Between the Milestones,—By "The Inspector."
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The Danger of Underloading.
How often, when one hears of dissatisfaction with the running of this or that motorvan, a little probing into the circumstances will reveal that much of the trouble can easily be traced to overloading. The makers are all too well aware of the frequency with which many hundredweights over the legitimate load are carried. Road surveyors suspect it of all the proprietors of the heavier machines. And it is indeed remarkable how willingly an owner, in all probability a keen business man in his own way, will consider it. sound economy systematically to carry more than that for which a. van has a, certified capacity. The tale is soon told on models which are scheduled by the makers well up to their limits. Set springs, cambered frames, badly worn tires, strained propelling mechanism, axles near to breaking point, all are rapidly appearing symptoms of overloading. Some makers, wise in their generation, now make it a practice to sell a machine as being ot much less than its actual load limit.
I wonder how many of us have come across cases where systematic underloadiug has told no less serious a tale. Last week I inspected a small fleet of vans of 30-cwt. rated capacity, which were regularly being used for little more than five-cwt. loads, with results which were indeed serious. The vans were evidently required to career about as if they were sprightly little l0-cwt. machines with a speed limit of 20 m.p.h. Whereas occasional /mining with light or no loads would have had little if any effect, consistent underloa.ding had resulted in these compseatively heavy machines being gradually knocked to pieces at too-high speeds and with little or nothing to keep them down on the road.
Why Don't the Americans Use Steam Wagons ?
I am interested in this battery question. MaeConnell's articles have done much to inform me why it is the U.S.A. have got such a bulge on us with these electric trucks. If his figure, 30,000, for vehicles actually in use can be confirmed, there's little doubt it's a pretty extensive bulge tool Many of us have known of this transatlantic movement, but few, I think, have got at the real reason for it. As I have it now, it seems to have been another case of protection. Combination and enterprise on the part of manufacturers have worked the oracle. But I am still not quite clear. I can conceive that such methods would boost the runabout, whether for pas, sengers or goeds, but, short of its facilities for haulage in the docks, I am still in the dark as to how the huge six-ton and eight-ton battery trucks, so common in New York, 1 am led to believe, have beaten the petrol wagon. Moreover, MacConnell tells us the steam wagon, as we know it, has quite failed to catch on, but he doesn't tell us why. I, for one, should like to know. The electric has caught on a little in Germany, but not in France, I believe.
Poorly-paid Draughtsmen.
For some little while past, I've been keeping an eye on the " Situations Vacant' columns of the technical Press—" not for myself, but for a friend,and I am now left with the impression that the designer, the man who actually creates new models "out. of his own head," is mighty poorly paid. Expected to have the thorough practical knowledge of a machinist, a pattern-maker, a foundry-man, a coach-builder, a blacksmith, and a fitter and erector, to be clever with his instruments and to have more than a smattering of a dozen sciences, offers to consider his application for employment, if unmarried, not over 35, etc., etc., will, I frequently note, he considered, at a salary of, perhaps, 45s. a week—the %%ages of an ordinary mechanic and much less than the earnings of many a cab driver. Advertisements of such princely openings, in our own industry, generally insist that applicants must be thoroughly familiar with commercial-vehicle design, and an interview will generally show him that his chances of a job are meagre if he cannot transmit the details of some rival manufacturer's chassis. I know, only too well, that there's a lot of difference between designeis and draughtsmen, but, granted the distinction, if knowledge of commercial-vehicle design is demanded, the advertiser wants a designer and not a draughtsman. More often than not, he, in effect, advertises for a designer at a draughtsman's pittance. No wonder that seldom does a man want to "stick to the board " there's no career for him, and more often than not, he's turned off directly business slacks, just like any other hand. The draughtsmen certainly, as anyone with knowledge of works routine will admit, get all the kicks—and considering their training requirements, precious few of the ha'pence. There's no trade union for them because they all hope to get out of it somehow as soon as possible. I did myself, so I know : I'm rather of opinion that this country misses much designing ability, because suitable men are not tempted with a career.
No Use for the Fool-proof.
I suppose if I suggest that. I'm not a believer in the fool-proof machine as a general proposal, I shall run my head up against something rather hard. I cannot agree with the policy which suggests that an owner should put any fool to drive his motorvan. It takes a good man to drive a good machine to the best advantage; but it needs a much better one to make a good showing with a bad one. A poor driver will wreck any machine in time, good or bad, but there probably isn't much left for him to hurt on a bad one, so that it may matter less. Foolproofness, I find, invariably means complexity. I prefer the last word in chassis simplicity and a few shillings a week more for the driver.
"Wait Till There's a Bus A-coming": Some of us have, no doubt, read Mr. Kendall's statistics, on behalf of Scotland Yard, which were given to the London Traffic Committee of the House of Commons last week. What stuck me particularly, in glancing through them, was the number of accidents to children. Probably what scares the average motor driver most of all, whether he be at the wheel of a bus or car, a steam wagon or a limousine, is the insane game of " last man over," which is still played with zest, in these automobile days, just as it was played by some of us as schoolboys, when there was little faster on the road than a fire engine. With London's education rate up another Lid., we still do not seem to have succeeded in teaching urchins reasonable behaviour in the streets. A glaring instance of this innate devilment in youngsters—I can call it nothing else—came to my notice a little while back. Passing down a. busy tram and bus crowded street the other day, I saw four hatless ragamuffins standing on an island in the middle of the highway presumably waiting to cross. There was temporarily a long gap in the traffic, but they made no effort to move. Suspecting nervousness. I started to go across to see them safely over. As I got near to them, I heard the eldest—about ten—call out to the others, as she clutched them back, " No, not nah I Let's wait till there's a bus ascomin'1" As by that time I had reached them, they didn't wait till there was
a bus a-comin.' " I saw to that rather angrily. I realized then why these untaught youngsters are such a nightmare to the driver-and why those statistics have such sad reading.