The Motor Omnibus World.
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Petitions in Duplicate.
Petitions against motorbuses are freiuently open to suspicion, and signaures are generally procured by people vho fail to realise that no force is ,dcled to their case by overlapping. 'he latest case to come under our notice >provided by the town of Hove, where, t the last meeting of the Council, the own Clerk reported that one petition gainst a particular local service of :mtorbuses was signed by 89 people, nd another by / to people, but that 68 ignatures were common to both. Furher, a number of letters had been redived on the subject, but one gentle-Ian alone had written ten I We are -lad to see that the Council decided gainst the petitioners by twenty votes twelve.
Two Accidents.
An inquest was held, on the loth intarn, at the Westminster Coroner's :ourt, on the body of William Swift, a :lotorbus driver who was until recently 1 the employ of the London General )mnibus Company. The evidence hewed that the deceased met his death connection with a leakage of petromm spirit, which leakage was brought bout by the breakage and subsequent )ss of a cock. The deceased got down ) stop the outflow of the liquid with .is. thumb, while the conductor eneavoured to find the missing part. >tiring his absence, which was stated 3 be for eight or nine minutes, the .othing of the deceased appears to have ecome saturated with spirit. A police on stable gave evidence to the effect hat the lighted lamp of the bus was 11 the ground near the deceased, but nother witness stated that the flame ame from a point 30 feet behind the us, and that it was probably due to omebody's having • thrown a lighted latch or cigarette into the gutter. The .try returned a verdict of "accidental eath," and added a rider to the effect
that the cocks of all petrol tanks should be examined every journey. We make some comment (page 30) upon one aspect of this case.
Another accident to which we have t.) refer was before the Coroner for Southwark, on the 12th instant, and it concerned the death of a man named Hales who was knocked down and killed as the result of a collision between a Vanguard motorbus and an iron standard in Newington Causeway. It appears that the driver turned the bus on to the side-walk, in order to avoid other traffic, and a police constable, who had made enquiries immediately after the accident, informed the Court that no blame was imputed to the driver by any of the onlookers. The deceased man was standing near the demolished post with his brother, and both were knocked down. The jury returned a verdict of " accidental death," and exonerated the driver from blame.
Our Trials Headquarters.
We would remind our readers along the Trials routes that our travelling bureau, established on a double-deck, Milnes-Daimler omnibus, is at the service of all who desire information regarding the Trials.
Business Aptitude.
Dennis Brothers, Limited, of Guildford, has been steadily building up the commercial motor branch of its business for some years, and its sales have now exceeded zoo such vehicles. It is, therefore, appropriate that the company should publish a well-arranged and complete descriptive catalogue, the appearance of which at this date is particularly opportune, in view of the useful scope which will be found for its distribution at the exhibitions in connection with the trials. The catalogue is exceptionally neat and complete, and the opening page announces that the company is the "oldest motor maker in England."
Wider Roads.
The motorbuses which are causing a certain amount of discussion amongst members of the Pateley Bridge Rural District Council are owned by the North Eastern Railway Company, and this council's surveyor has now been instructed to go to the neighbourhood of Brimham Rocks, and to obtain the number and size of each of the cars which are alleged to be the cause of inconvenience to some people unknown. We trust the railway company will take the necessary steps to secure an order for the widening of the roadway, the initial procedure being, as we have frequently pointed out, the signature of two Justices of the Peace under a clause in the Highway Act of 1835. Inaccurate Reporting.
We are sorry to observe the apparent .carelessness.with which some cases of alleged motorbus accidents are reported in the Daily Press. A correspondent has supplied us with a cutting from a recent issue of the " Daily Telegraph," in regard to a mishap between one of the Road Car Company's motorbuses and a four-wheeled cab, outside the Law Courts, one day last week. The report in question reads : " The driver was thrown forward, but attempted to stop his horse, which showed an inclination to bolt, and thus lost his balance, falling on his back into the roadway. The front wheel of the cab passed close by his side, and the back wheel passed over his shoulder and chest.He was removed to hospital in an unconscious condition." On the other hand, our correspondent writes : " I passed the spot, where the accident took place, within two minutes of its occurrence, and saw the driver standing by his horse unhurt, except for a small cut on his right temple, 'which was covered with g-oldbeater's skin. There certainly was not the slightest sign of .uncortsciousness, and the report is surely a gross exaggeration, and another injustice to the useful motorbus."
Buessings in Europe.
The Berlin General Omnibus Company, whose vehicles are mostly Daimlers and N.A.G.'s, has placed an order with Bussing, of Brunswick, for 24 chassis. A trio of benzol-driven buses from the same works will shortly be delivered to the Vienna Corporation : single-deckers with seats for 14 and standing room for 6 behind.
Motorbuses in France.
Mechanical traction will make another step forward in the Department of the Marne shortly, as the DarracqSerpollet Company is about to install a service of public motorbuses and lorries, for passengers and goods respectively, between F.pernay, Pierry, Moussy, and Saint Martin d'Ablois, with a branch service, to follow, between Epernay, Ay, and Mareuil-sur-Ay,
Another Big Licence.
East Ham Town Council receive on the loth instant, an application fro, the I.ondon Road Car Cornpan Limited, for a petroleum licence for tl: storage of 3,000 gallons of petroleu, at its garage at Redcliffe Road. having been reported that the prernisi were suitable for the purpose, the app] cation was granted.
German Results.
The report of a paper recently pri sented by a Herr Vellguth, of Belli' which has been widely quoted in th country, and to which our Berlin corn spondent makes a reference in this isst (page 31), should be received with dt regard to the fact that exceptionally lo fares prevail in Berlin, and that tl• traffic in country districts of German: owing to the fewness of the roads, much more sparse than that whit offers in England.
L. and S.W. Railway.
About 6,000 passengers were carried uring August by the Thornycroft iotorbus service which runs between 7arnharn and Haslernere Stations, via Iindhead, Churt and Frensham.
Pioneer " Sale.
The date for the sale of the 67 motoruses, which wero.until recently in serice for the London Power Omnibus :ornpany, Limited, is announced for an any-, date. •A few particulars will be Dund on our sundry advertisements age.
Useful Work.
The Vanguard Motorbus Company's aulage-service vehicles continue to do seful work. One of them, fitted with teel-tired wheels, recently carried a )ad of Atons up Shooters Hill, near 3Iackheath, at a speed of seven miles n hour. If desired, a trailer can be ttached to each of these vehicles, when total load of five tons can be handled.
Tarred Macadam.
Mr. Thomas Aitken, the county sureyor of. Fife, whose tar-spraying ap,aratus secured the first award in the rials which were recently held by the toads Improvement Association, has ecently set out the essential points vhich require to be observed in the ourse of re-coating operations with arred macadam. He states that there hould be a pressure in the tank of rom too to 150 lb. per square inch, Lccording to the viscosity of the tar, .nel that the metalling should not be oiled in the first instance, as in the Tclinary system of consolidation, the .bject being to cover all the surfaces of he roadstone with a film of tar while t is lying in the loose state. It is Mind, in practice, that the tar can be orced through the fine spraying-nipples o a depth of from 3 to 5 inches. A ig-ht layer of small chippings is applied o.assist in filling the interstices, after . length of about 40 yards of the full
width of the coating has been sprayed, so long as noadstone of from 2-inch to 21-inch gauge is used, but no chippings are required where a smaller size of gauge, such as i inch, for instance, is employed. Mr. Aitken finds that from four to Six gallons of tar is sufficient, in ordinary circumstances, per ton of metal applied. This quantity of tar can be expressed as 0.56 of a gallon per square yard of road covered, for a 31-inch coat of metal. Internal friction or abrasion is eliminated with tarred macadam, owing to the fact that the whole mass becomes homogeneous and practically waterproof. The frictional resistance of the stones is so greatly increased that internal motion and rubbing are prevented, and Mr. Aitken believes that the life will prove to be doubled. Having regard to the interrelation of motorbus traffic and better macadam roads, we give this brief summary of Mr. Aitken's conclusions in the belief that they will be of general interest to our readers.
At Bath.
The photograph which we reproduce herewith shows the large addition
which has been made to the Bath:Electric Tramways Motorbus Garage, at York Place, Bath. This garage was fully described and illustrated in our issue of the 7th Decernber, 5905, and the shed illustrated is identical with the one which was originallybuilt.. The extra machine tools which have been installed here comprise : an American screw-cutting lathe which has been supplied by Alfred Herbert, Limited, of Coventry ; and an emery wheel, the spindle of which was constructed from a broken second-motion shaft. In the centre of the photograph May be seen a tire-press which, in this case, is worked by hand through the medium of suitable gears. The lathe and the emery wheel are driven by a 4h.p. electric motor. It is interesting to •note that all the engines belonging Ito the vehicles owned by this company atle now being fitted with 4-bolt connecting-rods. The staff includes : -a day foreman and a night foreman; a fitter ; a turner ; an improver ; a tinsmith ; an electrician ; a greaser;' and four cleaners.