News and Comment.
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This journal enjoys a valuable and exclusive circulation : it is recognised and supported by Users, operating engineers, and the motor industry at large.
The new abbreviated telegraphic address of this journal is " Commercial Motor, London."
Harrods Stores, Limited, has placed . a large order with the Lacre Motor Cai Company, Limited, of Poland Street, W., for Lacre delivery vans. The amount of the contract runs into several thousand pounds.
The agency control scheme of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders will be further discussed at Maxwell House, Arundel Street, Strand, W.C., on Wednesday, the loth proximo, at 3 o'clock.
The Motor Delivery Company, Limited, of Belfast Chambers, Beak Street, Regent Street, London, W., of which Mr. K. Baker White is manager, informs us that the company is prepared to undertake contracts with tradesmen in London and elsewhere to supply delivery vans by the year at reasonable rates. The company intends to cater for customers who require to handle loads varying between is cwt. and 2 tons, as well as to do regular jobbing work with commercial travellers' motor broughams, and with landaulettes for hotel work. The Argyll and the James and Browne chassis will be chiefly relied upon, and the company has equipped a garage at Bramber Road, West Kensington, for the reception of about 30 vehicles. Jr also intends to keep spare vans ready to cope with any breakdowns, and some of our readers may care to enter into correspondence with Mr. White in order to learn whether he is prepared to meet their requirements.
The Stoke Newington Borough Council has agreed to send a representative to the proposed conference of Metropolitan Borough Councils, in relation to future legislation for the control of motor traffic in London, at the instance of the Islington Borough Council.
It is unusual to find a United States consul reporting that his country is not up-to-date in its methods, yet this criticism has bcen made by the U.S.A. consul-general at Cairo. Tic has reported tha., apparently, the American manufacturer will not build agricultural machinery and implements adapted to the soil and climatic conditions of Egypt and the Soudan. In view of the fact that the Arrol-Johnston Car Company, Limited, of Paisley, has recently booked a repeat order for a number of its well-known vehicles from the Egyptian Government, as the result of a visit paid by its managing director, Mr. J. S. Napier„ in June last, we may faithfully say. that some of our British manufacturers are able to turn out motor vehicles suitable for Egyptian conditions of soil and climate, although these circumstances have not, so far at any rate,been appreciated by Americans.
The Bridgwater Rural District Council has refused to endorse the resolution of the Taunton Rural District Council to the effect, inter alia, that the nationalisation of main roads should not be entertained. The Bridgwater residents are in favour of a measure of central control, and responsibility, in this matter. There appears, in fact, to be no gainsaying its necessity.
Japan appears to have taken a leaf out of German and American books, in respect of tariff charges, and the new rates will come into force next month. We regret to observe that, by Article No. 424, motor vehicles of all types will suffer an increase of 50 per cent, ad valorem. The old rates varied between to and 25 per cent, ad valorem. Steam, gas, petroleum, and electric motors will have to pay is per cent., in place of to per cent., ad valorem. We are sorry to have to admit that this action of the Japanese Government will exert an unfavourable influence upon the development of mechanical road transport.
One of our Indian subscribers writes from the Champion Reef, Mysore, and tells us some interesting facts about the excellent work that has been accomplished there by a 5-ton Jesse Ellis steam wagon with tipping body. It has a horizontal engine, wth cylinders 4 inches and 8 inches in diameter, and a piston stroke of 6 inches, but the Jesse Ellis system, as now built, embodies several improved details of construction which are not to be found in the machine te which our correspondent refers. He says, in the course of a telling letter as to the usefulness of motor vehicles in India : " I am sending you, for reproduction in your most excellent journal, a photograph of a motor wagon which is at work on the Kolar Gold Field. [We regret that the print is too faint for reproduction.—ED.] I trust this will interest you. The wagon belongs to an enterprising merchant out here : he uses it for transporting coal and materials from his warehouse to the different mines. . . . It is a 5-ton Jesse Ellis steam wagon, and the owner is Hajee Ismail Sait, of the English Warehouse, Kolar Gold Field, Mysore. The vehicle does splendid Work, and it has created a very good impression in our district." The main roads of India are generally so good that, given the necessary traffic, motor vehicles should pay their purchasers handsomely in most instances.
The Ivel Agricultural Motors, Limited, has been awarded the gold medal of the Royal Freebrklge and Lynn Association, in connection with that Society's annual ploughing match, held at IIillington, Norfolk. It was found. that the Ivel motor, • in hauling a three-furrow plough, did, the work of six horses.
Messrs. Selig, Sonnenthal and Cornpany, of 85, Queen Victoria Street, F..C., have introduced a new design of patent portable hand crane with auto
matic and receding jib. The crane can be placed immediately behind any van, and, as the post can be swung round an entire circle, the arm can be run out so as to lift packages out of the warehouse, then run partly back and swung round, when the arm can be again fully run out so as to drop the goods on to the farther end of the carrying platform. The reverse process can be performed with equal facility, so that any goods are landed right into the warehouse. The load capacity varies from scwt. to tocwt., the length of jib, over all, from 12 feet to 73 feet, the approximate weight from 29cwt. to 45cw1., and the price from
to 1.,tos. All the jibs have a uniform radius of 9 feet. This portable hand crane should prove very useful in
the quick handling of loads intended for despatch by motor-van, where the saving of time is an important factor.