AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Next Month's Parade.

24th April 1913, Page 1
24th April 1913
Page 1
Page 2
Page 1, 24th April 1913 — Next Month's Parade.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Brakes, Tire, Axle, Car Safety

We learn that the arrangements for holding the Seventh Annual C.M.U.A. Parade are well in hand. The list of donations to the General and Special Funds is published elsewhere in this issue (page 155), and the writer, as lion. Treasurer to the Association and to the Parade, will appreciate the receipt of additional contributions. These should be addressed to 89, Pall Mall, S.-W.—to the office of the C.M.U.A.

It will be observed that numerous leading members of the industry have contributed either 55. or S:10 10s. to each fund, but in those cases their shares as participants in the entry lists are usually considerable. Donations of one or two guineas will be just as welcome, from anybody whose interest is less personal.

We may advisedly point out that the lists already include the names of parties who are responsible for donations of the above-mentioned smaller amounts, but we feel that there must be many additional wouldbe donors who, possessed of direct or indirect interest in the commercial-motor industry and movement, will desire to see their names added. The Parade is less than three weeks off, its success is assured, and the lists are still open.

The ',Fall in Rubber.

Rubber fell from 4,9 7d. per lb. to a bottom figure of 3s. Id. per lb., between the beginning of January and the middle of last week. it has since recovered to 3s. 4d. per lb., but the market appears to be distinctly irregular and in an unsettled condition. Less than three years ago, many manufacturers of solid rubber tires had to buy considerable quantities of this raw material at or above 8s. per lb., whilst odd lots may have been purchased, for aught we know, at even 11 s. per lb., though we doubt it. One of our leading tiremakers never exhausted its stocks of rubber, the whole of which had been purchased before the boom, until rubber was again down to 6s. per lb. The company was fortunate in that.

Owners of commercial motors are deenly concerned n-ith this question of rubber prices. It is no less important to them to have settled conditions in the rubber market than it is for them to see reasonable guarantees of equal steadiness in regard to petroleum spirit or other suitable fuels for internal-combustion engines. No excuse, therefore, is required for our putting on record certain views which have been es-pressed to us by friends in the City who are well qualified to state an opinion for our guidance, and through us, the guidance of our supporters.

The outcome of our inquiries satisfies us that rubber is by no means going down to 2s. 6d. per lb. this year, but that it will range between 3s. 4d, and ,is. Sri. That nrophe,cy. which is not our own, we regerrl as purely incidental to the larger consideration of the quantities that will be imported after the end of the present year. and the prices that will rule for the growing. totals of 1114 and later years. It is hereanent that we ore assured on every hand that it will be perfectly safe fn base ealculations on a mean figure of 3s. per lb. The " half-crowners " are much discredited, net onlv

amongst rubber brokers but amongst well-informed consumers. The latter fact is significant.

Seeing that some at, least of our leading manufacturers—no doubt playing for safety—this year based their tire prices on the assumption that there would be an average riding price of Ss_ per lb. for rubber during 1913, it will be evident that certain recent breaks in quotations for tires, a few of which were extremeiy well-judged arid took place at the beginning of the present month, were nothing more than an intelligent anticipation of events by the parties who booked the _new contracts. Without going into detail as to the average weight. of rubber which enters into the composition of thebest and most-successful solid-rubber tires which have built up for themselves excellent reputations amongst owners of commercial motors of all types, we should be failing in our duty to owners generally if we did riot again point out that they may confidently off-set the higher prices for petroleum spirit by current and nrospective savings in respect of their tire bills. The full benefit may not be immediate, but it cannot fail to he of all-round effect within the next few months. That benefit, which we gauge at anything between 13 per cent. and 20 per cent. upon the prices in force at the beginning of the year, according to the closeness of the terms and the size of the orders, will be a good talking point in regard to forward sales, both of vehicles and tires, at the Olympia Show of July next. Salesmen will welcome it, and tire-makers will have no occasion to grumble or be resentful, In fact, the tire-maker may find himself the garner; his productions will he used on higher and higher proportions of all heavy-vehicle fleets.

Front and Side Lifeguards ',for Road Motor Vehicles,.

The extensive trials for which the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., has been responsible are likely to be of effect in all motoring circles before very long. London's premier public-service undertaking has made exhaustive inquiries and investigations into the problem, but its practical tests on the road have not yet been conducted over a sufficiently-long period' for a definite opinion to have been formed or announced. Whilst numerous negative opinions have. been formed, a definite and positive approval for a particular device or type of device has yet to be circulated. We shall possibly hear such apronouncement in the course of Mr. Albert H. Stanley's evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons which is concerned with this and germane matters.

Our own constructive suggestions in print have been confined to a protecting guard, of the rail and hand-grin class, extending from a point slightly behind the driver's seat at an angle outwards to within a couple of inches of the back wheel, on each side of the vehicle, below the frame level. Our principal reason for advocating that model has been the knowledge of the high percentage of accidents in which one of the back wheels alone is concerned. This view is again confirmed by a communication which we have received (see page 1541) from Mr. F. J. Waldo, the Coroner for the City of London. The ascertained distribution of accidents between the front wheels and the back wheels discloses a ratio which we are confident is not generally appreciated by the public at large. The general impression is, that all would be well were the front wheels guarded.

The above-mentioned inferiority of risk in respect of the front wheels, whilst it in no sense justifies the abandonment of effort to find adequate means of protection at the so-called " business end " of the vehicle—comparable, possibly, to the system in vogue upon electric tramcars, does emphasize the necessity for further study of detail in connection with the guards to the driving wheels. The chance to grasp and to cling is of first importance, because a high percentage of deaths occurs amongst young and active persons who are quite capable, given the opportunity, to help to save themselves. It is on some of London's crowded and ill-cleansed thoroughfares that cyclists and other able-bodied men are injured or killed through a momentary lack of balance or self-possession. They might as well grip at the smooth sides of a barge in the river, as try to find a handhold on a standard body or frame.

We look for improvement in the degree of effective guarding with the highest permissible amount of yield in the protecting structure, and for this reason we shall expect trials to be made of fittings which in some respects will resemble a good wire mattress. The risk of rebound, of course, has to be eliminated.

Critics who, without consideration or thought, demand a man-catcher at the front, will do well to note that they are unmindful of the actual conditions under which numerous accidents really happen. The probleni of .adapting a satisfactory guard is undoubtedly simpler in respect of the back wheels, partly because an easier angle of impact is assured in the majority of cases, and partly because the device itself can be accommodated within the overall dimensions of the vehicle. We do not„ However, despair of the discovery of a practicable fitting for use at the front of motorbuses or other commercial vehicles, although we do not for one moment wish to disguise from investigators, or to hide from ourselves, the difficulties which stand in the way of the attainment of that most-desirable end. The inequalities of our highways are not the least of these difficulties. The " cure " must not do more harm than the trouble. All changes are not improvements.

For the time being, apparently, although it prob

ably strikes observers that the vertical guards at the. front of the motorbuses are solely for the protection of the radiators, the L.G.O.C. has added these buffer hand-grips to numerous vehicles with a double motive, and this feature is one that we feel is deserving of commendation.

Reversible Steam Engines Now Legalized as Brakes.

The new Order of the Local Government Board, for the approval of which we have been working since last summer (see memorandum by the writer in the issue of this journal dated the 11th July), has at last

been issued. We may recall to the minds of readers the preparation and submission of that memorandum, and the very careful inquiries that have been made up and down the country by the engineers. of the Board., to whom facilities were afforded, by arrangement with the Commercial Motor Users Association, to test . chtteient points that arose during the period of consideration which they felt it necessary to occupy. From our own knowledge we can endorse the credit which was accorded in the last annual report of the C.M.U.A. to Messrs. 1). S. Kennedy (Pickfords, Ltd.), H. Howard Humphreys, and G. W. Watson, for the manner in which the original memorandum was supported and justified by them.

The new Order is called the "Motor Cars (Use and Construction) Amendment Order, 1913," and it is dated the 19th inst. We quote its exact wording elsewhere, and we think everybody will agree that the text proper is highly satisfactory. We take the view that any good design of shoe brake will be sufficient, along with the use of the reversing motion of a steam engine, to comply with the requirement of two independent brakes.

The covering letter from the Local Government Board, signed by Sir Horace Monro, the Secretary, under date the 21st inst., expresses the opinion that "in order to comply with the requirements of the Order, it will be necessary that a brake consisting of a drum and strap or other similar contrivance shall be applied to each of the two wheels on the same axle, and that such brake shall be capable of being applied simultaneously to both wheels by means of a single wheel or lever. The Board does not consider that a brake applied to only one of the two wheels on the same axle, where such axle is fitted with differential gearing, or a brake applied to the main shaft communicating power from the engine to the driving wheels, would satisfy the requirements of this ,provision." The italics for " the ' are ours. In law, of course, this covering letter is merely a pious expression of opinion, and is of no account in event of proceedings. It is the wording of the Order alone that will count at such times.

It will be noted, incidentally, that the Board expresses disapproval of a vehicle in which the use of the engine is supplemented alone by a drum brake on " the main shaft," but does not state whether it would so class a back axle.

The real point is this : over and above the engine, any owner of a steam wagon must be able to show that any other brake which is fitted is of "such efficiency that the application of that brake to the motorcar shall cause two of its wheels on the same axle to be so held that the wheels shall be effectively prevented from revolving." In practice, on any summons that may arise, there should be no difficulty in giving a demonstration of that capacity before the magistrates in respect of any usual type of friction brake.


comments powered by Disqus