A CORRESPOND ENT informs us that, having recently been stopped by
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the police, apparently for routine inspection of his driving licence and insurance certificate, he was asked by one of the officers whether the vehicle was equipped with a speedometer. Having pointed out the instrument, he was asked if it was in working order and replied that it 'was.
These questions, it transpired, were the prelude to an announcement that he had just passed through a timed two-mile " trap," and that, if subsequent calculations showed him to have exceeded 34) m.p.h. he would receive a summons. Quite apart from the desirability of informing a driver at once whether he is alleged to have exceeded the legal limit or not, this procedure is unsatisfactory, and our correspondent wonders, not unnaturally, whether he would be more likely to receive a summons if his vehicle was not equipped with a speedometer in working order.
A NUMBER of trenchant 66Servations on the present state of industry was made by Sir Percival Perry, X.B.E„ at the recent annual meeting of the Ford Motor Co., Ltd, and certain pointers from his speech have a commercial-vehicle interest. ca24 For instance, he said that during 1931 the company, in its particular markets, sold more than one-third of the total number of new commercial vehicles registered in Great Britain and Ireland, or 41.6 per cent. of light delivery machines and vehicles having a carrying capacity of two tons or under. Then, again, despite the present agricultural outlook, the sale last year of Fordson tractors in Great Britain was 20 per cent, greater than in 1930, whereas for the rest of the world it was 60 per cent. less.
NOT many people realize that it took nearly two years to overcome the town-planning difficulties connected with the construction of a bus station at County Gates, on the Bournemouth-Poole road, for the vehicles of the Hants and Dorset concern. The neighbourhood is wooded and extremely picturesque, so that the architects had their work cut out not to disfigure it. Some trees had to be sacrificed, but the waiting-hall building has been designed in the form of a pavilion of pleasing appearance, whilst attractive gardens will skirt the entrance drive for the coaches. It is a pity that all builders have not the same scruples as are displayed by many responsible for road-travel stations. THOSE who are inclined to the belief that the day of the steam wagon is past should obtain from The Sentinel Waggon Works, Ltd., Shrewsbury, a copy of its latest brochure dealing with pneumatic-tyred Sentinels. This contains some striking information regarding the general economy and numerous advantages afforded by this type of vehicle. It is pointed out that the first cost of a double-geared steam wagon on pneumatic tyres is less than that of a vehicle of equal load capacity propelled by a petrol engine, whilst fuel cost is equivalent to petrol at from 4d. to 5d. per gallon.
Six models with load capacities from 6 tans to 11 tons-are now m-anufactured. MUNICIPAL engineers are finding it necessary to bring more and more science to bear upon the problems of refuse disposal. One of the aspects of this universal task, paradoxically enough, brings to light the comparative wastefulness of the poorer classes. It is found that refuse from the better neighbourhoods weighs far more per cubic yard than refuse from the areas of smaller property, the reason being that the better-educated people do their best to burn everything, combustible, and throw only ash into their dust bins, whilst the poorer people put good cinders, paper, wood, vegetable refuse, and even half-burnt coal into the bins, not realizing the utter wastefulness of this procedure.