J UST as King Alfred found that Hell bath no fury
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like a woman whose cakes have been burnt, Charles Goodyear, who died 100 years ago this month, made the greatest discovery of his life with a domestic stove. Why, I don't know; but he dropped a piece of rubber, mixed with sulphur, on the stove at his home in Massachusetts. The result was the process which he called vulcanization, after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
Although his life was tragic, and he died $200,000 in debt, he made a great contribution to human progress, and sowed the seeds of the famous tyre company which bears his name.
French Leave
vOR 28 years the shrewd, ebullient, warm-hearted Walter F.
French has been chairman of P.S.V. Operators, Ltd., a company which stemmed from the one-time London Coach Owners' Federation. Now, at a youthful 71, he has retired. At least two still active octogenarians joined in thanking him for his services at a farewell luncheon in London last week, but he showed no sign of shame at throwing up the sponge so soon!
Who better than F. J. Speight, the new chairman, could tell the story of the difficulties faced by P.S.V. Operators over the years, and of Mr. French's tenacity in overcoming them? In the past 28 years the company have, according to Mr. French, paid booking agents £11m., and their turnover now exceeds £750,000 a year. In the early days of the industry defalcations by booking agents were costing London coach owners 0,000 a year, but, thanks largely to P.S.V. Operators, Ltd., bad debts are now almost unknown.
Reunion
APART from the honour of joining in the chorus of approbation of Mr. French, one of my special pleasures in attending the luncheon was to meet again, after more years
than I care to remember, Francis Flynn, ex-militant coach operator, and still a master of deadpan humour. Although he is a sick man, he had the room rocking with mirth, as he so often did at functions 30 years or more ago.
He has been ill for eight months, and it is typical of him that he should have delayed his re-entry into hospital to be present at the luncheon to pay tribute to his friend of 40 years' standing—a friend who has never addressed him by his first name, but sometimes by another characteristically colourful sobriquet.
Extra Stout
rr HE Guinness entry of six drivers in the Lorry Driver of
the Year Competition at Slough last Sunday was led by Mr. Edward (Extra) Stout. His employers think so highly of him that they put out to the Press an advance notice of his participation in the contest, and a portrait photograph. Mr. Stout was formerly a W.0.11 in the Life Guards. I pity any member of the team who muffed a test. ._
Elementary Geography
AS he spends much of his time travelling all over the world, Harold Champion, who writes many of the profiles that appear weekly on these two pages, has a better knowledge than most of geography. It was aberration, rather than ignorance, that caused him to say last week that Leyland's fortunes were founded in a small blacksmith's shop in Derbyshire. He knows it was Lancashire. Incidentally, part of the old building is still standing and has had a face-lift in the past 18 months.
St. Helens' Koran
mR. J. C. WAKE, general manager of St. Helens Transport Department, must be something of magician. Although the recent wage award and reduced working week will cost the department £50,000 a year, they do not intend to apply for increased fares. They are going to absorb this heavy expense, although they still retain a 11d. minimum fare for the first 0.65 mile, return fares for workers at 1+ times ordinary single fare, or less, up to 9 a.m., and cheap fares for students up to the age of 18. Mr. Wake's colleague at Blackburn. Mr. J. Harrison, is another contented municipal manager. He reports an increase of nearly half a million in the number of passengers carried last year. Perhaps the tide of declining bus traffic is turning.
Bass' Man MR. KHRUSIICHEV opened his speech to workers at the Vienna Motor Works earlier this month with the words, "Dear representatives of the management ..." A short-sighted man at the back of the hall mistook him for a trade-union leader.