News and Comment.
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This journal fosters, represents, and chronicles commercial motoring in all its branches; it has the largest and best circulation throughout the United Kingdom, the Colonies, India, and foreign countries generally. No part of our exclusive and valuable circulation is due to the forcing of sales in useless quarters.
The annual report of the C.M.U.A. is summarised on page 56.
This journal's forecast of the Olympia Show was published last week.
Pressure on our space necessitates the holding over of correspondence and other usual features.
Two interesting interviews will be found on pages 59 and 61, and their contents are of peculiar interest at the present moment.
At Olympia.
Our complete report, written and revised after a stand-to-stand visit, will be on sale, at OlyYritia only, from to o'clock on Monday morning next.
Laundry Orders.
When we brought out our speCial " Laundry " number on the itth May, 1905, we were told by a number of people that a tnotorvan could never pay in the service of a laundry. We are gratified to know that upwards of 4o laundries have purchased motorvans since that date.
A Record of Strenuous Work.
The annual report of the Motor Union of Great Britain and lreland, for the year 1907, is a voluminous and well-compiled document. Attention is directed to the manner in which the Union has co-operated with and assisted the Commercial Motor Users' Association over various cases.
An Important Subject.
Mr. J. Stewart Napier, of Paisley, will read a paper on " A system of costing, book-keeping and recording, suitable for a motor or other engineering factory," before the Institution of Automobile Engineers, on Wednesday, the 8th proximo, when the chair Will be taken, at 8 o'clock p.m., by Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw, F.R.S. Cards of admission may be obtained on application to the Secretary of the Institution, at 1, Albemarle Street, W. The Council of the Society of Road Traction Engineers has resolved upon associateship with the Royal AutomobileClub.
Valuable •Work for the Trade.
Two valuable trade circulars were issued by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders on the 20th instant. One dealt with the responsibility for agents, and the other dealt with the revised regulations for the repayment of excess duty, in the Dominion of New Zealand, in cases where the certificate of British origin has not been produced in the first instance.
A Late Arrival.
One of the latest exhibitors to book for Olympia is the Gallinari Naval Construction Company, Limited, of -Leghorn, Italy. This make of petrol vehicle is likely to attract no small amount of attention, and the sole agent for Great Britain and Ireland is Mr. Orlando Sumner, R.N.R., M.I.M.E., of 39, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. Although notice of this exhibit came in too late for it to be included in our forecast last week, it will be fully described in part II. of our show report. Mr. Sumner is also a director of the Gallinari Company.
Mr. T. K. Phillips, who has had experience with the Thornycroft and Simms companies, has joined the sales staff of Commercial Cars, Limited.
The hospital sub-committee of the West Ham Corporation has provisionally accepted the tender of Hum bee, Limited, at £337 8s., for a motor ambulance.
The Court of King's Bench has upheld the validity of the Foden patent for the construction of traction-type steam wagons, but has decided that a Wallis and Steevens model does not infringe that patent.
Messrs. Durham, Churchill and Company, of Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, ask us to point out that they guarantee the whole of the transmission gear, in any of their Churchill vehicles, for two years.
Our Next Issue.
The Business Department particulady asks that any communications in relation to advertisement matter shall be sent in not later than first post on Saturday next, and, preferably, to arrive first post to-morrow (Friday). This request arises in connection with our special arrangements for Olympia.
A Lathe for the King.
Drummond Brothers, Limited, of Ryde's Hill, near Guildford, has been honoured by an order from His Majesty the King for a standard, 5-inch-centre, screw-cutting lathe. The machine was delivered, last week, to the garage at Sandringham Honse. We have used a 3-inch lathe, with satisfactory results in our own workshop, for some months.
A London Branch.
The Doherty Motor Components, Limited, of Earl Street Works, Coventry, has found it necessary to establish a London branch. This will be under the charge of Mr. B. 0. Butler, who should now be addressed at 2 t2a, Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C. This extension on the sales side will add still further to the demand for Doherty radiators and other components, but recent additions to the company's works should enable them to meet any demands promptly.
Ex Scotstoun.
We learn that a couple of r6h.p. Albion vans have been purchased by two of the leading merchants in Dundee. This Northern city enjoys an enviable reputation for the hard-headedness and keenness of its business men, and it is not unlikely that other orders will be placed at an early date. Another Albion order—this time secured through the local agents, The Ayr County Motor Company—is from the Greenan Laundry Company, of Ayr. This will be one of the new type 30-cwt. Albion chassis, with enclosed side chains. To meet a wish expreSsed by the intendingexhibitors, it has been decided to postpone the agricultural motor show at Bourges (France) from June next to September 4th-0cl:ober 4th.
Mr. A. E. Ash, general manager of the Vauxhall and West Hydraulic Engineering Company, Limited, occupied the chair on the occasion of the company's recent smoking concert, at Luton, when the whole of the men employed were present. An enjoyable programme was carried out, without the aid of any " foreign " talent.
Agricultural Motor Show. (From Our Paris Correspondent.) In your editorial last week, headed ." Agricultural Motors," you remarked that " farmers and growers state that they must have an agricultural motor which is suited for alternative use upon the land, along the highway, or as a portable engine." Well, they would not have found it at the exhibition of agricultural motors held this week and East at the Galerie des Machines, Paris. Machines and implements for the land were displayed in astonishing numbers, but in no case were they designed to serve more than one purpose.
While a confusing number of motor ploughs, threshers, binders, pumps, etc., were on view, I could not discover a single tractor, and, when I questioned representatives of firms as to the reason for its conspicuous absence, the reply was invariably, Our implements alone take up too much space; we have no room for tractors." One or two commercial motor vehicles were to he seen. Bayard-Clement was showing its light 12-1511.p, van, and the ReginaDixi 5-ton lorry was on view.
A striking feature of the show was The prevalence of English, Canadian, and American implements and motors. The French agents of Messrs. Marshall, Sons and Co., of Gainsborough, were exhibiting their thresher, driven by a portable engine., and among other threshers shown were those of Messrs. Ruston, Proctor and Co., Lincoln, and the Humphries, made by the Horsfall Destructor Co., Ltd., of Pershore. Pil
tcrs had a. good display of implements, though the Ivel-Pilter tractors were not on view on account of the limited space at the firm's disposal. The Shanks' motor lawn-mower attracted a great deal of attention, the one exhibited hal. ing been sold to one of the Barons de Rothschild. Engines and motors suitable for farm work were exhibited by Messrs. Tangye, Messrs. Fairbanks, and other well-known English and American engineers.
Dennis Deliveries.
Dennis Brothers, Limited, of Guildford, asks that we will point out that the total of its ambulance vans supplied to the Metropolitan Asylums Board is seven, and not twelve. We publish, on page 86, a photograph of one of the latest Dennis vans, as supplied to the Barnsley Co-operative Society, Limited. A similar chassis, fitted with a flat platform to accommodate either of two interchangeable pantechnicon bodies, was sold, a few weeks ago, to the Bradford Dyers' Association, whilst Lever Brothers, Limited, of Port Sunlight, has just taken delivery of a Dennis van with canvas cover. Lastly,
Maple and Company, Limited, of Tottenham Court Road, W., has placed an order with this well-known Guildford company, for one of its two-ton lorries, as, also, have Harrod's Stores, Limited, and Carter, Paterson and Company, Limited. The foregoing names are a guarantee of the position which Dennis vehicles have earned in the esteem of representative commercial users.
Motor Drivers.
The honorary secretary of the Assn. ciation of Amalgamated Motor Drivers, Mr. Frederick Clements, whose address is the " Essex Head," Essex Street, Strand, WC., advises us that the committee of his association no longer
requires twelve months' driving qualification before admitting a man to membership. Although no member will be recommended by the association for employment. until he has twelve months' driving to his credit, it is felt that new men can usefully take part in the . association's meetings, and mix with the older members, so as to iirt prove their knowledge of petrol 01
steam vehicles. Later on, When its funds increase, the association hopes La arrange for instructional classes. It appears to us that this society deserveg support, and the honorary secretary will no doubt be happy to send a copy ol the rules to anybody who writes to him.