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Delivering Newspapers in the Early Morning, and Meat for a Full Working Day Afterwards, Employing a Wichita Chassis.

22nd June 1916, Page 19
22nd June 1916
Page 19
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Page 19, 22nd June 1916 — Delivering Newspapers in the Early Morning, and Meat for a Full Working Day Afterwards, Employing a Wichita Chassis.
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A Machine Need Not be Idle.

The most economical way of employing machinery is to work it at full load all its life, stopping only for the necessary examination, oc casional renewals, and attention. The commercial motor is a machine, and the above axiom applies to its use just as much as it does to a lathe or a drilling machine. This is

one of the several advantages which mechanical traction has over animal. Unfortunately, for several reasons, it is only occasionally possible to operate commercial chassis so as to take advantage of this feature to the full extent. To quote only one reason why a commercial motor may not be employed all the time : deliveries and collect-ions are only possible during ordinary working hours, and unless long point-topoint purneys can be made at night) it is generally not possible to use the machine except in the day time, if for this reason only. This special advantage has, however, been realized by many users in the past, and they have endeavoured, as far as possible, to turn it to good account by running early and late, with, perhaps, two shifts of drivers. A fair proportion of this class of work before the war took place in connection with the brewing indus

try.

Night Work for News Collection and Delivery.

Another instance where night work is possible is in connection with the collection and delivery of newspapers. We ourselves quite recently were the means of assisting a very large wholesale newsagent to acquire the services of the vehicles of a contractor whose vans are em ployed in the day time and who had drivers available for night work. It was with no small interest, therefore, that we looked forward to accompanying, in connection with one of our series of "One day's work" articles, the driver of a lorry, making deliveries of newspapers in the early Morning along a country run, following this by such a delivery of meat as might be deemed a fair day's work in the ordinary course of events. Work of this nature, involving long hours and, in consequence, a diminution of the amount of attention possible to the machine, necessitates sound design and construction, if considerable trouble is not to be experienced. It is of interest to note, therefore, that the machine employed in this instance is a Wichita two-ton chassis, such as was described in this journal in the issue of 8th July, 1915.

Horses Used to do the Work.

In the course of a few inquiries made at Williams, Newsagents, of Old Bailey, where our journey commenced, we gathered that previously horses had done the same work as that now accomplished by the van. Delivery by road had been customary for some five or six years ; it was necessary owing to the fact that customers desired to have papers for distribution in suburban districts in time for the first morning train to town. Railway distribution wast therefore, out of the question. With horses, the journey, performed as it had to be at top speed all the way owing to the facts that the papers are only available shortly after three o'clock and that Romford, 15 miles away by road, the furthest point at which delivery was attempted, must be reached early enough to allow of a delivery to passengers on the 5.50 up train, was found extremely hard work. The horses were practically tired out when they got there, had to be allowed a considerable breathing space before commencing to return, and occupied several hours on the journey back to town. Furtherniore, it was found that the life of the animals was considerably reduced by employing them on this work. It was therefore decided about 18 months ago that motor haulage should be given an opportunity to demonstrate its worth in the circumstances. The results, we gather, have been most satisfactory. The Wichita was purchased for this work in the early days of February, since when it has been in continuous operation. '

Papers Sorted and Packed for Collection. • We arrived at the rendezvous at a little before a quarter to four in the morning of this• eventful day and found the premises a veritable hive of industry. There were carts arriving with the, supplies of newspapers in bulk front the various offices in Fleet -Street, and here

they were being divided and put up into parcels according to their various destinations, and were then packed into sundry horse and motor, vehicles waiting backed up to the kerb for the preliminary portion of their daily loads, We had arrived shortly before our van, and as we waited, faintly heard it coming, but could not see it owing to bends in the road. Our companion, the photographer, who was with us on the last occasion on which we performed a similar journey which happened to be on an electric vehicle, exclaimed " Is it to be another electric, then," so quietly did the Wichita run. The van was evidently a little later than was customary, as its parcels, more than 35 in number, were all ready, and the van was loaded up and off within two or three minutes of it appearing on the scene. We noticed with interest that owing to the steering lock available on this chassis, the narrow portion of Old Bailey in which Williams' premises are situated did not occasion the driver of our machine anydiscomfort in manceuvring and in getting away notwithstanding the line of vehicles backed up against the kerb.

No Consignees Present to Take Delivery.

Our way from the Old Bailey led through New ate, gate Whitechapel, and along the Mile End Road, making the first 'delivery" at Stratford Midland Railway Station, for the newsagent in the station: For this, as with the majority of the deliveries, no consignee was present. The process Of delivery merely consisted of dumping the parcel of papers down by the railway station, the loader immediately vaulting on to the tailboard of the wagon, which proceeded at once on its journey.

Speedy Work.

A characteristic of this portion of the work was the speed at which it was done. On approaching the premises of a customer, the loader would seize a parcel and prepare to jump from the lorry ; he would drop the paled and be up again, the chassis hardly coming to a rest for many of the deliveries. The second delivery was not made until we arrived at Ilford, but after that they were pretty frequent. On one occasion the loader jumped down with a couple of parcels, dropped one at a newsagent's in the main road, and then' disappeared up a side street, only to be discovered waiting for us at the end of a narrow passage a little further on, having made an additional delivery out of sight. Our eighth delivery was made near the London General

Omnibus Co.'s garage at Seven Kings ; the twelfth was made at Chadwell Heath, the thirteenth and fourteenth being made in Rornford, which was the terminus. The last two were made, one into the arms of a man standing just outside Romford station, the other into a large shed standing in the middle of a field belonging, we understand, to the principal newsagent in Romford. We had just made these two deliveries, and allowed time for the newsagent to unwrap the papers and get on to the station with his wares, when we heard the whistle of the first train to town preparing to leave. It is for this that road delivery is made, so that the workmen travelling on this early train can have the pleasure of reading the morning papers on the way up. The journey by road covers about 15 miles ; this was accomplished in approximately one hour, which is very fair going for a two-ton lorry. Traffickless roads, of course, allow this fair average speed. We were most agreeably surprised at the very easy running of the chassis over such rough roads as are encountered between Whitechapel and Bow, notwithstanding the high speed..

A Non-stop Return.

Advantage was taken of the stop at Romford to partake of something in the nature of breakfast ; afterwards, the return journey was a non-stop run to the newsagent's premises, where we dropped one or two parcels of returns. We gathered from the driver that there were more of these parcels earlier in the week, since it was a custom of the trade to get a week's returns in by the Wednesday, our run being made on Friday. From there we proceeded to the

Smithfield market to take a full load of meat. Here, one noticed everywhere the tendency to use motors instead of horses, although most Of the vehicles employed at Smithfield are horse-drawn it is doubtful if this -would be the case to anything like the same extent but for the inability of carriers and butchers to obtain -a supply of mechanical vehicles. There is no doubt whatever that, had vehicles been available, the use of the motor would have been much more in evidence. As a proof of this, one has only roughly to examine the miscellaneous assortment of chassis which are in use, and with which the owners are evidently" making do." One sees a once stately Napier limousine with the inside seats and ornaments removed, their places being taken by carcases of cattle and sheep. In the course of our passage through a short portion of West Smithfield we saw a Napier, a Delaunay-Belleville, a Renault and several others the makes of which we had not time to ascertain, but including amongst them a ear of high power, the age of which may be judged by the fact that it employed low-tension magneto ignition. Here, also, as everywhere, one finds the ubiquitous Ford vans.

Roast Apples Replace Roast Beef At Smithfield, our driver took up approximately a couple of tons of meat, this being in the form of sides of beef or carcases of lambs and sheep, some of which, we believe, was what is termed "cold mutton." A curious addition to the load was several boxes of apples, the driver remarking that owing to the high price of meat people were now taking to roast apples for their Sunday dinners, a statement which may be taken, we think, cum gran() salis. Shortage of labour necessitated the driver to a great extent doing his own loading, and as a consequence something like ai hours were occupied preparing for oar second journey. This, of course, is consequent on the conditions obtaining due to the war ; otherwise, one would be justified in pointing out that a little extra. money spent on labour at this point would certainly result in more economical working and a reduction in cost. Eventually, however, we gat away, and proceeded down Farringdon Street, crossing Ludgate Circus, and over Blackfriars Bridge, then through Stockwell, to make our first delivery at Streatham. The route thence lay through Mitcham, Sutton, Ewell, Epsom, and terminated at Leatherhead.

Patriotic Pleasure Motoring A big feature of the drive along this route was the huge number oi taxi-cabs and heavy touring-cars, all following the specially-directioned route to Gatwick, where we gathered races were being held. Judging by the sizes of the vehicles employed, and the number which we saw on that route alone, which was no doubt representative of many other roads to the racing centre, there was fuel consumption here sufficient to carry many such loads of meat as we were conveying, but, as such expenditure of precious petrol is officially sanctioned, comment is useless.

The Driver of a Meat Van Must have Stout Muscles.

Deliveries were made here and there in the pipes we have named, a feature of tlAs branch of the business being the " hefty " nature of packages which the driver has to move. One of our illustrations depicts him conveying a side of beef from the van to a customer. The necessity for economy in the matter of fuel seems to have been enjoined generally on ,drivers throughout the industry. We have on one or two occasions recently drawn attention to the very careful manner of drivers in respect of this point, and again, on this occasion, we noticed that whenever a stop was made which was likely to be of more than one or two minutes duration, .the driver switched off, rtarting up when the delivery was made, and he was quite ready for continuing his journey.

The Wichita Chassis.

A few words descriptive of the Wichita chassis, although but a repetition of our previous article, may nevertheless be of use to new readers. The machine on which we made the journey was a chaindriven two-termer, the capacity being really 50-cwt. gross, that is, including body and the necessary fittings. The specification includes a four-cylinder engine, of 19.6 h.p. by the R.A.C. formula, the cylinders being 34 in. by 5 in, bore and stroke respectively. A leather-lined cone clutch with special springs serted under the leather face, to ensure ease of engagement, conveys the power to a three-speed, three. point-suspended gearbox ; thence the transmission is by roller chains in the customary manner to sprockets bolted to the road wheels. The newer model, of which we have pleasure in including a couple of illustrations, is of the worm-driven type, other parts of the chassis being, however, practically identical with that described above. Interested readers, and, in particular, those who have in view work of an arduous nature such as that described in the course of this article, should get into communication with Mr. A. -F. Langdon, of 40, Great Tower Street, London, E.C., who is the sole concessionnaire in this country for Wichita chassis, which are made in 1-ton and 4-ton sizes besides the 2-ton size on which we made the trip.


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