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Opinions from Others.

25th January 1917
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Page 21, 25th January 1917 — Opinions from Others.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects connected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should he on one sloe of the paper only and typewritten by preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility for views expressed is accepted.

Agrimotors by Adaptation.

• The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[1409] Sir,—I am much interested in your references to the chain-track fitting for attachment to ordinary motor vehicles, the invention of Mr. M. L. Adams. It appears to me, however, that Mr. Edge will find that his hands are too full to seek to undertake, or to make himself responsible for any fresh manufacture at the present time. I am also inclined to think that the ordinary private car will not be adaptable, having regard to its low horse-power and its high ratio of gearing. Some coinniercial motors might lend themselves to the modification, although one is apt to forget the heavy frictional losses of the characteristic chain-track drive, and the heavy demands per ton of total weight for tractive purposes over ordinary agricultural land.—Yours faithfully, R. J. Wienians. Women as Drivers.

The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[1410] Sir,—Thank you so much for the attention you gave my letter. I only wish it had altered your opinion. Honestly, we are a happy, healthy crowd. I am not half clever enough to write for THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR. In any case, the jolly times my delivery girl and I have, and our many adventures, would be more amusing than instructive. Our van boy has been away on a horse-van for a, few weeks, as boys are scarce, so we two girls are doing the work of two men and a boy. We thought we would have difficulty in the snow, 'but I can drop one sack out and run the back wheel on to it while my assistant slips a sack under the other wheel. We have had some sport with shovels and ashes and bits of rope round the tires. Of course, everyone rushes to help two defenceless damsels! We are quite spoilt. One man driver asked how it was we could get through the work quicker than the men. We had to confess that our customers never thought of keeping us waiting the way they do with a vanman. Everyone is so awfully decent to us, and when we get a new run we are so sorry tolose the many friends we have made on the old one.

I put off writing to you a second time until I could read your leader. I loved the last bit about the smile. Do you not think 114 months a •fair trial? When I give up my job, I am going to take the liberty of writing to you again. I shall then let you know if it is because I am not strong enough, or because the war is over. If the latter, we will both smile ; if the former, please do not. Thanking you for your courtesy, and for the many pleasant hours I have spent reading THE-COMMERCIAL 3.10TOR.—Yours faithfully,

Glasgow. "ONE FAIR CORRESPONDENT."

Applying an Advertised Test to a Sparking Plug.

The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[1411] Sir,—I notice with interest in the advertising oolumns of your journal that a firm of sparking plug manufacturers advertise that their insulators are every one tested by "heating to a white heat and then suddenly plunged into cold water."

interested nterested in the advertisement, I bought a set of these plugs, and, in order to prove the statement. attempted to raise them to a red heat with a gas blowpipe. Every insulator went to fragments under this test without the water plunge. In every case the flame was directed upon the metal body of the plug and the insulator screened. As a manufacturer of pottery, I have for many years been interested in the production of a ceramic material which would stand such extremes of temperature, and the result of my experience has been to show that, so far, there is no manufactured ceramic substance which will stand this test.

The object of this letter is not to decry the productions in question, but to suggest that, in the interests of the -British motor industry statements contained in the advertisements of British manufacturers (who are now upon their trial before the users of the whole world) should be strictly truthful. To claim virtues which do not exist is more than harmful to the authors of the statement.

The standard of advertising integrity in the motor trade is a particularly high one, and in our national interest (if for no other reason) the greatest care should be exercised that it should not be lowered.— Yourrs faithfully, "PLUG USER."

(We cordially agree that advertising statements which go too far, or are capable of misconstruction, or am 'conceivably or deliberately misleading, harm everybody. This correspondent certainly appears to draw attention to a Claim that calls for explanation or withdrawal.—En.] The Era of the Agrimotor.

The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[1412] Sir,—Subscribing to your magazine each issue, I have been a very interested reader of the controversial letters on the subject of motor plows, and agricultural motors, which have passed between you, a Mr. John Allen and a Mr. Fitzpatrick, and printed in your issue of the 11th January, 1917. While regretting the personal note in the correspondence, it is very evident that there is a "nigger in the woodpile." On this very important subject, a controversy, taken seriously and argued dispassionately, can be of incalculable service to the country at this time, and I am very much surprised at the stand taken by some English trade journals with regard to this industry. First of all, let me say I am Canadian, have travelled in every State of the Union, and am fully acquainted with the motor trade over there, and most especially agricultural motors. We are not usually an insular people in Canada ; that is, I am afraid, the peculiarity of the Englishman. I say this without the slightest animosity towards Englishmen, but state a fact recognized throughout America, and I have in mind the very superior look on his face when the " home " Britisher surveys a Ford car. There is an antipathy towards any American product manufactured by the mile and cut off by the yard, and this attitude is distinctly insular, although at the particular moment the Englishman may be taking advantage of any special inducements such product may offer. My earnest belief to-day is that trade. journals and

manufacturers of motors are discouraging the agricultural-motor trade at this time because of the competition after the war. I am not alone in this belief and consider it a very unpatriotic stand to take. Knowing the value of such machinery at this crisis, these journals should be making determined efforts to interest people concerned, putting all other considerations to one side. Agricultural motors, especially the light utility tractor, are here to stay, and the sooner this is realized by everybody concerned the sooner will the question of extensive intensive farming for the needs of the country be settled.

The superficial knowledge. gained by touring the U.S.A. is a negligible quantity ; knowledge gained through intimate connection and experiments with these tractors in a factory is negligible • and the magazines of this country devoted. to mchor transport certainly are in no position to gi've any expert opinion on agricultural tractors,. because of their somnolent attitude in regard to this coming industry. [Our correspondent here discloses that he is unaware of this journal's consistent advocacy of agrimotors during the past 12 years.—En.] Again, 1 do not speak crossly, although it is exasperating to pick up magazine after magazine and find this subject conspicuous by its absence. There is no legitimate excuse for this neglect, except, maybe, the insular conservatism, and we who have travelled, Mnd are familiar with this question from actual and practical experience, are amused at the arguments put forward by your Mr. Allen.

Before being tried, we must perforce find its faults ;

teakness, whatever it may be, must be shown at its wort; and meanwhile food values increase, and man-power decreases. My own experience of seven years as expert agricultural motor engineer with one of the foremost American tractor builders has taught me it is possible to build a wheel and a frame to withstand any road. I venture to sa that the most gruelling labour which any wheel or frame has to withstand conies from a 24-hour grind on the hard (sometimes rocky) prairie sod, turning it over 6 Ms. deep to the tune of 25 acres a day, six days a week.' The early tractors were certainly failures in this respect, and the first weakness showed in their wheels, and I am personally aware of one company which replaced all tractor wheels free of charge on their earlier models. This question, like the hundred and one questions dealing with tractor efficiency, has been met, and deficiences overcome, by tackling the job in a businesslike manner, and the motor magazines are in the van on that side of the water.

It is your business, and, again without "hard feelings, you are "falling down on your job." The day of the farm tractor has arrived, and a somnolent attitude to-day may mean a high price for experience later. The western farmer paid for his, and, incidentally, for the manufacturers' experience, too. As a field expert I have delivered and started to work some 400 petrol and paraffin tractors, and can honestly say that there is no branch of industry which has made the strides that the agrimotor has made, and to-day the farmer recognizes the "iron horse" as an essential. But the motor paper has been the most insistent on its possibilities, and long ago came to the conclusion that the farmer, far from being a "hayseed," is a man of many parts and quite willing to adapt his farming methods to the needs of the day. He is the one human combining muscle and brains, but ordinary mortals think not, and still less the technical paper. For .my part, I think the motor papers which neglect the chance of spreading such knowledge as isto hand on the subject are lacking in real patriotism, inasmuch as this critical time calls for their undivided attention to the field when quickest results are desired., Food production is the essential element in this case, and no motor-plow trial should be missed, no evidence to popularize should be thrown to.one side, for therein lies one of the roads we must travel in the winning of this war. [A weekly journal cannot be represented at every local trial;—En.] My interest is more than a passing one, as my life has been passed amongst this class of machinery. I believe I understand the needs of the farmer along the lines of motor traction, and I know just what tractors are capable of doing under certainconditions. I also am aware of their faults, but I am of opinion that the good points far and away outweigh

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. these faults. At. present, my real feelings in-this matter are subservient to the military, else I would gladly spend my time spreading the gospel of increased production the motor way." I will be glad if you will open your columns, to me, my ,first attempt at this, thanking you in anticipation, and I look for awakening interest in the ..very near and insistent future.—Yours faithfully,

• W. H. ROBERTS.

[Does Mr. Roberts really claim to know all about England and English conditions because he has been here as a -machinist — sergeant in the

A.8.0., for a few weeks or months Interest was awakened by us many years ago, and we have done much of which our correspondent knows nothing, 'Lisa Comm EEC IAL MOTOR has uniformly made efforts to interest farmers and other concerned parties in agrimotors, An extensive recent reprint of all points concerning them, from our Royal Show Report Issue, of the nth June last, in fact accounts for much present action and business. flee, also, page 460.—ED.] Whitening of Kerbs.

The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[1413] Sir –I have read with interest the letter of Mr. 13eaueliarap:. ,and your comments, in the issue of the 18th rust, It may be of interest to give a cutting from "The Municipal Engineering and the Sanitary Record" of the 28th December last:--"That the whitening of street kerbs is nowadays a practically compulsory requirement upon local authorities. The existing method of applying the material by brushes is cumbersome and slow. Municipal surveyors, will, we are confident, be relieved to find that a very practical hand machine, 4,escribed `Kerb/starker,' has been brought out by a well-known municipal engineer, by which the work can be carried out in about a tenth of the time occapied by hand brushes. It is to be marketed by Messrs. R. Gay and Co., of Caxton House, Westminster, S.W., who are using same in connection with their 'Presto 'White.' material."

The machine referred to above is my invention, and has been in use by me for some time.—Yours REGINALD BROWN, M.INST.C. E., M. I. M Eon. E. ' Town Hall, Southall.

[We hope that the London "Safety First" Council will take note of Re Chain-track Converted Motors.

The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[1414] Sir,—We have read with interest the letter from Mr. J. Hodson, in your issue of the 18th inst., suggesting the employment of ordinary commercial ears having their wheels fitted with a chain-track tread, also your remarks on the subject. May we point out that, unless the particular device to which your correspondent alludes is already in commercial shape, which is almost certain not to be the case, the time needful, under existing manufacturing conditions, to get it into such shape and tried out sufficiently for commercial purposes, would be far and away beyond the time required to get a chaintrack tractor "built, for the job " across ,from America. The manufacturers of the Bates steel mule, whom we are representing in this country, can furnish us with up to 200 per month and give prompt shipment. The Ministry of Munitions is, we understand, taking steps to facilitate shipment, so the time needful for delivery need not be excessive. In regard to the proposals to fit chain tracks to existing commercial vehicles, we would point out to you one verf,r serious objection, and this is. that, 'even if the outfit is worked on first speed, that speed is too high for ploughing. Such a machine would, no doubt, do all right for the lighter work of the farm, but ploughing speed, with a regularly-constructed tractor, does not exceed 23 miles per hour. We do not know of any commercial-motor vehicle, even of the heaviest type, which, with the engine working at the speed to give its fullest power, will provide a first speed so low as this.—Yours faithfully,

Coventry. THE POWER FARM SUPPLY Co. [The speed over the ground will correspond to the gearing-down—in the ratio of discarded wheel periphery to length al chain-track. The length of the chain-track is a matter of Choice.—ED.]


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