OPINIONS and QUERIES
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TYRE CONSERVATION AND TIMELY REPAIR I AM very interested to observe the space that you are devoting to the serious problem of the various causes of tyre damage, and I feel that these are matters to which far too little attention has been paid in the past.
The statement from such an authority as Mr. A. S. Bishop, of Goodyear's, in your issue of July 9 that " In severe cases a tyre may be ruined in as short a period as four to six weeks" is surely sufficient evidence for all operators and should cause' them to give far closer attention to the various causes of premature tyre failure, and to take all precautions to prevent the grave wastage of tyre mileage.
Few operators, too, realize the extent to which repairs may prolong the life of a tyre and many miles of useful service may often be saved by efficient and timely repairs. A. A. CRESSALL. New Malden.
ANCILLARY USERS COULD HELP HAULIERS
HAVING read with particular interest the recent correspondence re A, B and C licensees, I fully agree with Mr. H. M. Swift that the "A and r3 squeals tire C licensees." I am responsible fcr the. carriage of many hundreds of tons daily, both by road and fail, and whilst a lot of road transport is conveyed in our own vehicles, approximately half is taken by hired vehicles.
Like Mr. Swift, I persuaded my company to subscribe to the funds of a road-transport association, also to subscribe to any appropriate special levy or fund for which subscriptions or donations were solicited. However, the positiOn was very promptly made plain. I was notified that I was elected to the local committee of the particular association, but this notification was quickly followed by a further communication to the effect that, representing a C licensee, I would have no vote on any subject under discussion.
I have some inner knowledge of the 'actual outlook of the railways towards-road transport, and, put briefly, it is to kill, or control it. Any hope of compromise with the railways is sheer folly.
In the early stages, the one factor with which the railways in all countries were unable to cope was that no sooner did they drive a haulier out of business than another started up, and they realized the hopelessness of their efforts while this .condition existed. Hence their efforts were directed to overcoming this obstacle.
The whole haulage fraternity hailed with delight the licensing innovation, which, so far as they could see,. limited future competition, but the actual effect was to hand them over completely disarmed to the tender mercies of the railways. Their one sure safeguard was removed. [" The Commercial Motor" expressed grave doubts concerning the ultimate effects. of the licensing system.—ED.] The position of the professional haulier is further handicapped by the fact that the railways have acquired controlling interests in most of the larger haulage concerns. Their interests no longer run With the general and independent A and B licensee.
Even were this not so, there are few purely haulage concerns in a position to put up much of a fight, whereas I venture to suggest that C licensees could, and would, a3(: put up all the funds necessary, and bring to bear Sufficient weight, to secure a measure of justice even against the combined railways.
Another. misconception of the A-haulage fraternity is that its members have a right to the monopoly of goods moved by road. Manufacturers do not make their goods solely to provide an easy living for hauliers and hauliers have no more right to expect a monopoly than the early pack horse, horsed vehicle, railway, or future aeroplane. Haulage will inevitably gravitate to whoever offers the best economic service, and it is precisely because the service offered by A licensees is not satisfactory, or is unduly expensive, that firms acquire their own fleets; and fleets specially adapted to their particular requirements, which latter no general haulier can be expected to do.
In conclusion, I think that hauliers would be well advised to cease clamouring for further control of others and to concentrate on more _liberty for themselves. Conditions 20 years ago were not ideal, but the conditions were exactly-the same as in most other industries. Any • industry which solicits special conditions or any form of protection against legitimate competition is also soliciting restrictions and regimentation, and, truly, they
get it. LIBERTY. Chester.
HAS PRODUCER GAS A GREAT FUTURE?
mAY Ireply to the question asked in the heading of your very clear and concise leading article of J-..tly 9? Producer gas, as our only alternative fuel in war-time to help us economize in imported liquid fuels, will serve
its purpose—to a limited extent, applied to the smaller types of vehicle as selected by the M.O.W.T—until the war is over.
We all regret, naturally, that we cannot run the whole' of our road transport on home-produced fuel normally in peace-time, but we cannot have everything. We haVe enormous deposits of very high-grade coal, an asset which is the envy of almost the whole world, but it so happens that the oil or petrol engine cannot run on coal and the steam lorry is out of the picture—at least for the time being. There may be a revival of steam some day, but there is little or no evidence yet of this. It. is true that oil can be produced from coal, but the process is so difficult and complicated that the resultant products are far too costly to be able to compete with imported fuels.
We must make better 'use of our great national asset and produce more of it by applying all the scientific help available and making the miners' lives easier and safer. We should increase our coal exports to the limit, encourage it by every means in our power and thus bring in an income which will greatly help to offset the cost of our fuel imports. • Again, we can greatly economize by importing more crude oil and less refined products and increase our refining capacity here. Also we must increase the num ber of oil-engined vehicles oil fuel goes twice as far as petrol and therefore occupies less than half the tanker space required for petrol.
After about four years of extierience with producer gas the answer to the above question must be definitely "No." Then, one may ask, has producer gas any future? Again, from experience, and bearing in mind two very recent statements made by transport chiefs who are advised by highly experienced engineers, the answer must again be "No." Briefly, the disadvantages are too great and too numerous.
As to the post-war period, only (as you mention) Government control (i.e., compulsion) and possibly economic necessity may result in a certain limited number of vehicles running on producer gas for a time. After that period has passed, no experienced transport owner would consider anything but oil or petrol engines, and certainly one cannot imagine any vehicle manufacturer again risking his capital on designing and producing a complete producer-gas vehicle. Itmay lie, of course, that science will bring forth some entirely new form of power for road transport, but for the present the internal-combustion engine, as we have it to-day, using liquid fuels, is proving quite satisfactory and will probably be with us for many years to come. NORTHERN ENGINEER. Leeds.
ROAD TRANSPORT'S VITAL AID TO EIGHTH ARMY IMAY I suggest that rdad-transport users have been LVI given a ,marvellous opportunity to use, as an example of the advantages of road transport, one of the miracles of the present age. I refer to the advance of the Eighth Army. It should be made 'known generally throughout the country that this was achieved entirely with the use of road-transport vehicles. I understand that not a single railway engine or truckwas used for the purpose of moving men and materials.
. A. BINNS.
WHY TRANSPORT LEADERS HAVE LITTLE POWER
MO doubt a blind man must be aware of the maelstrom "seething in the road-transport. industry. A and B licensees are snarling at C licensees, who are, naturally, strongly resenting the attacks, whilst many are belabouring the leaders of the industry. What a pretty picture —what a laugh for the railway companies. And this in a major industry of the country!
It seems evident that the final cause of this boil-over is the arbitrary way in which the Government Road . Haulage Scheme has been imposed upon those who must operate it. The industry's leaders ale therefore castigated, told that they are just jacks-in-office and that they should have secured better terms off the Government, as other trade associations would have done.
Maybe, before we fling about these stones, it would be as well for all of usto examine the structure of our own glasshouses. Just how much cohesion or discipline exists among those in the ranks? Suppose the. leaders had declared that, as the Government Scheme was unsatisfactory, the industry would refuse to participate, what possible chance would their instructions have had of being carried out?
This is not an isolated matter. Such things as Rates and Conditions of Carriage also exist, where everyone is for himself and the devil, in the form of financial difficulties, takes the hindmost. Yet this self-discipline, this readiness to carry out a leader's instructions, are the muscles and sinews in the strength of other trade organizations which we covet. The result is that such trades are invited into Governmental conferences as equals and not told to wait outside dosed doors, cap in hand, to receive the decisions.
Speaking of Conditions of Carriage, the M.O.W.T. has lost no time in publishing a set and, quite definitely, they will be the only conditions under which a consignor's goods will be transported. Might not the indus try, therefore, collect its courage and adopt them as the basis for a set of Standard Conditions and so clear off one thorny problem?.
How many persons, with the present support from the industry's ranks, would can.; to take a leader's job to tackle a Government Department for alterations or veto of proposals?
Those. of us who have endeavoured to persuade fellowhauliers to join and submit to the rules of an association know the smile of deprecation or the excuses with which one's suggestions are received. One is made to feel that a favour is being asked, rather than that one is offering something vital to the haulier's existence. The usualtermination is to be told that, after all they are only one and, in any case,. the associations never did very much. Of course they can't when, after all, perhaps only one haulier in 10 is a member, and of this number the majority will not carry out the leader's instructions.
Manchester, 8. GEO. BOUNDIIILL.
OPERATING C.I. ENGINES ON PRODUCER GAS
iN your issue of "The Commercial Motor" dated I July 2, I read with great interest the article dealing with C.1. engines operating on producer gas. Before seeking permission to use valuable space in your journal, I would like to draw attention to the results of experiments which were carried out in this sphere in 1940-41 and published in your issue of November 7, 1941.
At that time, comparative b.h.p. curves—both 100 per cent. liquid and gas liquid-fired—were given. The method of fuel-injection-pump control was also described --a method, incidentally, which does prevent the safety characteristics of the fuel-pump governor being lost. The results of efforts with the usual type of gas mixer gupplied with a producer plant were given and proved poor and, finally, the type of gas mixer which was adopted was shown, the reason for so doing being explained. This gas mixer is even more simple than the one used by the I.A.E. and proved quite efficient.
To comment, I fail to see the object of having a fixed rack position, giving minimum injection at such a speed as 650 r.p.m.—a speed far too high for idling purposes— when the simple controls used gave a minimum injection at all r.p.m. over 406 (the C.A.V. fuel pump maximum idling speed).
Below 400 r.p.m., of course, the standard idling governor gear had control. Added to this, the maximum r.p.m. control was still in use, whereas, with a fixed-rack position, this is not so.
With regard to the mixing valve, any attempt to mix the air and gas is surely wasted when most C.I. engines of to-day have a form of controlled turbulence.
In the experiments, a spring-controlled flap valve arrangement was tried, but it was found difficult to obtain a spring which would vary the opening of the flap under different load and speed conditions and give correct proportions of fuel to air at all times.
I hope my comments and any further figures, or more detailed information, which might be given will be found to be helpful. J. KEELING, M.I,E.C., Transport Engineering Dept., The Cement Marketing Co., Ltd. Beddington, Surrey.