Petty Informing in Passenger Transport
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SINCE the introduction of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, a distasteful practice has developed in certain sections of the road passenger-transport industry. We refer to the action of some operators of assuming the function of common informer to the Traffic Commissioners against their competitors. Whilst, in certain cases, such a procedure may be necessary, there are still instances of petty informing that should have been left behind in the preparatory school.
Some of the Traffic Commissioners have referred to this matter in their annual reports. If a coach or bus operator be found to be guilty of a --misdemeanour that interferes with the business of a competitor, the latter should draw the attention of the offender to the irregularity. If this reasonL B17 able warning be ignored, then should the aggrieved party complain to the Commissioners.
On a recent occasion, at a sitting of Traffic Commissioners, an operator submitted a rival to a lengthy and detailed cross-examination concerning certain of his operations. The interrogating party had, however, himself been guilty of certain irregularities, of which the CommisConers were aware. The remarks of the licensing authorities on the subject made it clear that the objector had .by no means improved his case by his assumed righteousness.
The wise business man cultivates friendliness with his competitors, realizing that hostile rivals are the more dangerous. If only for this reason, the operators concerned should endeavour to settle their smaller differences in an amicable manner.
An Early Thermo-dynamic Law Enlarged
IN hot weather we refrain from wearing dark clothes and sometimes whitewash the roofs of our buildings; not because we are anxious about the exhaustion of the sun's heat, but in order to keep ourselves cool. Whether the practice contributes towards the conservation of solar energy or not is probably beyond even the powers of our scientists to decide.
Putting, in the place of ourselves, the engine cooling water, and, for The sun, the explosion in the cylinder, we can compare the whitewash with the layer of aluminium that, when sprayed on to the roof of the combustion chamber, affords, according to a technical authority, a similar hindrance to heat transference, with a marked improvement in the efficiency of the power unit.
It is too early yet to predict with any security what the results of this discovery are likely to be, but there seems some justification for regarding it as a distinct advance in the development of the internal-combustion engine. Nearly a hundred years ago the practice of compressing the charge before ignition was introduced, whilst it was only a little later that the importance of reducing the area of the combustion-chamber walls was appreciated and a law laid down, by a prominent scientist of the time, to that effect, the object, then as now, being to prevent excessive loss of heat. However, this aluminium-spraying innovation seems to be the first successful attempt to go farther by treating, for the same purpose, the exposed surface.
Returning to our analogy, the "efficiency of the whitewash is, of course, sadly impaired by a• deposit of soot from the neighbouring chimneys, but, according to the explanation of the phenomenon in connection with the aluminium coating, the corresponding carbon deposit does not have like consequences.