BRITISH ELECTRIC VEHICLE DEVELOPMENTS.
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A Review of the Present and Future Situation.
IN THE STATES the electric vehicle has become firmly established, and there is no likelihood of its being superseded by any other form of transport in the particular spheres of action where it is in operation. Many of the big carrying concerns have as many electric vehicles as they have petrol, and' they find that each type helps the other, inasmuch as the electric vehicles do short-journey distribution whilst the petrol vehi8es deal with work necessitating journeys of considerable length.
In Britain the electric is beginning to force its way by sheer merit. For a considerable while it was trying to puSh its way through what was practically a closed door, but it now has its foot Well over the threshold and the door is opening wider rapidly. , The electric vehicle has been used for pleasure-ear work here for many years, but it did not gain any eonsiderable number of adherents ; on the other hand, the electric commercial vehicle is rapidly coming into its own, and at present the demand is far greater than the supply.
When electric vehicles were first introduced here for commercial work, the grave mistake was made of treating them as rivals of the petrol and steam vehicle. The manufacturers attempted to foist them on to the public for long-distance work, for which they were totally unsuited, with the result that in many cases dissatisfaction ensued, and for a long time the electric lorry suffered from a somewhat bad reputation. Happily, the manufacturers and concessionriaires of this type, of vehicle have realised that it cannot compete with the petrol vehicle as regards long-distance work. Its sphere of action lies in deliveries within a comparatively email radius requiring a large number of stops. , The three main transport systems can be divided amongst three distinct classes of work, viz., the electric vehicle for short deliveries with numerous stops ; the petrol and steam for long deliveries where the stops are not so frequent; and railway transport—if it becomes efficient enough—for very-long-distance work.
For town work the electric vehicle has the advantage of silence, cleanliness and remarkable ease of control. Where frequent stops are entailed it ca.n be started from rest and attain its full speed in a comparatively short space of time, and the cost of running for this class of vehicle has been shown to be remarkably small.
Until recently it was a. difficult matter to estimate the running costs of an electric vehicle, because these depended to a large ex tent upon the life of the batteries, but nowadays it is possible, to arrange -with the imakers of the batteries so, that the cost of 'upkeep for them is a determinable ' quantity, that is to say, the cost of replacing the old battery by a new one depends upon the length of service that has been rendered.
The present-day batteries are wonderfully reliable, whether they be of the Edison type or the Ironclad Exide. Their life can now be reckoned in years, and they are mechanically far more E32 efficient than previously; that is to say, the charging losses have been considerably reduced.. At one time considerable trouble was experienced with the vehicle controllers,. but, here again, great improvements have been made and the use of magnetic blow-outs now protects them from undue spark_ ing and arcing between the contacts.
It is interesting to note that the perfecting of the electric vehicle has depended to a considerable extent upon the perfecting of the petrol vehicle, for the running powers of an electric vehicle depend to a great extent upon the efficiency of the transmission and of the bearings throughout the chassis. The batteries may be as efficient as they can be made, but if the mechanical parts of the vehicle are not so, the :vehicle as a. whole will be, inefficient and the distances which it can run on one charge of the batteries will be small, as a.great amount of the power will be absorbed by frictional losses.
Good springing, well-cut gears, frictio,nless bearings, and lightness combined with strength have all helped to make the electric vehicle attain its present popularity, and apart from motive power the, best electric vehicles are now designed on very similar lines to those of the petrol type. Most of the big railway companies are now obtaining electric vehicles as quickly as they can get hold of them, as they are particularly suitable for the delivery of goods from the stations. We know also of one London Borough Council which has 10 vehicles on order, all,or British make. They are also in demand by brewers and dairy companies. During the course of our investigations, into the sulojeet, we recently visited the Orwell works of Ransome, Sims and Jefferies, Ltd., at Ipswieli. This company had a very large aeroplane shop, which was. changed over in ,Ianuary of this year to the manufacture of Orwell electric lorries, which are built on the well-known Mossay system. As with most other works in the trade, great. difficulties have been experienced in obtaining sufficient machine tool of suitable type in order to produce the output decided upon. It is hoped, hOwever, that before the end of this month the output will be seven to eight. vehicles per week, and this will he increased to twelve in the near future ; at present the output is about four a week.
Two models are being ma-de, a .*tenner which is fitted with front-wheel drive and a .separate motor to each wheel, and a n-tonner fitted with rear-wheel drive, no differential being utilized as a separate motor is provided for each wheel. Both these vehicles are of very substantial construction, and are exceedingly well finished—in fact, we consider that the machining on certain parts is almost excessive, but we were informed that a certain amount of trouble had been experienced with these parts in the past, and that therefore they are now being made with particular care.
In the ease of the 2-i-tonner fitted with front-wheel
drive,. the motors drive by helical spur. gears 'meshing with internally-toothed rings bolted to ,the wheels, and the whole of the drive is totally enclosed.
In the case of the n-tonner, the casing of each motor holds a double helical reduction gear, the final drive being by roller chain to each wheel. The motors are bolted to each side of the chassis frame and firmly secured to the longitudinal and. transverse members.
Owing-to the weight of the batteries' their suspension is a matter of great importance. In the Orwell vehicles they are contained in two boxes, one at each side of the chassis and sliding underneath it. To insert or remove each battery box, a special handlebar is provided which, upon pulling, it back, lifts the box a fraction of an inch and throws its weight on to rollers ; it thus slides in or out freely and is accessible for examination. When the box is pushed hack into position, the handlebar is dropped, releasing the weight from the rollers and locking the battery into position. Two screws at each side of the box-carrying channels prevent any risk of the box sliding out.
The controller is very carefully designed. It has two drums, the main drum being operated by a gate change lever mounted at the right of the driver's seat. It has four running positions for the forward speeds and one for reverse.
The auxiliary or rheostatic drum is controlled by a pedal, which is arranged to act in a similar manner to the clutch on an ordinary petrol vehicle. It is depressed when changing the position of the gate change lever, and C'uts the current so that no sparking can take place on the main drum, all the wear being taken by the starting drum, which is protected by a magnetic blow-out and is quite inexpensive to renew.
The pedal also enables the driver to coast in traffic and ease off when turning sharp corners without interfering with the main control, and thus leaves both hands`free for steering and signalling purposes. The cam of the rheostatic drum is arranged to give a quick break when passing from any position to the next and so prevents the drum from remaining between the running positions.
Steering is by worm and segment, with .an adjustable step bearing for taking up any play. It operates through two ball and socket joints on to a. bell crank lever pivoted at the centre of the front axle. This lever acts on the wheels by two short tie rods. It is interesting to note that in both types of lorries the axis' of the pivots about which the wheels turn when steering pass through the points of contact of the wheels with the road, and also that owing to the arrangement of the bell crank lever the pivot arms are parallel with the frame side members when the wheels are straight, but turn the wheels to different angles when rounding corner& The chassis is fitted with the standard Charging plug approved by the Electric) Vehicle Committee, land its socket is, provided -with a cover which is so interlocked with the control drum that the charging plug cannot be inserted unless the control is in the off-side nosi tion. Al so the' vehicle cannot he started while the charging plug is in position.
Some of the chassis are now being provided with electrically-operated tipping gear, whichhas a central screw running parallel with the frame. This device works easily and is automatically
switched off both when the body is tipped to its highest position and when it returns to the .normal position.
In addition to lorries the company also manufacture Orwell electric trucks and electric locomotives: The works are already provided with a very fine outfit of machine tools of the most up-to-date types, but, as mentioned before, the outfit is not yet complete, and other maehine tools were in course of erection at the time of -mu visit. Fortunately the aeroplane shop is of very large dimensions and. there is ample room for expansiee.
At present the armatures of the motors and the controllers are being made by other ooncerns, but it is hoped that in the near future "every part of the vehicle will be constructed by the company. Such parts as the wheels, heavy forginge, and castings are made at the parent works of,Ransonae, Sims and Jefferies: who have, perhaps, the largest smithy and foundry in the trade. As an example Of the capabilities of the electric vehicle, tests were recently carried out on a 3i-ton type fitted with Ironclad Exide batteries. With half load up the vehicle ran 52 miles, and with full load something over 40. This vehicle was also taken up Gough Street, Birmingham—which has a gradient of I in 6—at over 4 M.13, h.
As showing the local belief in this type of vehicle, we may mention that 15 electrics are in use in Ipswich, of which 13 are of the Orwell make. These vehicles have proved particularly useful in the narrow tram-obstructed streets of this town, where ease of control is atremendous advantage. As emphasized in articles on the transport of food which have appeared from time to time in this journal, the time factor in delivery is one of the most important; especially is this the case nowadays when transport is so scarce, and every few minutes saved i here and there will, n the aggregate, mean a good deal. The electric vehicle is, in this connection, an ideal one. When stopping, no power is consumed, and it does not require cranking up when starting away.
Where irregular, but urgent deliveries are necessary and vehicles may have to be called upon at any moment, the electric vehicle is particularly useful as, provided that the batteries are charged, it can be driven away at a moment's notice., A petrol vehicle, particularly in cold weather, is not quite suitable for irregular work of this type where trips of perhaps a mile or two may have to be undertaken at intervals of several hours. The electric vehicle can be on its way beforethe'engine of the petrol vehicle can be warmed sufficiently for its work.
The great point which we wish to impress is that the electric vehicle should not be considered as a rival.to`other types. Its great value lies in its use as a replacement for the horse. The petrol. vehicle has certainly.replaced the horse to a great extent, but in addition to this it has also undertaken much of the work which was previously done by the railways, and it is in this direction that its future lies. On the other hand, the electric vehicle can never expect to do -much more than to supersede the horse, unless some revolutionary system of electric power storage is brought forward in the future which will enable the electric to travel for longer distances without the necessity for recharging or Boosting the batteries ; as th5s cannot be expected for some considerable time the electric must perforce remain content to replace the horse, which it does in a striking manner.