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Honoured in His Time
MR. I. H. MALE received the loudest applause of the evening at the Road Haulage Association's West Midland Area dinner last week, when he was presented with a certificate of honorary membership.
"This," he said, with obvious emotion, "is the culmination of my faith in the Association. Younger men should be encouraged by such recognition to give more time to the Association's work. It shows that Mrs. Male was wrong when she warned ate during the war that no one would appreciate what I was doing!" Mr. Male is the fourth R.H.A. member to receive this recognition. He acquired his first vehicle in 1919, and over the years has established a successful business, despite the unhappy effects of gas poisoning in the 1914-18 war. Mr. R. N. Ingram, national chairman, described Mr. Male as having acquired the typical Black Country qualities of honour and shrewdness, although born Welsh.
"I am neither a Welshman nor an Englishman," Mr.
Male replied, "I was born in Monmouthshire." He probably thinks it was a narrow miss either way.
Still Unhappy
EVEN the abolition of purchase tax on goods-vehicle chassis has failed to please everyone. A reader of The Commercial Motor, Mr. E. J. Andrews, of Birmingham, shows the other side of a cheerful picture.
"By a stroke of the pen the Chancellor has," he says, "at a crucial moment reduced by millions of pounds the value of hauliers' existing fleets. • This may well affect the amount of compensation on renationalization if the Tories lose the forthcoming election. "If this .happens, the Road Haulage Association, by A26 pressing for the abolition of the tax at this time, may have done a great disservice to the long-distance haulier members. The Government will, of course, only have given the road industry the traditional treatment meted out to it by governments of every colour for as long as we can remember. 'Clout the road haulage industry, they can take it; if they don't like it, they can lump it'. "
If a reduction of f1,000 in the price of an eight-wheeler is a clout, many operators would no doubt welcome a sound thrashing.
No Attar of Roses!
DDITIVE with a difference willbe the subject of an experiment to be conducted in Cleveland (U.S.A.) when 190 buses will have a perfume mixed with their oil fuel. Cleveland's City Fathers have been worried by complaints against the fumes from oil-engined buses, and this typical American answer to the problem will be conducted for a period of six months in an effort to make the streets of the city more agreeable.
If the test is successful the practice will become a permanent feature and will no doubt come into competition with a variation on the theme—a method of injecting a chemical into the exhaust system, now being used in Philadelphia.
Seeing Animals in Transit
fr is pointed out. by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that para. 5 of the Transit of Animals (Amendment) Order, 1931, is not always complied with. This calls for certain adequate inspection apertures in vehicle bodies, so that the condition.of the animals May be seen.
Montagu Motor Museum Enlarged
FOUNDED in 1952 by the present Lord Montagu in memory of his father, the Montagu Motor Museum at Beaulieu, Hants, started with half a dozen veteran cars, but has now grown to nearly 500 exhibits, of which some 200 are vehicles of many types, including quite a number of commercial models. These are now housed in a new building costing £25,000, which was opened on April 5 by Lord Brabazon in the presence of nearly a thousand guests. It will remain open every day of the year.
The increasing popularity of this show centre is proved by the fact that last year there were nearly 115,000 visitors. Now it has been enhanced by notable contributions from the British motor industry, and the whole of the Rootes museum was recently transferred there from Ryton. Special displays have also been prepared by important concerns, such as Shell-Mex and B.P., Dunlop, FerOdo and Wakefield (Castrol).
The exhibits are kept in the pink of condition, and a fully equipped workshop has been established to undertake major restorations where these are necessary, for it is notable that one of the aims is to make every possible motor vehicle a runner, and many are lent out for various parades and other functions. The oldest motor vehicle there was built in 1895.
This exhibition may be said with truth to be one in which there is something for everybody—not excluding refreshments and food.
A Coat for Many Uses.
STANDARD paint-spraying equipment can be employed 1.--) for protecting and moisture-sealing all kinds of metal, also plated surfaces, green or wet plaster moulds, castings and finished or semi-finished parts of metal, wood and plastics, using a new American vinyl high-strength, transparent and flexible coating which can easilybe stripped when necessary.
Important Discovery on Skidding
A FUNDAMENTAL discovery in the direction of skid " prevention, particularly under wet conditions, is claimed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and was referred to recently by Dr. W. H. Glanville, C.B., C.B.E., F.R.S., Director of Road Research, D.S.I.R., in a recent lecture before the Institution of Civil Engineers.
The discovery is that when a well-lubricated rubber surface slides over a hard spherical or conical body, a major part of the frictional resistance can come from hysteresis losses in the rubber itself. It is well known that • in such circumstances the rubber is deformed, and work is done on it. If it were ideally elastic the energy absorbed would be completely restored, but in practice all rubbers, when deformed, lose energy by internal friction or hysteresis—some more than others.
A close examination of the polishing of stones under traffic showed the importance of the fine-scale texture of the road surface and of the high pressures induced when sharp projections are pressed into normal tread rubber. Experiments had been made in which coefficients of friction could be measured when sliders of different forms were passed over a strip of wet tyre rubber. The results confirmed the importance of fine-scale peaks and ridges in the road -surface.
There was, however, an unexpected consequence of this work, for Dr. Tabor, of Cambridge, saw the possibility that hysteresis losses might make a significant contribution to frictional resistance, and further experiments showed that these losses might provide a means for increasing skidding resistance, even on polished coarse-textured surfaces, where pressures were insufficient to expel the water film.
For various reasons, tyres had hitherto been made of tread rubber with comparatively low, hysteresis losses, but it now seethed clear that if rubber with higher losses could be employed, a way had been found for important gains in skidding resistance.