News and Comment.
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The circulation of our last number, containing our article on what to sec at the Show, exceeded 7,000 copies.
of issue contains the major portion Ot Our stand-to-stand report, which will be completed next week.
A minimum of 2,000 copies of the Japanese supplement, printed in that language, will be posted by us this day week. We have to acknowledge our great indebtedness to Mr. Arakawa, His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Consul-General; Mr. Sumiya, secretary to the Japanese Consulate; and to the Assistant-Secretary at the Foreign Office (or valuable assistance in connection with the distribution of this supplement. We have also to thank numerous friends in the City, who have wide Japanese interests, for their co-operation in the same direction. The supplement will contain a complete directory of our trade supporters, and we are requested by the Business Manager, Mr. Ernest Ferman, to intimate that new advertisement matter for the coming issue must reach our offices by Monday next, the 27th instant.
Various important functions connected with the Motor Union took place at Olympia yesterday, and the first annual dinner was held in the evening at the Trocadero Restaurant. The guests at the dinner included Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, K.G., V.C., Lord Ailsa, Mr. J. Fletcher Moulton, K.C., Sir John I. Thornycroft, and others.
The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company; Limited, of Adderley. Park, Birmingham, has to be added to the list of trade donors to the legislation fund administered by a joint committee of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland and the Motor Union : the amount subscribed by this Company is .4.5o. No matter how large this fund may become, its dimensions can never exceed the uses to which it can be put for the good of the motor industry. We desire to acknowledge our indebtedness to the manager of the Neue Automobil Gesellschaft, of Berlin, for his courteous assistance in connection with several photographic illustrations which have appeared in our pages. The only photograph of the German Agricultural Society's van trials to be reproduced. in an English journal, which appeared in our issue of October 19th, page 89 ante, was secured by his good offices.
Mr. Herbert Levy, of Liverpool, a director of the Bon Marche and of Lewis's, attended the Olympia Show, and decided to order three more motor delivery vans as a result of an inspection extending over two days.
Mr. Thomson Lyon, chairman of the ambulance sub-committee of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, kindly explained to us at the Show his views on the subject of ambulance services for London. Mr. Lyon also informed us that the second-hand Clarkson omnibus, which the Asylums Board recently purchased on the recommendation of his sub-committee, is saving money at the rate of ,‘20 a week, and that the officers of the Board are anxiously looking forward to the delivery of ihe James and Browne ambulance now on exhibition. It is not unlikely that further orders will be promptly placed for both types of chassis.
The clerk to the London County Council will give evidence before the Royal Commission to the effect that a speed limit for motor vehicles is undesirable for the county of London; neither has any occasion been found to deal with the subject of commercial motors in any adverse manner.
Amongst those who have recently given evidence before the Royal Commission on the Motorcar Acts is Mr. Herbert Austin, of Longbridge Works, Northfield, near Birmingham, and chairman of the B.E.M.T.A. The Lacre Motor Car Company, Limited, announces that the official London agency for Wolseley and Siddeley motor vehicles has been placed in the care of the Poland Street establishment. Negotiations have been concluded too late to permit of the inclusion of Wolseley and Siddeley types on the Lacre stand at Olympia. We shall publish next week a full illustrated description of the Hindley steam wagon. This make is one of some half-dozen leading types of steam lorries which are not shown at Olympia. Our account will be published in connection with the forthcoming Smithfield Show, which is to open at the Agricultural Hail, Islington, N., on December the 4th, and at which Messrs. Hindley will exhibit the seventh wagon supplied by them to Pickford's, Limited. This machine has been fitted with Gate's patent, composite, resilient wheels. One of the Chelsea Borough Council's steam motoi wagons recently ran over the hoof of a horse belonging to Mr. J. Draper, of Battersea. The law conunittee of the council reported, at the last council meeting, having settled the claim by the payment of .4.25.
"The Financial Times" is of opinion that " the prominence which the cult of the motor has attained is likely to attract the attention of the professional promoter, who has been waiting so long for a new field of enterprise, and of the speculative investor, who is sick and tired of 2A and 21 per cents." We are afraid it has done so already!
Mr. W. Skidmore, who for the past four years was manager to the London branch of the Shrewsbury and Challiner Tyre Company, Limited, has been appointed business manager to the Jackson Resilient Hub Syndicate, Limited, whose offices have recently been removed from 32, Victoria Street, S.W., to six, Mansion House Chambers, Queen Victoria Street, E.C.
Three motor cabs are now plying for hire in the streets of Nuremberg. Naturally this is but a beginning; additional vehicles of the kind will shortiy be seen there if the enterprise proves profitable. The scale of fares is identical with that fixed for horse-drawn cabs, and licenses are granted only to such drivels as are able to pass a practical examination by the town council officials.
The superior control of a motor wagon over any vehicle running on rails was exemplified at Rochdale recently. A Yorkshire steam wagon belonging to Threlfall's Brewery Co., Ltd., of Salford, pulled up suddenly while proceeding down Drake Street, a steep hill in Rochdale, and a following electric car was unable to stop owing to the greasy state of the lines. The front of the electric car came in violent contact with the rear of the wagon. The driver of the car was severely shaken, and he appears to have omitted to put his brakes on even after the accident, because the electric car struck the back of the motor wagon a second time. The London County Council's steamers are now earning insufficient to pay the weekly coal bill. The loss since the middle of June reaches ..6o,000.
Messrs. Garrett, Smith and Company, of Magdeburg, who recently made a declaration of insolvency, can pay 74 per cent. The works will be provisionally carried on under supervision of creditors, who expect to sell the concern.
The Hampton Wick District Council has passed a resolution to the effect that all vehicles should be compelled to carry front or side lights and tail lights, and that the statutory speed limit for motorcars should be abolished.
" Public Opinion," in its issue of the loth instant, remarks that " The Motor" has been brought up nearly to the same size as its successful sister publication, "THE COMMERCIAL Moeoe," and that the new shape and snake-up adds to the importance of "that remarkable and popular penny orth," All will concur in this view.
The ever-present problem of tyres for heavy commercial motors will probably remain in a stage of transition for some time to come. The various spring and composite wheels, and Mr. John Muir's pig-skin tyres, give indications of development which may result in their becoming serious competitors of solid rubber.
Nothing could be more amusing than the apparent oversight on the part of the War Office authorities in respect of the conveyance of cases from the various camps to the new central hospitals. It was only when the hospitals were approaching completion that it occurred to anybody that transport facilities would be needed to bring the patients from the various camps. The Straker and Squire vehicle on exhibition at Olympia is the .first effort to utilise self-propelled ambulances for long distances in connection with the Army, and this particular vehicle is intended to convey men to Millbank Hospital—from the barracks at Windsor and Read. ing for the present. A very large extension of this department by the Hospitals Board of the War Office may be an. iicipated at an early date.
Firms doing an export trade should make a note of Messrs. Barr, iVfoering and Company's address—Jewin Street, London, E.C. This firm is laying itself out for motorcar and heavy vehicle transport, and quotes through rates to and from the Continent and the Colonies. We understand they did the bulk of the hauling and placing of cars on stands.
The A.C.G.B. and 1. announces a 4,000-mile tyre trial, and we publish the particulars in extenso (page 231). Subject to careful observation and uniform conditions, much useful information may be gathered, but any maker will find a much more severe and practical test if he takes on the supply of tyres for commercial motor vans and omnibuses.
At the meeting of Farnham Rural District Council, on Thursday last, a letter was received from the Local Government Board enclosing a complaint from the Traction Engine Owners' and Users' Association with regard to notices on the bridges in that rural district, and appealing for an inquiry. The Local Government Board staled, however, that they had refused the inquiry, and had informed the association that the grounds were insufficient.