OPINIONS and QUERIES
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WHY NOT USE COMPRESSED, GAS AG FUEL?
INOTE in an article by " Azote " in your issue dated April 2, that the Ministry of War Transport is again permitting the use of coal-gas for road vehicles.
Why more use has not been made of this fuel, particularly in the compressed state, to leave the petrol for more essential purposes, has always, been a mystery to me. Practically every town of any silt in the country has its own gas works, and I should have thought that it would have been' a much more economical proposition to have equipped a certain proportion of them with compressing
plant than to waste nian power and materials in manu facturing 10,000 producer-gas units which will work efficiently only on certain selected fuels.
For some reason or other, possibly safety, the use of _ compressed gas on road vehicles has always been dis. couraged in this country; but with modern 'science, surely it is possible to design a cylinder which is 100 per cent. safer than the obsolete inflammable gas bag? Compressed gases are used in almost every form of engineering and are employed for transport purposes on the Continent. Why the delay here?
_ In conclusion, I thank you for a journal which does
softy to give some data in war-time. R. G. FORBY. Nottingham.
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY • WASTED TYRES ?
Vnotice that the Government is concerned about ile care and maintenance of. the Nation's motor tyres, and that tyres are not removed early enough for retreading. The commercial user of experience is fully aware of the advantages and disadvantages of remoulds and the use that can be made of them,., and in the past he did employ them in a manner which he found, from experience, to be most suitable.
Frankly, retreading does nothing to prolong the life of a tyre except with regard to tread wear, and vehicles on hard work and carrying heavy loads want something more from a tyre than a good-looking tread. There are among your readers commercial users who have had very considerable first-hand experience of tyre economy and maintenance; they know that real economy consists of putting the right tyre to the job for which it is most suited.
I rfcl certain that the Tyre Control Order 'No. 4 was not drawn up after due consultation with commercial users, and to persist in the present methodof distribution may prove disastrous.
As there is some doubt about the time to remove a tyre for remciuldingi I would like to draw attention to the following extract from the Research Association of
British Rubber Manufacturers (Intelligence Division) Journal of Rubber Research: It is adopted from one of the excellent articles by " L.V.B." in the C.AL"
"About 80 per cent. Of the part-worn tyres received at authorized -tyre depots are unfit. for remoulding, due almost entirely to misuse, and it is pointed out that this represents an enormous wastage of tyre mileage, as a tyre, properly used, will survive two or three treads. After the first tread has worn smooth the tyre should be regrooved, as a considerable thickness of rubber remains. At the first sign of the breaker strip showing the tyre should be removed for remoulding."
London, W.6. J. T. BARKWITH,
Negotiation Committee, National Association of Tyre Specialists. ROAD AND RAIL LOADING AT A DOCKS THE attention of all concerned should be drawn to the difference in the treatment of those engaged in road transport and those working for the railways.
Recently I was sent to a docks for a load of butter. Some of the cargo had been damaged, and this made
w6rking with it ,extremely difficult. I am. not complaining about this,, as it was a part of our job, but the railway people were asked to deal with all that part of the load which was in a good condition, and the dockers were at work to help them stack the boxes in the trucks. In the case of the road-transport vehicles, the drivers had to stack their own (although dockers brought them to the vehicles), and to deal with some 500 slippery boxes is no joke.
The dockers complained because the road-vehicle driveis had no .mates,,and in the case of the railway trucks one or two men were put inside them.
A few of the drivers complained that they were not getting " dirty," or salvage money, as is paid to the dockers. One driver actually rang up his employer when his vehicle was half-loaded, and this man came down in a car (thus using extra petrol),and told him • tO sling off the damaged part of the load. I do dot think fhiswas at all a patriotic gesture. Most of the' drivers were from London and did their work with a good will, although all of us were covered in greasat from head to foot. It is a pity that there were n3t few newspaper men about to take photographs and I. few notes of the conditions which at least some drivers have to work under. E.E.C. Lichfield.
IS THERE A MOVE TO ANNIHILATE THE HAULIER?
THE letter of your correspondent " Patriot," published on March 19, is, for the most part, that which recently appeared in the local daily Press He bemoans the plight of the road-haulage indugtry and deprecates the present conditions to be observed 1337 the industry. He asks why the same consideration has no: ' been given to road hauliers as was given In the railway companies when the amount to be paid by theiGovernment was decided upon.
• It would aPpear that the apathy and indifferenc; of the rank and file amongst the hauliers may be, to a great extent, responsible for the prevailing conditions. They • allowed. the big " interests to approve collaboration with the railways, and when their own interests are at stake they are unable to talk with a single voice. That the conservation of fuel, rubber and man power is essential at the present moment in the national interest surely no one will deny.
, But why attack C-licence holders and try to exterminate them in the interests of the hauliers?
Your correspondent, like so many others who have spoken during recent times, is willing to hand over to the railways all big or long-distance traffic; the price h asks is the elimination of the licences by which traders are enabled to operate their own transport. This is on a par with the words spoken about two year ago (at an A.R.O. luncheon held in -London) by Sir-Ronald Matthews, chairman of the L.N.E.R. and of the Rail ' way Companies' Association, when he stated that he hoped "it would soon be considered an extravagance to hold. a C-licence."
Now " Patriot " writes about democracy. Surely his
i• deas are far from democratic. We are all fighting the