News and Comment.
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This journal fosters, represents, and chronicles commercial motoring in all its branches: our regular weekly circulation exceeds 81000 copies, exclusive of any extra mailings of special issues.
Upwards of 3,000 copies of this issue are being posted to tramway and railkvay managers in all parts of the World, in accordance with our announcements ).# February last.
Mr. Edward Manville, M.I.E.E., Chairman of the Daimler Motor Company (1904), Limited, and of the Car and General Insurance Corporation, Limited, has been elected President of he Society of Motor Manfacturers and fraders. Mr. J. Davenport Siddeiey, '..iieneral Manager of the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company, Limited, has been elected Honorary Treasurer for the ensuing year, and Mr. Raymond Dennis, a director of Dennis Brothers, Limited, of Guildford, has been elected a member of the council in succession to the late Mr. Alexander Govan, of Argyll Motors, Limited. Mr. Sidney Straker, A.M.I.C.E., M.I.Mech.E., the Chairman of Sidney Straker and Squire, Limited, who has been President for the Society for three years, is to receive a presentation in recognition of his valuable services, and a sum of 500 guineas has been voted for the making of a suitable purchase.
The Reading Meet.
Notwithstandinnthe success which has attended the first provincial meet of commercial motors (see pages 389 and 390), the question of the organisation of a further meet is in abeyance. Any likelihood of a clashing with the R.A.C. Trials has to be considered, and the difficulty of carrying on the organisa. tion solely by means of honorary officers is realised. It is not improbable, for these reasons, that no further meet will take place before next spring, and that a programme will then be arranged under the more direct auspices of the Commercial Motor Users' Association, with the retention of a joint executive committee of manufacturers and users.
Mr. Julian A. Halford, managing director of Commercial Cars, Limited, made an interesting offer during the afternoon, as did two other manufacturers. Mr. Haiford expressed his willingness for the 3611.p., 31-ton van to be taken there and then out of the market-place, given a full load, and sent to any part of Great Britain. It is a pity, in some senses, that Mr.
ford's suggestion was not adopted, and we must hope that he will find the R.A.C. Trials of September next a fitting opportunity for such publicity. One provincial show each at Manchester, Du.blin, and Edinburgh will receive the approval and official support of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
The New York Motor Cab Company, Limited, has been registered with an authorised capital of A;303,000, divided into 300,000 preferred and participating shares of Li each, and 6o,000 deferred shares of is. each.
Warning to Motorcab Drivers.
Drivers of motorcabs should beware of a police trap which is often set in the Outer Circle of Regent's Park, in the neighbourhood of York Gate. This trap is in operation at all hours of the day, and was being operated by the police at midnight on the 13th instant. The trap is worked by means of a lantern, which appears to its to be a most unreliable system of signalling. The speed in Regent's Park, and in all other Royal Parks, is io miles per hour.
A Valuable Reference.
The series of " Useful Charts and Tables," which appeared in this journal during the early part of the present year, prepared by Geo. W. Watson, M.I.A.E, A.M.I.Mech.E. (of the Editorial Staff of " THE CommE.Rom. MoTott "), have now been reprinted and mounted in the form of a neat wall hanger. The cover is cloth-mounted and varnished, and its bottom edge is bound and weighted by means of a brass strip. A similar brass strip binds the set of eight sheets together, in a handy form, easy for reference. Draughtsmen and others interested in the design of motor vehicles will find this series useful and accurate : the charts are based on formube which have been well tried and which have proved to give correct results. The price is 2S. 6d. each sets may be obtained from the offices of this paper (post free, in the United Kingdom, 35.).
R.A.C. Trials' Organisation.
The important trials which are to begin on Monday, the 9th September next, from Brentford, should unquestionably receive the whole-hearted support of the motor industry. Nothing can be gained from abstention, whilst much may be lost by the adoption of that course. The first stopping-place will be Reading, arid the subsequent halts will be :—Hungerford, Chippenham, Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, Birmingham, Stafford, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Manchester, Liverpool, Manchester (second visit), Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield, Mansfield, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton, Bedford, St. Albans, and London. There will, therefore, be 22 running days, which means that the mileage in the first class (A) will reach as much as 1,540 miles, and will fall as low as 66o miles in the heaviest classes (F, G, and H).
It is intended that all the vehicles shall be started from common centres each morning, and that plan involves the introduction of different routes between any two depots, a procedure-which, whilst it possesses the advantage of lessening the risk of road damage or dislocation of other traffic on the highways, invnlves a little more work in the mapping-out of the routes. Exhibitions are to be held at Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham and Bed_ ford, in each of which towns the vehicles will remain for two nights, and it is intended to ask the Lord Mayor or Mayor, as the case may be, to open the exhibition in each place.
The Club's arrangements and appointments in connection with the organisation of the competition are : Abbreviated telegraphic address, " Distinctly, London."
Telephone Number, " Mayfair, 63 P.O."
Special office for trials, ro8, Piccadilly, 1.V.
Organising secretary, Mr. J. W. Orde (Secretary, R.A.C.), Routes, Mr. E. A. Greathed.
Hotels, motor house accommodation and exhibitions, Mr. Martin Duncan.
Observers' instructions, etc., Mr. R. W. Sprague,
Observers' records and reports, Mr. J. Stewart Mallarn, C.A.
Press secretary, Mr. Fowler Dixon, Upine, Prefet of the Paris Police, is about to submit to the approval of M. Selves, Prefet of the Seine, a new scale of charges applicable to Paris taximeter motorcabs. The need for a uniform tariff has long been felt, and the change will be welcomed by the public.
Automobile Engineers.
The adjourned discussion on Professor Callender's paper on " The Effect of Size an the Thermal Efficiency of Motors " was resumed before the members of the Institution of Automobile Engineers, at the seventh meeting of the session, held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Storey's Gate, S.W., on Wednesday evening, the 12th instant. In the absence of Col. Crompton, who presided at the previous meet
ing, the chair was taken, at 8 o'clock, by Mr. Dugald Clerk. The principal contribution to the discussion was a lengthy criticism by Mr. F. W. Lanchester, in which he suggested that the Gas Engine Research Committee of the Institution of Civil Engineers should undertake a series of experiments on engines of exact similarity, but of different sizes, in order to check the theory of heat losses which had been advanced. Amongst other points raised timing the course of the discussion, in which Messrs. House, Watson, P uI i nger, Smith, and Martineau took part, was the observed fact that, whilst decidedly more efficient, the pocketless engine is not nearly so flexible as an engine in which the valves are arranged in pockets. The question was lightly touched upon by Mr. M. O'Gorman at the original meeting, and was raised :Li
the adjourned discussion by Mr. Geo. W. Watson, who gave the results of his own observations. Messrs. Pullinger, Martineau, and D. J. Smith also spoke on this point, the latter suggesting that it was a matter of such importance that IL might reasonably form the subject of a special paper. " Compression Ratio, and How Measured" was another topic for discussion.
Professor Callender, in replying, regretted that he had had so little opporttmity to digest Mr. Lanchester's
cism : he was not, therefore, in a position to reply to it so fully as he might have done, had the criticism been avail. able before that day. The Professor was in agreement with Messrs. O'Gorman and Watson, and gave as his explanation that small quantities of gas are retained in the pockets for a brief space of time after the initial explosion.