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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 1918 and 1968.
The German fleet mutinied; Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated and fled to Holland — the Armistice was finally signed at the I Ph hour of the 11'" day of the 1 1 1' month though the war didn't technically end until the following summer. Max Planck, the father of quantum physics, won the Nobel Prize for Physics. An influenza 'pandemic' broke out that was to kill more than 20 million people.
Counting horses
In those simpler times CM published diagrams and instructions for the construction of a brake tester as "it is frequently found desirable to ascertain the exact horsepower of an engine after tuning up in a repair shop".
Trucks go better with coke We reported: -As regards certain foodstuffs, it would appear that the problem of transport is about to solve itself, inasmuch as those foodstuffs are rapidly becoming non-existent." But an alternative fuel was suggested for the nation's lorries: coke. Factories were producing "artificial manure-, "and it is expected that no less than 4,000 tons of coke per day will be available as a by-product".
'Beat our swords into ploughshares...'
Under the heading "Lessons from the War: the evolution of the ideal commercial motor" readers were told:"The war. in spite of its many and evident evils, has produced at least some good. In the sphere of mechanical engineering such progress has been made over the last three years as would probably not have been equalled in double that period under normal conditions." It was a busy year for movies, including The Graduate, Planet of the Apes, Rosemary:5 Baby, The Jungle Book and, from the Beatles, Yellow Submarine. French students took to the streets as the summer of love was followed by the summer of rioting. Martin Luther King was assassinated; 'Tricky Dicky' Nixon became US president, claiming he had a secret plan to end the Vietnam War.
Testing times
"Although driving tests for heavy goods vehicle drivers will not become obligatory until January 11969, the Ministry of Transport told CM this week that it hoped to have tests available on a voluntary basis by July 1."
Looking forward
In a series of interviews with leading CV engineers on 'The Next Ten Years' we highlighted hydrostatic transmission which "eliminates the need for a clutch, gearbox, driveshafts, axle, differential and service brakes".
Drivers not 'road pilots'
An IRTE seminar focused on the new science of ergonomics, "a technique of fitting a machine to a man". Leyland's chief body engineer "did not agree with the US-Ford opinion that driving lorries in the future would be like piloting aircraft". He suggested warning lights and buzzers were less distracting than "rows and rows of dials" and claimed that "the road-pilot attitude was an American one which had arisen from the desire of the US drivers' Teamsters Union to improve their prestige. For this reason they did not want lorries simplified."