From More Than 40 Years Ago
Page 30
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
First Editor of " The Commercial Motor" and Chairman of the War Savings Committee of the Road Transport Industry Since its Formation in March, 1941
By E. S. Shrapnell-Smith,
C.B.E.
W' HEN, on November 5, 1903, the late Sir John I. Thernycroft, F.R.S., took the chair at 119, Piccadilly, on the occasion of the reading of my paper recording the then past and present of commercial motoring, the proceedings were intended by Mr. Rees Jeffreys and others to bring about—as they did—the formation of the Motor Van, Wagon and Omnibus Owners Association, of which I was the first hon. treasurer. The long-winded and cumbersome, if allembracing, title was later to be changed to the Commercial Motor Users Association; this, in turn, has served . its term, as will be recently in mind.
The occasion under reference, now more than 40 years ago, had another sequel for me. It contributed, within a comparatively, few months, to my being introduced by the late S. F. Edge to the late Edmund Dangerfield. This meeting took place not long after a paper had been read by me at Glasgow, in July, 1904. It led to a journalistic association between us, destined to last for many years, although it was not until the end of 1904, following a close examination of the project, that I accepted Mr. Dangerfield's invitation to become Editor of the new journal which he was about to establish—" The Commercial Motor." It hardly seems creditable to me to-day that it was so long ago! .
I well recall the short period of preparation--actually concentrated into only a few weeks of January and February, '1905. A facsimile reproduction of No. 1 is before me , as I write. It brings back many memories of pioneer days and friends, of "making bricks without straw," Of some daring forecasts, of close fits to go to press in time, and of struggles to produce or provide suitable " copy " to fill the pages of early numbers! One must not trench upon matter already in hand for inclusion in the first Henry Spurrier Memorial Lecture, the invitation to deliver which, in London, before the Institute of Transport, on December 10 next, I have recently accepted. There is, of course, so wide a choice of incidents and topics for that date, going back tO 1895, that a few recollections in. connection with "The Commercial Motor" per se can more appropriately be mentioned here and now. I am happy to make a short contribution to this anniversary number.
• Few Business Motors in 1905
Vans, wagains and motorbuses in March, 1905, were together limbered by little more than hundreds throughout the United Kingdom. Steam wagons predominated. The internal-combustion engine on the heavy traffic side was literally. unlaced. There were fewer than 50 in use to carry as much as two tons, and less than a dozen between four and five tons of goods. The story had almost to be prefabricated to get things going on the petrol side. All sections of the transport world were held back by the sight of the frequent breakdowns of private cars using petrol, and, not at all favourably impressed by the smoke, sparks, visible vapour and noise from most of the steam vehicles, all on steel tyres.
A partial impetus, such as it was at that stage of development, had been largely based on the Act of 1903, following the passage of which_ the permitted maximum
unladen Weight of three tons under the Act of 1896 had been increased to five tons (both exclusive of any water, fuel, or accumulators used for the purpose of propul
sion). Solid-rubber tyres were being slowly but surely improved to carry mealium loads. Pneumatics for other than cars were unknown!
There was a temporary " slump " in a comparative sense between 1906 and 1910. It taxed the ingenuity and persistence of everybody connected with the corn: mercial motor industry to survive. The R.A.C. trials of 1907 helped materially to sustain general interest. It was in them that loads up to five tons on petrol vehicles were more or less successfully carried and publicized.
Steam went ahead, up to some 11,000 heavy vehicles in all as the peak. Petrol-vehicle progress forged along and overtook steam in general acceptance by 1913. The C.I. engine was not yet more than on the distant horizon.
The London motorbus emerged from near failure to acknowledged success between 1910 and 1912, as may be checked (by thosewho will) on reference to the unfolding progress duly and faithfully set down week by week in this journal. Scotland Yard, through its Public Carriage Branch, looms large in those records. The name Of Supt. Bassom is not yet forgotten. Iden, Shave, Searle, Green, Pollard and Frost-Smith—especially Green—were among the skilled engineers who won through to victory for the old London General, Road Car and Tilling Companies, with Sir Albert Stanley (now Lord Ashfield) and Frank Pick (now gone) guiding and helping to the ultimate triumph.
Carrying On in 1914-18 The outbreak of war in August, 1914, caused us a big staff and works shake-p. I found, on reaching the office the following Monday, that large slices of personnel had already gone. G. Mackenzie Junner, then a technical Sub-editor, now the Editor, had joined up, almost simultaneously (as I learnt later) with Charles Portal, now Marshal of the Air Force, both as motorcycle despatch riders. One felt—and duly experienced—the real meaning of carrying-on. That stress was lightened by our organizing (in the end to make regular despatches to more than 100,000 officers and men) "The Commercial Motor" Campaign Comforts Fund for the R.A.S.C. Overseas Mechanical Transport. Arthur W. Windsor, then Assistant Editor, did the chief work in this -connection.
The war of 1914-1918 sent petrol enormously ahead, and demobilization did the same for the owner-drivers of individual lorries. Those stages were fraught with much disturbance of rail-transport tranquillity; their sequels are still running a long .course of developing settlement; they remain full of interest, industrially and nationally, with many past-war implications.
That commercial motoring will grow in strength and usefulness, vitally in the public interest, with more certainty and co-operation than it did after the previous great war, I am completely, satisfied. Those extensions of service, alike by public passenger vehicles and others which carry inanimate loads, cannot fail to justify and reward advocates and exponents of such use, in common with producers of chassis, engines, unit parts, bodywork and innumerable accessories which go to sustain as a whole the great and well-functioning commercial motor industry. My faith in such progress will never flag. I wish "The Commercial Motor "—and all concerned— well.