The Question Fatuous: and Foolish.
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APPARENTLY, some members. of Parliament find it necessary to imitate the practice of certain judges who are addicted to pleading ignorance of facts that are universally known, at any rate outside the law courts and the House of Commons. One can hardly imagine a more fatuous question than that reported to have been addressed by Sir R. Chadwick to the Minister of Transport, inquiring whether his attention had been called to the fact that the rapid growth of motor traffic of all kinds was exercising a very prejudicial effect OiAr the roads of the country, which were not constructed to deal with it.
Presumably, the que,Itioner, in his capacity as a member of Parliament, is 'aware of the fact that a Finance Bill has been introduced, and that that Bill provides for the very heavy taxation of all dasses of motor vehicles, the revenue BO obtained being regarded aa a contribution towards the maintenance and improvement of roads. It is, however, rather with the -spirit of thequestion than with the ignorance that it di,splays that we are concerned..
Naturally, all road traffic has a prejudicial effect on reads, since some wear and tear must result from its use. It would be just as reasonable to complain that the railway traffic ha z a prejudicial effect upon the permanent way. The implication is that if the permanent way has not been properly constructed to carry the rolling stock, the rolling stock, must be .pult out of commission and stuff of a lighter and obsolete type substituted for it.
If there was any point in the question at all, it lay in the implication that motors were damaging a national asset, to the free use of which they had established no righf. The attitude taken up' by the queaioner is too ridiculous and narrow-minded to justify further comment.
!Getting Out of the Rut.
IN AMERICA, heavy vehicle designers are breaking new ground. Not only have they accepted • the pneumatic tyre as a commercial proposition,' hut, in many cases, -they are designing commercial motor vehicles specially to run upon them. Moreover, .engineers are paying attention to the various ways in which commercial vehicle design must be developed to meet the new conditions which pneumatic tyring brings about.
Chassis design is being reviewed again from starting handle to tail lamp ta-acket; gearboxes, rear axles—every component may require some alteration. The possibility of the six-wheeled vehicle has not been overlooked.
Some people might have thought that heavy vehicle design had settled down—that it had reached a stage from which few changes would be made. But progress does not lie that way, though transient prosperity may do so.
The enterprising designer will welcome the new fields of investigation which are being opened up. To run in a rut is an uninteresting progression. The coming of the pneumatic tyre should stimulate design, and the designer will tackle his problems with an added zest.
Vision and Venture.
SUCCESS, in every field, depends largely on foresight and the ability to appreciate the future possibilities of tendencies and movements to which little importance apparently attaches in the present. . .
Manufacturers and designers must always look ahead. To be too absorbed in petty problems of the moment is to obscure the vision. All progress is but the result of ceaseless endeavours to probe the future, and the present is but a starting point for the imagination. So it is in the case of transportation, the methods by which it is conducted and the vehicles which serve its need& Because a lorry or a tractor sells well to-day, because, it fills the bill just at the moment, is no guarantee of permanent success. Its evolution must keep pace with the civilization which it serves.
In this old country we make our ventures sadly. We do not advance joyfully into new fields of progress like they do "across the water." Commercially—as manufacturers—we are not adventurous. Therefore, often we get left, and have to run for a time a bad second to a competitor. ;Until by great persistence, we gain the vanguard of a movement which is no longer new. It is to be hoped that, in this matter of commercial vehicle design, such will not be the ease:
The Real Position About Alcohol.
ELSEWHERE in this issue, we give a somewhat detailed account of the work that is being . done in many directions with a view to bringing nearer the time at which power alcohol will be available as a motor fuel in large quantities and at a reasonable price, and, on the other hand, the engines will be available in which it can be used at full advantage. The Empire Motor Fuels Committee has undoubtedly begun well, and is looking at its subject from a thoroughly practical standpoint. Our readers should particularly note that supplies of power alcohol are likely to be made available, in the very near future, to a seleeted list of motor vehicle users, and also to manufacturers desirous of experimenting with engines and carburetters. The London General
Omnibus Co has given very valuable assistance, no
doubt realizing the degree to which it may presently become dependent upon the possibility of obtaining power alcohol at a low price. The attitude of the distillers is also highly satisfactory. it is clear that they are taking a serious interest, and this is proved by their willingness to incur financial loss, in order to give motor users ample -opportunity of finding out for themselves what results can be obtained -with alcohol mixtures.
There is one point in connection with which a word of warning is necessary. Certain organs of the daily.
Press, not unnaturally, have given special promin ence to that part of the report of the L.G.O. tests which deals with comparative fuel costa Unfortu nately, their efforts at abbi-eviation have been some what misguided. The result is a confusing saatemen4 to the effect that a 50 per cent. aloehol-benzoIc mix ture." is .12 per cent, more economical than petrol, but that the difference in cost is only 8 per cent., and petrol is the cheaper fuel on the assumption of equal cost: per gallon. In point of fact, no comparisons of 'east eau yet be made at all. What is meant is that the mixture is more efficient, inasmuch as it involves a, lower expenditure of the thermal:units contained in the fuel per mile run. Ort• the other hand, there are fewer thermal units in a gallon of the mixture than in a gallon of petrol.
The main point is, however, that there is. no justification for assuming equal cost per gallon and basing
comparisons on that assumption. At the moment power alcohol costs about Os: a gallon at the dise tillery. The point is that, when it is produced in large-quantities from crops grown in countries where there is an abundance of sun, and cheap land and cheap labour are 'available, the cost
willa•ap down rapidly. We do not yet know what will be the minimum point reached. Neither do we know what, when that point is reached, will be the price of petrol: The heat value; of a gallon nf alcohol is much less than that of a gallon of:petrol, but it is passible to uses alcohol with greater efficiency. The incrJasing efficiency, howeverois not likely to be so great as to balance thelower heat value, at any rate when the alcohol is used 'as part of a mixture in an engine merely modified, so as to be more or less suitable, and not specifically built for the purpose. Assuming no more than a modified engine and the use of a 50 per cent aleohol-benzole mixture, then, if benzoic: can be obtained at the same price as petrol and power alcohol at a, price per gallon about 20 per cent. lower, the use of the mixture will be justified on a purely price basis.
For the moment, comparisons of price are merely misleading because, when it came to purchasing supplies, the user would find that he had to pay a fancy price for .his power alcohol unless, as is now proposed, he was able to gets. certain amount delivered to him at an arbitrary price admittedly representing a substantial loss to suppliers. There is good reason to believe that, whatever may be the price to-day, development will not have to go very far to make alcohol in every sense a. cheaper fuel than petrol.
Power Pumps for Tyre Inflation.
ITH MORE AND MORE attention being paid to the question of fitting giant pneu
matics to lorries and other commercial vehicles, the matter of providing adequate air pumps for obtaining the necessary inflation 'pressures, is becoming one of considerable moment. One or two manufacturers have taken the bull by the horns and have installed mechanically-driven air pumps as permanent fittings. For instance, the Daimler Co.., when required, will fit a permanent air pump driven off the gearbox layshaft. With vehicles already :in service, it will be essential to provide a pump which cars be fitted as an auxiliary. At present, there are very few of these pumps on the market, and these few are practically all of American origin and manufacture. Of necessity, they have to be made so that they can be adapted to -various forms of drive, and the main difficulty, is to find a. suitable part from which they can be driven.
The design of a suitable power-driven, air pump is not quite so easy as may appear on the surface. An air pump heats very rapidly, if provision is not made for cooling, . and this necessitates the use of fins or similar devices on the cylinder castings, as with an air-cooled engine. It is also essential to cool the air lcng before it reaches the tyre, otherwise the heat, of the air may destroy the rubber connections, the rubber tyre valve plungers, and possibly exercise a deleterious actian on the inner tubes. To obviate this difficulty, the usual practice is to emplek a long copper pipe, bent into the form of a coil. Ibis coil radiates the heat before the air is allowed to reach the rubber connection. Another difficulty which presents itself is also. partly due to the heat generated by the adiabatic compression of the air. The lubricant, usually caster 'oil, 'becomes thin, and is apt to he forced mto the
-tyre together with the air. As oil rapidly rots rubber, this is a, very bad fault, and must, be eliminated by the suitable employment of oil traps and air filters. The possibilities which lie in the employment of the compressing plant for other purposes (en:gine starting was dealt with in a recent issue) are considerable, and these will form the topic of further articles.