Recollections of an Early Vehicle Trial.
Page 17
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By "Observer.'
The Editor is probably technically correct in speaking ot the Lancashire Steam Motor Company's van, which was shown at the Royal Agricultural Society's meeting in June, 1897, as being the first commercial vehicle which ran in a trial in this country. There were, however, other earlier trials arranged in England, although it is true that the vehicles did not officially go out on the roads. All those who were interested in the automobile movement in 1897 will remember the competition organised by the " Engineer " in that year. Prizes amounting to 1,100 guineas in all were offered for the most successful vehicles, and there were five classes, of which one class was for petrol vehicles. The judges, at that time, had not much data to base their rules on, and the strength of the parts of a motorcar, and the consequent weight necessary to withstand the shocks of a road, was not realised. The entries were numerous, there being 72. It is interesting to note that the firms which entered cars included Thornycroft's, Clarkson and Cape!, the Lancashire Steam Motor Co., and Coulthard's. The lastnamed firm entered a vehicle in the supplementary class for light spirit cars, and their recent move in constructing petrol-driven lorries is therefore only a return to the type of motor they evidently first intended dealing with. The judges were representative engineers and consisted of the late Sir Frederick Bramwell, Mr. J. A. F. Aspinall, now general manager of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and the late Dr. John Hopkinson, whilst Mr. Graham Harris, Sir Frederick Bramwell's partner, was honorary secretary. The vehicles were to assemble at the Crystal Palace, and, after preliminary runs in the grounds, were, on the morning of June 1st, to start for a trial run to Birmingham and back. They could make the journey by any route they chose, but a minimum speed of five miles an hour, including stoppages, was required on the computed distance, whilst no credit was to be given for any speed above to miles per hour. On their return the vehicles were to be opened up by the judges, who, in making awards, would consider to points which have roughly been followed in most succeeding competitions. Most of the rules were well thought out, and, as the entries were so promising, I went down to the Crystal Palace on the morning of Friday, May 281h, 1897., in high spirits, although not wholly satisfied with the weather. A large marquee had been erected in the grounds on the hill, but, alas, there was plenty of space in it but only few vehicles. The actual cars which were there and in running condition were six in number, whilst a seventh turned up in the course of the day. These were a lour-seated Petrocar and a two-seated Petrocycle by Roots and Venables, a Petter's heavy oil dog-cart by the Yeovil Motor Car Co., a Bushbury two-seated electric car by the Electric Construction Co., a 2i-3h.p. petrol car by Holroyd Smith, a Ith.p. Arnold petrol car by Cornell, and a Lifu " steam parcel van by the Liquid Fuel Engineering Co., of Cowes. It is hardly necessary to say that these vehicles were not all as perfect as they might have been and that the runs we had with them round the Palace grounds were not of a wholly satisfactory character. The paths themselves, in fact, were soft and heavy owing to recent rain, and this test proved very severe.
It will be noticed that only one of the cars was of a commercial character, and, strange to say, this was about the most successful vehicle present. This "Lifu " car was very similar to an ordinary one-ton horse-drawn parcel van without the shafts. The boiler, which was fixed in the body of the van behind the driver's seat, was a water tube one, of the type used on launches made by this firm, and worked at 23olb. per sq. in., being fired by any common petroleum. Pressure in the oil tank was maintained by a hand pump, and the oil forced through a vapouriser placed directly over the burner. Above this vapouriser was an igniter which consisted of firebrick in a small cast-iron box which allowed of the vapour being re-lighted if from any cause the flame went out. This acted satisfactorily and the only discernible smell was when the burner was turned down low. Like the Locomobile and other steam cars using petrol as fuel, a valve, automatically controlled by the steam pressure, regulated the size of the flame. The engine was a 12h.p. tandem compound one and placed just in front of the back axle; it drove the differential gear on the countershaft, at the ends of which were pinions working internal gear rings fastened to the driving wheels. The whole of this machinery was cased in, and the engine itself ran in oil. High-pressure steam could, when necessary, be used in all four cylinders. Two pumps were provided, one being worked by the engine and the other driven direct from the boiler, both being placed under the driver's scat. It will be seen that the car had many points which have been embodied in more recent vehicles, but the experience of the present day would have singled out the wheels as being weak, although at the time this was not a point which worried us at all. We were, in fact, far more concerned with the apparently large number of handles and valves which the designer and driver, Mr. H. A. House, jun., handled so dexterously. Here modern experience would show us that we were wrong, for with the exception of the hand pump, for maintaining pressure on the oil, all could be found on more than one modern steam vehicle. There was no mistake, however, about Mr. House's capacity for getting the most he. could out of the car, for if I remember rightly he took seven of us, in spite of the heavy state of the road, up one of the steepest hills he could find in the Palace grounds. Perhaps he himself questioned the " simplicity of control " of his vehicle, for he was the only driver who objected to my driving his car for him round the grounds. On Monday, June 1st, 1897, we were again at the Crystal Palace, wondering if we should be sent off towards Birmingham on a car. In the afternoon, however, the judges announced that they could not award any prize, but highly commended the " Lifu " van and the Bushbury electric car. It may be added that there were five classes; of these " C " was for a gross weight of two tons to carry one ton and " D " was for gross weight of one ton, with a carrying capacity of scwts.