Attention to the Influx
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a Coronation Visitors.
The Commercial Motor Users Association, on Tuesday of last week, made an important Press announeement in regard to arrangements in hand for the reception and conduct of Colonial visitors who are preparing to come to this country in greater numbers than ever before. From the day following that Press announcement, the London daily newspapers and writers in other journals have accorded their most-hearty approval to the scheme. The ;tunnel parade organized by the C.M.TT.A., a hich hos, appropriately enough, for some two months been fixed to take place on the 5th June, and more recently as part of the official programme in the Festival of Empire. at the Crystal Palace, presents the opportunity for a review by important visitors to these shores, and there is no question that it will be splendidly turned to acTount in that manner. The excellence of that idea has also received general endorsement in Press anti trade circles. It goes without saying that the established connections and resources of the C.M.U.A., both in respect of procedure and relations with other bodies, simplify the requisite steps to insure success for an otherwise-difficult piece of organization. Whit-Monday, the chosen date, happily falls in the early part of the month which is marked out for the height of Coronation activities, but that day, by reason of its being a public holiday, has not had any clashing fixtures allotted to it.
Clean Streets Only Possible
When the Horse Disappears.
Mr. James Swinburne, the well-known consulting engineer and satirist, is credited with the saying that "the horse is as foolish as a hen, but is indecent on a: larger scale." These typical °biter dicta cover more than one t mime. It is a fact, known to the cult of the cleansing superintendent, that the same area of highways requires to be scavenged and swept, without possible reduction of staff, in spite of recurring deductions from the sums total of animal polluters. In consequence of this awkward relation between horse traffic and superficial area, the percentage saving in the cost of any highways department in hori:lon or other great city lags disproportionate to the steady diminution in the use of the horse. The man in the street usually fails to appreciate the cause, and imagines that motors are fully as harmful to road surfaces as are horses, but that is not the case.
We yearn for the stage, now within practical range, when the balance of voting power upon municipal councils will be irrevocably on the side of the motor. That day vannot be far ahead. What a change will there he, when the horse is taxed, is ordered to be put under seeders, eon
trol, and is classed as a distinct type of nuisance—as our horse friends boldly classed the motor not many years ago. We recall the morning shock, following each Sunday or public holiday, when London air struck fear of illness and sore throat upon one, fresh from the country or the seaside. Now, motors be praised, and commercial motors above all (inclusive of motorbuses and motorcabs) one does not hesitate to breathe deeply on returning to the Metropolis, and does not have one's olfactory nerve or tonsils nssa tilted beyond their normal accommodation limits. The glories of the horse for duties of drudgery were never real, and custom had deadened the common sense of the nation to the outstanding drawbacks of animal transport. Can anybody who sees London streets clean doubt this? Are not the carriage-ways, in dry weather, quite as clean as the foot-ways—except by reason of the foully-offensive droppings of the horse? Why bar odd drops of oil and grease, the while nothing is said by way of protest against ammonia-forming organic subalances, nose-bag spillings, and decomposing fweal matter 9
The Wasted Mall.
(Inc important aspect of the so-called " Mall Muddle " is generally overlooked. We refer to the absence of principle involved in any unquestioned use of public funds for the completion of a highway whose use as a thoroughfare for traffic is hedged about by needless restrictions. The completed Mail, ELS an alternative route for the relief of congestion in Piccadilly, should at least be unreservedly open to all pneumatic-tired motors, and the arbitrary speed limit of 12 m.p.h., in support of which there may he sonic valid arguments when one is concerned with the carriage-ways of Hyde Park, should be abolished in respect of this much-used, wood-paved and spacious broadway. Why should the Westminster City Council be expected to pay away £50,000 if anachronistic limitations of " user " are to he imposed so soon as this highway is opened out upon Trafalgar Square? We commend the anomalous situation to the consideration of the Crown officers concerned: they will earn the enduring thanks of all who now lose valuable time in Piccadilly-traffic blockages, if they exempt the whole of the roads within the Green and St, James's Parks in the indicated degrees, by which measure of relaxation alone can the legitimate public convenience he met. We allow, of course, the necessity for other temporary restrictions, to meet occasional traffic exigencies which are inseparable from Court functions, but that is no reason why literally millions of citizens and visitors should be incommoded every day of the year. The special demands of a dozen or more periodic occasions of reserved use furnish no conclusive explanation for the perpetual waste of an admittedly-vital thoroughfare upon which there has already been expended—quite apart from the latest appropriations of some £150,000—a sufficiency of public money to justify all possible returns to many unobjectionable sections of motor traffic which are now virtually excluded. We unhesitatingly place all pneumatictired motors, both private and commercial, within the category of vehicles which might advantageously be made
free of the out-of-date restrictions in Constitution Hill, Buckingham Gate and the Mall. The anachronistic limit of 12 m.p.h. causes numerous drivers to cleave to the old and congested highways which the Mall link ought naturally to relieve. Who is to blame?
The C.M.U.A. and the Heavy Motor Car Order, 1904.
In commenting upon demands, which are now being made upon the Commercial Motor Users Association, that it should apply to the Local Government Board for the revision of certain articles in the Heavy Motor Car Order, 1904, we last week remarked that a disturbance of the existing Order is not to be lightly sought at a time when opponents of heavy traffic are on the alert. Not a few owners in Lancashire, who appear to he subjected to a particularly-strict application of the regulations in certain boroughs within the geographical limits of the comity. are possibly inclined to overlook elements of danger to which they may expose a considerable section of the industry in the first place, and some hundreds of owners in the second place, by any ill-considered or premature action in this matter. On the other hand, it is obvious that, should the views of road authorities and their engineers prevail—and these are usually directed to increases of tire width per unit of axle-weight, or, conversely, to reductions in the unite of axle-weight per inch width of tire, there are many persons who think that the sooner there is a fight to an issue the better. Until we are in a position to state the attitude of the C.M.U.A., which body has not, at the moment of writing, taken its decision about procedure, we prefer to leave the question an open one, and to repeat our preparedness to give publicity to suitable communications.
North of England Show.
The dates of two forthcoming specially-important issues of this journal, the first of which, as was announced by us a fortnight ago, will he entitled " The Users' Experiences—costs and results—Issue," and the second of which will contain the first-published report upon the commer eial-vehicle and allied exhibits at the North of England Show, should be noted by newsagents and general readers. They are the 16th and 23rd inst., respectively. We anticipate an extra demand for both numbers, apart from the extra mail lists about which direct announcements are being made by the Business Department. The writer welcomes these early opportunities to inform owners and likely new owners in the :Manchester district of up-to-date progress. It is, now, some eight years since he ceased to attend, each Tuesday and Friday. the Manchester Royal Exchange, but close touch has been maintained with Lancashire traffic changes during the interval. Having regard to the steady advance of the trade of the port, the demand for heavy motor vehicles is bound to grow, and experiences in the district justify an acceleration in the rate of application. One of the most-important features is the favourable attitude of the Ship Canal Co. and the local authorities generally, in reference to motortraffic developments. Hence, at the close of a year which has witnessed remarkable accessions of support for the Manchester docks, of which we may quote the new loadings of the Ellerman, Cunard, Moss and Papayanni lines, enormous direct shipments of paper and paper pulp from Newfoundland, and more-normal increases in the standard imports of cotton, grain, timber, oil, provisions, sugar, manufactured iron, iron ore, fruit, etc., etc., it is no exaggeration to say that the prospects of attendance and business at this month's exhibition are particularly bright. An interesting feature in the construction of the new dock sheds, and one which has been adopted in reference to the Inevitable future preference for clearance of the quays by motor and other vehicles, thereby obviating the necessity to land from the ship into warehouse, has been the erection of numerous flat-roofed sheds. Simultaneously with the loading of bales or other packages into the transit sheds, other cargo is lifted by electric cranes on to the roofs of the sheds, for immediate distribution thence-preferably by motor vehicle.
A Word for the L.G.O.C.
Our worst enemies would hesitate to charge us with haying, whenever occasion arose, refrained from criticising, without prejudice, the policy and the conduct of London's premier omnibus company, or that of any other concern which has called for such treatment at our hands. We cannot claim, moreover, from time to time, to have escaped the occasional eensure of friends, who have sometimes imagined, in our critical moods, evidence of armchair destructiveness. Confidence in our knowledge of things as they are, as a rule, in the end justifies opinions which may for a time appear to some to be ill-considered. In December of last year, for instance, we had " to be enrol to be kind " in regard to certain aspects of the L.G.O.'s otherwise-satisfactory balance sheet. In the matters of traffic development, publicity methods, and the early organization of the motor department, we have not becn sparing in our criticisms, but our comment has always been above-board and has been made with knowledge. Deserving consideration, therefore, for our own strictures on these scores, we have no hesitation in insisting upon fair treatment elsewhere for those whom we may criticise.
We have recently had our attention drawn to certain writings, in which the L.G.O.'s chief engineer and the results of his efforts have been subjected to some criticism. Fair play demands that we, with an intimate knowledge of the facts, insist that credit shall be given where credit is due. It must be admitted that disappointment was the lot of certain manufacturers, who had expended much time and money in their successful efforts to provide the existing London companies with satisfactory machines. Certain large orders were placed with English and foreign manufacturers, but, subsequently, the L.G.O. Co., having absorbed the Vanguard and the Road Car interests, started to manufacture its own nmehines. First of all, built 60 chassis to its X-type designs—admittedly a first effort which was to combine the whole of the lessons that the combined staffs had learned during the trying-out process of many types. It might have been expected that a model specification, embodying those lessons, would have been issued to certain manufacturers who had loyally assisted these large users in their efforts to evolve a settled type, hut the L.G.O. Co., it must he remembered, only had its own balance sheet to consider, and, rightly or wrongly, the conclusion was reached that its own machines could best be built in its own shops under the eyes of its own engineers. It is a fact, that the Walthamstow works is not allowed to undertake work upon which it cannot economically compete with outside contractors, and that appears to be a perfectly-sound policy from the company's point of view. Such an arrangement keeps the home works constantly at concert pitch, and it must materially assist the bargaining powers of the purchasing department. That the " X-types " have had their troubles, we are fully aware; we should be happy to meet the constructor who could justify a. claim to have produced a brand-new model that had required no modification after its emergence from the first drawing-office stage. That restrictions to which the "X-types" had to conform were severe, manefacturers proper will unhesitatingly testify. Certain components of this new type gave trouble, notably the cast-steel wheels—a speciality that cannot be obtained in this country, which were cut too fine in the weight-saving scheme; there, too, were little difficulties with the first differentials, and the details of the new chain-drive gearbox. The decision to manufacture 60, straightaway, on this first order, was perhaps open to criticism, as structural modifications were hound to be required. This decision, however, was largely a matter of general business policy, by which the consciousness of manufacturing and designing limitations were overwhelmed. No manufacturer of repute would risk his reputation, by ordering a large number of an entirely-unconventional model, without previous extensive experiments with a single complete machine. The L.G.O. engineers had, iltdeed, tested many of the components of the new chassis individually, in very-severe service. hut the complete model was to be tested by a batch of 60. and this, as we have said, was largely due to the peculiar aspects
of ;die company's business at the time, and to the necessity of showing a bold front. The X type's faults were readily diagnosed and remedied, and these maehines are now doing good service under Scotland Yard's 3e-ton regulatiims.
With the B type, there is little fault to find. It is distheely an achievemont, and a very-tall feather in the cap if ic hdef engineer and his staff. Had circurestences td it, there its iNeuld have been in the bands of many regular Titan,.%s some consolation to the industry. which, pi•! had l'eaS011 to hope for some reward ior its i.. die it ,must not be forpt,otteuL that London's premier omeibus company is, at present, the largest purchaser of its kinds of components, stores and materials. In conclusion, we would dissociate ourselves from those who suppose that the " Daimler-Wolseley-Straker " vehicle is to be a most-expensive experiment ; the only thing Wolseley about the ehassis is the clutch spring, the cylinders somewhat follow the Milnes-Dahnler pattern, and small trace of Straker design is to be found. It is true that de Dion practice has been extensively adopted, but the company's experience with that type has been exceptional. These latest silent eh:tests of the I-0.0. Co. are as yet but youngsters, but their already-ascertained maintenance cost is so remarkable as to relieve the company's chief engineer of the need of further reply to those who would belittle what is unquestionably a praiseworthy achievement.. Continuance of this state of affairs rests primarily with the quality of the material that has been used. Equally-good models are now being offered by several of the makers ho have, like the LO .0Co., been through the mill.Tags