LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Central Station Risks Grow Greater. The Hard Task of the Innovator.
ViE, WHOSE BUSINESS it is to know all there is to know about commercial motor vehicles,. are, -when one comes to think of it. concerned with a wide variety of motive powers. And there may be even a wider choice 'before many years go by, as inventors and others of constructive mind are at present very busy indeed in their endeavours to discover and stabilize soine system which shall effectively take the place of the much discussed but as yet indispensable internal-combustion engine. In the heavy vehicle industry we find very definite utility in steam, petrol and electricity and nowadays in certain combinations of the three. :And there is not one of them which is not at present figuring prominently in great current questions of national economics. Steam wagon and tractor haulage, of course, stand to lose heavily if the present' coal complications force pit-month prices much higher ; the great problem of discovering a suitable home-produced alternative to petrol carries with it the question of the continuity of current design of the internal-combustion engine, while as to the third great division, we are all on the tip-toe of expectation as to whether the country is to be committed to the enormous experiment of central super-power stations and their attendant distribution ramifications.'
In connection with this last, the electric vehicle stands to gain immensely by the proposed stupendous increase in distribution, of charging capacity. And it is therefore of peculiar interest to read Lord Moulton making public pronouncement and warning on the subject last week. I have in these colunmes, earlier in the present year, strongly urged the danger of centralizing our power production, in view of the growth of syndicalism, "direct action," and other alarming doctrines of the rierw unrest at the hands of what is inaptly called Labour. Lord Moulton is reported to have said only a few days ago—" The Labour troubles of the present most seriously affect the question ef using coal to produce power on a large scale at central stations." Is it wise, he asks, to establish such central production of power as would be the ca-se with the super-power stations and then rely on the hope of being able to defend the two or three hundred miles of wire• by which the power would travel to the place of consumption?
fhe power for mischief of the individual is vastly increased by -the advance of science and by the advance of democracy. Measures of economy which would be practicable in a well-disciplined community are not only impracticable, but in the highest degree dangerous in an unsettled community. This is a most serious matter, and will, need to be very carefully considered before any steps are taken to erect these super-power stations. There is a very growing tendency on the part of municipal authorities to acquire • electric motor vehicles for which work they are intrinsically so -well suited. But the vulnerability of generating stations on the new scale is by no means a reassuring factor for tramway, electric railway, and electric vehicle protagonists. If I am not very much mistaken the present alarming industrial tendencies will do no good to the super-central station plans—nor indeed to electric-vehicle enthusiasts. A self-contained and independent motor vehicle is a more useful asset in certain eventualities than is the battery-propelled machine dependent on central station charging.
The Hard Task of the innovator.
One of the noticeable effects of the cessation of war-time industry and restrictions hasbeen the letting loose of quite a little crop of "novelties in design." And :they, are in the main very unconventional—a breaking away entirely from accepted practice. Lots of these ideas have been bred in long and anxious war-work hours, and it has only been possible now to hatch them out. The confirmed patentee, the habitual experimentalist, the scientist-none has had the opportunity for some years to startle or to shock a sluggish world with any peaceful development or suggestion. Few new ideas had any chance of a moment's consideration until lately, if they were not intended to knock the stuffing out of your enemy directly or indirectly or, at least, to render his existence a degree more unpleasant than ever--if by no other means than by enabling us to carry on a while All that is over, anclwe have time' to digest all sorts of new ideas for doing -the More ordinary things of life in new and 'extraordinary ways. .There is quite a crop, for instance, of other means of running a car or lorry engine than by feeding it with petrol out of a two-gallon can. Interesting 'and very clever I find corns of these proposals, but I am afraid I am one Of those who hold, so far as motor-vehicle design is concerned, that it very seldom indeed pays to be unconventional nowadays. Consider, for a moment, the enormous numbers of carburetters of new design of which we haVe heard in the past, most of whila at the expense of some elaboration were supposed to achieve without failure considerable consumption economies. Think of that very clever chassis, the Lanchester—now quite an ordinary high-grade machine.
Think of the bonnetless cars generally—of that very remarkable Irish design, that appeared in Belfast waa it not? just before the war: Recall the steam cars, the Locomobile, the White, the Rutherford, the Serpallet. Think again of that wonderful war-time stunt the gasbag—gone for over The innumerable devices for burning paraffin—from the ingenious gasifier at one time, fathered by Commercial Cars at Luton to the much-heralded Constantinesco vaporizer.
Quite a lot depends on the sales agent and the repairer in, these matters. How many average men could make a, satisfactory job of a. Lanchester repair or replacement of the old type ? How many ear agents today know anything whatever about steam wagons or fire-engines and are, consequently, not out to boost them—from sheer nervousness'? How. many enthusiasts will the Still engine induce, or the Smith gas producer? The industry has gone so far and is so widely developed, that the task of an innovator is, nowadays, immeasurably harder than ever it used to be. The problem of improvement, too, is, naturally, more difficult. And, even if improvement on a considerable scale is provable, it is a harder task than ever to enthuse the other people. I wonder how far all those wonderful Rapson inventions have gone !