The Giant Champion Retires
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By The Hawk
NAR, A. S. BISHOP, the man who pioneered giant pneumatic Pa tyres in the United Kingdom, is retiring from the chairmanship of the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Co. (Great Britain), Ltd., at the end of this month. Old business friends forgathered on Tuesday at a cocktail party given in his honour by Mr. M. S. Meyer, the managing director.
I wonder how many of those present realize just how much the road transport industry owes to Mr. Bishop. He went to America for six months in 1919 to study the use of pneumatic tyres on commercial vehicles, and returned, with great enthusiasm, to introduce them into Britain. He had to fight strong prejudice in favour of solid tyres, despite the trouble they gave at anything more than 15 m.p.h. Perhaps Mr. Bishop's biggest triumph was in persuading the authorities and operators that pneumatics were safe to fit to double-deck buses. He•clid so partly by running vehicles with giant tyres at what, in those days, were high speeds over spikes. All the things he has undertaken have, indeed, gone with a bang.
Ruthlessness Paid
LORD ROOTES, who left last Friday on a month's visit to America, took with him news of the introduction of the new Commer 1-ton range, which, he said, he hoped would create new records in sales at home and abroad. At the inaugural ceremony on the preceding day he recalled how he and his brother took over the derelict Commer concern 30 years ago. At the rate of sales obtaining at that time Commer held five years' stock of vehicles. By ruthlessly slashing prices and reinforcing the sales staff, the Rootes brothers sold the entire stock in a few months. A year later they introduced a new model, and since that time had never looked back.
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The new 1-ton range applies the packaging technique to commercial vehicles, .and present indications are that it will be a winner. The test report published by The Commercial Motor last week certainly gave it a good send-off.
Carry on Smoking
SMOKE seems to have got into the eyes of the National Society of Non-Smokers. They claim that, in upholding the appeals of the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., and Sunderland District Omnibus Co., Ltd., the Minister of Trans port has taken "the unprecedented action of undermining the whole authority of Traffic Commissioners."
The Minister has, in fact, fortified the Commissioners' power to ban -smoking. His decision refers only to the cases brought to appeal, in which the evidence was insufficient to sustain the Northern Traffic Commissioners' proposal to prohibit smoking on the lower decks of double-deckers,
'The militant non-smokers should make sure of their facts before giving tongue.
Little Darling .
WHILE a school bus was being driven on an eight-mile VI' journey over narrow roads in Herefordshire, a 14-year-old boy pulled out the choke control and stalled the engine, switched on the headlights in the face of an oncoming vehicle, and threw the driver's can round the bus. Can this kind of incident be one of the reasons why some operators seem reluctant to run school bus services?
Now You Know
ASTRAIGHT question deserves a straight answer, and Press representatives got it from Mr. Frank Woodhead, the bluff Yorkshire chairman and managing director of Toledo Woodhead Springs. Ltd., when, last week, he introduced the company's new Featherlight spring. "We have shown you what we have done," he said. "You will now want to know how we did it. The answer is: Mind your own business .."
Spy
TO celebrate their 50th anniversary, Pirelli. Ltd., have given Burton-on-Trent Corporation a micro-film reading appara:us for use in the borough library, and £1.500 to keep the .ibrary's technical literature up to date. But there is nothing microscopic about Pirelli's achievements at their Burton-onTrent factory or in their activities elsewhere in the world.