Correspondence.
Page 15
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Motor Wagon or Tractor ?
The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—Before pursuing the above controversy further, I should like to enquire what, in your issue of 9th July, you meant by " tar macadam," and what, in your current issue Of 3oth July, Mr. J. C. Cornock means by "-tarred macadam." Until readers like myself, who are almost equally interested in the two types of vehicle, are perfectly clear on this matter, discussion is, of course, a mere waste of time.
" Tarred " naturally suggests tar-sprayed ordinary macadam, which is a totally different material to what most people understand by tar macadam. But Mr. Cornock's criticism also now appears to have chiefly referred to hillclimbing effects, which in yours of the 9th July you do not mention. Needless to say this is important to the general issue. If one's conclusions are to be reliable, there must be no obscurity about the premises upon which they are based. —Yours faithfully,
JOHN MORRISON. r [We do not exactly follow how the question ef tarred surface, steeped
metal, or gradient,can vitiate the observed peiformance Under common conditions, but further enquiry shall-be made.---En.] Trankcar as Hospital.•
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—The " Daily Telegraph of the ist instant contains the under-quoted report, under the above heading : "The novel sight of a tramcar being used as a temporary hospital was to be seen at Norbury late on Thursday night. The tram had run into the back of a motorbus which, pulling up, had encroached on the tramway metals to avoid overhanging trees. The steps at the rear of the bus were forced into the vehicle, and a lady named Mrs. Elliott, living at Warwick Road, Thornton Heath, who was alighting, had her ankle fractured, and it was mostly for her benefit that the blinds of the tramcar were drawn, and she was attended by a doctor. Sbakeshaft, the conductor, was badly injured, and a Mrs. Barnes had her ear so torn that it had to be stitched. Another lady passenger in the motorbus was badly bruised. This motorbus service between Croydon and Oxford Circus has been in existence only since Sunday last."
This serves to show how, even in a journal of standing like the " Daily Telegraph," the tramway tracks on our public roads are fast coming to be regarded as sacred preserves : the reasonable use of this part of the highway by .other vehicles now constituting " encroachment," forsooth ! The italics are mine.--Yours faithfully, F. GRUBB.
Brixton.
Is the Petrol Omnibus Doomed for Use in London? The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—Those people who have been talking. of the petrol bus as a commercial failure have been effectually silenced by the able editorial in your issue of the ifith ultimo. In addition to taking an interest in London's traffic, I have been studying your fortnightly census, and I notice that, out of the total shown in the rgos columns, almost 4 per cent. were steam buses, whilst, in 1908, only just 3 per cent, are of that type, although the number of buses "in commission at present is 1,o68, or almost double the number shown in your census taken in July, 1906. Of the 33 steam buses now licensed to run in London, 20 belong to a company which runs no other type of vehicle, but, since this company is .still in its infancy, one cannot say whether the steam vehicles will prove commercially successful or not. Many people interested in public-service vehicles in London will watch the progress of this company which pins its faith to steam buses -alone. Writing, however, as a member of the travelling public, I should like to say that, if I wanted to get to the Franco-British Exhibition-from the R.A.C. in as short a time as possible, I should not board a Metropolitan steamer. Most of the other 13 steam buses plying for hire in London are owned by a company which runs petrol machines as -well, and several services are maintained by both steam and petrol vehicles. This company does not say which type is most reliable now, but I cannot help remarking that, on a route where, in 1906, some five or six steamers might have been counted, two, at most, assist the petrol buses in maintaining a reliable service to-day. I often have occasion to wait at Holborn Circus for a bus, and now and then it happens that one of the steam vehicles plying along Holborn pulls up near me ; while the bus is at rest, a hot wave of poisonous air, so thick with paraffin fumes that it can almost be felt, flows up from under the driver's seat. If a touchy City dignitary happens to breathe in a lung-full of that, I can quite understand his attending a meeting at the Mansion House and protesting against motor traffic in general.
Some petrol buses certainly do offend on the score of noise, hut a lot of this noise is due to bad road surfaces. Given g-o(xl road surfaces, the bus companies can be trusted to eliminate all undue noise caused by defects in the machinery. The period of wild competition now seems to be ended, and the traffic 'returns of. the chief bus companies, in spite of the fact that they are running fewer steam buses, show improve_ ment, so I, too, although only a non-technical member of the trading and travelling public, incline to the view that the star of the internal-combustion-engined bus is still in the ascendant.—Yours :faithfully,
" DISINTERESTED ONLOOKER." fWe publish this letter as it gives the view of an average man of business, though we cannot endorse our correspondent's view that competition is ended—Ito.] Tires for Commercial Vehicles.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :--Having had a unique and considerable experience in the compilation of solid-tire mileage, to the extent of nearly six hundred thousand solid-tire-miles weekly, for the purpose of keeping upwards of three hundred commercial motor vehicles in service, and this enormous mileage made
up by many manufactures of solid-rubber motor tires, each make working at one and the same time, I feel justified in .stating that I know something of the life and doings of this class of tire. I should, therefore, like to point out, in answer to your able writer (Mr. Sturmey) on this subject in "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR " of the gth July last, a few points which have evidently not been considered by him. The most serious difficulty he raises is that, should a solid tire fail, it is absolutely necessary for a commercial or other vehicle fitted with solid-rubber tires to be out of use for nearly a week for the purpose of fitting another tire. This would only apply in the rase of a one-van owner without spare wheels. Provided the user or would-be user of solid tires knows the correct tire to select from amongst the different makes of this class of tire, he is certainly in a better position than the user of pneumatic tires, inasmuch as a pneumatic tire is liable to collapse the first day, week, or month of being fitted; hence the necessity for carrying spare covers and tubes. This difficulty is eradicated by the user of a good make of solid tire, owing to the necessity of haying spare wheels already tired, and 1 should say, even in the case of a one-van owner, that it is absolutely essential to have spare wheels, entirely through the mechanical defects which arise in the wheels after their being in use some time. My experience is that heavy vehicles would be continually in Clock for this reason alone, and certainly not from a tire point of view.
If the solid tire with the longest life be selected, it is a fact that it will stand up to its work for from six to twelve months, and when the tires approach failing point, it simply means that the wheels are removed—when the van returns to the garage at night—and are replaced by newly-tired wheels, and the van is ready for the road the next morning. in the case of a large company, of course, the tires could be removed, and new ones pressed on the same evening-, so, in either case, it is quite an easy matter, from a solid-tire point of view, to keep the vehicle or vehicles always working.Yours truly, J, BISHOP.