A very attractive postcard, full ot good wishes, reaches me
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from an unpronounceable place in Russia. It bears the signature of Mr. A. Hoffmann, of lvel Agricultural Motors, Ltd., and he promises me a sight of some remarkable " Ire!" photographs. Well I I hope friend Hoffman is doing plenty of business.
Roughing in Russia.
The golf competition for the Dunlop Challenge Cup was played off, at Coventry, on Friday Motor Men last. This was open at Golf. to the cycle as well as the motor trades, and a gentleman connected with the Rudge-Whitworth Co., Mr. G. C. Peart, proved the winner of the cup. Third and fourth down the list, with net scores of 74 and 75 respectively, were Mr. F. R. Goodwin, of the Star Motors, and Mr. Harry Smith, the managing director of the Rover Co. Other good scores were made by Mr. F. B. Goodchild, Mr. E. J. Mitchell (Palmer Tyres), and Mr. M. J. Schultz. A dinner followed.
When men have left their native Lancashire, Yorkshire, Devonshire, or wherever it may be, County Priee, for a number of years, they are apt to imagine that any trace of accent which they may have had has finally disappeared, and, although one finds, without exception, that men are heartily proud of their respective counties, it is with something in the nature of a shock if their county be detected by a slip of speech, or by the flattening of a vowel. Amongst these victims of what may be called acute sensibility, I include my lowly self. I have been "brought down to earth again" a good many times, and so it was with a modicum of mischievous pleasure that, during a temporary lull in a conversation recently with Mr. Fox, of the Autogenous Welding Co., I asked irrelevantly : "What part of Central Yorkshire do you hail from ? " He promptly owned up to Leeds, but it
was with something of a start, and I was quite interested to find that he is the son of Mr. Samson Fox, of the Leeds Forge Co., and something further, which was new to me, that dissolved acetylene and the Autogen
ous Co. are practically Leeds concerns. I expect to give some details concern. ing their process of aluminium welding in the course of a week or two.
Following up the paragraph in last week's issue on this subject, I have a communication from Historic Motors Mr. J. D. Roots, in Again, which he rightly points out that his claim only refers to vehicles fitted with internal-combustion engines. He further says that his claim is for the first British-made commercial motor, but that is not my recollection of the placard amongst the historic motors at the White City, and the collection there includes foreign vehicles of all kinds. Mr. Roots will easily perceive that my sole object is, as a matter of interest to our readers, to get at the actual pioneers, both British and Continental. From another quarter, I am reminded of a. Coventry-Daimler, oneton commercial motor, which won the 1:100 prize at the Birmingham Show in 1898—a prize given by the R.A.S.E. I believe Mr. Roots's van competed for the same prize. Seeing that his win was constructed in that year, can he give some proofs of the actual time of year when it was completed, and perhaps the Daimler Co. will do likewise.
The letter following, from Mr. Arthur E. A. M. Turner, bears upon toe same subject. The date, 1896, is obviously only a guess on the part of the sausage purveyor. I shall be interested to follow this subject further, but I recommend any correspondents to give me some confirmatory evidence. Mr. Turner's letter reads :—
" With reference to the item Historic Commercial Motors ' on page 35, I may say that I have a negative and photograph by ma of what I once thought to be the first motorvan made.
Ibis vehicle, I photographed, in FinsLury Square, in November, 1906. As far as the above machine's history is concerned, Mr. John Ross, a sausage maker of Vanderbilt Road, 'Wandsworth, S.W., the owner, told mu that it was made early in 1896, the chassis embodying a Roots engine of 4-6 h.p. Some time after it came into his hands, he giving 216 for it, he registered it as L.C.3999.' In 1906, when I came across the owner, it was running very well. He and the machine have, however, since disappeared from the neighbourhood. There should be a museum for these early vehicles.
I have another letter. It runs:— " In your last pageful of paragraphs, I came to the concluTaken to Task. sion that you were 'out' in one column and home' in the next. Else, why this almost-savage differentiation between lubricating oil which was used on a flying machine, and whiskers which were induced to grow on a metal plate ? Now, had it been a case of Aveling's trying to induce whiskers to grow on some of the yarns spun in your own particular columns week by week, I can imagine your anxiety to give publicity to such an adventure. Anything much less connected with commercial motors than the tinwhiskers toy, I am unacquainted with ; and yet you gratuitously jump on the poor oil man, who felt he had helped to fly the Channel and deserved a word of encouragement therefor. Be consistent! my dear Extractor. One of these days, we may have aerial pantechnicons, but I don't think we shall ever induce whiskers to grow on a petrol tank, for instance."
" Pass, friend, all's well," say I. You come in a type-written disguise, and I don't know you, but I should say that there is no suspicion of whiskers about you—that "'Tin now the summer of your youth." Indeed, that your unsullied mind does not realize the wiles and maChinations of these viscosity specialists. Why, it is not long ago, if you asked the "man in the street" who won the Four-inch Race in the Isle of Man he would have given you the name of the lubricant used, because of the " glib and oily art," and the reiteration of the lubricant people, so I must persist in this " differentiation " as you so succinctly put it.