Opinions and Queries
Page 44
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Runiingin or Out!
nRIVING back from London on September 12, along "...the Great North Road, I came up behind five new Bedford truck chassis being driven at speeds which necessitated me accelerating toover 70 m.p.h. in order to. overtake. them. Each had an incongruous notice above, its. trade plate which read: Please pass—running in," followed by the name of a Dagenham firm. : Before more Bedford engines are worn out prematurely, I suggest this firm might.send out their own scout to collect evidence -which would surely result in these, foolish drivers losing their jobs, which they are now abusing. Chesterfield. MORTON H. EDMUNDS, Editor, The Derbyshire Times.
Don't Forget the Interest
win' reference to the reply given by S.T.R. to an " Australian reader in your issue of September 9, the formula which he gives provides the average annual amount chargeable as interest on a vehicle depreciated over a known period.
A similar result to that arrived at by S.T.R. is reached by the following more simple formula, which we use to arrive at the interest chargeable when we publish the operating costs of Morrison-Electricar vehicles.
(Capital sum) (Annual depreciation 2 ) 2 x Interest rale
London, W.11. E. G. RUTTER,
Austin Crompton Parkinson Electric Vehicles, Ltd.
A Question of Relativity
S a well-known broadcaster used to say: "It all " depends on what you mean by ..." The table of relative stopping distances in your issue dated September 2 tends to raise the same question--it all depends on what you mean by "relative." An important factor governing the minimum distance in which a vehicle can stop is the coefficient of friction between the tyre and the road surface, therefore to achieve relativity of performance suitable for comparative purposes it would be necessary for all vehicles to be tested on the same portion of road, under identical weather conditions.
Take, for example, the performances of two more-or-less similar vehicles—the Austin and Thames 5-cwt. vans. The Austin figure of 30 ft. from 30 m.p.h. represents a coefficient of 1.0 g or unity, whilst the
Thames' 361 ft. equals g.
The road test reports from which
these figures were obtained proved to be very illuminating—referring to the first vehicle, the report read: "The brakes were extremely efficient, but I attribute the exceptionally short stopping distance obtained durin3 the braking tests to the rough surface of the concretz road "; whilst conditions when testing the Thames van caused the comment:" The road surface was still damn enough to cause wheel lock when making emergency stops." • Because of the manner in which -different test conditions affected, the braking performance'..•of similar vehicles, chosen at random, it makes one wonder whether the remaining results could be taken at face value, or whether the theory of relativity should be applied. Rainhann, Essex. C. HAwsoN.
Accident Unusual but Not Unique
IWAS first introduced to your journal several months I ago, when the chairman pf our branch of the Omnibus Society brought some copies to my home. One reference by you has particularly interested me. It concerned an accident in which the condtictor fell through the floor of his bus, and it would 'be interesting to know the type of vehicle involved, as, although the accident may, as was said, have been a million to one chance, it was not unique. We had one in Wallasey in 1931, when a woman fell through the floor of a bus in King Street, outside what is now the Gaumont cinema. The vehicle in this instance was a six-wheeler and it seems possible that the bus involved in the accident reported in your journal Was of this type. This conductor was fortunate, as in the Wallasey accident the passenger was killed.
At that time there were eight vehicles of the same type in the Wallasey fleet, these being two single-deckers and six double-deckers, arid it was one of the latter which was involved. As a result, all eight were withdrawn from service and were eventually scrapped.
Wallasey. D. HARRIS.