Motors to Save the Rates.
Page 36
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Municipal and Allied Users now Obtain General Satisfaction and Realize Considerable Economies for Ambulance, Cleansing, Sweeping, Watering, Fire Brigade, Gas Undertaking, Haulage, Harbour, Hospital Board, Public Passenger Conveyance, Patching and Rolling, and Sanitary Purposes.
The Case for a Visit to Olympia.
By the Editor.
It was the writer's privilege, in the year 1898, at the annual congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute, which was held that year at Birmingham, and before the Engineering Section of that congress, to submit the first paper which he wrote dealing with the claims of motor vehicles upon county, municipal, urban and rural authorities generally. On that occasion, on the motion of the late Mr. John Price, who was at the time city engineer of Birmingham, seconded by Mr. H. Percy Boulnois, who was at the time city engineer of Liverpool, a resolution favourable to the employment of such vehicles was unanimously adopted. This resolution read as under
That this Conference of Municipal Engineers assembled in connection with the Congress of the Sanitary Institute this 28th day of September? 1898, is of opinion that the introduction and use of efficient motor vehicles should be encouraged by municipal, urban, and other authorities, in view of the fact that the extended use of such vehicles would contribute to the general improvement of the sanitary condition of streets and towns, and this meeting recommends the Council of the Sanitary Institute to make known the opinion as widely as possible."
On numerous subsequent occasions, of which a few are mentioned below, it has been the writer's privilege to urge the claims of mechanical transport for all the varied operations which are indicated in the heading of the present article. For example, two papers before the Association of Cleansing Superintendents of Great Britain may be mentioned, the first at Glasgow, in September, 1899, and the second at Salford, in August, 1900. At Glasgow, on the motion of Mr. D. McColl, seconded by Councillor Greenhalgh, the following resolution was unanimously adopted :— " That this annual Conference of the Cleansing Superintendents of Great Britain assembled in Glasgow this seventh day of September, 1899, is of opinion that recent developments in the construction of motor vehicles justify the gradual introduction of self-propelled vehicles in several branches of cleansing operations, and this meeting recommends municipal, urban, and other authorities to take the question into their serious consideration."
At Salford, on the motion of Mr. W. H. Hamblett, seconded by Mr. J. A. Jackson (Sheffield), the following resolution was unanimously adopted :--
" That this annual Conference of the Cleansing Superintendents of Great Britain, assembled in Salford this 30th day of August, 1900, is of opinion that recent experiences in the use of modern and efficient motor vehicles justify their adoption for street watering and dust removal, and this meeting urges municipal, urban, and other authorities to move in the matter immediately."
Thus, it will be evident, the writer may fairly claim to have taken active steps to rouse interest amongst the classes of users whom he now addresses in a different capacity, and he is pleased to recall that the municipal recipients of this issue will include many officers who attended one or other of the trials that were conducted by the Liverpool Self-propelled Traffic Association in the years 1898, 1899 and 1901, and for the organization of which trials he was responsible.
Did space permit, other incidents of the " history " of the early days of municipal interest in commercial motoring might be adduced. It will suffice merely to F.2
mention three more in passing. These are, the issue and wide circulation by THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR of a "Municipal Special Number" in April, 1908, and the presentation of a third paper by its Editor before the annual congress of the Association of Cleansing Superintendents, again at Salford, in June of the same year, under the title "Motor Power as Applied to Cleansing Work: Present Economy and Future Developments." More than half of this paper was devoted to the subject of mechanical street cleansers, with illustrations of mechanically-driven, street-sweeping and dust-collecting apparatus. The other, in July, 1904. was a paper by the writer, at Glasgow, being the second by him before the Engineering section of an annual congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute. This paper included the first complete list of registrations under the Motor Car Acts to be compiled and published by anybody. The final resolution to which we have to refer, passed at Glasgow in 1909, is next quoted. It shows evidence of the growing conviction on the part of municipal owners that the volume of experience that was then possessed by both manufacturers and users was beginning to require special consideration, and that roads must be adapted. The resolution, which was moved by Mr. q. H. Cooper (Wimbledon), seconded by Mr. J. Phillips (Wigan), and unanimously adopted, read as under That this Conference of engineers and surveyors to county and other sanitary authorities is of opinion that the advent and increase of motor vehicles on public highways renders it imperative in the interests of public health :
(a) That municipal, urban, and county estimates should in future provide for the use of fixing liquids during dry weather on existing macadamized roads;
(b) That in the construction and repair of macadamized roads the metal should be impregnated before spreading with some tohesive liquid appropriate to the local condition;
and this meeting recommends the Council of the Sanitary Institute to make known these views as widely as practicable.'
Testimony to the steady increase of purchases, since the early years which are covered by the four resolutions which we have reprinted, is found in the convincing list of municipal and allied owners, accompanied in many cases by the number of vehicles owned in each case, which appears on pages 513 and 514. This list, be it noted, is not a complete one, but is given by way of example.
Visitors to London who are members of city or other local councils in the Provinces know full well how wonderful has been the change from horse-drawn • to self-propelled traffic during the past seven years. They are, we are glad to know, not slow to adopt similar changes, of course in proper relation to local conditions and requirements, in order that they may the better serve the interests of the ratepayers, to which great and long-suffering body they themselves as individuals belong, and whom it is, above all, their bounden duty to serve intelligently, well, and in accordance with up-to-date methods.
We now proceed to make some detailed references to experiences, and for these we arp indebted to officers of the authorities concerned.