.OPINIONS and QUERIES STATE CONTROL . 1 N PRACTICE I HAVE
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taken "The Commercial Motor" since 1936, I except for a period during the war when it was difficult to obtain. I have now been overseas for nearly a year, and my wife has been receiving it for me, but 1 have not been able to read the latest views on the nationalization of inland transport.
am completely against the Government poliay, having served with a unit which closely resembles the organization which would be necessary for State control.
The main reason why I disagree is the loss of freedom which the working man would experience. I believe that a choice of jobs, employers, etc., is essential to enable a person to possess a sense of freedom. Taking the point of mechanical efficiency into consideration, I will give yo'u an example of the way vehicles are " running " in my unit. There are about 80, and . during September the serviceability report showed that, throughout the month, there were only 50 per cent, in order, whilst 26 per cent. had been returned to the.pool for major repairs; about 4 per cent. were awaiting return from the pool; and other vehicles requiring minor repairs amounted to about 20 per cent. Yet the units of this fleet are on normal routine operation with monthly mileages usually below 2,000.
Personally, I was hoping to come out into a free world, away from all red tape and official humbug. Perhaps will be lucky. G.E. R.A.F.
AN OLD READER ENTERS THE LISTS A S one of your old readers with 28 years' experience r-Iin the transport industry, I cannot resist writing to on about the present position.
I trouble very little about politics, but I do believe that it is time everybody—transport owners, makers, garage proprietors and even pedestrians—awakened and stopped this form of dictatorship.
We have had it drummed into us that nationalization of our industry will be enforced. Once and for all let us put our foot down and let the Government see that we do not agree with methods savouring of Hitler, and will not stand for a similar form of control. Are we going to stand idly by and see men who had to close or sell their businesses to join the Forces to fight for freedom, once more under officialdom? The King's Highway
should be free to all. J. PERODA. London, E.10.
THE CAPACITY OF CUTHBERT LINE-BORERS WE have read with interest the account you gave in your issue of November 1 of the workshops and service of the Phcenix Crankshaft and Bearing Co., Ltd., of Rickmansworth. We would like to voice what we are sure is also the opinion of all your readers, our congratulations to the above company on what is, undoubtedly, a very important contribution to the important task of vehicle maintenance.
As designers and manufacturers of the line-borers in use by this company, and to which reference is made, we would like to correct what might possibly give a wrong impression to your readers of the capacity of these machines. In your article you refer to a battery of 10 of these being "kept busy" with a total output of 20 cylinder blocks per diem. The fact is that it is quite possible to average at least twice this output on these machines.
There are two schools of thought as to the best way of handling personnel when dealing with so important a matter as the metalling and machining of bearings. Some hold that each successive stage in the reconditioning of bearings—metalling, preparing and fitting the shells, roughing and oil-grooving and, finally, lineboring—should be handled by a different man, who should be specially expert on his own particular branch of the work. Others hold that a more satisfactory job is obtained when one man sees a given set of bearings through, at least from the metalling jig, and performs each successive operation himself.
Obviously, in the former case, where the machine operator is called upon to do only the actual line-boring, the capacity of a line-boring machine is much higher than in the latter case. We are not concerned to take sides in this matter, but feel that it is only, fair to our machines that this comment should be made.
W. A. CUTHBERT, Director
(For Cuthbert Machine Tools, Ltd.). Godalming, Surrey.
PROFESSOR A. M. LOW AND THE MOTOR-JUBILEE DURING this year of the British motor industry's 1--"Jubilee, how many remember that the motorcycle has been on our roads for at least 12 years n-iore than the motorcar, with its mere half century? The motorcycle might indeed, with justice, claim to be the father of the world's motor industry.
As against the British industry's birthday year of 1896, we have the evidence of drawings of a three-wheeled contrivance which astonished the Stanley Cycle Show in 1884. It was built by an Englishman, Edward Butler, and the general principles of its engine bore a striking resemblance to those of the present day. it had electric ignition and a float-feed carburetter. Even earlier was the Carl Benz motor tricycle, which was travelling at 8 m.p.h. on petrol in 1883.
About that time Gottlieb Daimler, a contemporary of Benz in the gas-engine industry, was working on the idea of a motorcycle. Realizing that an internal-combustion engine suitable for road locomotion must have some other source of supply than the town mains, he set out, in 1882, to produce a miniature petrol engine.
Three years later he obtained his first patent for a horizontal air-cooled oil or gas engine, which, with various improvements, gave the world, in 1885, its first motorcycle. Thus it came about that, through the motorcycle, a light compact engine, suitable for driving a vehicle along ordinary roads, was evolved—a rich legacy without which the whole motor industry of the world could not have reached its present high state of development. A. M. Low, Chairman, London, S.W.I. Auto-Cycle Union.
A SATISFIED VISITOR TO ROM NEY HOUSE IN reply to the letter from " Applicant " published in Ayour issue dated November 8, my experience when I called at Romney House on July 27 last was entirely the reverse. The information I required (after waiting a matter of minutes for my turn) was speedily and cour teously given. A. J. JAMES
Bristol, 4. (For James " Express " Carriers).