The Wheels of Industry.
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
This journal, dealing as it does with the "Chariots of War," no less than with the "Wheels of Industry," continues of national importance. Its interests embrace impartially the transport wagon and the parcelcar, the military tractor and the steam lorry.
Proposals and Purchases.
Addlestone (Surrey) U.D.C. is making inquiries for a second-hand motor chassis for fire-brigade purposes.
Lewisham Guardians have deferred further action with regard to the acquirement of motor ambulances.
• Sheffield City Council has bought a two-ton Chase motor lorry from the Yorkshire Motor Co. Ltd.' at 2592.
Alexander Findlay, the cleansing superintendent at Aberdeen, has recommended the purchase of one or two Laffly motor sweeping machines.
The L.G.B. has refused sanction to Gravesend T.C. to borrow for the purpose f buying a motor ambulance, and the Council has decided not to make the purchase out of the current, rates.
The Mahableshwar Motor Service Co. Ltd., of Bombay, requires six 11-tbn and six 5-cwt. pareelcars to carry out certain post-office 'contracts. The The new services have to be started on the 1st October.
, Blackpool 'Corporation has reeently taken delivery of a batterydrivenastreet-watering wagon from the General Vehicle Co., Ltd. of
Imperial House, Kingsway' ; the vehicle is equipped with Ironclad cells.
You Must AlWays twit in The " C.M." for the Netv Models. •
Since the -Nth:: November last, in the course of -39issims of this :journal, we -have, ",in -addition to keeping our readers thoroughly posted as to the _efforts ofthe. -British manufacturers to '! keep the wheels of industry, turning" to the extent of supplying, so' far as-possible, users with -commercial-motor vehicles, also been able to publish illustrated deScriptions of no fewer than 23 American vehicles as ,tlity are being offered for sale_here. We think this amply bears Out our contention that -TIIE::: COMMERCIAL MOTOR is always first out with news, and also that we are fully alive to the necessity, as the users' journal, of keeping our readers postedas to the merits and demerits of anything which may be offered to them.
The following is the list of American chassis to which we have referred above :Baker Electric, Whiting-Federal, White, Chase, Knox, Troy, Garner, Patricia, Maccar, Signal, Jeffery, one-ton G.M.C., Shakespeare, Peerless, Selden, Vulcan, Wichita, Edison, Bromley Peters, Pierce-Arrow, WhitingDenby, Milnes-Daimler, F.W.D.
1530 Greater London's Lighting Regulations.
A new Order (No. 739), dated the 31st ult. calls for some notice at the hantis of many of our readers.
The Home Secretary is responsible for the Order, under powers con
ferred by Regulation II of the Defence of the Realm (Consolidation) Regulations, 1914, which-applies to the Metropolitan and City of London Police areas.
The Order opens with regulations in respect of street lighting, and next deals with the suppression of sky signs, illuminated fascias, illuminated lettering and lights of all descriptions used for outside adver tising or for the illumination of shop fronts. Tall buildings must have the greater part of the win
dows shrouded, and there must be no large lighted roof areas. Lights
along the water front must be masked to prevent reflection as far as practicable. We quote other clauses of the Order verbatim :— "The lights of tram a and omnibuses must not be more than is sufficient to enable fares to be eol-' leeted, and must be obscured while crossing bridges."
"The use of powerful lamps on motor and other vehicles is prohibited."
" Every person who shall cause or permit any vehicle during the
period between half-an-hour after sunset and half-a/ahour before sunrise, to travel in any street, -high, way, or road to which the public: haveaccess, shall provide suclavehick with a lamp or lamps in proper _working order And so con-,
structed and capable of being so attached as when lighted to display to the front one or more white lights and to the rear a red light visible for a reasonable distance ; and every person driving or being in charge of any such vehicle during such period as aforesaid shall keep such lamp or lamps properly trimmed, lighted and attached." Bicycles are included, Our Fund.
Odd donations to our Comforts Fund for the A.S.C., M.T., continue to reach us. We are pleased to receive this continued evidence of interest, notwithstanding the temporary, suspension of our activities on the income-collecting side.
Shrapnel from Wolseley's.
Few motor-vehicle factories will be found to have played a greater part in regard to the production of munitions of war than that of Wolseley Motors, Ltd. We are enabled to reproduce one of an interesting series of photographs which has been placed at our disposal by the company. These show some of the shops entirely reorganized in order to proceed with the manufacture -of Shrapnel shell. It has indeed been a very remarkable transformation. Buildings once filled to overflowing with motor chassis in various stages of construction are now occupied by, endless rows of machine tools speciallir fitted for turning out Shrapnel shell. In addition several riew workshops., Of very large area have been erected and equipped for the Same purpose. An immense staff is working early and late on the production of this important item of military equipment. In addition to .the manufacture of shell, Wolaeley Motors; Ltd., is also, of course, manufacturing cars and lorries, -as well as-aircraft supplies in _very, large quantities. Wolseley -Motors, Ltd., isa it will be recalled, a branch of Vickers, Ltd., the great armaments undertaking. A New Registration.
Trafford Engineering Co., Ltd., (230,000), with its registered office at 34, Waterloo Street, Birmingham, to adopt an agreement with Crawford and Lea, Ltd., and to carry on the business. of manufacturing and dealing in motor lorries, motorvanS, Motorcabs and Motorbuses.
Sheffield's Motorbuses..
We have pleasure, further to the information which we published in our issue of the 5th inst., in regard to the Sheffield Corporation's motorbus undertaking, in stating that the present fleet of 17 motorbuses serves no fewer than 23 routemiles of highway. It may interest some of our readers to know, additionally, that the capital account of the undertaking, on the 31st March last, was 213,504, at which date the route-mileage and the number of motorbuses were the same as above.
A Caledon in S.E. Ireland.
One of our photographs illustrates the interesting use to which a Caledon char-a-bancs, recently delivered by Thompson's Motor Car Co. Ltd., of Dublin, to the Cork and Kerry Coaching Co. has been put. This machine is for use on the Glengarriff-Killarney service. Whilst on its first trip the opportunity was recently taken to place the machine at the disposal of the Cork Recruiting Committee for a meeting which was held at Kilcrobane, an inaccessible village situ
ated at the extreme south-west corner of Ireland, on Dunmanus Bay. A similar, machine has been in use for some weeks in the south.
Another Association.
We learn that the Associated British Manufacturers, Ltd., held a meeting in London, on the 12th inst., under the chairmanship of Mr. Edward Manville, chairman of the Daimler Co., Ltd. A formal approach of the Government is con-. templated, to endeavour to protect British manufacturers against certain results of war conditions. Fuller particulars may be obtained from the secretary of the new asso-: eiation, Mr. Horace Wyatt, 173, Fleet Street, E.C.
We learn that Mr. E. D. Howell, of Bath, has purchased a five-ton Wallis and Steevens steamer, through Messrs. F. W. Berkeley and Co., of 39, Victoria Street, S.W., in order to undertake certain local haulage contracts.
A Volunteer Driver.
A gentleman who is known to us, and is engaged at the Royal Courts of justice but i now on long vacation; offers his services as inotor driver of a _Petrol van or lorry, for seven or. eight weeks, preferablyon some work connected with munition transport. He can drive. Address " Volunteer." csre of _the Editor of this journal. We know him to be "a worker."
Delivery Prospects for Users.
We have been asked, by numbers of readers, to give our up-to-date opinion in regard to possible relief in respect of deliveries of commercial chassis from the leading British makers for ordinary commercial use. V4 have, on several past occasions, expressed the view that, so long as the war goes on, and new armies are in course of formation, the large demands by the British War Office must continue, as new divisions are despatched, accompanied by M.T. columns. We know there is a very considerable surplus of heavy motor transport available at the moment in the hands of the military authorities : nobody can use the roads or go near certain depots, without appreciating that obvious fact. The point is, when will curtailment of requirements begin ?
We have already pointed out, a fortnight ago, that W.D. requirements for two-tonners have virtually ceased. We gather, more recently, that but few purchases of American-built lorries will now be made. It is clear, therefore, •that the matter of curtailment of orders is at the moment under consideration by the War Department, but we are of opinion that there cannot and will not be much curtailment beyond the directions which we have already announced. There may be certain adjustments, but the relief to the commercial user, from all-British sources, threatens to remain small, for the time being, in relation to the total output of the country in the heavier branches of the industry.
"50 m.p.h. Backwards."
This journal does not run an "agony" column. We leave that to the daily Press, or, rather, to sections of it. When we read of an accident, we deal with it if necessary by private correspondence, if we think we can offer any useful suggestion, or, if some point of principle is involved or challenged, we comment upon the circumstances and the lesson to be learnt. Another exception, in relation to publicity in THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR, concerns plucky beliaviour on the part of drivers. An instance of action which falls in the last-named category appears to have occurred at Oldham, on the 10th inst., even when allowance is made for journalistic licence of language, and we make the following extract from "The Manchester _Daily Dispatch" of Wednesday of last week :—" The driver, Walter Williams, of Chorlton-on-Medlock, stuck to his post.
. . . The wagon was being driven up Barker Street, when it ran backwards. and the driver was
nnable to stop it. . With one hand on the steering wheel, the driver leaned over the side in an endeavour to keep the lorry in the
s36
centre of the street, while his companion watched theother side. . . The lorry continued on its way or quite three-quarters of a mile, andits seed had then reached some 50 miles an hour. [This is what we doubt.—En.]. . . The lorry then ran on to the footpath, and into the doorway of the Sportman's Arms, smashing the stone pillars of the door to pieces. This did not bring it to a standstill. It rebounded, and then passed further along, missing the house adjoining the sportsman's Arms, but striking the next house, again smashing the doorposts and door. Then it skimmed along by the adjoining property, smashing grids and chipping the brickwork for some 20 yards, when it was brought to a standstill by a tram standard. Throughout its journey the driver and his companion had stuck to their posts, and both happily escaped injury.
The lorry • escaped with little damage."
We take up space to refer to the pluckiness of the driver, because we have the personal testimony' of a commercial-motor owner in the district that his aetion was good.
Another County Surveyor's Experience.
The county surveyor for Surrey,. Mr. A,-.Dryland, M.Inst.C.E., coinments in his annual report upon the excellent work which has been done by the one motor lorry which the Council has so far been using. Thislorry was supplied by Dennis Bros. : (1913) Ltd., and Mr. Dryland states that its work "has been eminently satisfactory, the lorry having done. an enormous amount of haulaqe, and enabled the work of road maintenance and repair to be kept going when railway facilities were practically cut off."
Active meetings of protest continue to be held, in many parts of the country, by agriculturists and farmers, with regard to the proposals of the County Councils Association to place additional restrictions and taxes upon agricultural locomotives and traction engines. Petitions have in many cases been ,started by important Chambers of Agriculture and farmers' °labs, coupled with resolutions in which the hardship is condemned.