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DEMONSTRATION AND ROAD TESTS OF THE SMITH-KING PARAFFIN-PETROL CARBURETTER.

20th July 1916, Page 5
20th July 1916
Page 5
Page 5, 20th July 1916 — DEMONSTRATION AND ROAD TESTS OF THE SMITH-KING PARAFFIN-PETROL CARBURETTER.
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Thursday last, the 13th inst. was chosen by Smith and Sons (M.A.), Ltd., 179-185, Great Portland Street, W.' in conjunction with Mr. Lawrence King, the, patentee, to hold a demonstration of the SmithKing paraffin carburetter, which we describe in this issue on page 422. The demonstration was to be made on two commercial vehicles loaded approximately at their rated capacities, and they were to travel via Hammersmith, Kingston, Esher and Leatherhead to Burford Bridge, where the party were to take lunch. On the official invitation, the time of departure was stated to be 10 a.m., and 'we were requested to be prompt. We complied with this wish, although from past experience, we had our doubts as to the probable degree of punctuality of the start, and were discovered in Great Portland Street incompany with a number of other representatives of-the Press as well as several friends-prominent in the motoring industry at the appointed time.

The lorries were both of American manufacture, one being that well-known machine, the two-ton Burford ; the other one is as yet known but to one or two of our readers by name alone as the Clydesdale. Both machines were loaded,the one with sand, the other with 56 lb. weights, and provided with scats, so that .passengers could be carried behind the cab as well as on the seats besides the driver. Quite a flotilla of touring cars were in attendance, and guests had the choice of lorry or car in which to make the journey. The majority of them—ourselves amongst the number—preferred to do a portion of the journey by lorry, particularly through the traffic-crowded streets, so as to be able to watch carefully the performance of the machines on the paraffin fuel under these arduous conditions. Occasion was taken later on in the day'to transfer to touring cars as opportunity offered, so as to drive behind and before the lorries, and be thus in a position to prove or disprove the presence of obnoxious fumes from the exhausts. By reference to the principle of the carburetter as explained in our article describing it, it will be understood that two at least of the troubles usually met with when paraffin is used are eliminated; one, thatsof starting up from cold, we had not the pleasure of discussing on this occasion, as the chassis only arrived at Great Portland Street after a short jour ney from the company's garage ; the other, that of slow running on

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top gear n , traffic, we had early opportunities of watching, and the performance of the lorries in this respect was all that could be desired. The acceleration after a

traffic stop also compared favourably with the allpetrol driven vehicle.

The run to Burford Bridge—many of our readers will-know it, as it is a favourite one—is through giveand-take country, and there are several sharp, bends on hilly stretches to be encountered. one of these gave either of the machines any difficulty • indeed, both the Burford and the Clydesdale, loaded as they were practically to their rated capacity, behaved throughout the 46 miles of theround ' journey in an exemplary manner. We had fixed in our minds that, given circumstances slightly favourable to such a 'proceeding, the engine would be very liable to knock, and We were agreeably surprised to find that, confronted with conditions which would nine times out of ten cause a petrol engine to knock fiercely, neither machine

could beemade to " At the end of a long climb and after a lot of unnatural treatment our part with the idea of -cansing a knock, there Was no sign of over-heating. On the whole, the .attachment behaved remarkably well, and to anyone not in the'seeret it would have seemed that,. petrol only was being used ; it may be as well, by the way, if we remark here that we ascertained that the fuel in the paraffin tank was paraffin. An. oft-raised , cry when the use of paraffin has been fore-shadowed has been that Considerable inconvenience would be caused by the

noxious fumes from theexhaust.In -general, throughout the day," we did not experience anything Of the kind, and the coneensus of opinion amongst the people present was

that there was, if anything, less smell than arises from a petroldriven machine.In order thoroughly to test this for ourselves, however, we persuaded the owner of a small low-built two-seater car to put his screen down, with the hood up, and in the car. so arranged we drove for several miles close behind one of the lorries. Our position was such that if there had been any obnoxious vapours, we should have caught the :full benefit of them; we can place on record that nothing but the faintest smell was observable. As concerning this point, 'a humorous wayside incident will perhaps serve to indicate the relative merits of the petrol and paraffin-driven machines. A driver of one of the ears, a Singer, had been, to put it mildly, well lubricating it. A passer-by observing the placards on the lorries but without discovering any cause for offence from the exhaust of either of them, caught the full blast of the exhaust from the Singer, and was heard to remark : "Well, if that is the result of using paraffin, I think it ought to be stopped." Needless to say, the Singer was being driven on petrol, and petrol alone.

On the whole, the demonstration may be said to have gone off very satisfactorily indeed. Everybody seemed thoroughly pleased with the results, including Mr. Gordon Smith and Mr. Nichol, directors of Smith and Sons (M.A.), Ltd., Mr. King, the patentee, and Mr. Burford, on one of whose lorries the test was being made. Mr. Spiller, the inventor of the Smith carburetter, was also present, besides several other trade representativesand members of "the Press."


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