Inexpert Judges.
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Sir E. R. Henry's system of reference to a " Noise Committee "is, in principle, a satisfactory method of procedure, but his good intentions are, we regret to say, vitiated by the altogether anomalous decisions of the members of that Committee. The position is one which hovers between the serious and the ludicrous, so very strange are some of the proceedings. We are at a loss to understand, exactly, why each individual motorbus should have to undergo examination, having regard to the prior, exhaustive, detailed submission of the type. New Scotland Yard, after the due exercise of every reasonable precaution in respect of a representative chassis, approves a type as such, and we should have thought the public would be protected, adequately, against the risk of undue noise, by means of " stop " notices. It is probable, however, that the stop-notice provisions are intended to apply, only, to instances where adjustment is at fault, or where excessive wear has occurred, and, if that view is correct, we conceive it to be the intention of Sir E. R. Henry that the Wimbledon-Common excursions, which cost so much time and money, should be limited to the detection of what we may term " organic " faults, i.e., those due to defective parts. If not, and if members of the " Noise Committee," or any two of them who may be present, are justified in "turning down" a vehicle for want of some small, and obvious, lack of adjustment, there is unnecessary overlapping, because the detection of such minor irregularities is, already, undertaken by the staff of inspectors in the streets of the Metropolis. We are the last to suggest any excuses for the operating cornpatties, if any vehicle is brought up before the " Noise Committee " with a smoky exhaust, rattling brake-blocks, or one cylinder "missing." But we demur to the view that it is any part of the instructions of the " Noise Committee " to require such a vehicle to make, after a period of enforced idleness, a second, expensive trip to Wimbledon Common. Cannot Superintendent Bass= suggest a middle course?
If a motorbus is, essentially, fit to take up its work, any incidental fault, such as may occur, from day to day, in service, and which, in those circumstances, would be put right at the end of the next journey, can, hardly, be looked upon as a question of " noise," or of construction, which more important matters, we take it, are the ones as to which the " Noise Committee" is the executive body. It savours of killing a mouse with a sledge-hammer, to take up so much time, and distance, over mere details.
Discouraged ?
Success, that alluring yet elusive prospect, has seemed to be within the grasp of several manufacturers who have essayed to tread the exacting path of trade in commercial motors. Months, nay years, of experiment have, for many of our British pioneers, been succeeded by as long a period in which only trial orders have resulted, and, worried by anxieties as to the future, the maker, whose order books have been bare while woeful tales have preponderated in his correspondence, must, very often, have asked himself the question—where is the silver lining? The Liverpool SelfPropelled Traffic Association's second series of trials, in 1899, gave the deserved ascendancy to one star, that of Thornycroft, whilst the same Association's third series of trials, in 1901, demonstrated the merits of Milnes-Daimler, Coulthard, Leyland, Mann, and, again, of Thornycroft. History shows that much immediate good followed; at least, from the manufacturers' point of view. Orders poured in upon the successful competitors, some of whom were unable to deliver, and the fall of the year Igo' saw a brisk demand for all types of utility vehicles, which state of activity lasted some eighteen months. Then came the long, trying, and, apparently, endless period of waiting, to which we have referred, and this first spell of depression caused more than one maker to relinquish competition : they had neither the taste nor the tenacity to enable them to stick to so uphill a task, and they either sought new fields, or disappeared. It was argued by some clever people, about this stage in the progress of commercial motoring, i.e., in the year 1903, that the " cause was lost." One heard that success was beyond achievement ; that, whilst rich people might continue to run private cars, the heavy motorcar was a failure. We feel, in looking back to those days, that some justification for such discouraging, gloomy, dispiriting views did exist : we are proud to think, that there were men in the motor industry who resolved to come through. The Heavy Motorcar Order, of 1904, gave a new lease of life to the adherents of the business section. A few, indeed, thought that all their troubles were at an end, when the tare limit for steam wagons was raised by two tons, and when the speed limit of five miles an hour for double-deck motorbuses was abolished. The year 1905, as a direct result of these improvements in the Law, witnessed a revival of sales, or, rather, a fresh development, for, whilst there was a marked increase in orders for steam wagons and tractors, the motorbus problem was not, very seriously, attacked until some two years ago. All looked rosy then. Orders were placed by the hundred, and anybody with a so-called motorbus chassis was able, during a few months of feverish " cornering," to effect sales. We will not quote from our repeated warnings that trouble and difficulty must ensue, but we will turn to facts as they are to-day.
There is a well-known proverbial saying, impressed during one's school days, and this ends—" pluck lost, all lost." No admonition could, more aptly, fit the situation in London, as regards motorbuses. Two drastic changes in the police conditions for the obtaining of licenses, and .a " Noise Committee " whose members are insufficiently expert to ascribe noises from new chassis to the proper cauee, have rendered the lives of makers, operating engineers, and proprietors anything but happy. Strenuous times, it is true, are, or should be, expected by all who are associated with any new, large-scale, development, such as the substitution of mechanical for horsed transport in a great city, and that such experiences are, now, being undergone is evident. Little more than a year of the campaign has sent two makers into liquidation, has forced a third out of the business, and has caused two operating companies to seek a means of burying their accounts in oblivion, whilst several actions-atlaw are down for hearing, one of which threatens to be a cause celebre.
Nobody can deny that all this is discouraging ; yet, notwithstanding the troublous side of the story, there are bright features as well. The most encouraging fact is, that not a single omnibus company has, no matter how great its early trials with the motorbus, any intention to give up the mechanical vehicle, and to revert to horse haulage : the public demand for the motorbus is admitted by everybody. A second fact, of equal importance, is, that only a few makers have experienced serious trouble with the authorities : this proves that, minor grievances as to particular rulings apart, New Scotland Yard, though possessed of autocratic powers, is not the unreasonable, impossible, ignorant, and prejudiced department which, to some, it has appeared. Next, as to the business that has, yet, to be placed, there can be no two opinions : the disturbing influences of the last six months have not altered the fact that London can absorb a total of 5,000 motorbuses. There may be cause for discouragement ; but that very element, if parallels in other industries have any lessons for the motor-omnibus world, should bring to the front those who have in them the qualities to justify their survival. The steam-wagon branch of the industry passed, successfully, through similar days of suspense; yet, how does it stand to-day? The great majority of the pioneer builders are, still, in the trade, and doing an increasing business, whilst newcomers arc finding it possible, and remunerative, to step into the ranks. Let motorbus manufacturers console themselves in this knowledge, and, until London recovers from the present pause for digestion, let them bear in mind the fact that there is trade to be done in the Provinces, the Colonies, and in foreign countries. We do not infer that no more orders will be placed in London, because that would be contrary to fact : our aim is to point out that other markets exist. These very considerable markets will demand increasing attention, and an " All-World, Motorbus " special issue of " TI1E COMMERCIAL NIOTOR " will be devoted to them. Arrangements have been made for this to appear in June, and further announcements will, in due course, be made as to its scope and contents. We should like to repeat, and to emphasise, at the present juncture of events, in leaving this brief critique upon the question of the possible discouragement of motor-omnibus manufacturers, our belief that many of the existing difficulties spring from the disgraceful condition of our London streets. Mr, Worby Beaumont, in his paper of Monday last, which is printed at length in another part of this issue, reiterated his conviction
that the road problem is accountable for a large number of present-day difficulties. Cannot the Motor Van, Wagon, and Omnibus Users' Association, or the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, persevere with the necessary steps to lay before the Borough Engineers of London the necessity of, and the absolute reasonableness of the demand for, more suitable methods of street-cleansing in relation to the ever-increasing ratio of mechanical to horse-drawn
traffic? Once there is an intelligent move-in that direction, the business of the last two years will, legitimately, be eclipsed ninny times over, and orders will be plentiful.
Uniform Acceleration.
Recent papers have brought to the front the important hearing of acceleration upon operating problems in the motor omnibus world. It has been appreciated for some years, though in a dim and hazy manner, that the step gear of the standard petrol vehicle leaves too much to the per
sonal qualities of the driver ; but, in the presence of so many other imperfections, purchasers have not been insistent as regards the provision of a reliable, and automatic, means of ensuring uniform acceleration, both from rest and from velocity to velocity. Methods for securing a gradual curve for successive increments of speed are, at last, asserting their claims to attention from constructors of comarreial motors in which the internal-combustion engine finds a place. The precedents of steam and electric traction on rails go to prove that such a refinement in road-vehicle design is bound to come, and our present references are prompted by that knowledge, as much as by the inherent interest which the study of this subject possesses.
We received, last week, from the British Thomson-Houston Company, two interesting sets of acceleration records, which were obtained with chassis of similar power, but of dissimilar connections from engine to road wheels. The results, which are set out on page 56I of this issue, will, in all probability, give rise to much discussion, whilst they should not fail, also, to deepen a spirit of emulation among the makers of different petrol-electric systems of transmission, An examination of these curves shows, that, with an ordinary gear-box, a vehicle was found, in the particular experiment, to take as much as ten seconds before it had attained a speed of ten miles per hour, whereas, with a certain petrol-electric combination, and without the use of secondere cells, another vehicle, under equal conditions, was found to require only el seconds to reach the speed named. This greater rapidity in the getting-up of speed, if viewed from the standpoint of time alone, might mean, for all stoppages and siackenings in the daily work of a motorbus, nothing more important than a total gain of some 6o minutes per unit, which economy, in itself, be it noted, is enough to allow the performance of another to miles of running : brut there is much that lies behind the more obvious considerations of time and extra mileage.
Real smoothness of starting, and uniform adaptation of the propulsive force to the increasing speed of the vehicle, can be obtained, by electric or hydraulic methods, with certainty: these desiderata can, in fact, be guaranteed to assert their presence, time after time, with but little dependence on the driver. The man must, it is true, travel his control switch from contact to contact, but, once he has carried out the small movements of the lever which are involved, the manner and degree of functional execution are not subject to the personal equation. If he moves the lever, the machine, whether the transmission be electric or hydraulic, does the rest : there are no questions of clumsy foot-work on a mechanical clutch, of slowness in engaging the gears, of violent jerkings for passengers, or of undue stresses upon the tires, This question of smooth and uniform acceleration should possess, then, the greatest interest for proprietors of large numbers of road motors of all classes. It will appeal, naturally, to a motorbus company, more than to the owner who is concerned with a less extensive rollingstock, and who is not confronted by the difficulties which are inseparable from the provision of a very large number of drivers. It promises, too, a big saving in tire bills.
There can, of course, be too much of even a good thing, and we must hope that no arrangements for the better starting, and quicker acceleration, of a motorbus will rival those of a certain electric railway which, during the year Igor, in order to combat electric-tramcar competition, augmented the means of initial acceleration on its trains to such a point that, putting to shame the fiercest of leather-faced clutches, upon a road motor, entering passengers experi enced the greatest difficulty in keeping their feet The initial acceleration, for the first two seconds, was al the rate of four feet per second per second. Now, it is by no means uncommon for an electric train to acquire a speed of to miles an hour in its first to seconds of motion, and the rate of acceleration necessary to give this, viz., qi foot per second per second, is common in England; and, for motorbus service, we shall have to be content, having regard to imposed relations between power and load, with but little higher rates. Nobody should grumble, if a motorbus can., regularly, as has been found possible in the course of the British Thomson-Houston Company's trials, reach a speed of to miles per hour in eel, seconds, or, at the rate of two feet per second per second, and in so short a dis
tance as 21 yards. The A.C.G.B.I. will be doing a most useful service, if, as part of the competition for commercial motors, which, it is announced, is to be postponed until the month of November, a series of acceleration tests for public-service vehicles is incorporated with the scheme.