Out and Home.—By "The Extractor."
Page 10
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An excellent garage and repairing depot for all kinds of commercial motors has been opened, at the back of the Broadway Theatre, Deptford, S.E., by Messrs. W. Till and Sons, an old-established firm of wagon builders and motor repairers. South London and Kentish firms should find this a handy place.
Mr. W. H. Willcox, that well-known and popular personage and one of the founder members of the Royal Auto mobile Club, has recently invested in a lanclaulet for private use, convinced after all these years ; and, "tell it not in Gath," although he is a staunch bond signer of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, he bought this at an exhibition which is " outside the pale" of that Society's operations. Dear ! Dear ! How our ideals go tumbling to pieces from time to time.
One odd taxicab experience befell me during the Xmas holiday. I was staying with some members of, my family, at Sheffield; and part of the programme for Xmas Day was a journey to the Hallamshire golf course, away out on the moors. My host for the day was a motorist, and a prominent member of the club, and we had a long uphill journey in a Wolseley-Siddeley taxi_ It was soon evident that our vehicle was labouring, and we were being passed 'by other taxicabs and motors, and then, in horse cabs—" oh, the heartbreak of it "—by other members of the club who waved sympathetic good-byes. When -we came to really steep bits, we feared the end would come, and at last it did 'come—a dead stop. Our driver, a raw recruit apparently, despondently explained that they had given him a fresh rind of motor spirit that morning,.
which seemed to him to account for everything, and he cheerfully allowed my host to take the wheel and try his hand. It transpired that the man had been giving the engine insufficient gas when changing down, and, with our new driver we were soon going in grand style, picking up the horse cabs first. We just managed, amidst cheers, after a neck and neck (I mean a bon net and bonnet) race with the advanced guard of the taxicabs, to get to the clubhouse first.
The idea occurs to me that, strictly, a.
g'T#lenlaP ,112.s. fig ..1?1.10.111..csA: without a license, a public-service vehicle. I seem to recollect cases, with horse cabs, where roystering undergraduates and such have been fined for putting the cabman inside and mounting the box of a hansom. It would be interesting to know what the law is, be. cause a similar case may often arise.
an cases of proved emergency, it is held not to be a vase of infraction of the law,—End
The Reo Motor Company, of Westminster, will have, with the New Year, a light commercial-traveller's vehicle, and one which takes my eye. Mr. Lambie has a persuasive tongue, and this traveller's cart, of the American buggy type, with a serviceable hood and the box for samples at the rear, which can easily be detached if needs be, should sell well. The Reo Company is prepared to turn these out in very large quantities, and the price is astonishingly low.
The Star Engineering Company, of Wolverhampton, is making progress with commercial vehicles. When I was in the factory, last week, they were just dispatching a repeat order to the Co-operative Wholesale Society, of Manchester. I think this is excellent because the C.W.S. has a great knowledge of business motor vehicles : it and allied concerns must have close on a hundred in use. I am convinced that the Star Company has gone very thoroughly into tradesmen's requirements, and one of its make is hard to beat for a light van. Very shortly, now, one of our staff is to have a full day with one of its vans in the hands of a tradesman, and it will be of interest exactly to record the results for cornparative purposes. A large number of its yapsis used by Lever's.