THE SILENT• LORRY.
Page 61
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"The Inspector" Takes the View that, Whereas the Best Lorries are Satisfactorily Silent, the Noise of all Motor-bicycles and some Light Cars is Intolerable.
IT MAY be only a matter of imagination or it may be a matter of fact, but it appears to the writer that things are getting a let noisier. This is not intended as a facetious reference to the far from tranquil state of the old world at the present time, although theteoming of peace has ebviouely resulted in noisy demonstrations amongst many•Of the minor nations of the world. No, the reference is. to the noisy state of our roads and streets—surely noisier than they were in. pro-war days!
This question of relative noise ba.s.been of considerable interest to the writer since much 'earlier days, when he was so often sad and sore at heart becanee of official differences of opinion which he necessarily entertained from those put foievard by the publics carriage inspectors of Scotland Yard. Early operators of motorbasesi will well recall the terrible time they had when. the official inspectors of London's public-service motor-vehicle traffic were fin:Ted to take such drastic steps in the endeavour to persuade makers to evolve', quieter types of
machines-.
NamY" of the earliest types of buses were, 'of, course, insufferably noisy, and were an intolerable nuisance to anybody. who lived • in the neighbourhood of a route. We all realized the trouble, but it was difficult to eare. it. Scotland Yard took .a very stfong hand, 'and ultiniat0y,of course, won out, at great cost and expense to the manufacturers. Many were the devices adopted with a view to reducing the noise of g,earb:oxes, engines: and hack axles, to say nothing of' brakes, creaking wheels, fierce clutches, and almost everything else on a chassis. Interesting tales could be written of gearboxes stuffed with a noxious mixture of sawdust and black greasesstuffed until the wheels could hardly turn—of gear wheels backed with discs of all kinds of non-resonant material; of fibre packings and ecintabt pieces lavishly bestowed throughout the chassis. At this . distance it is even almost safe to mention the classic instance a a much-harassed operating engineer who, delighted to have discovered an individual engine that for some inscrutable reason was relatively quiet and remained so, kept it for the purpose of submitting it on chassis. to Scotland Yard for test, mid it is more than rumoured over and over again that this engines was taken out on its return from the Yard and. used on the next machine that was put forward for official sanction.
To such desperate straits were operating engineers reduced that these highly improper methods were their only safeguard from sheer insanity. All those days are past, however, and before the war we had reached &period when mechanical transport was becoming satisfactorily quiet. To-day, surely the palm for silence on the road is pretty evenly divided between high-class touring cars of the " Rolls" type and the best of the commercial motor vehicles,.
There are to-day on the highway many extremely noisy light cars, and the motor-bicycle is, with hardly a solitary exception, an intolerable nuisance in that respect. It is net understood why the police authorities permit the machine-gun effect so belayed of youthful speed-merchants astride their high-powered two-wheeled mounts. There is no need for thenoise; their speed and power are increased but little over normal; but to the owner it obviously gives an impression of power and 'dare-devilry. Effective exhaust silencers should be insisted upeu for all motor-bicycles,
Thee, again, dealing with the light car nuisance. Manyof these are under-powered, and have to do a, lot of .running en•their lower gears, and these lower gears unfortunately often scream and huni to a very annoying extent, and their engines have a penetrating buzz. On the Other hand, it is a remarkable fact that the best of the commercial motor vehicles are relatively quiet. Their engines are not run at very high .speede, and their gear and other surfaces are invariably ample.
While it is urged that it is time that more drastic steps were taken with a view to securing that all mechanical transport shall be relatively .quiet, it is questionable whether it is good policy. to insist on too great a degree, of silence. An extremely silent engine is. not the eas&est. to drive; or, at any rate, to strive with full knowledge of exactly what is happening Under the bonnet. An extremely silent Vehicle. may in certein circumstances be dangerous. to other users of the roads. There is a happy mean that will ause no discomfort to other individual. road users, but beyond which the 'law should be rigid, that nobody is entitled to make himself a,. nuisance by operating a machine that is thoroughly irritating to the nerves.
The-question of noise, of course, is quite a relative one, but, although the writer remembers that at one time Certain ambitious experiments were initiated by engineers who were associated with • early motorbus' operation in the Metropolis, experiments that included the use of a gramophone recorder and large trumpet, he is not satisfied that such elaborate attempts to set standards are likely to be of much avail.
When one comes to think of it, there are certain 'exceptional traffie noises to. which one has become .entirely accustomed, and to which one takes little exception, and particularly the noise and roar and whistle of a fast-moving express train, and, again noticeably, the shrieking and grinding of the majority of electric tramcars as they. pass over points or round curves of sharp radius. ,Tramcars are very had offenders in this matter, being beaten to a shadow by the more modern motorbus, which is as quiet as the tramcar is noisy.
• It is gratifying, at any rate, to realize that the commercial vehicle to-day, surprising as it is to realize, has taken a large share in setting a standard of quiet operation on the roads. It is rather near a scandal that, quite unnecessarily, motorbicycles and certain motorcars should be allowed to be noisier. It is unfair to the -industrial vehicle, and it is harmful to the motor vehicle movement as
a whole. ,‘