GLANCING BACK A THOUSAND WEEKS
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By EDWARD S. SHRAPNELL-SM1TH, C.B.E., M.Inst.T.
(Editor of "The Commercial Motor," trom March, .1b05, to August, 1917).
I RESPOND with pleasure to an invitation from
rniaolt,orantdo de oonib st or wui tt he tthoethEediitoor000tfhli'istseuGe'oomf Critheerc journal,
reference only to a few impressions of many that have lasted.
It waS7rafter dinner, at 119. Piccadilly, one night during the winter of 1904-1905, that I was introduced to Mr. Edmund Dangerheld. It was not many weeks later that the wholly unforeseen and—on my part—unpremeditated result of that introduction was occupation of the editorial chair, at 7-15, Rosebery Avenue, of The Commercial Motor. Precisely 1,000 weeks ago No. 1 was going to press, and, now, I observe it is the same occasion plus three noughts. • • Old associations, struggles and (may I write ?) successes, between_ Nos. 1 and 647, including those brought out during three complete years of the war, pass before Me. I do not seek to review them, but there are both landmarks and milestones -which remain. There were some exciting nights in those interesting years; going to press late, when good ." copy ", was at times lacking. Things are more regular and staid now, bar the occasions of parades and shows and special issues, with so much really happening in.the many established branches of our g-reat industry, and less to be created, even invented, in the editorial offieeil . I fear I was oftentimes the despair of overseers and fathers of chaPelsi
The Pioneering Years.
Publication of No. 1 of this journal virtually coincided with the coming into force on March 1st, 1905, of the Heavy Motor Car Order of 1904, and was timed by Mr. Dangerfield so to do. It was more filled with .anticipations most of them since fulfilled, than with records of things doing or done.
Those were the days of the triumph of the steam wagon. Iii Virtually " ruled the roost" of the heavy traffic world—a comparatively small one at that stage. These vehicles ran on steel tires, skidded merrily on stone setts, buried their wheels in the absorbent limestone roads of the period and caused most of their purchasers—to say nothing of some of their makers—to lose much money in exchange for good experience. Still, a bright and burning story was maintained concerning them, the while those who pioneered them " blazed the trail" for others to follow. The late D. H. Simpson's name and pluck must be in the minds of some who read these lines.
Alleged Brakes.
I recall with spasmodic shivers the fittings which were sold as brakes to sell their users Wooden blocks as liners in some eases; unsuitable metals in others ; narrow drums in all. The shoe-brake, to screw down upon the tire, still survived to delude. Of trailer brakes, I can merely record that they were even worse.
How thankful should we to-day be that Herbert Prood and others persevered, and that their persistence was rewardedi
And the Boilers
Clarkson. had not• then worked out his thimble tube. Foden was slowly achieving road popularity for his loco. model. The vertical water-tube and smoke-tube types, restricted as to all dimen:Sions, were being tried out, their owners tired, out ; retubing once every three months was far from uncommon. _ Superheating, although known, was not successfully employed in practice,. the earlier failures of Serpollet and others had frightened people, and lubricants, then, could not live up to it.
Let us take off our hats, I say, to the Thornycrofts, Henry Spurrier (Leyland), Edwin Paden, Clarkson, • Atkinson, Lewin (Yorkshire), Stephen Alley (Sentinel), Garrett, and others for not letting go. Their Unremitting labours kept Steam well to the fore all the time. Xis there still, and will so remain, but it can yet be improved! Weight is not down to bottorn, 1 am convinced.
Early Petrol Trials.
I am not going into pre-No. 1 history, but I may mention, in passing, the close interest with which some people had studied, both in France and Britain, ...the snorting% buckings, and frequent breakdowns of internal-combustions best productions of 1897 to 1900. Glimmers of success had flashed when IL U. Burford ran two ?0-cwt. • Milnes-Daimlers at Liverpool in 1901, and to him largely belongs the credit of having influenced important British interests to develc* from • petroldriven cars to lorries and vans, and steam devotees to waver in their old exclusive allegiance, by the time No. 1 of the C. appeared. Henry Spurrier and the Thornyerofts, amongst the great protagonists of steam, were in the
early list of converts. Gear-changing was one prime difficulty on the road in those days. The relative position in 1905 is well reflected by the fact that there were six advertisers of steam vehicles, and only twice as many advertisers of petrol vehicles in the first issue. I have had these counted. To-day the difference is infinitely greater.
One of the fears was that drivers of petrol lorries could not be found, and until 1909 there was no substantial measure of confidence in petrol• fivetonners. Commercial Cars and Dennis were makers who first essayed to prove it otherwise. Many fluctuations of demand according to weightcarrying have since occurred, with the three-tonner and four-tonner very much to the front from 1914 to 1922.
There has of late been developed a marked degree of favour for vehicles with load capacities between 1 ton and 21 tons. Traffic considerations in part account for the tendency. Smaller stocks are carried by distributors and retailers, thanks to the progress made hetwe,en issues No. 1 and 1,000. Fig loads have become harder to find in many trades.
The Motorbus and the Taxicab.
It has taken nearly the whole of the thousand weeks to get the motorbus nearly right, and finality is not yet reached. Far from it. I look for great changes and improvements.
The modern epoch antedated No. 1 by a bare six months when Tillings got in before the Vanguard. The advent and adoption of the petrol motorbus, even now an overgrown private car in design, caused L.G.O.C. 2100 stock to fall froni about £220 to 217 in less than seven years. It then ran up to :380 in less than two years (1910 to 1912).
Has the cycle of Competitive sequences begun again ? The General's red no longer runs alone, but in variegated company. Whilst I cannot foreeast the future, to-day's flooding of London omnibus routes is, surely, only a means to somebody's end The traffic squabble, a long one, is not yet solved. Will it ever be ended?.
How many realize that it was only in March, 1907, that the red Renault taxicabs appeared? They were the danger signal to the horse-cab trade, which was laid low within the next four years. All who were 'able transferred, and now, America promises to give us yellow cabs—and drivers who will get off their seats to open doors and show other civilities, to hold umbrellas over us in the rain, and to give change quickly I fancy that the British taxi-cabby, now on the ground, will put up a stiff fight for existing conduct and methods. There are, none the less, all the makings of a shake-up in the taxicab situation, during which the cab-using public will probably enjoy unearned and undeserved benefits.
India Rubber Tyres.
Pride of place in creating success for commercial mechanical transport, for passengers and goods alike, must be given to rubber.
When the LiverpooI-Manchester motor mail vans were altered from steel to rubber tyres early in 1902, to carry a, ton of parcels per vehicle, the cost of the solid /fibber tyres approximated 10d. a mile. When, in 1910, steam wagons on solid rubber tyres were still a novelty, the cost for them had fallen to ad. a mile with a five-ton load. To-day, in London, the motorbus is tyred by contract (six tyres) at not more than 0.5d. a wile. Pneumatics have also come on, to the point that a two-ton load can be run on them at id. per mile "all in " for the tyring, No greater contributions have been made to the developing of commercial motoring than by our friends of the rubber trade. I feel that I must repeat this with emphasis. By their aid, most of all, apart from excellence of operating direction and control, has the motorbus completely overtaken the electric tramcar M. public service. Without rubber tyres very many of our country highways must by now have become unusable.
Concerning Fuels.
Ignition perfected and carburetters so contrived as to be almost alive, in conjunction with improved engine design, have, by slow but sure degrees of advance, enabled us to use efficiently grades of petrol which, when No. 1 of this journal came out, were not even envisaged in dreams as employable. Such fuels may be dearer than we like. They are. Where should we be without them, where may we be? Those are also germane questions. I think the answer is, that out then state would be worSe—much worse—than it is now.
The petroleum industry, throughout the world, has as much for which to thank the men who provided finance for automobile engineering, and the automobile engineers themselves, as its own financial pioneers, its geologists and its technologists? I /refrain from going into figures and definitions, having been somewhat overdosed with them as a member of the Motor Taxation Committee, but the problem of fuels is one of the most complex as well as the most composite. May it not be with us for all time? . I read in a recent issue (about issue No. 996, I fancy), that the only effective means of control may shortly be found in the use of compressed coalgas and producer-gas outfits. We shall see. Is it not hopeless to seek to fix prices for •a commodity which is produced mainly outside the Empire? The comparison with the control of gas companies is not an analogy, and I can discover no plan of effective legislative action. The AngIo-Persian Co. is not able to remedy (and much less to remove) the price difficulties which attach to a world-wide market and .situation. Supplies of petrol to commercial consumers have never failed, except when the submarine attacks reached their height between 1916 and 1918. The Services had all they needed, and to spare. Contingent American demand is now stated to be so large as to threaten a new factor—an export duty in the States.
Here, as at all times, since No. 1 was printed, we are faced by the great uncertainty of price. It is an admitted source of anxiety, and I feel that this section of my notes cannot end on a more vital feature than one of warning: that the fuel-price element is no bogey, but a real danger. Price cannot, apparently, be stabilized; hence, the petrol vehicle owner never knows where he is. I recognize the regrettable fact, but impugn nobody. It is one direction in which steam scores. The market price of coal does not jump by increments of 25 per cent., and coal is in the homeland.
Direct Taxation• and Better -Roads.
A bare 14 years ago we began to pay the petrol tax with 50 per cent. rebate. 'Rteam and petrol alike began in 1921 to bear the vehicle taxes only. Value has been given in the roads. Without taxation in the direct category we had had no answer to opposing interests, no locus from which to have
demanded better roads.
All classes of motors together are bearing each year roughly one-third of the annual cost of all poads. The State as such pays nothing on a regular basis, but has quite recently voted certain "unemployment "grants. This is not a satisfactory position. The State's niggardlines is inexcusable. Roads are at least as important a national service as the Navy. The Navy is not specifically charged against the mercantile marine and the ports ! Why,. therefore, the roads against the primary beneficiaries?
Let us work for the ending by mending of the transitory era of direct -taxation through which we have passed since 1910, and let us resolve to obtain national assumption of obligations which were only accepted by motor owners on grounds of expediency. The country will-be ripe for the change long before ,No..2,_000_coraes out, but there is much to be done to win this point.
Gentlemen—" The King."
Finally, it is noteworth3r. that His Majesty King i .George, n May of 1920, became patron of the Commercial, Motor 'Users Association (Incorporated) of 'whichthe headquartersare at 50, Pall Mall, S.W.f, interest in demonstrating by public action that his in and concern for the progress and welfare of motoringis not by any means limited to private phases. There are many other leaders who have shown equally sound judgment, but His Majesty's patronage counts greatly in Stateand departmental relations.