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Out and Horne.

3rd July 1913, Page 13
3rd July 1913
Page 13
Page 13, 3rd July 1913 — Out and Horne.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Motor Fuel From sewage

A Walk at Bristol. ._By " The Extractor."

More Home-produced Fuel.

Our minds are just accustomed to the thought of manufacturing benzole from the mounds of slack surrounding pit shafts which has through the years been regarded as worse than useless, and now an even more astonishing scheme is in progress for the recovery of motor spirit. I am told on excellent authority that at the Barking Sewage works experiments have gone through by which crude oil producing motor spirit has been obtained from ordinary London sewage. I gather that Sir Boyerton Redwood has already examined the process and the results. and expresses himself in most favourable terms concerning its practicability. Here is evolution with a vengeance.

I have had a walk round the Royal Show ground at Durdham Downs, and it strikes me aS being an ideal spot for this Show. As I write on Monday, not many of the

principals are here. The stands are, naturally, practically complete. The Agricultural Motor people are present. Saunclerson and the Iyel being on this occasion side by side. The Ideal is also here, and a newcomer in the form of a motor plough, a very formidablelooking instrument, is the DarbyMaskell, We, of this house, have made a new departure this year by putting up an excellently-designed stand in the Overseas section, and we hope our friends from the machinery side will pay us a visit during the Show. With a continuance of the fine weather a record attendance should crown R.A.S.E. efforts this year.

"Of what shall a man be proud if he is not proud of his friends?"

When I asked Mr. Raymond Dennis to tell me something about himself, he started oddly enough to eulogize a little coterie of friends of his, designated the Nelson Club, of which club he is a member, and which consists of responsible business men, and it is

with men of cap,acity that Raymond Dennis in his hours of ease loves to foregather. Has he not in testimony to them named his river launch " Nelson "I It is all this that h.as brought the lines to mind with which this commences.

By dint of many leading questions I found out something of the Dennis forebears, because they come from very old Devonshire stock, and can trace back their branch of the family to the beginning of the reign of Edward IV. This, as your history will tell you, was 1461. It is interesting to note that for many years of this distant period the name was spelt Deneis, becoming afterwards Dennys, which it remained for some centuries. After this dip into the past we will find our way back to the time of Victoria.

Out of a prosperous cycle business at Guildford sprang the present gigantic motor concern, for it was in 1895 they constructed their first motorcar—one of the first motors to be made in the country. Then they made motor-tricycles, and Raymond Dennis, who developed into a racing man, annexed 11 prizes in one year. I saw one of them captured myself. It is common knowledge that they exhibited a worm-driven motorvan at the Palace 10 years ago, so it will be seen that the house of Dennis pioneered both motorvan and worm gear. In this connection, it is worth noting that they lost—before they turned the corner—between 21000 and £5000 over motor work.

When you look at the bright, youthful face of "Mr. Ray" as he is mostly called, you simply cannot realize the facts as they present themselves. He belongs to the ignoble army of bachelors—he must be a genius at self-defence, and his chief hobby now is to give his friends some pleasure viewing the entrancing upper reaches of the Thames. "Nelson," fitted with a 35 h.p. Dennis engine, is a fast boat without a keel and makes little wash. No wonder then that Raymond Dennis is in great request as an umpire at the various regattas., and recently, when the King reviewed the Eton Eights, "Nelson,' with Dennis at the wheel, and " Alexandra " were the two boats in attendance on the State Barge. In this connection I have had a glimpse of a letter from the Thames Conservancy, in which Mr. Dennis was thanked for forming the rearguard in the Royal Procession on the river at Eton.

Reverting to the business side, he takes his share of the work on the Commercial Vehicle Committee of the S.liff.M.T. and is also a member of the Council of that body.


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