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The Paris Industrial Show.

23rd October 1913
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Page 7, 23rd October 1913 — The Paris Industrial Show.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Few Novelties and Unprogressive Designs. Few Steel Road Wheels. No Cast Radiators. No Chain Gearboxes. A Solitary Worm-driven Back Axle. No Parcelcars and only One Char-A,-bancs.

The Industrial Vehicle Section of La Quatorzieme Exposition Internationale de L'Autoutobile du Cycle et des Sports has undergone a number of preliminary vicissitudes which, on several occasions, have threatened to postpone enttirely the staging of any examples of industrial models in Paris this year. Only at the last moment was the permission of the necessary authorities obtained to erect temporary premises in the vicinity of the Grand Valais for the accommodation of the industrial exhibits.

Last year, it may be recalled, the utility models were accommodated at one end of tip main exhibition building, but on the present occasion the touring-car models have so increased in number, even if they display no corresponding increase in variety, that the more useful, albeit less ornamental, rantions industrich; have had to be housed outside somewhere. All those concerned are to be congratulated upon the representative display which has been achieved, in spite of these several preliminary setbacks.

The Decoration of the Salon.

It requires the miscellaneous decoration of our own Olympia, or the studied tort ensemble in respect of ornamental effect of the Grand Palais to attract the hordes of more or less interested people who thereafter crowd to the site of a pleasure-ear show. Last year the French Grand Palais would have

made a not altogether unsuitable setting for Professor Reirthardt's great play " The Miracle." This year the rows of ornate obelisks tend to make one compare the exhibition site with a well-ordered cemetery. The effect, however, of the whole show is one of statuesque beauty.

The industrial vehicles fare very differently : they are housed in a long stable-like wood-and-canvas structure, temporarily pitched on the near bank of the Seine. No attempt has been made at decoration, with the result that the mere sightseer is conspicuous by his absence. There is ample opportunity, therefore, for the interested visitor to examine the four dozen or so models with the minimum of troirble.

Instead of Crossing the Channel.

.supposa that the day has passed when great numbers of interested Englishmen may be expected to take the journey to Paris solely to view the pick of the French industrial models, even with such facilities at his command as those provided by the • South Eastern's special travel rates and luxurious trains and' boats. On that account, it is perhaps more necessary to write briefly of the impressions which have been brought home by a representative of this journal, who travelled specially to Paris in order to be in a position to tell the readers of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR of any thing of particular interest which might:, be on show. We ore not concerned with the writing down of a. stand-to-stand report of this particular assembly of industrial vehicles ; rather shall we record the present aspects of the industry in France as revealed by the collection of machines to be seen. in Paris at the present time.

French Subsidy Effect.

There are staged, of course, quite a number of models which are boldly advertised as having qualilied for the Government eubsidy grants ; but one is naturally impressed with the fact that even in France this subsidy scheme no longer dominates the industry. The French Government makes but few irritating stipulations in respect of the constructional characteristics of the machines for which it is prepared to pay subvention charges. Manufacturers are therefore left pretty much to themselves in their designs. Bonneted or over-type machines can qualify, as can also vehicles which have liveaxle or chain anal drives. There is no standardization of radiators, nor of axles, control, steering gear, and the other principal components of a modern industrial chassis.

The effect of this subsidy movement is perhaps most strongly shown by the fact that it develops a. heavy type of machine. There are very few examples shown at Paris this year of the motorvan as we understand it, and as distinct from the motor wagon or lorry. By far the majority of the examples shown range in load capacity from 2000 kilos. to 6000 kilos.

Paris itself shows this tendency, and other large cities in France reveal it to an even greater extent. All visitors to the French capital are familiar with the miscellaneous swarms of taxi-autos, ill-kept and badly driven in most instances, with the down-at-the-tail, single-deck, lumbering motorbuses, and with the dangerously driven vans belonging to the Posts and Telegraphs Department. There are a few delivery vans belonging to the great stores and to the principal shopkeepers, but there is an absence in the streets of the commercial motor for ordinary goods haulage, whether it be steam wagon, heavy petrol lorry, pneumatic-tired van, or parcelcar. Even outside such times as traffic of the heavier kind is forbidden the use of streets within a certain area in Paris, one looks in vain for evidence of anything like the development of motor haulage which has now taken so firm a hold of London and of the bigger cities throughout Great Britain.

They All Use Sheet-metal Radiators Still.

Structurally, taken as a whole, the examples of French lorries are a comparatively poor lot, although, of course, there are individual machines which bear the stamp of clever and informed design. In the whole exhibition, for instance, we could not discover a single example of that type of radiator which has now become common with most of the principal makers in this country; we refer, of course, to that class of cooler which has a plain, vertical-tubed centre with cast top and bottom headers. With the exception of those vehicles into which have been built the excellent Solex circular speciality, similar to those which are now seen on the latest Tilling-Stevens chassis and other vehicles in this country, the radiators of the vehicles at the Paris Show are of sheet-metal casings of all kinds of contours, embracing vertical or horizontal-tube or cellulee centres. Most of these are indifferently spring-mounted, some of them with perishable rubber packings and others with springloaded bolts. As a rule, an ugly Protector, in shape like an oldfashioned fireguard, is prominently mounted in front of the cooler. There is no example of radiator guard so neat and so efficient as that with which the L.G.O.C. designers have now made us familiar.

Ram's-horn Hooks, Bonneted and Other Chassis.

Ass if to add to the extraordinary appearance of the front of many of these French machines, subsidytype hooks of all kinds of ram's e16

horn shapes are bolted or pivoted to the fronts of the frame menabers, such hooks as we could imagine would make the hair of Bartle's, of Notting Hill, for instance, adopt a position en. rampant.

We have frequently in the past subscribed to the m,a.xim that, if a thing be designed rightly, it will look right. French constructors of industrial vehicles in particular appear to have achieved the result (with a few exceptions be it noted) of making their machines both cumbersome and ugly in appearance. This is not the occasion on which to discuss the relative claims of the bonneted chassis and of that type in which the engine is placed beneath the footboards. Both have their specific advan.. tages. The French designer leans strongly to the latter type, although, from all appearances, he is commencing to realize, to an increasing extent, the undoubted advantages of accessibility which the bonneted type presents. What could more insure the regular and systematic inspection of an engine and its details than the muchcopied bonneted type originated by the Renault people, of which excellent examples are staged at Paris'? The combination of this arrangement with the Solex circular cooler, as carried out on the latest Tilling-Stevens chassis, is, we consider, admirable.

Some Good Back-axle Design.

Of change-speed gears, there is little to write ; most of them are of the conventional sliding spur-gear type. The chain-drive gearbox, as adopted by a few of our English manufacturers, has no adherents over the Channel. The live back axle, with the big reduction necessitated by industrial conditions, is, however, a problem to which French constructors appear to have devoted themselves with assiduity. In particular we were pleased with the bridged axle shown separately exposed on the Renault stand. Our illustration below will serve in lien of detailed description of its constructional features. Suffice it to say that the solid-forged, bifurcated axle houses a differential and reduction gearbox. The bevel pair taking the drives from each end of the differential gear is accommodated, respectively, on a short lay shaft, which supports the pinion of a final spur-gear reduction, all housed in the same box—a very interesting arrangement.

Worm Design Not Adopted.

There is an ingenious new axle on the five-ton Clement-Bayard. The final reduction and differential arrangement is carried in a gearbox mounted on a, solid forged axle. The drive to the wheels themselves is by short c,a,rdan shafts and encased external spur gears on the road wheels. We only noticed a single worm-driven back axle, which circumstance is further evidence of the progress that the English industry has made, coinpared with French development. The worm drive in question was part of what we take leave to consider was one of the few machines of first-class design in the whole Show ; it is a component of one of the Peugeot subsidy machines, a chassis with the details of which throughout we were particularly favourably impressed. This machine, too, is one of the very few in the Show which has steel road wheels.

Wooden Wheels Still de Rigueur.

--OT wheels there is a considerable deal to be said. The La Buire oscillating device, which certainly makes a preliminary appeal to both builders and users, but of the performance of which on the road we have not yet had an opportunity to judge, is perhaps still the most noticeable departure in respect of wheels and axles. We are astonished to find that the French constructors so generally avoid the steel wheel. The ordinary wooden spoke and metal-hub wheel holds the field. There is a single example of the solid, wooden-wedged wheel on one of the Berliet

machines ; it is steel tired. The same machine is provided with sand boxes. There are no spring wheels on exhibition.

Indifferent Brake Design.

Only in a few instances arc the brakes beyond serious criticism, and we find several manufacturers still adhering to the antiquated wire cable and wood block method. The Saurer, the Peugeot, and the Renault and one or two other brake gears are of quite modern design.

Classifying the exhibits at the Paris Show in general terms, we find that the machines are ordinary petrol-propelled, rear-driven chassis in the main, with two examples of steam wagons, a single example of the petrolelectric chassis, two Frain battery -driven machines, a trolleybus, and a portable gas engine. There are no fewer than three front-driven designs, all of them familiar to the readers of Tnr, COMMERCIAL MOTOR. They consist of a Mass • frontdriven machine, with the power transmitted from the gearbox to the front wheels by 'chains ; the Latil, with, its cleverlydesigned carrion-shaft drive ; and the Fram, with its accumulatorbox slung over the front axle, and with its front wheels spurdriven from separately slung motors. In this class, of course, the Latil four-wheel-drive machines are noticeable, especially in view of the fact that they have recently acquitted themselves so well in the hands of the French Army. The Balaehbw-sky andCaire petrol-electric machine is a neatly 'contrived chassis. The four-cylinder engine, to which is directly coupled the generator, is spring mounted on a sub-frame, which is carried beneath the driver's seat in the position so beloved of French designers. The cables run to the huh motors on the rear wheels.

A Foden and a Purrey.

Of the two steamers. of course, the Foden needs no description : the example staged .has a hinged, low-sided body, and is lettered for M. Josso,' of Vannes, ' The PurreyExshaw is a fine example of the eight-ton. model, and. has all the unique steamer characteristics to which reference has been -made in this journal not infrequently, The vehicle in question has a big hydraulic-operated tip body. There are several tip wagons, and in addition to this Purrey machine, noteworthy examples are the Aries, which is operated by a belt drive and screw, and the Peugeot, with its unusual inclined track for the

tip body and its hand-screw operative gear. The Aries vehicles have achieved great success in France ; they are on sale in England.

A Caravan and a Stone Wagon.

Of unusual types of machines, we may instance the Dunlop-tired caravan, which is a fine example on the stand of the Mass people. The Mass arrangement of mechanism accommodates this large body in excellent manner. The Schneider people are showing what appears to be a heavy stone-hauling, flat-platform lorry, with a special gear-driven winch immediately to the rear of the driver's position. As we have said earlier in this article, the light van proper does not seem to have much attention paid to it as a type by French constructors. The few good examples to be seen at the Paris Show include such ma• chines as the Vinot, Gladiator, De Dion, Renault, Unic, Brasier, and Clement-Bayard.

No Parcelcars—Two Fire Engines.

Of parcel-cars as we understand them, no examples were shown, although the Bayard, Renault, and De Dion stands accommodate small, high speed, box body fourWheelers. The Unic ex hibits are of types quite familiar to our readers. We were interested to notice that one of the chassis had an Englishbuilt torpedo char-it-banes body of small capacity, which was the only example of its type in the Show. A Bourne and Hollingsworth Unic van was a sight that gladdened th-e hearts of English visitors.

An automobile -waterfiltering plant comprises another interesting exhibit on the Schneider stand, whilst a French Army travelling canteen wagon is one of the Peugeot examples. There are two fire-engines staged ; one is the Delahaye Farcot, which has met with very considerable sucoess in France ; the other is a Schneider.

The Pick of the Show.

After our survey of the whole range of the industrial section of the exhibition, we once again were forced to the conclusion that the Saurer design remains unbeaten for its well-conceived detail and fine pixiportions. We have already written in praise of the latest Peugeot model, whilst the Renault and Latil are other well-schemed members of the heavy-brigade.


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