FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTE BOOK.
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Do Agrimotors Go to Bits Quickly ? Steam Wagons in the Morning.
THE TECHNICAL PAPERS—and others for that matter—seem to be full of indignant screams from all sorts of people, who presumably know what they are writing about, on account of what they claim is the serious shortage of spare parts for such agrimotors as are already in use in this country. I believe they hold the Government responsible for this, as. for-every other shortcoming of these trying days. That is as it may be. I am not proposing to. raise 'my small voice in this lusty chorus, Which will, no doubt, make itself heard well enough without my aid. But.I would venture to hazard that, in my opinion, there is something rather remarkable in the magnitude of the requirements which many of these people seem to suggest are tnecessary for each and every, kind of agrimotor. One would almost think that even the slightest breakdown in connection 'with an agricultural tractor calls immediately, for a spare-part replacement, whereas actual replacement should surely only be necessary when a part is either worn out sufficiently to be of no further use at all, or, at any rate, to be beyond temporary repair, or else has failed altogether by fracture. Both of such contingencies should, surely, if the design seems anything like a rational one, be at least infrequent. A proportion will be due to accident, but inuch of this should be
foreseen. •
We ought surely by now to have got past the stage when each and every part of a motor vehicle broke at some time or another solely on account of the fact that the design.. was quite inadequate. I cannot imagine that the condition's in which the agrimotor is called on to work are so utterly extraordinary or to filled with unforeseen circumstances that the designer should not, if he be wortlehis salt, be able to foresee at any rate a. very large. proportion of the troubles that are likely to arise. Claims, by the, sponsors for most types of these machines, that large quantities of all kinds of spare parts are necessary surely appear to be nothing more nor less than a confession of lack of confidence in the capacity of the machines to stare:Lithe unskilled handling and wear and tear fbr which they are supposed to have been designed. One can understand exceptional and relatively occasional fractures, and naturally reasonable stocks of spare parts must be maintained to. meetsuch contingencies, but quite a number of failures on most machinery can be remedied, without such heroic and expensive treatment as the substitution of a brand new part for the one which has given trouble.
To put it in a nutshell, quite apart from the opinions t have heard expressed in various directions, and from my own conclusions after examination of a number of the models which are now put forward as effective agricultural motors, I gravely suspect that the design of an appreciablè. proportion of them is, from the designer's point of view,. very poor indeed, and I also suspect that much of this feverish anxiety to accumulate large stocks of spare parts arises from the suspicion that some of the machines will carry out but very poorly the tasks to which they may be allotted. A very large majority of the machine's which are now, I suppose, scratching the surface of old England with a view to giving human food a chance to grow where-hitherto only grass and weeds flourished, are practically new machines, or, at least, were but a month or so ago they are not old stagers on their last legs, beit remembered. What class of machinery can be cornpared with these machines if they are found to require large quantities of replacements, that is, parts which must be duplicated on account of their liability to fracture or wear out, within, shall I say, twelve months of their getting to work?
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But perhaps there is no real need for all these parts that some of the writers in the Press profess to believe. I seem to have heard somewhere that replace
ments and spare parts are not the least profitable side of a motorcar deal, that one can almost afford to lose over the sale of -a machine, provided that the supply of replacement parts follows in due course. I am inclined to think that either the need for the immediate stocking of agents' store bins with large quantities of imported parts is grossly. exaggerated or, alternatively, I am left with no option but to conclude that the machines themselves are in a number of cases but poor propositions as mechanical devices. designed for work of which most of the circumstances should by now be well known.
Stearn Wagons in the Morning.
I suppose, just at the present time, the possibility of an ordinary user acquirine a new 'steam wagon is rather a remote one. Nevertheless, the time Will come in the near future when steam wagons will again be available in considerable numbers. The type is one that is excluSive to this country. We have developed it from traction engine principles very largely, and have adopted the basic ideas which were embodied in our early and successful road-haulage experiments, in the light of our very considerable knowledge of Modern self-propelled heavy haulage units. The steam wagon has won for itself tremendous advertisement in these war-cum-restriction days, and particularly, is this so amongst those classes of users who are
out to move the greatest loads over the longest distances at the lowest casts. I predict that the steam wagon industry will have a very prosperous time ahead of it, ohce materials and labour are again available for productive purposes.
It is not an easy matter nowadays for any user who has in mind the ultimate requirements. of a vehicle of this kind to get first-hand information as to the vari-: ous types and their capacities and behaviour, but I have been struck during recent early morning walks in *the West End of London with the fact that a ready-to-hand opportunity is available there to those -who are cogitating the desirability of buying a. steam wagon as soon as they can. The steam wagon seems particularly to be an early morning bird. It is often up and away, in spite of delay due to lighting up, before the streets are properly aired. Numbers of them can be found round and about the various early wholesale markets, or getting into position for loading up directly the factory ot store-house opens its doors. = The municipal wagons get some of their heaviest work finished before the streets begin to get crowded with the -earlier workers.
It is no exaggeration, I think, to state that in a walk before eight o'clock in the morning, say, from Paddington to Ludgate Hill—something of a stretch but useful exercise nevertheless I—no. fewer than eight different makes of steam wagons are likely to be encountered, and of some of the types quite a , number of examples. They will be found at all kinds e of work and not a few of themwill be stationary either loading up or for some other reason, and cam with little, difficulty be examined in detail. Here and there, a. driver—civil men, they are, as a rule—will readily answer a question or two as to the behaviour s
of his charge. the absence of. exhibitions and Royal.Showaeno more instructive display of the productions of the steam wagon industry is likely to be found, I should imagine, than in the principal streets of the metropolis before breakfast, unless it be in Liverpool and Manchester, and even there not in such " wide variety.