AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Boosting the Battery Vehicle.

23rd April 1914, Page 6
23rd April 1914
Page 6
Page 7
Page 6, 23rd April 1914 — Boosting the Battery Vehicle.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The Opinions of an Edison Representative.'

The Editor THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[1333] Sir,—I have read with considerable surprise the somewhat prejudiced article in your journal on the recent paper on the battery vehicle, read before the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Such a pessimistic criticism is hardly to be expected from one who is a member of the Electric Vehicle Committee of the Incorporated Municipal Engineers' Association, a body, whose special work it is to assist in developing the future prospects of the battery vehicle.

Writing as a member of that body and one whose pioneer efforts may have been partly responsible for its formation, I offer therefore no apology for taking up the cudgels on its behalf, and I propose now to deal with your remarks seriatim.

A Strange Allegation, When you say the Central Station Engineer is inclined to boost anything when there is a possibility of increasing his load factor [Mr. Watson here makes the 8nggestio falsi, as no such statement appeared in this journal—ED.], you are casting an aspersion of professional malLfiales on a large number of exceedingly competent men. Naturally the Central Station man is on the look-out for all those justifiable means of increasing his load factor, and my point is that there never was a more solidly proved argument in this connection than that bound up in the electric vehicle.

Incidentally, Mr. Shrapnell-Smith must have formed a rather poor opinion of his colleagues. to allow his journal to be sullied by statements holding such an inference. I can assure Mr. Shrapnell-Smith that the majority of engineers concerned in this movement have taken considerable pains to ascertain in detail the technical and commercial validity of the claims made on behalf of battery-propelled vehicles, and that the spirit of optimism and even aggression to be noted on the part of those who are booming the electric has a very solid foundation in real achievements that have been made and are being added to on a very large scale daily.

Moreover, engineers realise that the failures of the past are so deeply embedded in the public mind that failure in the present would hinder the movement for many years to come. Hence, the engineers associated with the present electric-vehicle movement may be relied upon not to stake their professional reputation on a belief which may turn out to be a chimera.

Why no Certified "All In" Costs Per Vehicle-mile ?

The oft-made comparison between the widely-distributed availability of motor spirit as compared with electricity does not strictly apply in this instance, although it is undoubted that petrol may be obtained in almost any village in England, yet a transport strike will in a few days—as the recent coal .strike showed—send the prices up to the point at which it will be impossible to buy it. Moreover, whilst the aim of every station engineer is to combine idealism with business, by bringing down the price of his current so that more people will buy it, the aim of the motor-spirit combine appears to he to suck the blood of the community to the last possible degree. The reason that the electric-battery vehicle is slowly but surely meeting with success, is that the accumulator, which is the vital point in any electric, is now a reliable equipment. The advent of the nickel-iron, non-acid cell is also greatly responsible for the renewed interest of central-station engineers in the field. If this type of cell had been available in the past, the failures which are now recorded would have been successes. Whatever claims are made on behalf of the electric vehicle are amply justified by actual trial.

You m

must admit that manufacturers do not clai anything sensational in the way of speed or mileage, but they do claim that cheaper ton-mileage is available, by the electric vehicle. This can be proved by a comparative trial of say a 15-cwt. petrol van, against a similar accumulator-propelled van, extending over a fortnight, in work such as city delivery. I.We entirely dissent from this opinion.—ED.] Are Users' Interests Identical With Those of Electricity Merchants?

It is somewhat difficult to appreciate what Mr. Shrapnell-Smith's position really is. Does he watch the user's interest or those of his advertisers? If the former, why does he wait until he sees some small measure of success being attained with the electric before he throws his dart? He says that he must be convinced on certain points. On behalf of my company, I tender him a, hearty welcome to visit our offices and show-room, where every endeavour will be made to give him satisfaction. Furthermore, if he will bring any electrical expert with him, it will be our pleasure to show a few experiments with the Edison cell which may convert him to the belief that, for certain kinds of work, sonic battery-driven vehicles are without rival.

We Ask for Figures and Offer the Space.

Space will not allow me to deal fully with the panagraph in which vehicle improvement, American CXp ene nee and Berlin practice are dealt with, but I should be happy to do so, if space were allowed me.

It is noticeable that whenever data, are quoted on behalf of the petrol interest, the L.G.O.C. statistics are usually pounced upon. [Not in our sheets of

average working costs.-En.] Why ? the ordinary user cannot expect this remarkable result gained by an immense organization, and such figures do not apply to less well organized concerns, or owners of a single vehicle. This item of organization is cardinal. The electric can be just as great a success as a single unit—I mean commercially— as in fleet. The electric is therefore claimed to be " par excellence "—the singlevehicle man's machine when city deliveries are in question. By the way, time L.G.O.C. have ordered one of these machines from us, a fact which serves to show that they regard the electric as worth enquiring into in a practical way, not merely on theoretical grounds. It is also significant that out of the only three tenders which my company has put in for motorbus schemes, we have been successful in getting two, in spite of the somewhat severe competition from makers of petrol machines. The inwardness of this position is concerned solely with the extremely-low maintenance costs which are a distinguished feature of the electric. Moreover, such concerns as Harrods, Liberty's, Lyons, Stratford. Co-operative Society, Pullar's Dye 'Works, etc., etc., would not have shown such a practical interest in this form of traction unless they were much more assured that there was something in it.

Dependence on the Central Station.

Mr. Shrapnell-Smith's last effort at abusing the electric is the weakest, and shows how he must have searched the innermost recesses of his critical mind to find a last and if possible silencing argument. To speak—that is write—in such ponderous tones concerning the alleged danger of supplies of energy being cut-off through a strike at the power stations is almost ludicrous. Does Mr. Shrapnell-Smith really think that the power supply of London, for instance, would be shut off by a strike? Does ho really think that, in an area containiug the population of say Australia and Canada. rolled into one, there will not be at least a similar proportion of efficient volunteers to that which kept the boilers steaming at the Leeds works in their recent municipal strike, and did Mr. Shrapnel-Smith observe that only the day after his solemn warning the London General Omnibus Company had 150 or their machines out of service through a sectional strike.

Finally, did Mr. Shrapnell-Smith have to buy petrol at the " Attar of Roses " price charged during the last

transport strike i If so, he will remember cases where 5s. or (is.. per gallon was charged. [Where, and to whom ?—En.] Does he seriously imagine that the price of availability of electrical energy could ever fluctuate in such an utterly ungovernable way. Petrol has risen from 7d. to is. Pd. [Not for commercial motors.--ED.] per gallon since the. beginning of the movement, that is to say in lii years. Electricity in this interval has dropped from an average price of 3.7.7id. per unit to 2.0d, whilst for power ',meioses sin ii as the job in question, the price would he about half I hope that Mr. Shrapnel-Smith will accept my invitation to come along to this office a w.1 will afterwards inform his readers of the running costs, and other data -which we shell be prepared to demonstrate to him.--Yours faithfully, EDISON ACCUMULATORS, LTD., W. H. L. WATSON, General Sales Manager.

[Dsspite its angry tone, which we consider wholly unjustified by any comment of ours, we publish this letter as it reached ns. Its writer is quite wrong in concluding that membership of the Electric Vehicle Committee in any way ties the Editor of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR to adopt other than df, impartial

attitude. There was nothing but fair criticism in the articlo to which reference is made, and we are sorry that our correspondent should have read into it any other intention. If the position of the Editor of THE COMM ERCIAL Alarm on the Electric Vehicle Committee be suppio.cd in any way to make him partial to the battery vehicle, in the same seuse that the writer of the above letter is partial, or in the sense that, as he admits, the cent-al st Ation man is partial, be will be pleascd to resign from it.

Our correspondent is not entitled to import anything into the article, or to misquote it, in order to accentuate his particular point of view. There is on aspersion on supply-station officials in our plain statement that they are " naturally desirous of encouraging the use of battery vehicles, in order to render service to the central-station idea." It would have been of more service to the cause which our correspondent espouses, had he confined himself to making his own ease good. We should prefer the chances of maintaining individual stacks of fuel for steam or petrel vehicles, to those of central stations, during any long transport strike. The suggestion that a fortnight's trial in commercial work is of any account whatever discloses a peculiar innocence of the ccnditions which obtain in the trade which it is sought. to enter. Our readers will be able to form their own conclusions as to whether our references to the dangers of a centralstation strike, with the consrquential failure of energy supply for any owners of battery vehicles other than those who possess their own generator units. 'arc almost ludicrous." Even with petrol at is, 9d: per gallon (which of itself is an exaggeration), the energy charge per mile ran. taken over the year, will be lower with petrol than with electricity at Id. per unit, except, possibly, on level and hard surfaces in cities.

We are agreeable to concede all the reasonable claims of advocates of the battery-driven vehicle, and we are by no means blind to its good points. Our correspondent's efforts to irritate us by uncharitable suggestions will net hinder our holding the scales evenly. His aspersions upon petrol-importing interests wholly disregard the preference in prices and supplies which are specially made for even the smallest commercial-motor owner. High prices for petrol during a transport strike are of local incidence only. althoneh an admitted factor to be considered by people with small. storage.—En.]


comments powered by Disqus