Passing Comments
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" C.M." for Posterity
A COPY of last week's issue of The Commercial "Th Motor was included in the contents of a large copper box buried on Wednesday in the foundations of the new building of the Norwich Motor Co., Ltd., at Recorder Road, Norwich. The box contains also newspapers, coins, photographs, plans of the city and other items of local and national interest.
The ceremony coincided with Civic Week celebrations in Norwich, and Mr. F. H. Olorenshaw, chairman and managing director of the Norwich Motor Co., Ltd., threw in for good measure, catalogues, photographs and so on dealing with the activities of some of the other larger business houses in the city. He has thus provided a valuable legacy of local information for future historians.
Memory to Order
jF Section 9 (4) of the 1953 Act is frequently invoked, some hauliers whose memories are not quite as good as they were may be interested in memory-storage devices made by Mullard, Ltd., which were shown at the Automatic Factory Conference of the Institution of Production Engineers at Margate last week.
These devices "store intelligence for an indefinite period without consuming power." They are just the' thing for applicants who wish to find out what they told the Licensing Authority during their last applications. Another function is that "intelligence B26 can be very rapidly withdrawn "—a useful characteristic for the applicant who is cornered.
A conference discussion on "The Anatomy of Conscious Machines" may have referred either to mechanical contrivances cursed with a jinx or human beings who work according to method rather than with imagination.
Highly Coloured
A REPORT that an oil-fuel storage tank is to be " installed at Sheffield Blood Transfusion Centre (picturesquely known as a blood bank) gives rise to speculation on the results of confusion in fluids. If the coloured population of Sheffield suddenly increases, the worst will be suspected.
The decision to install the tank follows successful experiments with a Trojan oil-engined 1-ton van, as a result of which all the vans used in the bloodtransfusion service will gradually be converted to oil.
A Worthy Convert
THEchairman of the London Transport Executive, 'THE John Elliot, has prayed himself to be a worthy convert from rail to road passenger transport. Although he has held his present position for only 21 months, he showed complete awareness of the many detailed problems concerning the road transport side of his vast undertaking when he faced three knowledgeable Londoners in an obviously unscripted B.B.C. sound programme one evening last week.
Among the many subjects adroitly handled by Sir John in the half-hour allotted to him were the parking of private cars in London, staggered hours in offices and factories, the" bunching" and crawling of buses, and the economics of cheap fares in offpeak periods.
One of the questioners was Mr. R. Gresham Cooke, until recently director of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and now Conservative Member of Parliament for Twickenham.
Late for His Own?
A HEAVY vehicle recently on test by The " Commercial Motor was struck an oblique blow by a large, fast-moving car travelling in the opposite direction. The car driver hurriedly stopped and, with hardly a glance at his .battered wing, ran back down the road. As he did so, he extracted a visiting card from his wallet and pushed it into John F. Moon's hands, saying: "Sorry I can't stop, but l'm in a hurry to get to a funeral."
He was fortunate that it was not his own.
Taking Lancashire with Them
AT functions in Lancashire, the loyal toast is "The Queen, the Duke of Lancaster," but only rarely is that particular form heard outside the county borders. Consequently, many of the 600 guests at a banquet in the Yorkshire resort of Scarborough, last week, pricked up their ears when they heard the words associated with that rival shire on the .opposite side of the Pennines.
The meal was the culminating point of the Exide service agents' 26th convention, and Exide is basically a Lancashire organization.
Cllr. Miles Bird, Mayor of Scarborough, proved a laughter-raiser both at the opening ceremony and at the dinner. At the end of the week it was still uncertain whether or not he had himself been surprised, during his civic welcome to the delegates, at the mirth which greeted his reference to Exide agents being ever-ready with their service.
Union "Price Rings"
AN interesting view on price rings was recently given in the leader columns of an important religious newspaper. After stating that it was, perhaps, wrong for mantlacturers to sell products at a fixed price, the leader writer pointed out that the manufacturer had to pay the same rate of wages to a clumsy engineer as to a deft one.
"This," the writer went on, "introduces a pertinent point. If it is wrong to fix prices, what is the position of the trade unions that insist upon their national rates of wages? Should they be called upon to abandon these fixed rates in order to free the economy?"