OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
Page 27
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The Bditor invites correspondence on all subjects connected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should be on one side of the paper only and typewritten by preference, The right of abbreviation, is reserved, and no responsibility for
views expressed is accepted,
Small Locks for Garage Doors.
The Editor, THE COPEUNLERCIAT3 MOTOR.
[2275] .Sir,—With reference to one of the letters appearing in your page of workshop and running repairs, contained in your issue of July 29th, it appears to me that a much simpler method of accomplishing the same object (which was to fit a lock with a small key in place of that existing) would have been to have fitted the type of Yale lock known as the Jemmy-proof, which is supplied by the Yale people, and is, I believe, number 93 on their list.
I have fitted this type of lock to my own garage doors with complete success, and it, of course, does away with the necessity for any additional type of door bolt.—Yours faithfully, J. W. HAOGHTON, FRAZER AND HAUGHTON, LTD. Co. Antrim, Ireland.
"Opening-up Undeveloped Country."
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[2276) Sir,—I have read with extreme interest, and I heartily endorse, your leader under the above heading in the issue of The Commercial Motor for August 12th.
As one who can perhaps claim—as one-time transport superintendent in Persia of a leading oil com pany—some degree of familiarity with "The most difficult conditions" which have to be overcome in such services, will you permit me to say that success ful solution of the problems involved cannot be found by concentration upon the power instrument alone, but calls also for consideration of the system „ upon which that power instrument is to be employed. This aspect is far too generally ignored and too little studied by those concerned in mechanical vehicle production, with the natural outcome that practical men are diffident of the enthusiastic claims of those whom the Chief of Staff recently—perhaps a little cruelly—dubbed " mechanical cranks."
Bluntly put: the self-propelled vehicle used alone cannot achieve supreme efficiency (and therefore economy) in either road or roadless transport, any more than can the locomotive, used alone, on the railway.
An admirable crystallization of general experience was given by Mr. H. Mattineon (general manager, Marehester Corporation Tramways), at the Bristol Congress of the Institute of Transport, when he stated that "the cost of a standing motor vehicle (e.g., when loading) was more than the work which it performed would support." This root defect is independent of considerations of its mechanical movement, over no matter what surface involved ; it is, moreover, aggravated by higher capital cost, the more complicated the nature of the motor vehicle considered.
Those who approach the problem exclusively from the mechanical point of view too often overlook the fact that the factor of labour cost in freight handling is actually of greater relative significance than the pure cost of freight transference.
My criticism is not, however, meant to be merely unhelpfully destructive, but rather suggestively constructive.
Apply railwayprinciple—adopt railway practice— haul load, rather than merely carry it, by means of the instruments available even to-day—and solution is practicable, and practical.
As you, sir, have well affirmed, there are in being "locomotive " units the adaptation of which to and stressing of running surface are so improved as to
render possible their use in applications in which the ordinary wheeled.self-propelling vehicles are useless. My personal experience does not, I fear, endorse as final the design (nor accept as a commercial proposition the employment) of flexible-track machines on rubber bands—the much-advertised Sahara experiment notwithstanding. The rapid deterioration of such tracks at tropical temperatures and their inherent defect of driving slip, even with grooved power-pulleys, led to their abandonment in the State's many years ago.
Other and improved alternatives, however, are becoming known (although not aa yet widely), and 'these, as you indieate are indeed " of far-reaching importance " to the field under review.
There are, no less, in being to-day units of truckage for land-tiain service in conjunction even with the tractor units of to-day. These constitute the " rolling-stock " by which freight conveyance may be accomplished at a tithe of the cost that hitherto has been supposed the limit attainable, other than by the expedient of railway construction and .operation.
I submit that, under the urgent call for Colonial and overseas development and exploitation of resources, recourse must more and more be had to such methods as I have endeavoured to explain.—
Yours faithfully, EMRYS J. WHELDON. London, S.W.I.
Buying Reconditioned Imported Vehicles.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[2277] Sir —About a year ago wrote you concerning a claim made against me by the Excise authorities in respect of import duty on a foreign-made chassis with char-à-bancs body, which had bought on the hire purchase system. You gave me very useful advice then, and acting upon it, I laid a complete statement of all the facts of .;,he case before the authorities, and have heard nothing more of the matter.
The vehicle was supplied to me as " reconditioned" by a firm of dealers. The body was very good, a new one in fact, but the chassis was not at all as it had been represented. The cylinders had been cracked, repaired, and painted. The magneto was an old one of a make unknown to me, and was totelly unfit for the work, whilst there were many small defects in the chassis. I had it examined by experts, who quickly informed me of its condition. It took all my earnings to get the machine put right, which, however, succeeded in doing gradually. It has been an expensive experience, and I am now a wiser man in the matter of motors. My advice to beginners buying reconditioned vehicles is to get. them only from good concerns which will give full guarantees as to condition, and which Will go thoroughly into the question of any import duty should the chassis be of foreign origin.—Yours faithfully, YORKSHIRE USER. •
Police Tests of Brake Efficiency.
The E ditor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[227S1 Sir.—I was stopped by the police the other day and asked to apply my brakes, but it did not strike me that the test was a good one. Surely it would be better if they tested you on a known gradient that would give one a speed of, say, 12 miles an hour, or on the level at that-speed, going over the ground twice so as to test each brake separately. We are beginning to look at our brakes more in our garage lately.—Yours faithfully,
Bradford. HEAVYWEIGHT.