Passing Comments
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CONSIDERABLE importance attaches to the scheme of collective publicity in favour of motorcoach travel, the cost to be spread as widely and as fairly as passible over the whole motor-coach industry. Publicity of this general foi-m, provided it is well done, has proved its value in producing a national interest or consciousness in a particular direction. It is not until now that motor-coach operation has been sufficiently well organized for such a step to be possible, and it is to be hoped that the difficulties in the way may be surmounted. WHILST commending the enterprise of operators who have installed wireless-receiving equipment in their coaches, we have always reserved judgment on its safety, from the point of view of concentration on driving. In New York the police have ordered the removal of radio sets from about 15,000 taxicabs on the ground that they cause "a public nuisance" and divert the attention of drivers. It is said that
100,000 have been invested in the installation of wireless apparatus in the taxicabs: and the facility has been much appreciated by the public.
THE Morris-Commercial vans which Imperial .Chemical Industries, Ltd., uses for delivering Drikold (blocks of solid carbon dioxide at about. 140 degrees below freezing point), are becoming a familiar sight in the London area, and in this wintry weather the Penguin trade-mark reminds us that several trades have need of refrigeration at all times of the year.
Drikold distribution from the Billingham works is developing promisingly.
I N the proposed effort to obtain public sympathy for road passenger transport by means of co-operative publicity, the possibilities of radio advertising should not be overlooked by the promoters. This form of publicity is already being employed for road transport, and on a recent Sunday we heard an announcement broadcast from Radio Normandie on behalf of Black and White Motorways, Ltd. Incidentally, Mr. H. R. Lapper, general manager of the company, deserves congratulations for his enterprise.
GOODWILL is the spirit that all should radiate at \--ithis particular season of the year, and an important reflection is that those actively concerned in the automobile industry, particularly the road-transport group, have earned a reputation for camaraderie which many another section of the world's workers might well envy. It is to be hoped that this valuable asset to our industry may never flag. A happy augury is the strength of this spirit in the air-transport business, which is virtually an international brotherhood. ACCORDING to the Scandinavian expert in bus. operation, Mr. Thor Lange, producer-gas vehicles are, from the point of view of economy, second only to oilers. He considers that the former type of machine is, however, not yet suitable for passenger service in cities, and its radius of operation is too limited. Moreover, the producer equipment encroaches upon the passenger accommodation, or, if placed outside, interrupts the driver's vision.
M ANY improvements have been made in the bigiviend bearings of oil engines, in which, of course, the stresses are sometimes considerably greater than in corresponding petrol units. One particularly interesting arrangement is that adopted in the A.E.C. engine, in which the upper half bearing is of leadbronze and the lower of white metal. Thus in the unlikely event of a seizure occurring, the white metal -would run and free the bearing, thereby reducing the risk of further damage.
GIVEN fair weather conditions, practically every • --.1 person who once makes a journey by air becomes enthusiastic concerning this form of transport. We have noted this fact on a number of occasions, and On a recent trip from Bristol to Cardiff in a Dragon machine of Norman Edgar Western Airways, Ltd., all the six passengers, some of -whom had never travelled in this way before, declared that they would again "take the air" at the earliest opportunity. Probably the most enthusiastic passenger was an elderly man who was making his maiden flight