AN adaptation of a standard chassis originally designed to carry
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2-ton loads but now supplied capable of dealing with greater weights is referred to in this issue.
. . Page 740.
• COLOGNE would appear to be an ideal position for an international motor show. Brief details of the commercial motor exhibition to be held there in May next
are given in this issue. . Page 724.
A VEHICLE which will carry four tons and haul 12 tons across country is something of a novelly. We describe one of British design and .manufacture which, equipped with track bands and driven front wheels, has this ability. Page 7.°16'.
WE comment Upon the retiretnent'from his post with the Ministry of Transpert of Lieut.=Col. 2.. T. C. MooreBrabazon, M.P. We think his going is a real loss to transport, but it will be a help to the development of home-produced liquid ftiels. Page 741.
WE describe a well-tried plant, which is being used with success by well-known concerns in this country, for reclaiming oil contaminated with water, dirt, carbon, particles of metal, etc. Users of large quantities of oil should study this matter in order to avoid waste.
Page 726.
CELLULOSE finish is making great headway in connection with the motorcar and also with the motor coach. An expert writer on the subject deals in our columns with the question of the applicability of the method to the finishing of the bodies of passenger
vehicles generally and to goods vehicles. Page 741.
AN authoritative article in this issue deals with the recent announcement of the railway companies of an increase in railway rates. The advantages which the road haulier possesses over the railway in relation to rates and the apportionment of risks are rather clearly
brought out in the article. Page 730.
WE describe and illustrate the exhibits at the Paris Agricultural Show, including an adaptation of a wellknown tractor by which it is raised sufficiently high to clear a row of vines. The feature of the Show was the. small number of American tractors displayed and the growth in the number of those of European origin.
Page 725.
IT is acknowledged on every hand that sonic form of assistance should be given to-the driver in brake application, which is becoming increasingly difficult as vehicle speeds and loads are raised and as four-wheel brakes are employed. We discuss in our centre pages article some of the methods employed to give this assistanee and describe in detail one which is proving very popular. Page 732. Propaganda Desirable for the Commercial Motor Show.
LaA N outstanding event of the year 1927 will be the Commercial Motor _Show, to be held at Olympia in November next. • This show since the war has been held at long intervals (we are among those who consider that a show of the latest models encourages the idea of fleet modernization!), and it seems to us that considerable efforts in the way of propaganda should now be Instituted in order to attract to the exhibition the potential buyer, not only from all Parts of the country, but from the Dominions and the Colonies and those countries overseas Where the British commercial motor is preferred to the foreign product.
Propaganda on behalf of the Show will need to be most carefully worked out by an expert in such matters, and one who has the interests of the commercial motor vehicle at heart ; moreover, it must be commenced at once and be conducted with persistence throughout the months intervening before the Show is opened to the public. Buyers from every district and country where the British vehicle finds a market must be brought to see the latest that our factories have to offer, and interest must be so stimulated by advance information and useful facts that potential buyers unable themselves to attend the Show shall be induced to give Instructions to their representativeshere to supply them with facts and information as to features disclosed at the Show. The energizing of sales is the object which the Sodiety of Motor Manufavturers and Traders should keep in view, and we believe it will only be attained by thorough and persistent propaganda.
Part of the programme can be carried out by the delegation which the Society is sending to Australia in a few weeks' time. This delegation consists, as at present arranged, of three men, who will examine into conditions prevailing in the Dominion, will interview Government officials and municipal bodies and do everything to encourage inquiries for British-made motor vehicles ; but. as at present constituted, it is chiefly a private-car party, and we think that the delegation should be enlarged by the inclusion of a man who will direttly represent the commercial vehicle movement—not a representative of the trade (which would mean of one manufacturer), hat someone who knows the industry and its products thoroughly well. If such a person offered, he should be -able to follow up the interviews accorded to the delegation by a publicity campaign. He should be able to discuss heavy vehicle and private motor matters with the editors of all the important journals. In fact, if the right man be chosen, we can imagine him being a valuable addition to the delegation. May we commend our suggestions to the Council of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders?
Qualifying for the Rebate on Showmen's Tractors.
THE repayment of a portion of the licence fee on a showman's tractor, thereby reducing the fee to the scale prevailing prior to the enactment of the new schedule, provided that the tractor is equipped with soft or elastic tyres, is a substantial encouragement to showmen to effect a reform in their equipment which will benefit the road surfaces of the country. The weight of these machines and the loads they haul impose a heavy strain upon the roads, even though the annual mileage of any one train of vehicles may not be great arid the halts by far exceed the travelling time. Evidence has been collected by the Ministry of Transport which shows that instances of injury caused to road surfaces by the passage of steel-tyred tractors, traction engines and wagons is often very great, the complaints being commonest in the early months of the summer after the roadways have been dressed with tar or bitumen, The members of the Showmen's Quad and of the Traction Engine Owners' Association have agreed to urge the adoption of rubber tyres on all the vehicles and machines used by them, but, as the chairman of the former body said only last week, the abatement on the licence fees which has been accorded to those who make the change still leaves them excessively taxed.
It is important to know that under Statutory Rules and Orders No. 6, of 1927, recently issued, the rubber tyre to conform to requirements must be of such thickness as shall minimize vibration so far as is reasonably, possible, and shall extend continuously round the circumference of each wheel. All trailers must also be so equipped. In the case of the tractor, the tyres may be in sections, but where the sections are separated the gap shall be no wider than three-quarters of an inch, and the aggregate extent of all spaces between sections on any one wheel shall not exceed three inches, so that the maximum would be four gaps each of three-quarters of an inch or six gaps of half an inch.
A Further Revision of Our Tables of Operating Costs.
IT was Robert Lynd, in one of his delightful commentaries on life, who showed a natural resentment against changes, and disagreed with another author who had declared that there is something in novelty which is in itself pleasing to the human mind. Many of our readers will find something to please them in the novelty of the tyre-price war which is making easy the replacement of worn tyres and the replenishment of the,stock of spares at the present time. A pleasure of this sort does not extend to everybody, however, and that is why the statistical section of the staff of The Commercial Motor is wearing a dejected look just now. It had spent hours and consumed midnight oil by the gallon operating a water-cooled slide-rule in calculating the Operating Costs of Commercial Vehicles for 1927, and had only completed and published seven out of the series of nine tables when tyre prices fell once more, and the whole of the work on those seven had to be recommenced The tables are expensive to compile, .and still more so to produce, but there may be no suggestion of hesitancy on our part to face the outlay, so the order has gone forth to revise the whole set, published only as recently as in our issues-of December 14th, January 11th and January 18th, in readiness for inclusion in next week's issue of the journal.
These tables have been published for 18 years, and they strangely reflect the changes, the advances and the developments in the commercial motor industry. The present Issue of the tables sees the elimination of the set of figures for hackney vehicles operating in the provinces—which sounds strange when one considers that the great development in bus and coach operation has been in the provinces, but which is due to the fact that there is now no differentiation in the taxation of hackney vehicles wherever they may operate. The tables, instead, now include that wonderful innovation, the six-wheeler, and for a time the figures we have adopted for costs and charges will give rise to arguments, for there is at present no generalagreement on such questions as driver's wages, emoluments for overtime and allowances for being compelled to stay away from home, whilst there is divergence of opinion on the cost of vehicle maintenance. It is, again, too early to ask users of the type for their experiences.
We are taking advantage of the need, to revise the tables created by the alteration in tyre prices to modify certain of the estimates and, if nothing happens to delay publication, shall next week ask our readers to substitute the tables then to be published for those now current.