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The Agent and the Commercial Vehicle.

5th December 1918
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Page 1, 5th December 1918 — The Agent and the Commercial Vehicle.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

SO FAR AS our inquiries have taken us, they have led to the opinion that there is a wellplanned endeavour on the part of the manufacturers and the agents to do the bulk of the selling of commercial motor vehicles through the agents. In the past, there has been a strong feeling on the part of the manufacturers that the agents steocl aloof from the commercial vehicle business just at a time when, as is .always the case in the pioneer days of any development, that help would have been of the greatest service.

True as is this statement (Made generally), the circumstances in what the agents then found themselves must, in all fairness, be taken into account. They were being over-run by a demand for touring cars, which were then passing through their hands in large quantities, selling easily it is true, but every sale being an individual sale and calling for a large amount of personal attention. The commercial vehicle was then bidding for the support of quite a different clientele, calling for a different kind of salesman—a man who could think in terms of cost per ton-mile. The salesman of that period, thought more of cigarettes and of socks that made a good match with the colour of the coachwork!

But, to-day, there is a more earnest feeling, and the agent can be a potent factor in effecting sales, using his knowledge of the needs of his locality and of its traders to good effect. And every opportunity and facility should be given to him to secure the business of the large buyer who, invariably, thinks that better terms can be secured by negotiating direct with the manufacturer. Efforts should be made to convince the large buyer that he can get just as good terms and even quicker service in the way of repairs and replacements if he conducts his business through the agent. It is a system that operates in other branches of industry, and, in. the long run, it must be best for the commercial motor industry. Direct dealing logically involves multiple depots and the neglect of the territory which lacks a depot. The result is as we see it to-day, thousands of potential users of commercial vehicles sticking to their horsed vehicles because no one has directly brought home to them the fact that the motor vehicle is a more efficient proposition.

The Motor Fuel Problem.

TEE PRESENT is emphatically the time for broad views, for the expression and the carrying out of large progressive ideas, and for the ordering of affairs on grounds of the immediate and future betterment of the community as a whole: It is no time for the effecting of temporary and palliative measures. On these grounds we feel it to be our ditty to criticise some of the suggestions put forward by the author of a paper with the above title, which is dealt with on another page of this issue.

We refer in particular to his scheme for the use of alcohol mixed with other fuels, which appears to be put forward as a complete solution of the problem in question. The author himself has made almost a life study of the problem, and has been publicly associated with propaganda in favour of alcohol as a motor fuel for more than a score of years. His opinion as to the practicability of the various suggestions which he makes is, therefore, worthy of serious consideration.

Let us state, in the first place, that we agree generally with the author's estimate of the benzoIe situation—that the supply is limited—at least for the present. If we also take his figures as to its present production to be correct, then, basing our conclusions upon his stated proportion of b-enzole in the alcoholbenzoie mixture, the supply of the mixed fuel, as and when it is available, will hardly suffice to meet even our immediate needs for motor fuel at their present dimensions, much less those needs when they are swollen, as they will be by the time the production of alcohol is proceeding on lines which styli' allow of not less than 100 million gallons annually being devoted to use as motor fuel. In pursuit of our search for an independent home-produced fuel, we are immediately, therefore, faced with the necessity for turning a proportion of the alcohol into ether, and using the mixture of alcohol and ether as a fuel.

This application, this admixture of fuels, is justified only when viewed as a temporary expedient, the object of which is at once to encourage the commercial production on a large scale of industrial alcohol. It will serve this purpose during what may be called the transition stage. If, as we gather is the intention of the author, this use of mixed fuels in the existing type of automobile engine is intended to be the final solution of the fuel problem, we must strongly dissent from any such view. The use of the mixed fuels is open to two objections which have the common ground that it will not be ultimately economical. A national necessity for peace :sod for war is, always has been, and will be more than ever in the future, low cost of transport. That country which can command the oteapest means of goods transit will have a considerable economic advantage over its competitors. The actual selling price of industrial alcohol as it can be produced in this country is at present more or less an unknown quantity. It is, however, anticipated that it will be less than that of petrol, which, by the way, is also that of benzole. The process additional to those employed for the distillation of alcohol and necessary in order to convert that spirit into ether adds considerably to the production cost of alcohol. In any event, therefore, either of the mixtures suggested would

appear to be more expensive than the alcohol alone. That constitutes one objection. As to the other, we quote from a statement of the results of certain investigations carried out by the United . States Government as to the efficiency of alcohol as a fuel. "The alcohol engine with a maximum degree of compression for alcohol will have an available horse-power SO per cent. greater than a gasoline engine of the same cylinder size, stroke and speed." (The italics are ours.) Here, again, it is plain that real economy lies in the utilization of alcohol alone. The author, on grounds of personal knowledge and experience, is able to state that there is no difficulty in the design and construction of engines adapted particularly for use with alcohol as fuel. As an engineering problem, as a matter of fact, it does not exist.. Increased compression, and the necessity for some means of easy starting with this fuel, are all that are needed over and above the requirements of the petrol consuming unit. The former as merely a matter of size of combustion chamber and adequate strength of parts. The latter is in part attained by the increase of compression, and will most likely take the form of some electrical means of heating the jet and mixing chamber of the carburetter as a preliminary to starting. The main solution, then, of the motor fuel problem, if it is to be solved at all by the use of alcohol, and all present indications point that way, will in the end depend upon the perfection of the engine which will utilize alcohol with a maximum efficiency. This should be the immediate, intermediate and ultimate objective. Side by . side with it, of course, can he considered that of the production of the fuel which, no doubt, may be most readily encouraged by the adoption of some such means as that which has been suggested. It must not be side tracked in favour merely of evolving a fuel to suit existing engines,

The Economic Use of Benzole.

LET US TAKE another view of the fuel situation. Appearing in this issue is an article by a regular contributor dealing with the circumstances relating,to the future of our fuel supply, and pointing out the possibilities of the situation so far as benzole is concerned, and indicating the course of procedure in order to secure the full advantages from

the competition. of benzole with petrol. .

Various figures are, at. times, given for the output of benzoic by the gasworks of this country. We have recently had the figure put by a good authority at 30,000,000 gallons per annum. But the annual consumption of motor spirit, with the vast extension of the use of mechanical haulage, may be put in the immediate future at 180,000,000 to 200,000,000 gallons, so that on the point of competitive value benzole is apt to fall short, and, doing so, is in danger of being absorbed in the meshes of the petrol distributing concerns or even of diminishing, the easier course being taken by the gasworks companies of allowing the benzoic to remain in the gas.

As our contributor points out, the time is ripe for the formation of a distributing agency, the shares in which should be largely in the hands of users or fuel consumers. We would go further, and endeavour to form a concern which should be large enough to compete with the petrol distributors, and in which producers and users held substantial interests, whilst we would recommend the production of a mixed fuel which should make the supply of benzoIe spread over the largest area of fuel supply.

It would be wasteful to use benzoic "neat" (the word is descriptive enough to permit its use) when it can be used to enrich large quantities of paraffin, for example. Paraffin is a drug in the market at the distilleries' in fact, tales constantly reach us of millions of gallons being annually run into the sea because of the lack of suffi.cient demand. At the same time, pa,raffins are being distilled from home-produced crude oil, which, unsatisfactory in themselves as motor fuels, should, when mixed with benzole, be quite .suitable. Thus, it would seem as if a combination of the benzole producers, the shale oil producers and the users would help to solve the problem of producing, distributing and consuming a satisfactory home-produced fuel. The essential factor is distribution. The mixed fuel must be as readily available and obtainable as petrol. With regard to carburation we have no misgivings, because clever minds are at work on the problem of carburetting admixtures of paraffin, and the problem, we believe, has already been solved.

The Returned Service Lorries : a New Decision.

E INDICATED recently our expectation that some steps would be taken without much more delay in the direction of arriving at a decision as regards the disposal of surplus Government vehicles. We are glad to note that an official announcement has now appeared to the effect that it has been decided to set up a Ministry of Supply developed out of the existing organization of the Ministry of Munitions, and that the duty of disposing of all surplus Government property will be undertaken by the Ministry of Munitions pending the completion of the arrangements for organizing the new Ministry.

As a result of inquiries. we think it fair to anticipate that the section of the Ministry which now has this matter in hand will be neither remiss nor dilatory. Moreover, we shall be surprised as well as disappointed if the decision reached, does -not provide for opportunity being given to manufacturers to repair their own vehicles, subsequently guaranteeing their condition, and also if the manufacturing industry and its selling organization, direct or through agents, is not utilized for the purpose of effecting the sale of the surplus machines.

It is not to be anticipated that any considerable number of machines in anything approaching good condition will be placed upon the market just yet. The War Office is still calling on manufacturers foi continued supplies on a very substantial scale, and this would obviously be unnecessary and ridiculous if good surplus vehicles in quantity were now available for sale. Meanwhile, we anticipate that, before these lines appear in print, civilian buyers will again have an opportunity of purchasing new lorries direct from manufacturers who have hitherto been tied down solely to Government contract work.


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