Correspondence.
Page 14
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Improvements in Boilers.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MoToR."
Sir,--I have read with interest the first part of the able article on " The Management of Motor Wagon Boilers." It seems to me that the article lays rather more stress than is necessary on the difficulties to be encountered when using a steam wagon. There were undoubtedly certain boilers placed on the market in the early days of the induszry, which neither gave satisfaction to the buyers nor to the sellers, but this trouble has in most cases been overcome at the present time. I think most of your readers will agree that, very generally, unsatisfactory boiler working can be traced to some negligence on the driver's part. The carrying of spare "fusible plugs" by enginemen is to be deprecated, as making them less careful of a constant water level than they would be without a plug to fall back upon in times of emergency. With regard to the washing out of steam wagon boilers, you say that they should be washed out every week. My own opinion is that small boilers of this type should have water from a hose pipe turned through them regularly twice a week; the whole process need not take a man more than 15 minutes to do, and it is time well spent. Why do you attack the type of boiler as made by the Lancashire Steam Motor Company? I have had these in use for a consider able time with good results, and since they have threaded the lower ends of their tubes where they enter the crown plate I have not had the slightest trouble. Surely the mere fact of this type of boiler being " typical of all the vertical muititubular boilers used on many different makes of steam motor wagons " is sufficient to show that it must have its good points, or it would have been discarded long ago by the principal manufacturers.—Yours faithfully, Liverpool. W. H. A.
Can Noise be Reduced?
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir,—As a probable purchaser of motor wagons, I trust you may be able to hod space for this letter in your columns. Whilst admiring the great strides made in recent years, I cannot yet persuade myself that any of the wagons or lorries that I see running about the streets of London will meet all my views for the purposes of my business. As a large manufacturer, I am well able to appreciate the undoubted saving that motor wagons must effect in hauling full loads for long distances, and as 70 per cent. of the material I send Out is of the long journey order you will appreciate that the experiences recently given in your pages must appeal to me. I am now convinced that a saving can be made by abolishing the larger portion of a horse stud, and by only retaining a sufficient number for the short distance journeys. I am also quite satisfied on the points of reliability and greater convenience; but the one and only matter which prejudices me against making purchases is the irritating noise and rattle which seems to be inseparable from all the wagons I come across, whether driven by petrol or steam. My place is adjacent to one of the main thoroughfares, where a large number of heavy vehicles pass daily, and I can almost trace the growth of the industry by their greater frequency : it has changed from an occasional vehicle once in the week to an ever-increasing number hour by hour. Some of the machines make more noise than others, but the irritation which I feel when a brewers' or millers' heavy wagon passes beneath my office windows is not limited to any one or two vehicles. I am not referring to the vibration, but purely to the noise, and instead of the rattle decreasing with the general improvement in the manufacture, it seems, on the contrary, to get worse. It surely cannot be essential to the running of vehicles that they should make more clatter than six horse-driven vehicles put together I I am not the only man who is on the brink of buying but is deterred by this one bad feature. Many members of the sedion of the London Chamber of Commerce to which I belong are in a position similar to my own. Between myself and my friends I am not exaggerating if I say that orders for at least £1o,000 worth of vehicles are waiting to be placed by a few of us as soon as a diminution of the noise is ensured, but
if noise is a necessity in a motor wagon then I shall continue to buy horses in spite of their many disadvantages.—Yours faithfully, MERCHANT. London, S.E.
Wheel Building and Construction.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir,—I have read with some amusement the letter from Mr. Alltree published in the present number of your interesting paper. My own experience is that these patent combination tyres are of very little value, and the same applies to my observation of the different spring wheels which are upon the market, or, perhaps, I should say, which their inventors are trying to sell. I have, unfortunately, been through the experience of trying a number of these notions, but the tests have resulted in my viewing with suspicion any proposals for the use of any device to absorb shock on the wheels of a commercial motor van other than solid rubber tyres of good section. I quite agree with Mr. MacLulich in his opinion that Mr. Gibbons deserved to have no success when he used a zin. rubber tyre on his heavy Daimler wagonette, and my experience with pneumatic tyres has certainly been of no such happy kind as that which Mr. Gibbons names. I found repeated troubles from punctures, which always occurred just at the most undesirable time of day, and my man often enough sacrificed an inner tube by carelessly getting it nipped. I think that owners of commercial vans should know that it is not an easy matter for an inexperienced man to repair a puncture, although experts say they can do it in ten minutes.
do not see why a business man should depart from using solid rubber tyres, because any possible advantage is very slight compared with the risk that is run of disorganisation of deliveries over the different experiments. Until makers of pneumatic tyres and of spring wheels can produce something much more satisfactory than what is at present obtainable, I am inclined to believe that it is folly for them to pretend that they have produced anything commercial.—Yours faith fully, DISGUSTED.
Our contemporary, "The Engineer," publishes this criticism upon the tramways expenditure of the L.C.C. :—
" It is in no sense remarkable that the extravagant scheme of the London County Council for the electrification of the North London tramway system should have evoked ardent opposition. It contemplates an outlay of several millions and the purchase of the five years' lease of the company now working the lines for 4.120,000. The rent now paid is ,‘"30,000 a year. It is evident that the lines are being worked at a profit, which the L.C.C.'s lines certainly are not. But there is another aspect of the whole question which ought to induce sensible men of business capacity to pause. Tramway propulsion is in a transition stage, and no one can say what five years may bring forth. With the conduit system many improvements are possible. Thus, high tension may be used in a way that public opinion in this country would not tolerate with overhead wires. But even electricity itself may be superseded. There is no longer need for hesitation in saying that the internal combustion engine may very well do all that electricity can do, save under strictly exceptional circumstances, and that at an enormous saving of expense. The first cost of the installation of motor tramcars would bevery small indeed as compared to that which must be incurred by carrying out any system of electrification. Themechanical success of the motor omnibus may be regarded as settled. There is no reason to doubt that the petrol tramcar will be yet more satisfactory. The road resistance will, of course, be much less, so that for a given speed either far less power will suffice or a larger number of passengers may be carried. The one advantage special to the electric system is rapid acceleration. But there is no reason to doubt that all the speed needed can be just as well had with petrol engines. A trial on a large scale is being made at Shoreditch, as already mentioned in our columns, and the commonest dictates of prudence suggest that the London Council would have been well advised in refraining from such a costly undertaking until further information is available."