OPINIONS and QUERIES The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects
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connected with the use of commercia: motors. Letters should be written on only one side of the paper. The right of abbreviation is reserved and no responsibility for views expressed is accepted. Queries must be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF CREOSOTE • FOR OIL ENGINES VOTJ published in your issue of September 12 a I resume of a report from the Home Fuels Subcommittee of the D.E.U.A. on the subject of utilizing creosote as a fuel for Oil engines. Some notes on this subject, resulting from a serious investigation, may, 1 hope, be of interest to your readers. They refer to mixtures of coal oil and petroleum.
(1) Even with only one part creosote to five parts petroleum, the ignition is objectionally low, causing bad starting, dirty exhaust and other troubles, which result in rapid wear and deterioration of valves, pistons and cylinders.
(2) Heavy deposits of carbon are formed, especially at light load, in the combustion chamber, with serious adverse effects, Furthermore, a deposit forms on the injector nozzles, causing bad combustion, loss of power and fouling.
(3) When coal oil is mixed with petroleum a washing action takes place which causes the precipitation of a tarry deposit, causings rapid fouling and sticking of the fuel pump and injectors, also fouling of fuel lines, tanks and filters. To get rid of this it is necessary to strip all the parts affected, including the need for recalibrating the fuel pump.
It would appear therefore that, generally, creosote and petroleum mixtures are not suitable for oil engines.
Leeds. NORTHERN ENGINEER.
DIFFICULTIES IN THE SAND AND BALLAST INDUSTRY
ONE hears a lot at the moment about man-power. The whole trouble is that in the Services it usually takes a dozen or so men to do a job which, in civilian life, would be done by one. Consequently, production in the civilian field must suffer.
I am working engineer to a concern of sand and ballast merchants, in which class the driver problem is very acute., How many men over the reserved ages were in this trade before the war? Not many. It was too hard 'a life for the older drivers, but now we are
left with these, some with, perhaps, 10 or 15 years' experience in bus driving, and, obviously, good at that class of work; but give them a tipper and some hard work to do, put them in mud or on, a dump. and they
are sunk. • Apart from the driver problem, there is the trouble with spares. In the past I have never had vehicles laid up for days awaiting repair, but the position to-day is a hopeless muddle. One goes to the distributor for, say, a half shaft; this he cannot produce and must apply to the maker. It may then be possible, with luck, to obtain one in a week or so.
Why not have the stocks of spares more evenly distributed over the country, particularly in those areas where vehicles are more likely to require attention, so that the services and essential commercial traffic can draw upon them as required, on the production of a certificate of need or some such document? Most of the sand and ballast merchants and haulage' people are engaged on urgent work of a national character, and one wonders how many days are lost per vehicle while waiting for spares, for a driver, or for someone to execute repairs. The problem to-day is skilled mau-power. Women and boys are not suitable for such work as that which I have outlined.
Bushey. H.W.H.F.
“TANTALUS" TANTALIZES SOME OF OUR READERS
RECENT articles have been appearing in "The ComXmercial Motor" from a contributor by the name of " Tantalus." I have been unable to find any details concerning this gentleman in the more-up-to-date books of reference which I have consulted, but your readers May, perhaps, be interested in the following account taken from a somewhat older source:—
" Tantalus: The father of Pelops, who, being admitted to the banquet of the gods, incurred their displeasure by betraying their secrets, and was condemned in consequence to suffer the constant pangs of hunger and thirst, though he stood up to the chin in water and had ,ever before him the offer of the choicest fruits, but of which receded from him as he attempted to reach them, while a huge rock hung over him, ever threatening to fall and crush him with its weight." .
It will be noticed that no explanation is given to show why " Tantalus " should divulge confidential information which had been entrusted to him; nor is any further informatkon given as to the exact nature of the" choicest fruits," although no doubt many of your readers will be able to hazard a guess on this latter point.
London, S.W.1. FRANCIS R. LYON, Director of Publications, Associated Road Operators.
[" Tantalus " was a name selected by us, and we did not use it without appreciating its significance. If the " gods " of transport possess secrets, perhaps it is just as well that they should be brought to light. So far as we are aware, our contributor has not divulged confidential' information, but has acted only in the interests of the industry, and is willing to incur the displeasure of the aforementioned deities. Incidentally, the more modern tantalus is a receptacle for spirits, and no one can deny that he is full of these, although not of the alcoholic variety. If we had had a few more men with this attribute, the industry would probably now be in a much better condition. The articles by " Tantalus" have certainly created great interest in many circles, and whilst there has been an undercurrent of criticism from those who have been most affected, there has been little open expression other than of praise. Some mythologists-state that Tantalus stole nectar and ambrosia from the gods and gave them to mortals. Could our readers ask for more than this?--Eo.)
OPERATING 01L-ENGI NED VEHICLES ON VEGETABLE OILS
WITH reference 4o the paragraph in your issue dated September 19 regarding the bulletin on the operation of oil-engined vehicles on vegetable oils, published
by the Industrial Research Bureau, there are certain conclusions with which, I regret, I cannot agree.
If you will recollect, in April, 1938, I sent you a " Report on the Alternative Fuels for the Operation of Industrial Commercial Engines with particular regard to Vegetable Oils." It is quite probable that my report covered even wider ground than that of the Government Test House Of Alipore, Calcutta, but certainly we did test carefully cottonseed, rapeseed and groundnut oil.
With regard to cottonseed oil, preheating to a temperature of 90 degrees is necessary, and it is quite impossible to start any commercial oil engine in this country from cold. An injection of, or running on gas oil for two to three minutes, is necessary before switching over to cottonseed oil. The power drop was 9 per cent. unless the injectors were so altered as to raise the power at the expense of heavier consumption.
Groundnut and rapeseed oils performed in exactly the same manner. The best vegetable oil to use in current oil engines is from the soya-bean.
I am afraid, however, that the development of vegetable oils for use in Diesel engines is so controlled by those vested interests marketing mineral oils, plus apathy on the part of users, that little or no progress is ever likely to be made with it, in spite of the great possibilities. Vegetable oils make immediate appeal to the imagination, 'due to the fact that they are produced year by year by Nature, and, therefore, constitute an inexhaustible source of supply.
Would it be possible to obtain from the industrial Research Bureau information on such matters as the effect upon Imbricating oil, formation of residues, chemical action of vegetable fuel on material on which the engine is rnade,'etc., also the relative cost of running
engines on these fuels? JOHN B. WALTON. London S. E .1.
FOUNDING AN ASSOCIATION FOR DRIVERS
I THANK you for publishing my letter to you in which • I offered my support of a drivers association. I have
been following the• correspondence and articles with great interest, and was very pleased to see the associa ▪ tion put a step farther forward by "Tantalus." One thing, however, has disappointed me the association is apparently not to be open to p.s.v. drivers. I, personally, cannot see any objection to these being members of a drivers' association, for, as you know, a . p.s.v. badge used to be equal to an h.g.v. licence.
I cannot quite make up my mind whether " Tantalus " had a little dig at me when he mentioned the I.T.A„ but actually I joined it in the first place to help me get on in life, and, in the second place. I mentioned it in my letter to you really as a possible qualification as a committee member of the proposed association. It so happens that I have been on quite a few big committees and have been an honorary secretary at various times.
May I take this opportunity also of putting forward one or two ideas re the association for now and after the war :— (1) Membership eventually to be graded, as in the I.T.A., from a junior associate upwards. Necessary qualifications being accident-free records and number of years of driving.
(2) Fees also to be graded upwards. It is easy to say 6c1 • per week, but it is a difficult job collecting the subscriptions. I have tried it. Why not pay a quarterly amount of, say, 5s.?
(3) When sending out reprints of the article on this subject, if this can be done, I suggest that a copy of a suitable letter should accompany each, could be signed bY the person receiving the article and sent by him to the local newspaper, thereby possibly obtaining a large amount of free publicity all over the country.
(4) This I will make my last suggestion for the present, and it is one for after the war. In central parts of the country large-scale rallies could be held and all commercial-vehicle manufacturers could be invited to show their latest models, making a sort of small
commercial motor show. A. A. WRIGHT. Southend-on-Sea.
[We see no reason why, if any association of the type now under review be formed, p.s.v. drivers should not be included. In fact, it might well be,open to any driver who earns his livelihood in road transport. The whole object of the association would be to better conditions for wage-earners in this field. This matter would, however, be one that could be settled by any committee set up for the purpose.—ED.]
SHOULD THE S.J.C. SCHEME BE MODIFIED?
YOUR leading article of September 5 gives a very unfair picture of the position of the ,C.M.U.A. in regard to the S.J.C. scheme, also in respect of its attitude towards its road-haulier members.
To begin with, the C.M.U.A. has not refused the S.J.C. scheme in its entirety, as suggested. The following is a copy of a resolution passed by the National Haulier Sectional Board,. which was eventually adopted by. the National Council:—
" That the National Haulier Sectional Board
recommends the National Council to reject the suggested scheme of the Standing Joint Committee of Road Hauliers' National Organizations on 'Organization of the Industry,' as presented by the Standing Joint Committee."
Your article further states that you are informed on good authority that "the C,M.U.A. is not sufficiently whole-hearted in its support of its haulier members and should, in all good faith, tell them so." As a matter of fact, the National Council entirely supported the attitude Of the National Haulier Sectional Board.
The attitude of the membership of the Association in general is distinctly in favour of one national association to represent the road-transport industry, comprising all sections of operators, but it is not in favour of encouraging the introduction of a new organization posing as the national representative of the industry, but comprising only one section of users.
The S.J.C., as at present constructed, comprises only a London committee. It has, as yet, made no sensational contribution towards the interests of those it represents. It has been urged by the National Haulier Sectional Board of the C.M.U.A. to extend its activities to the areas. Whether it will accept the invitation remains to be seen.
In the meantime operators are taking the matter into their own hands, and on September 15 I received a notice (over the combined signatures of the secretaries of the North-Western Areas of the C.M.U.A., A.R.O. and the A.H. and M.O.A.) convening a meeting of hauliers in Lancashire.
Preston. C. LE' M. GOSSELIN,
Managing Director, For H. Viney and Co., Ltd.
[Mr. Gosselin's letter confirms, rather thanrefutes, most of the views given in the leader in question. The S.J.C. does not pose as the national representative of the industry, as that is understood by the C.M.U.A., i.e., Including C licensees, but only as representing A and B licensees. We are strongly of opinion that such a body, not necessarily the S.J.C., is urgently needed, hence our leacier.—ED.]