Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 17
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Much about the Gloomy Futures of the Horse and the Tramcar.
The L.G.O.C, Knows This.
Scientific management is the rational application of determined facts to the direction of men or affairs.—" Industrial Engineering."
Falling is the Horse's Metier.
Consider our streets. The horse is falling into desuetude, and its place has been taken by the motorcar and motor lorry.—" The Engineer."
Trailers for Other Towns.
If the gloomy forebodings of the motor omnibus profits are not realized, we may look forward to the L.C.C. example being imitated in a number of towns.—" Electrical Industries."
No More Joy-riding.
The time has gone past when the public paid to ride in taxi-cabs for the pleasure of it. They want the quickest and best way to their destination now, and the most successful driver will be ire who studies such points as these.— • The Chauffeur."
Beating the Car.
The industrial motor truck is gradually but surely coming into its own. It has long been evident to even the most ,areless observer that the automobile or motorcar, whichever term fancy may dictate, would attain its greatest utility in a wide adaptation to Industrial purposes.--" Commercial America."
Everybody Doing It Now
Progsessive merchants are making the change every day, and it is only a matter of time before every business house of any importance will be compelled to buy trucks because their future will, to a certain extent, depend upon it, and because those in the same line of business are installing them.—" Ths Gas Power Age," Montreal.
The Railways are Threatened.
No well-informed person can deny that the power wagon will ultimately supersede the horse. The far-seeing student knows more than this. He sees in the power wagon the beginnings of an industry that will have to deal eventually with a gross traffic greater than that of the steam railroads and one that will have the co-operation of the custodians of millions of miles of public roads.—" The Power Wagon," Chicago.
English Designers are Wanted.
It is of course impracticable to try to build huge trucks and omnibuses that will glide along like the proverbial shadows, but it is entirely practicable to build machines that will not he particularly and emphatically objectionable, and no doubt it will not be long before public opinion, which is content to growl and grumble for a long time before insisting upon remedies, is sufficiently aroused to bring about the results that can and ought to be obtained. It were well did designers forestall such action.—" The Motor World." The Fighting Weight of the Light Van.
It is obvious that the handy, and also commodious; motor-propelled vehicle of whatever class is ultimately to drive its horse-drawn competitor from the road. —" American Motorist." Chicago.
The Truth, the Whole Truth..
If the evidence given at coroner's inquests_ were closely analysed it would ba found that in a notably large percentage of cases the victim had been, as lawyers put it, "guilty of contributory negligence."—" The Daily Sketch."
Surer, Quicker, Safer.
It is seldom a motor engine runs amok, and of the two methods of transporting a pump, escape, or first-aid machine to the scene of a fire, motors are surer, quicker, and infinitely far more safe than horses.—"Fire."
The Old Times Changeth.
Several of the 1913 models at present announced or ready for announcement appear after a cursory examination to be more complex and less accessible than the models of this season and many of last season. This is due to new arrangements new devices and new sys
tems.—" arrangements, Age." • Not for the Horse's Benefit.
Do not let us get peevish every time a taan mentions motor trucks. If they are a good thing let us get them. Team owners are not in unsiness for the benefit of the horse. We are in it to make money, and if the motor truck is preferable for making money, let us send our horses to pasture, while we are operating the motor truck.—" The Team Owner's Review."
Even Operations are Useless for a Decline.
To-day the horse is a nmeicipal luxury. He costs hundreds of thousands to keep the streets clean and is a menace to health, especially in the crowded city districts. The horse has retarded the proper sanitation of cities more than any other one obstacle. We have tolerated the horse all these years because he has been a necessity, but his day of usefulness is past; he is going into decline.—" Gas Power Age."
The Over-motored Truck.
Many truck engineers to-day realize that more injury has been done to the motor truck industry by putting too powerful motors in their chassis than fitting them with under powered power plants. With many it has been a repetition of the pleasure-car days, putting in big motors in order to make sales. The big motor appealed to many. They were asked if their truck could carry a 50 or perhaps 100 per cent. overload. With 'nide and confidence they answered positively. The demonstration was made, the overload handled and perhaps a sale made. But the continual performance was not satisfactory, —" The Commercial Vehicle," New York. "The Academy" Chaffs its Contemporaries.
Articles are appearing in the best journalistic style on " How to Cross the Road " ; diagrams of the risky area overawe us in the evening papers; leaders are being written on the matter, and altogether we seem to be in a bad predicament. Subways are not of much use; the average man hates to dive underground when there is the slightest chance Of crossing the street with limbs unbroken; and light bridges over the most congested places would hardly be tre improvement. The curious fact has emerged from the discussion that the densest traffic is the safest.—" The Academy."
The Troubles of the L.C.C.
Meanwhile the experts of the County. Council are at their wits' end to deal effectively with motor omnibus competition—which, if we may use the expression, is murderous in its effect. It is the greatest compliment to the astuteness and skill of the proprietors of the motor omnibus that the County Council has turned its attention to the necessity of doing away with the construction of the conduit and the trolley systems. These systems, in which 12 millions of the ratepayers' money is invested, are rapidly becoming obsolete. The tireless brain of the engineer has swept them away as it swept away the horsedrawn onutibus.—"South London Press."
A Vivid Description.
He—the motor wagon user—must always figure on a considerable deterioration in the tires caused by wear and tear of everyday knockabout, rough use over all sorts of pavements and roads and under all sorts of weather conditions, from the torrid days of July and August, when the superheated asphalt and dirt of the highways over which the truck is obliged to travel well-nigh blister the tortured rubber as it toils on its rotary path, to the frigid days of December and January when the cold contracts the rubber and the ice and snow insidiously permeate the pores of the tread as it bumps over the frozen ruts in the roadway, receiving severe blows and sometimes cuts from stones and sharp pieces of ice.—" The Automobile," New York.
Tramway Comment.
The tramcar may take a man more or less comfortably to business six days a week, but on the seventh, and on the public holidays, it can offer him no change of route save one that lies through districts as thickly populated as his own, a necessary condition if the tram line is to pay. That mobility should be in itself enough to convert those who have so constantly banned the motor omnibus and blessed the tram car. . . On the country runs there are conditions widely different from those met with in the streets of London. Steep gradients, heavily banked roads, and sharp corners give the men altogether new conditions to deal with. Yet it is all taken in the day's work, and accidents so far have been conspicuous by their absence.—" The Court Journal."