Steam Wagons and the Cost of Coal.
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THE HE PRICE OF coal is, of course, the great topic of the moment. The contemplated increase of Gs. a ton is admittedly a serious matter, but there is a tendency in some quarter§ for natural uneasiness to degenerate into a positive panic, with the result that very undesirable and by no means aCeurate impressions are promulgated.
We have heard, for example, wild statements forecasting the early extinction of the steam vehicle using solid fuel. Supposing that a five-ton steam • lorry of normal type, working on fairly good roads, consumes 15 lb. of coal per 'mile, then one ton is consumed during a run of about 150 miles. _ An increase of 6s. a, ton in the cost of coal therefore means approximately an increase of a halfpenny a mile in running costs.
Now, if a five-ten petrol vehicle will cover about even miles to a gallon of fuel, then, in a run of 150 miles, the consumption is approximately 21 gallons.• The fuel costs of the two vehicles would then be equivalent in the event of 21 gallons of petrol costing the same as one ton of coal. If petrol costs 2s. 6d. a gallon, then the fuel bill of the steam vehicle would be smaller so • long as coal were obtainable at anything under about 50s. a ton. The price at 50s a ton would correspond to about 4d. a mile for the fuel bill. The price of half-a-crown a gallon for petrol would correspond to about fourpence-halfpenny a mile.
Assuming the steam Vehicle to work regularly tinder full useful load, an increase of 6s. a ton in the cost of coal would mean an increase of about onetenth of a penny per ton mile in the cost of haulage. No increase is desirable, but it would be absurd to argue that a rise from, say, 2.5 pence to 2.6 pence per ton mile would be sufficient to kill the prospects of a satisfactory and established type of machine.
All electrically-propelled vehicles must to some extent feel any rise in the cost of coal. Electricity is generally generated from solid fuel. There is, however, this difference between the two cases. The steam vehicle possesses a self-contained power plant, the thermal efficiency of which is about as good as it can be made in the circumstances. The average electrical power station, on the other hand, is not by any means up to the maximum efficiency. Electricity is generated in an. unnecessarily large number of unnecessarily small stations. By centralizing to-a much greater extent an the lines already proposed, in which one huge station would serve the whole of a large district, the cost of generating -electricity could be reduced to a greater extent than it can now be increased on account of the higher price of coal. In fact, if we could get over the difficulties mainly concerned with our system of local government and with various vested interests which lie in the way of the establishment of a really efficient system for generating and distributing electricity, we should, when this system was complete, be able to supply all our factories with power at a lower cost than was possible in pre-war days with coal at its pre-war price.
Other Effects of Increasing Coal Cost.
E MUST NOT, therefore, view the situation as one that ought to give rise to despair. It is serious, but it is not hopeless so long as we show our traditional capacity for facing emergencies and rising to the occasion. We are apt as a nation to remain more or less satisfied with an existing state of affairs which we know to be faulty until something occurs which has the effect of causing an unpleasant awakening. On such occasions we have generally shown ourselves able to face adversity and to (7113/ie out, in the long rim, as strong as, or even stronger than we were when we entered it.
The difficulty is, of course, that we cannot suddenly create an efficient system of power distribution to take the place of our present inefficient system. We ought, however, to get moving as promptly as possible, so that the interval that elapses before we can fairly claim to. have neuiralizeeVasayincreased cost of coal shall be as short as may be.
In the meanwhile, one of the indirect consequences of .the present development is to render the internalcombustion-engined vehicle an even more dangerous competitor to any system, railed or otherwise, that is dependent originally on solid fuel. Every rise in the price of coal leads inevitably to an increase in the price of operating tramways. Its effect on such a system must be far greater than its effect on the cost of operating motor omnibuses. In connection with both systems alike, the cost of coal has its influence on the cost of the vehicle and plant and on the zost of repairs and maintenance. In the case of the motor omnibus, however, it does not affect the fuel bill, so that in instances in which, at the present, the decision between the bus and tram bangs in the balance, the rise in coal may quite conceivably turn the sciale in favour of the bus.
Another effect of the bombshell is, undoubtedly, that it is scaring the general public, which is beginning to realize that we cannot depend for ever on an evidently exhaustible supply of solid fuel, the price of which is practically certain to continue on the upper grade. Incidentally, by focussing attention est the whole subject, people are being awakened also to the fact that our supplies of mineral oil will not last for ever and, therefore, that -every,effOrt must be made to get and to conserve oil from the new sources now being developed in this country. Is it too much to hope that are appreciation of the . d,angers' of the position will act as a powerful incentive to make the Government give serious.00nsideration to the report on power alcohol upon which we recently 'commented? If that proves to be one of its , effecjs, then the time may come when we shall realize tharthe main result of our presenttroubles has been to accelerate . the new era in which the world will be no longer dependent for fuel upon the rapid 'exhaustion of its old stock, butwill set about the business of creating its supplies year by year and will make use, in the process, of Vast: territories at present wilfully neglected and undeveloped.
Re-arrangement at -the Royal. , NOW THAT -discussion of the proposal to concentrate the annual exhibition of the Commercial vehicle industry at the venue of the Royal Agricultural Society's Show each year is actively taking place, it is perhaps not inexpedient to consider the whole question from rather a different point of view. It cannot be denied that some drastic alteration is required with regard to the manner in which the motor-vehicle and agricultural-motor exhibits have hitherto been displayed, without any effective attempt to secure a combined result that would undoubtedly be beneficial to the trade as a. whole. From the point of view of the visitor who is bent upon examining all that such a display has to show him in connection with mechanical transport, the present method of display of such exhibits is, to say the leastof it, disappointing and certainly most inconvenient.
There is nothing to be said in favour of a system which permits motor-vehicle exhibits to be mixed up higgledy-piggledy with churns. and reapers, with tedders and artesian-well plants—a,lew vehicles here and a few vehicles there and the rest of them hundreds of yards away, with nothing but the very bulky and rather difficult official guide to make things easier. '
The Commercial Motor has always, in its advanced show reports, endeavoured to remedy this confused arrangement by indicating an itinerary which will enable the visitor to inspect, should he so desire, the whole of the industrial-vehicle and agrimotor exhibits with as much saving of fatigue as the extensive area of the show ground will permit. But such a precaution should not be necessary. The commercial-vehicle exhibits have, for some years past now, been in sufficient number at the Royal to warrant collective consideration, and we venture to suggest that the Council' of the R.A.S.E. would ,be well advised, before next year's entries, to make arrangements for a-drastic regrouping and sectionalizing in the implement yard,
not only in the interests of the -exhibitors but also of the visiting public. Whether it prove expedient and practicable to make the R.A.S.E. annual show the occasion for an annual and much larger collective display Of industrial motors, or whether the changing venue, the open-air location, the poor hotel accommodation and madequateffeeding facilities render the suggestion an undesirable one to take any further, there can be -no question as to the propriety of putting an end to the current disorganized and unclassified display by a drastic rearrangement of stand locations on future occasions.
Dr. Johnson on Growing Rich.
AVERY piquant and absolutely true remark of Dr. Johnson's, at the auction of Thrale's Brewery, was to this effect, that "we are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice," and we feel a glow of gratitude to the directors of the Sentinel Waggon Works, Ltd., for bringing such a gem once again to light and applying it to the commercial vehicle industry. Itoreminds us -of John Beattie Crozier's dictum which we reproduce every week in the heading of our first page of news—well phrased, to the point, and rich iii material for thought.
The commercial motor vehicle—steam wagon, petrol vehicle, lorry, van, or traveller's sample brougham— does not represent, as our Sentinel friends say in their clever advertisement, so many tons of steel and machinery, but improved methods of -delivery, economy in haulage, and all the advantages which are denoted by the one word "efficiency." It enables man to do what man has always sought to do—increase his physical powers, supplementing them in such a way that the turn of the hand, the pressure of the foot, the swing of the body, will set in motion mighty forces which shall accomplish, in the matter of minutes, a volume of work which, without mechanical aid, would call for the laboured efforts of an army, and even then would, in some cases, be impossible of accompEshment.
. The commercial motor vehicle is the soul of trimsport, because it can do what no other mode of transport can do in every case. Works, mines, and factories may-be -equipped with railway sidings, but not every customer thereof is similarly equipped: Hence, nine-tenths of the loads.inoved must begin or end their journeye, by road, and the most efficient road vehicles are those which are motor driven. Efficiency spells economy, and whilst it does not, in these days, always open up the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams ef avarice, it does spell usefulness to our fellow-man and a ripe reward for these who strive .
to secure it. . .