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That was the year...
Page 13
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CM was launched in 1905; for our centenary year we're bringing you stories from years gone by. This week we're back in 1906 and 1956.
1906
Patents
"THE HUNSLET ENGINE COMPANY of Leeds has obtained Letters Patent for a resilient wooden wheel for which the following advantages are claimed:A perfect grip on greasy roads:great resiliency...a long service life:and easily renewable parts, which only have to be replaced after long use.
Drivers
"It is the essence of bad driving to make excessive use of the brakes:in short, the man who drives his vehicle through traffic in a series of rushes,successively checked by plunging demands upon his brakes, is anything but a driver. London cabmen know how to drive horses...Why should their promotion to the rank and prestige of motormen reduce them to the comparative inferiority of a Paris cocher or a Berlin kutcher?"
Congestion
Boston, referred to as "London's American prototype" was reported to have an average traffic speed of "seldom more than 2mph", which "should convince those who wish to see electric tramcars passing through the City of London that such a system would be entirely out of place... Central London's only hope is the perfection of motor transport... Arguments three years old are valueless."
Roads
'A very practical system of waterproofing a road is to paint the surface by hand with distilled tar. This has been carried out in several parts of the country with considerable success, but notably in Kent and Surrey."
1956
Tankers
"Mr Herbert Crow M Inst T. director of Crow Carrying Co, quoted a case in which he permitted caustic soda to be loaded into a mild-steel tank. Disaster soon followed, because the outlet valves were of light alloy.The valves disintegrated and the load leaked away..."
Buses
"A small boy boarded one of Sheffield's pay-as-you-go buses on Friday,April 13, and put 2s 6d into the box instead of a penny. He was very upset because it was his mother's coin. But it was not such an unlucky day after all,for the driver had a bright idea. He let the lad stand at the front of the bus and collect the fares from passengers entering until he had received all his change."
Technology
"Packages are often received by a customer with the outer casing apparently undamaged, but the contents broken...A device, the Latco shock recorder,is now being marketed byA Latter and Co, Croydon,which will show if the package has suffered a shock severe enough to damage its contents It consists of two flat leaf springs, one of which has a hole near the end in which rests a small steel ball held by the other spring..."
Operation
"A practical fitment for the Albion Chieftain chassis, which calls for no structural alterations, is a combined bumper and towing bar. It has been designed and fitted in the workshops of the operators, Road Services (Forth), Mungalend.Falkirk."