Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
Page 21
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Ten Shillings Weekly for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words For anything else published.
Drivers of commercial motor vehicles and tractors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send short contributions on any subject which is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Long and successful runs ; services with no "lost journeys" ; workshop tips and smart repairs : all are suitable subjects, Send a post-card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—no matter how short, or how written, or how worded. We will "knock it into shape" before publication. When writing you must mention your employer's name as a guarantee of bona fides (not for publication), and you should state whether you wish your own name, or initials only, to be published. Payment will N made immediately after publication. Address your letters to The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL Moron," 7 15, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C.
Cancellation of Licenses.
[5°8] " HAD SOME " (Cricklewood) writes :—" I beg to submit the following communication re 'Cancellation of Drivers' Licenses.' I have worked over most of the motorbus routes in London, and I have invariably found that police traps are worked under conditions which are in every way favourable to the police; down a gradient, in a spot where the road is of good width and whore traffic is small, and at an hour when there are few pedestrians about. One must not father the idea that, because a motorbus driver is summoned for exceeding 12 miles per hour, he has been necessarily driving to the danger of public. As I have stated above, the traps are usually set under conditions which are very favourable to the objects of the police. The occasions are exceedingly rare when 'driving to the common danger' occurs.
" One often reads that drivers of private cars have been summoned for excessive speed, but one never hears of a case in which the Bench sentences a private driver to a heavy fine and that he shall subsequently be deprived of earning his livelihood on the expiration of his Council license. In the case of motorbus drivers, it is different, because very often, in addition to the heavy fine inflicted by the Bench, the Commissioner of Police inflicts a further severe punishment. IIis sentence is that the driver shall be prohibited from earning his livelihood by driving a motorbus in London for ever afterwards. When the driver applies to the Commissioner of Police for the renewal of his license, he is informed that the application cannot be entertained. Why? Probably because the man had been caught, by very unfair means, doing more than the legal mileage per hour.
"I always thought that the law of England was that a man could not be punished twice for the same offence, but it is quite clear to me now. that the Commissioner of Police has altered that axiom. I concur with your previous correspondent that it is high time that suitable representation was made to the right quarter in order that the matter may be enquired into.
"Withholding a man's license seems a very simple matter, but to the man himself it is a very grave one. The earnings of drivers are such that they cannot save much if any money. This second punishment means privation, debt, selling-, the few sticks he calls home, and, in some cases, the ever-dreaded broker's man and the workhouse."
[Our correspondent is incorrect in his statement that no private driver over has his license cancelled. Although such instances are by no means common, we have records of cases where, after repeated convictions, n heavy fine—as much as 00 in one case—has been accompanied by the cancellation of the county-council license. Suspension of such a license Is by no means a rarity. With the publimcarriage license the eircum• stances, it must be admitted, are different. A driver who holds such is hoense has the safety of a very large number of members of the public In his hands. Refusal of a public-service license does not prevent the holding of a county-council license, upon which authority private ears, delivery vans, tractors and similar machines may be driven.—En.]
False Teeth for Gear Wheels.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the los. prize this week.
[509] A correspondent " J.B.W." (I.landaff) details a method by which he was enabled to take a petrol-engined wagon home subsequent to the breakage of several teeth on a magneto wheel.—" I am herewith sending to you a description of a temporary repair which I recently carried out on the road. I think an account may prove interesting to some of my fellow-readers, should they happen to be placed in a similar unpleasant predicament. I was driving a motor omnibus fitted with low-tension ignition, and, whilst I was still several miles from home, three teeth of the magneto pinion broke clean away. The pinion was constructed of fibre clamped between gunmetal end plates. Not having a spare, I set about repairing the damaged Wheel. I filed off the stumps of the three broken teeth, so as to make a clear space where they had formerly been, and, with a pencil, I marked three lines at equal distances across the space to represent where the teeth should be. On each of these lines 1 bored two holes in the fibre with a small screwdriver (like a bradawl), and into each hole I inserted an inch woodscrew (No. 8). I screwed them in firmly, and left them so that they protruded so far as to be flush with the other teeth. I then filed down the sides of the screwheads so as to make room for the teeth of the drive. This repaired pinion, fitted to a 4o-h.p. engine, brought the vehicle over 38 miles, and, upon examination at the garage, the screws were found to be quite firm and almost as sound as when they were first put in. I enclose a sketch f We have redrawn this.—ED.], which I trust will make clear my method."