Adjustment of Fuel Control
Page 1
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
for Private Hire Motorcars.
We are glad that the period of unintelligent interference with private-hire motorcars, to which matter we have referred on several occasions during the past few weeks, has been determined in happy and satisfactory fashion. The greatest possible credit is due to the Motor Hire Section of the Motor Trade Asiooiation (157, Great Portland Street, London, W. 1), the Committee of which Section has shown the utmost pertinacity and thoroughness, with the result that it has secured a settlement that is characterized by justice. The personal efforts of Mr, W. Parker Thomas, Chairman of the Section and general mamager of the Hire Department of the Daimler Co., Ltd„ are worthy of the highest mentien. Three times in one meek was the Petrol Control Committee " assaulted." It Soon because convinced that it was in touch with men who understood their subject, and its consent to proposals for sensible procedure is seen in the terms which were ultimately arranged, and the text of which we give at length on page 334. We consider that the Motor Hire Section of the Motor Trade Association has done well in establishing a valuable precedent, and one which should be as helpful to the Petrol Control Committee as the commercial owners of vehicles. The result, in effect, is that the Petrol Control Committee is saved a vast amount of labour, by having it doneon its behalf by well-informed and competent " peers" of the section of the industry concerned, whilst that section of the industry is the gainer by being in the hands of its own leaders. One of the first benefits is that country hirers, who serve resident business men, may, once in possession of a permit, take them to the station in the morning, as well as home in the evening. 4t was hereanent that official ineptitude,wris very evident. There will probably he a feeling'of a sense of necessity to do something to supplement the allowance of 30 gallons per single hire 'ear, of 25 gallons per ear if two such cars are owned,, and of 20 gallons per car if three oe more ears are owned, these figeres representing the monthly rations of petvol.
May we suggest to our hire-trade friends the expediency of their at once moving in the direction of adapting themselves to the use of coal-gas. We cannot :too often point out the simplicity and practical value of the use of eoal,gas to help harassed owners to eke out their petrel supplies. A flexible gasholder with a capacity of '250 cubic ft. will run the, average private-hire car anything between 15 and 25 miles: even if there is no -space on the top of the canopy, or elsewhere, fix: a flexible holder of no greater capacity than 125 cubic ft., such a small holder can be refilled frequently during the day, and can ouiekly be made to represent many gallonsof petrol. No alteration is required to the engine. A driver can " Switch " from one fuel to the other, at will, without stopping the car. Furthermore, as we have repeated insistently, there is an enormous saving on the fuel bill—not leas than 56 per cent.
Wages for Steam-wagon Drivers.
We published last week the terms of the award by Sir George Askwith, in respect of wages and ether remuneration for steam-wagon drivers and their
mates in the Metropolitan area. It is important to note that the minimum rates concern .a working week of 72 hours, as well as ,being held tc cover exiting war bemuses. We have reasons for belif3ving that not a few drivers and their mates, who have been working a less number of hours than 72 per week, and whose rate of wages, whilst below the agreed respective rates of 50s. and 35s.; have been supplemented by various war bonuses, are not overlooking the provision in the award that Such bonuses' are included in the new rates. If a working week is leSs than 72 hours, there must be proportional reductions in the rates of payment, on the basis of, say, Sid. an hoer for the drivers and 6d. an hour for their mates. The new rates are for the Metropolitan area, They do nob extend to the Provinces,' for which, no doubt, some lower scales will in due time receive official recognition. It is clear that, before a mate • an now fairly be promoted a steam-wagon driver, be will have to make himself much more than a mere steersman with a Iieenee, in order to he worth the. wages of the true and experienced driver. A good man alone can earn the higher scale:
Coal-tas Fuel and the Conveyance of Munitions and Other War Material..
'We understand that orders for 'flexible gas-holders are now being given with increasing frequency for the equipment of commeticial .motors in service for the conveyance of munitions.and war material generally, as well as for food distribution, in addition to the older use for motor chars-k-banes. Messrs. Barton Bros., of Beeeton, axe simply flooded with business. Inter-works conveyance at -Sheffield is about to be done-on' a large scale by 'motor vehicles which are propelled by ordinary petrol engines fed with ordinary town gas. It appears, from information in -our possession from certain areas, that some of the gas-holders become slightly Porous after, say, six months of use, Experience will no doubt teach methods of varnishing, sizing, or otherwise treating the material, apart from the original proofing between the two layers' of cotton fabric. Several of our friends in the gas industry toll us that sheep, pig or other skins mate the best gas-retaining, material, the stitching being effected
without passing the needle through the pelt, i.e., in a direction parallel to the kins themselves, and entering them lenly for part at their thickness. We, ourselves, know very little about the, skin and hide trades, but we. presume that specially-thin skins are available. There is certainly room for experiment in the matter of perfecting flexible gas-holders, in order to Inset the new demand for them, as containers for coal-gas at atinoSpheric pressure, in Connection with vehicle-propulsion on common roads,