Opinions from Others.
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Maudslay Lorry on a Gradient of 1 in if.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1398] Sir,—Referring to the advertisement (page 2 of 2nd November, 191e) of the Maudslay Motor Co., Ltd., would you please inform us in what part of the country the gradient of 1 in 1/ exists, whether this was an actual road performance, and whether with full load of three tons for which the lorry is built. We have no doubt that definite replies will be readily forthcoming, and we are sure many others are keenly interested to have them.—Yours faithfully, For HENRY WATSON AND SONS, LTD., Newcastle-on-Tyne. F. C. BILLETON, Director.
[ws submitted this inquiry to the Maudslay Company. Its reply is appended—En.] The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1399] Sir,—In reply to your letter of the 29th inst., quoting the communication received from one of your correspondents, the gradient of 1 in l referred to in our advertisement is a grass-covered bank situate on a common just outside Coventry. The ascent of this gradient forms part of the test to which a number of our vehicles are subjected previous to delivery to the War Department, and, as will be seen by reference to the illustration in our advertisement, the climb is made with the vehicle unloaded.—Yours faithfully,
THE MAIIDSLAY MOTOR CO., LTD. Coventry.
The I.A.E. Presidential Address.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1400] Sir,—The Institution of Automobile Engineers is certainly fortunate in its president. If ever there were times when the men at the helms of our national technical institutions needed a wider vision than is called for by the immediate objects of the respective associations, they are here now. One cannot accuse Mr. L. A. Legros, M.Inst.C.E., of narrow outlook. If ever proof of this were wanted, his presidential address to the I.A.E. is ample: Seldom has it been my fortune to read an address of this kind in which the technical restrictions of the society have borne less with its writer. That he has erred in allowing himself to become highly discursive, that he left his hearers with unsatisfied Nvishes to have heard all that he could write or say on some of the many subjects upon which he touched, must be forgiven him, for the sake of his bold and outspoken criticism of much that passes for education in these present days. His championship of the schoolboy whose inventiveness suggested the accomplishment of "freehand" drawing by the pricking-off method, ofthe other bright lad. why first tied several pens together, the easier and quicker to accomplish his punishment of` "lines," is novel enough and sound sense enough even for these eye-opening times. The pedantic opinion that Latin is the finest exercise for the memory and the brain as a whole, and not the dismal and useless drudgery which it is really, is scathingly ridiculed. Cultivation of a similar and certainly less boring nature is readily obtainable during the study of many more interesting and distinctly more useful subjects.
There is much to commend in Mr. Legros's plea for better organization of examinations. His instances of the impractical nature of many of the " posers " set in matriculation and similar papers could be multiplied by most of us ad nauseam. The examiner, as a rule, is a specialist in examinations, with a particular and tricky, intuiton for discovering the one point in a, hundred which most students will have missed. • As examples of what can be done if the examiner be a practical and practising expert, and not a glorified and highly-specialized schoolmaster, may I instance the particularly useful set of examination papers set for the C.M.U.A. drivers by the engineer of that Association, Mr. Geo. W. Watson, who is also a member of the I.A.E. Council Presidential addresses are permitted to be discursive; they are, as a rule, revues. Perhaps, from that point of view, I must be not too analytical of Mr. Legros's paper taken as a whole. But I—and I think I can speak generally— feel aggrieved in that he is evidently Co keen to criticize what badly needs criticism, so full of dissatisfaction with much that needs righting, that he would have pleased us all better had he gone more deeply into not more than one or two of the many subjects 'upon which he touched. He must be persuaded to deal with this subject of technical and general education at muchs:reater length in another paper. He is capable of picturing modern conditions with a wide-angle lens, but he should not be entrusted with too many plates at one sitting. In 30 tiny pages of the official proceedings, the I.A.E. president started to discuss: torque .curves and children's education ; the snubbing of the engineer and the shortcomings of the director ; the tolerances of the toolmaker and the return of the salesman from the war. Under the heading" Apprenticeship " he says exactly nothing that is material to the title. Many of the paragraphs headed "After the War" concern the shortcomings of pre-war directors. But all this is, nothing: Mr. Legros is a busy
man, and has done i his duty n the presidential manner. Everyone in the industry should familiarize himself with that part of the paper which deals with the education and the status and training of the engineer.—Yours faithfully, "ONE-TIME APPRENTICE."