us for not getting c the line when we are travelling between to and 12 miles p hour?"
Our answer to-the foregoing, which was communicat( direct, is given below :— " It has been held by a large number of magistrates th it is the duty of any driver to look round for overtakir traffic, and it is no excuse to say that you cannot hear. I fact, if that were even proved to be the case, they wou probably hold that the motorbus was a nuisance for th single reason—that it made too much noise for the driv to hear the other traffic. On the other hand, a tramc driver has no exclusive right whatever to the centre of ti road, but only the same right to pass along the highwu that is possessed by the driver of every other \Thiele. Up ertain lengths of the main streets of London, the Board of 7rade is allowing maximum speeds as much as 16 miles an our for tramcars, but we do not know the legal speeds in he Romford Road, where the case arose about which you ent a cutting. If you will tell us the exact parts of the :ommercial Road and the Barking Road in which you are iterested more particularly, we shall be .glad to have the 2aximum tramcar speeds looked out.
" Whilst you will appreciate from the foregoing that you have no legal right to obstruct a tramcar, every driver of a tramcar must give you reasonable warning and reasonable time to draw to the near-side. If you are travelling pretty well up to your legal speed of 12 miles an hour, the tramcar has probably no right whatever to pass in a number of cases, but no firm rule can be laid down, as everything hinges so much upon the particular circumstances."